[HN Gopher] Bean leaves don't let the bedbugs bite by using tiny...
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Bean leaves don't let the bedbugs bite by using tiny, impaling
spikes (2013)
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 160 points
Date : 2023-04-24 17:35 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| adnmcq999 wrote:
| I had em, powder didn't work. Don't remember if I was using
| diatomaceous earth, poison or both. It got to the point where I
| didn't know if I was itching because of the powder, the bugs or
| my head. Eventually I washed all my clothes in the bathtub in
| really hot water - and that's the first time I saw them. I
| realized they were prob living in a bag of mine that I had at the
| hotel I was at when I got them. Threw that in a hot bathtub.
| Washed all my clothes - left the bag outside for 1 Wisconsin
| winter. Problem eventually resolved. Didn't need to get a heat
| treatment - just very thoroughly "boiled" them myself.
|
| But fast forward a few months, I had to go on another trip. When
| I reached my hotel and unpacked, I saw that I had a lot of slow
| moving bugs in the bag. Idk if they were eggs initially or what,
| but they survived an entire winter of very cold weather. Needless
| to say, I immediately gave the bag a hot bath and there were
| pretty heavy casualties. I think it was contained bc I think they
| were still coming out of some sort of dormant state and unable to
| scurry away.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Couldn't you just get rid of the bag at that point?
| mettamage wrote:
| My thoughts exactly.
| nprateem wrote:
| Some bugs live longer in the cold. They can go into
| hibernation. But for some of them heat kills them by
| dessication.
| nicoburns wrote:
| > they survived an entire winter of very cold weather
|
| Unless it's _really_ cold, bedbugs actually live longer in the
| cold. Up to 18 months has been reported! Heat treatment is much
| more effective.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Did the Smithsonian really need that long winded introduction to
| bed bugs?
|
| Tl;dr Eastern Europe had a technique with bean plants that caught
| bed bugs, scientists are trying to recreate the technique and
| failing so far
| twelve40 wrote:
| still managed to ignore some points like why do the bean leaves
| develop these mechanisms in the first place, and are the bugs
| just randomly stumbling into the leaves or something attracts
| them?
| MagicMoonlight wrote:
| I don't think I've ever seen a bedbug in my life. I feel like
| that's more of an american thing
| ChrisRR wrote:
| You don't tend to see them unless you're looking for them, they
| live in the crevices in your bed and mattress
| pg314 wrote:
| A Google search of 'bedbug' and any major city in Europe will
| return plenty of hits.
| Findecanor wrote:
| The horror stories I've heard have been people finding bugs at
| home after a hotel stay.
|
| You can't always know if the hotel you're staying at has bed
| bugs. But you could reduce the risk of taking them home with
| you by always keeping your bags a distance away from the hotel
| bed, so the bugs won't be likely to hide there. I've never
| encountered signs of bed bugs when travelling but it is a
| simple rule I follow, just in case.
| jve wrote:
| I always wondered whether bedbug == flea (which jumps). You
| squash flea and they are no more... I suspect its a different
| thing, as it appears bedbug swarms.
| bearmode wrote:
| They are different things.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| I travel quite a lot and I've occasionally seen bed bugs in
| hotels in France, Indonesia, Thailand. But it's true that I
| never heard of bed bugs infestation until I lived in NYC in
| 2009 (and my whole building had issues with them), there was a
| peak of infestations at that time.
|
| Visible on Google Trends
| https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=bed%20bu...
|
| I read somewhere that some bedbugs may be more resilient than
| others so that may explain.
| baby wrote:
| You should check that famous youtuber's video on the bug. It
| looks like they're hard to notice as they only come out for
| 10min every night and you can't feel them.
| lathiat wrote:
| Mark Rober. A really good watch: https://youtu.be/2JAOTJxYqh8
| kennyadam wrote:
| When I was renting a flat with a couple of other guys, one of
| them called me one day on the way home from work and said they
| had discovered bedbugs (this is in the UK).
|
| I'd never really heard of them aside from the old "night night,
| don't let the bedbugs bite" saying.
|
| It turns out they are a psychological terror! Every night you
| know that you're going to fall asleep and have your blood
| sucked out by loads of little bugs. The council pest control
| guy who came out made us empty all the rooms, heat treat all of
| our clothes and then keep them double bagged in sealed plastic
| bags and once a week he would come round and spray the flat in
| chemicals and then we would need to put the beds back together
| and go to sleep as the only way to get the bedbugs to come out
| and encounter the poison was to lure them out to feed on us.
|
| It affected me mentally for months and months and I'm always
| paranoid now whenever I go anywhere new like a bus, train,
| cinema, someone elses house, etc that I'm going to bring them
| back home with me.
|
| They are no joke.
