Posted on 10/23/2011 7:15:22 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Let's see. Bedbugs have been around for MILLIONS of years yet insecticides are a very recent manmade development. So how did the bedbug have sophisticated genes that could resist these insecticides? It is almost like when bedbugs developed millions of years ago, something knew in advance that they would one day in the distant future have to fight off insecticides developed by a species that didn't even exist yet.
I think you might have some sermon material here.
bed bugs, the new plague, is caused by letting middle easterners and illegals into the country....even the well to do ones don’t seem to mind a vermin or 2 in their undies....
Genes don’t ‘know’ about insecticides. You may have one in a million who come up with a mutation that makes them not react to them. They are therefore able to breed versus die. The ones that survive and breed pass on this trait to new generations and so on..
Beat me to it.
Smoke and mirrors to obscure the fact that open borders and the resultant third-word sanitary practices have caused the resurgence of bedbugs in the US.
Sound like evolution in action, more likely.
The bugs more resistant to the insecticide were better able to breed. Same as the hand sanitizers makes for a stronger breed of bacteria, because the ones it doesn't kill become stronger.
I’m sure little dinosaurs flopping around on useless proto-wings for millions of years had a gleam in their eye, too. They just knew.
Due to natural variation in the genetic code, out of billions of bugs, a very small number will have undergone mutations that make them more resistant to insecticides.
These individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce than the non-resistant individuals. Over time the resistance will tend to spread throughout the species.
I actually lived through a bedbug nightmare some years back. I thought I had a rash ... then I finally found one on me and we knew.
I lost all my furniture and bed and carpet and had to wash everything.
The exterminator used a pyrethrin-based spray and it took care of them.
However ... are they resistant to DDT? Because THIS is what they used to use before it was banned, right? I can understand banning it OUTSIDE because it caused bald eagle eggs to have shells that were too thin ... but inside? It seems as though common sense would say, “Ok... DDT works and we’re only going to use it inside... so let’s allow it.”
A bedbug sniffing dog was in my apartment some months ago and yippee...no bugs at all....
...but I also discovered that NOW they have a new heat treatment that let’s you keep your furniture.
That would have been good when I had them.
“... open borders and the resultant third world... caused the resurgence”.
I agree. What is frightening is that people can bring them into their homes more easily than believed. I’ve read that many public library books may have them. I have also read that if you go to a mall for some shopping, place all new clothing items into the dryer immediately when you get home. The little critters aren’t just reserved at hotel/motel rooms.
So can bedbugs become resistant to DDT? BTW, has Zuccotti Park become infested with bedbugs yet? Those filthy sleeping bags would make great homes for them.
“third-word sanitary practices”
No. Bedbugs are not attracted to filth. I got them and I’m clean. All they want is blood.
And ALL travel spreads them around ... so even that businessman from German can bring them over to the Ritz and the next person to sleep in that room can take them home.
On the local news the other night they showed the best treatment for bed bugs was heat. They pipe heat into your house and raise the temperature to 140’ degrees and they are dead.
“BTW, has Zuccotti Park become infested with bedbugs yet? Those filthy sleeping bags would make great homes for them.”
Bedbugs are less of pest than the human parasites.
Of course, if the room hasn't been occupied for some days, the cover will allow the critters to invest the sheets. Best thing is to carry a small bottle of sanitizer that can be sprayed.
In texas, it would be extremely easy to clean up a bedbug infestation in the summer.
On one of the days when it’s already 110*, get a hotel room and clear out all of your kids and pets. Close up the doors and windows and crank the heater all the way up.
Go to a hotel for two days.
Come home, turn on the AC and cool the place down.
Enjoy.
Bedbugs can’t survive in anything hotter than 120* for more than a couple of hours. 140* kills then within minutes.
The reason you let it sit for a couple of days is to make sure all the nooks and crannies are heated up. Don’t let them have a place to hide.
I don’t know if they can become resistant. I just did A LOT of reading when I got them... then I quit once I’d done enough because I didn’t want to dwell on it ... and they were gone.
I read that we had eradicated them in the 50’s because of DDT use.
Or their genes adapted. I often wonder if we plucked someone from the 1860’s rural setting and plopped them in the middle of NYC, how long they could live. I am not talking about physical safety, but about smog, chemicals, processed foods... how would their bodies hold up to what we have gradually become accustomed to by our mother’s eating some more processed than their own mother, and on and on.
I hope this makes sense, not quite sure how to put it.
That’s one of my concerns.
I have to travel a lot for my job so I stay in hotels/motels 2-3 nights a week.
I’m always worried I’m gonna bring some home with me.
(This would be far worse than when we had fleas in the house from our now departed cat.)
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