Posted on 02/25/2009 2:21:07 PM PST by ConservativeStatement
THE horror. The horror. As I sat, scratching miserably - Is that dry skin? Or is something eating me alive? - the City Council cranked up its brain power yesterday to deal with a menace so resilient and stomach-churning, I dare not speak its name.
Bedbugs. I said it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The pesticide DDT was banned.....
Exactly. Let’s keep going green, by all means!
How nasty are people living there? I have never had a problem with bed bugs. Its called cleaning house, these people might want to try it occasionally.
Have Helen fly to New York.
Bed bugs in NYC have come back over the years and people will throw their furniture out when they discover they have them. Wonder how many hotels also have them and how many tourists/business travellers spread them around the country.
Isn’t globalism wonderful?
The DDT ban also allows almost 3 million Africans to die every year from malaria that could be easily prevented with DDT.
You would be surprised how prevalent it is getting all over the place. Right after we returned from Hawaii a few years ago, some of us started itching at night with big welts on our bodies. Searched online and dang if it did not look like bedbugs.
We called in an expert bedbug exterminator who brought in his bedbug beagles, and they searched the house on two occasions, finding nothing. It turns out there was a hole inside one closet and some mites from birds (or other animals) were getting through. We repaired the closet wall. The bites stopped.
Bedbugs can EASILY travel from flat to flat if you live vertically like they do in NYC. But they also LOVE to hitchhike home in clothing and suitcases from your last vacation, and they LOVE hotels, even good ones. Remember that everyone from everywhere in the world and THEIR suitcases are in your hotel.
What the experts do, and what we should all do, ideally, is to come home and leave the suitcases out in the sun, outside the home. Sun and heat kill bedbugs. Then take everything out of it and straight into the wash. Inspect all objects in the bag for the flattened bugs before they come into your home. If it’s poor weather, use the garage or some other place outside the home to store your suitcases — or inspect every trim and cranny on the suitcases before bringing them into your home.
I am so glad we did not have to do it, but ridding one’s home of bedbugs can take months and thousands of dollars. We did get new beds for everyone anyway. And I learned a lot about bedbugs. The expert confided to me that nearly every dorm, and many airport hotels have had infestations.
He said that a lot of them come from the Middle East and Asia, and the way people travel today, they are really getting all over the world.
If you live in a high rise or even a low apartment block, you not only have to worry about yourself bringing them home, but you are dependent on your neighbor’s risks as well. There are some smells they do not like — I think lavender was one — so maybe you could use a lot of lavender in your home? Research this if you live in a high rise. Bedbugs truly do not care if you are rich or poor, clean or dirty. They only want to suck your blood.
I still haven’t ever suffered from them. But thanks for the detailed info.
...randy, bisexual Americans...
I resemble that remark.
They should spray the City Council. Quite a few Bed bugs on it.
“they only want to suck your blood” Kind of like democrats!!
A few months ago I started getting bites at night that matched the pictures of bedbug bites. I washed everything in hot water (easier for me because I sleep in a hammock, its hard to fit a mattress in the washing machine), then sprinkled a few drops of lavender oil around, and placed black walnut husks around the room (one went into the little trash can under my hammock). I based this on the fact that lavender and black walnuts both repel fleas.
It worked. No more bites.
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