| that_guy_iain wrote:
| My pest control guy told me that I had to keep living in my
| apartment and sleeping in the same sport otherwise they would
| just spread throughout the apartment and take longer to kill.
|
| I still get the feeling every now and then one of the fuckers
| are climbing on me.
| kennyadam wrote:
| Yeah, when we were told we needed to just keep sleeping in
| our beds, it was so unsettling.
|
| For months I just didn't sleep under any covers because I
| couldn't handle the thought of them creeping around under
| there and I would wake up constantly throughout the night
| to the fear that I was being bitten... months after we'd
| seen the last one too.
|
| Whenever I'd vist my parents, I'd have a double bagged load
| of clothes that I'd keep in the boot of my car and I'd run
| them through high heat dryer cycles daily and change into
| them in outside the house after thoroughly checking myself
| for bedbugs. It took me years after moving out of the flat
| to get my head back to normal.
|
| Awful. Awful. Awful.
| Alifatisk wrote:
| > It turns out they are a psychological terror! This, I
| cannot express this enough. These little monsters will tear
| your mind apart.
|
| It took me years to recover and I am still a little paranoid
| every now and then.
| creativenolo wrote:
| Your lucky (at least from my journeys in the UK/EU)
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Strangely I am from europe and traveled extensivly here in
| europe, but so far I only encountered them in australia, in a
| backpackers hostel.
|
| But that might have been a reason, why I prefer my own tent
| now, instead of hostels when backpacking .. you never know
| who slept before you in that room and like others said,
| getting rid of bedbugs is not easy.
| bearmode wrote:
| Never seen bedbugs in the UK, never known anyone with an
| infestation either. They're extremely uncommon.
| that_guy_iain wrote:
| I got bed bugs last year in Germany. I was soo wtf that I
| originally thought they were fleas from my dog so just got him
| treated for fleas. A month or so later I found one and
| identified it as a bed bug. I tried for a month to get rid of
| them, that didn't work at all. It took about 4 months once I
| got pest control out. It seemed like a standard job for him.
| xmcqdpt2 wrote:
| Wow talk about the grad student project from hell. I hope their
| lab is well equipped in terms of safety and PPE! I wouldn't want
| to carry some of this research back into my apartment!
| waynecochran wrote:
| Two pop-up ads is the limit. Smithsonian you are better than that
| -- lose the trashy web annoyances to weather sites.
| mmarq wrote:
| > By the 1940s this age-old parasite was mostly eradicated from
| homes and hotels in the developing world. But around 1995, the
| bedbug tides again turned. Infestations began flaring up with a
| vengeance. Pest managers and scientists aren't sure what
| happened, exactly, but it may have been a combination of people
| traveling more and thus increasing their chances of encountering
| bedbugs in run down motels or infested apartments; of bedbugs
| bolstering their resistance to common pesticides; and of people
| simply letting their guard down against the now unfamiliar
| parasites.
|
| I can't help thinking that the housing crisis may have
| contributed to this. I can't speak for the US, but in the UK
| rental apartments are not maintained and people are
| systematically evicted for asking repairs. Mattresses are used by
| tenant after tenant, with some Airbnb in the middle. People often
| are not allowed to replace mattresses and landlords can't bother.
| Carpet stays there for generations, usually covered with another
| carpet when it becomes a health hazard.
| red_trumpet wrote:
| > in the UK rental apartments are not maintained and people are
| systematically evicted for asking repairs.
|
| Really? That sounds insane. And totally illegal where I live
| (Germany). Got any source on that?
| mmarq wrote:
| It happened to me multiple times and to almost everybody I
| know. If the flat has a problem, the only solution is to
| leave.
|
| https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/private_r.
| ..
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > And totally illegal where I live (Germany).
|
| We do have somewhat decent renter protection laws. The UK
| does not.
| pessimizer wrote:
| [flagged]
| glyphy177 wrote:
| [dead]
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| Eat some ivermectin. It should kill them after they bite you.
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| I remember reading about this ten years ago. I also have an
| acquaintance who suffered an infestation sometime last year.
|
| What happened in the ensuing decade? Where did this promising
| path go? That's the article I want to read.
| martey wrote:
| It's possible that a paper from last year from Catherine Loudon
| (one of the authors of the 2013 paper that this article is
| based on) might have some answers. From the abstract:
|
| > _In this paper, I briefly summarize some of what I have
| learned over the last 10 years about commercialization from a
| variety of different sources, related to a bioinspired project
| in which I am involved._
|
| Perspectives On Bioinspired Product Development: Entrapping
| Surfaces Based On Leaf Microstructures -
| https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac051
| rosege wrote:
| I was wondering the same as OP. Thanks for your link - here's
| some more info from it:
|
| The technology/invention uses a microfabricated surface to
| entrap insect pests, inspired by the action of
| microstructures on leaves of plants. The first pest to be
| targeted is bed bugs, because of their commercial importance
| and proof of concept using this method.
