How Bedbugs Are Becoming Resistant to Today's Insecticides (How did Genes KNOW about Insecticides?)

Popular Mechanics ^ | October 19, 2011 | Adam Hadhazy

[Dianna]

How hot is the air that comes out of my blow-dryer? If it’s hot enough, couldn’t I just blow-dry the mattress and sheets at the hotel for a few minutes to get rid of any bugs I didn’t see when I checked the sheets and mattress?

No. The heat coming out of a hair dryer is diffused too quickly to be helpful. You wouldn't be able to penetrate the whole mattress with high enough heat for long enough. The bugs would just feel the heat coming and move.

[Dianna]

Does washing the linens in super hot water and soap still kill them?

From what I remember, hot water from a washing machine isn't hot enough to kill them but they may drown. A dryer is better.

[aruanan]

Does washing the linens in super hot water and soap still kill them?

From what I remember, hot water from a washing machine isn't hot enough to kill them but they may drown. A dryer is better.

Steam will kill them. If you go over the areas where they are found with a steaming iron, you can wipe them out.

[Dianna]

Steam will kill them. If you go over the areas where they are found with a steaming iron, you can wipe them out.

It depends upon what you're trying to steam them out of. If they're in a sofa, you're unlikely to get the steam to penetrate the material deep enough at a hot enough temperature for long enough to kill them. That much steam would probably ruin the furniture anyway.

We had bedbugs and we got rid of them ourselves. The reason we could get rid of them without a pest control company was because we had a lot of older/inexpensive furniture we were willing to throw out. If you want to keep your stuff, call a professional.

[discostu]

That’s how evolution works, it’s the unintended consequences of the hunt. Survivors pass on their traits, the dead don’t, hunters always “select” the survivors that way and the survivors evolve.

As for all that other stuff, nobody said nothing about any of that. Time for you to stop obsessing.

[PJ-Comix]

I know it's irrational but I'll never borrow again. I guess it's time to invest in a Kindle and a good shrink.

GOOD NEWS! Check your online local library. At many of them, including mine, you can borrow Kindle books online. No charge. You have about three weeks to read the book. I've been doing this for the past month.

[Vaquero]

Does washing the linens in super hot water and soap still kill them?

Not if they're in the mattresses

[aruanan]

Not if they're in the mattresses

They're usually always in the crease running around the top and bottom edges of the mattress, especially if there's piping. A steaming iron will take care of them and their eggs quite well.

[ctdonath2]

Um...that IS the very definition of “evolution”.

A random change occurs, it proves beneficial under the circumstances, those with it breed profusely while those that don’t have it die off, leaving one population to replace the other.

[Lazamataz]

Also the bed bugs are still bed bugs.. They aren’t on their way to being giraffes.

Who says?

I, for one, would LOVE bed-giraffes.

[aruanan]

It depends upon what you're trying to steam them out of. If they're in a sofa, you're unlikely to get the steam to penetrate the material deep enough at a hot enough temperature for long enough to kill them. That much steam would probably ruin the furniture anyway.

True. Though, they're usually very close to or on the surface in crevices. They are not burrowing organisms.

[Vaquero]

a dumpster...works...along with stripping each article in the room for cleaning then replacing with a nice NEW mattress

[Lazamataz]

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.

No knowledge required. Random chance played out 30 trillion times. You roll 100 dice 30 trillion times, and you, too, will have them all turn up 6's.

[Lazamataz]

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.”

Enviromentalists invariably came up with this response to that point: "If we allow you to use it inside your home, any nesting bald eagles there will be jeopardized. No."

[aruanan]

How Bedbugs Are Becoming Resistant to Today's Insecticides (How did Genes KNOW about Insecticides?)

They don't know. In any wild population, there is a wide range of genetic variation. Some individuals of a species are more susceptible to certain toxins than others. Kill those off and the others that are inherently more resistant will survive and replace those with lower resistance. There are other responses to environmental threats that result in increased rates of mutations caused by portions of genes getting swapped around leading to different physiological responses to the cause of stress, some of which ensure survival.

[tarheelswamprat]

I, for one, would LOVE bed-giraffes.

You always were a 'deep' thinker...

[The Theophilus]

Sound like evolution in action, more likely.

Only if the bedbug "evolved" into another creature. What is "likely" is that there is a loss, not gain, in genetic information, a failure to produce an enzyme that reacts to the chemicals on the nerve endings - at least that has been the case in other examples of chemical resistant critters.

It would be like if you lost your hearing, you could then stay in an incredibly loud room without getting headaches whereas those who did have hearing would leave. Does this mean that you are "evolving" into a X-man?

[ladyvet]

Thanks, I’m going to look into it!

[PJ-Comix]

but the book prices for the Kindle are getting ridiculous. I’m slowly going back to pulp when the book I want is cheaper that way than the eBook.

Psst! Check your local library online. Many now have a system of allowing the borrowing of books online. Many of these books are fairly new. I just got down reading online a bio of Clarence Darrow which was published just last June.

[Izzy Dunne]

Only if the bedbug "evolved" into another creature.

I contend that maybe it did. The resistant kind.

It would be like if you lost your hearing, you could then stay in an incredibly loud room without getting headaches whereas those who did have hearing would leave. Does this mean that you are "evolving" into a X-man?

Oh, please - that's a completely inappropriate analogy. One particular bug did not become resistant. The new trait developed over thousands of generations (if my guess is correct).