|
| Earlier, we were able to generate synthetic (plastic)
| materials that exactly matched the natural leaf surface
| geometry including the sharp microscopic hooks, using a
| double molding fabrication technique (Szyndler et al. 2013).
| However, those synthetics did not permanently entrap bed
| bugs. We have recently had very promising results using a
| variety of different materials and alternative
| microfabrication methods. We have been able to generate
| arrays of microscopic hooks, producing modifications of
| shapes beyond those found in nature (Fig. 1). This exciting
| result means that we have a greater ability to vary the
| material and mechanical properties of these new surfaces,
| thereby increasing the probability of better performance in
| entrapment by these synthetic materials. We are currently at
| the stage of generation of prototypes and evaluation, and
| characterization of these different microfabricated surfaces.
|
| it took 3 years between the submission of our first patent
| application and the granting of the patent. Two additional
| related patents have been granted subsequently.
|
| Apart from that there is no concrete info on when a product
| might be avaiable.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| My bed bug experience was utterly traumatic. It was about 7 years
| ago. I lived in a small studio apartment where the landlord
| didn't care about anything. I've come to understand that
| landlords are utterly incapable of treating resilient
| infestations due to many factors.
|
| I finally solved it (just before moving the hell out of there) by
| contracting with a professional, reputable exterminator who did a
| thorough job, and signed me to a subscription service that
| promised followup treatments which I did indeed require.
|
| Come to find out that this was a fluke, and reputable
| exterminators will not enter or deal with apartment tenants
| because of professional courtesy for the disreputable ones who
| are contracted with the landlords.
|
| I suffer from C-PTSD and any bugs crawling on me trigger utter
| trauma and emotional flashbacks. Now I love insects, don't mind
| them in the wild, but I can't abide pests.
|
| I was sleeping on the kitchen floor, I had to stop volunteering
| at church so they wouldn't spread, I couldn't move until they
| were eradicated, my life was in tatters.
|
| Thank god for $EXTERMINATOR who saved my life and my bacon.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| I had to sleep on a plastic blowup mattress for 6 months simply
| because they couldn't crawl up it. I had to starve them of
| their food source, which was me, for long enough that they
| would exhaust their reserves of my own blood and their children
| would starve. It was one of the worst periods of my life.
| kamaal wrote:
| It was years back, yet- as little as watching anything crawl
| on a wall gives me anxiety, I have to often go closer to take
| a look at what it is, I generally breathe a sigh of relief if
| it flies(rules them out entirely). A mosquito bite, feels
| nice after you see it fly away, knowing at least its not
| those cursed days all over again.
|
| Sleepless nights, helpless days. Had it all during those
| days. I'd rather leave this earth to the heavenly abode as an
| option than relive those dreadful days.
| neom wrote:
| I'd imagine the vast majority of most people on HN already watch
| Mark Rober, never the less- in case you missed it, he did a fun
| video on bed bugs last month:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JAOTJxYqh8
| computerfriend wrote:
| Had not heard of him until just now.
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| You're in for a treat with the squirrel Olympics and the
| parcel thief traps.
| agentwiggles wrote:
| The package thief videos are great from the engineering
| perspective, but always make me feel kind of bad. One of
| the things I find most distressing in that series is the
| kids who show up in the videos, participating in theft at
| the behest of their parents. Some of the conversations
| between those kids and their parents are extremely sad.
|
| And look - steal a package off a porch, you deserve the
| ultimately harmless annoyance for sure. But even with that
| in mind, there's something kind of cruel about the level of
| effort that's put into the package traps. Once you've found
| a target that no one will defend, it's just fine to douse
| them in fart spray and glitter. People cheer because, well,
| fuck thieves, right?
|
| I get it - I really do. But ultimately, it's fun at the
| expense of other humans and those videos have always left
| me feeling a bit gross.
| korroziya wrote:
| [dead]
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| I don't feel gross at all. They are stealing.
| tacitusarc wrote:
| I felt that way until I was the victim multiple thefts.
| Traps like these can act as deterrents.
| dmonitor wrote:
| If they were booby trapped and maimed the theft that'd be
| one thing. Public embarrassment is a fine punishment
| though.
| alistairSH wrote:
| If watching the parcel thief videos, start with the
| original, it's by far the best.
| prewett wrote:
| The last one where he goes to India to mess with call
| centers is pretty crazy, too, but not as hilarious as the
| first video.
| [deleted]
| doubleg72 wrote:
| Maybe I'm not in the vast majority of readers here, but I
| absolutely cannot stand YouTube videos where the creator goes
| out of their way to be extra corny and silly. Just make the
| damn video without trying to be funny. Interesting topic, but I
| couldn't make it more than a minute in the video without being
| annoyed. Id much prefer a dry scientific paper about bed bugs
| than sitting thru that.
| ChrisRR wrote:
| Then he's not the channel for you. There's plenty of fun
| science/engineering channels, and there's plenty of dry
| channels. Just take your pick what you like
| neom wrote:
| Fair enough! Like the other comment said, I think his stuff
| is aimed at teens and kids. Personally I'm happy to look past
| his pop style as his content quality is usually really high.
| kuhewa wrote:
| Being silly is how they make a buck and are able to put time
| and resources into technical impressive content. They aren't
| being silly just to be silly
| yummypaint wrote:
| People under 18 and families are a big chunk of his
| viewership. Bill nye the science guy was oriented toward a
| similar audience but was even cornier
| mock-possum wrote:
| Yep that's exactly why I don't follow him. Not to my taste.
| baby wrote:
| You're criticizing one of the best youtuber. Ballsy.
| acomjean wrote:
| I watched this one. The content seems solid and he's clearly
| talking to bed bug experts. I thought it was pretty well
| done. I guess for my tastes not that annoying (though his
| videos could be a tad shorter)
|
| The fact he gets bugs hiding in his shoe soles was pretty
| interesting.
| bglazer wrote:
| Mark Rober is easily one of the most popular
| science/engineering channels on Youtube. I find the corniness
| a bit irritating and lacking in detail, but he gets tens of
| millions of views so he's doing something right. I get the
| impression that his audience skews young, so that probably
| explains why it's not as interesting to technically inclined
| adults.
|
| I try not to complain about the content because much of it is
| genuinely pretty impressive from a technical perspective. I
| would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years from
| now citing him as an inspiration though
| xupybd wrote:
| I like Mark's content but it's not going to appeal to
| everyone. I'm glad we live in a time when we have so many
| options for entertainment and can so easily pick and
| choose.
| fafqg wrote:
| Have you looked at what's popular in general?
|
| And with that information in mind, do you think it is
| desirable to be popular, that something being popular is a
| good endorsement of it?
| kuhewa wrote:
| I think it is orthogonal to qualities I look for although
| sometimes popular=profitable=budget to spend on content
| quality.
| PKop wrote:
| Using popularity as an argument for the quality of content
| isn't so useful. Quantity is often antithetical to quality.
| Look at YouTube front page when signed out, most of it is
| garbage.
| albrewer wrote:
| The dude is genuinely smart. When it comes time to dive
| deeply into a technical topic, though, he never really
| puts in the main channel videos because he knows he's
| going to lose 90% of his audience at that point.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| Doesn't this imply it's not a high quality channel?
| acomjean wrote:
| >I would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years
| from now citing him as an inspiration though
|
| I think you're on to something, MIT chose him as their
| commencement speaker...
|
| https://news.mit.edu/2022/mark-rober-2023-commencement-
| addre...
| rendall wrote:
| I watched a video where he made a robotic football punter,
| which was interesting. But then he trash talked a real-life
| football punter, which offended me. I get that it was a
| joke, but I saw something there I cannot unsee and I
| generally skip his content.
|
| I do make time to watch his anti porch pirate videos
| though. Those are really interesting, despite all of the
| insecure shouting energy.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| His Indian scam center sting videos were honestly some of
| the most impressive content I've seen on the platform.
|
| Definitely worth a watch if you're interested in seeing
| scammers who ruin people's lives getting tracked across
| continents for a bold counteroffensive campaign.
|
| It was like a real life version of the movie Taken, but
| with believable action.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| If you like Indian scam callcenters getting busted, have
| a look at Scammer Payback.
| rendall wrote:
| That was amazing. I really did appreciate that.
| lynx23 wrote:
| Well, quantity vs. quality I guess. "Mostpopular", "tens of
| millions of views", "audience skews young". Thanks for
| sparing me the time of trying to sub him...
| [deleted]
| mattwad wrote:
| We had issues in an infested building for a year or more, on and
| off. When we moved, we got our UHaul gased with vikane and it
| kills anything living. We even found some dead cockroaches in a
| couple boxes.
| civilized wrote:
| For anyone who needs help with this: last time I had to battle
| the bugs, my research led me to CimeXa, a brand of "silicon
| aerogel". I understand it's both much safer and much more
| effective than diatomaceous earth.
|
| I'm not sure how well it did in our infestation because we caught
| it very early, possibly with only a single bug. But I was
| impressed by the research.
| hammock wrote:
| What are the dangers of diatomaceous earth?
| scarmig wrote:
| It's not too dangerous, but it can irritate you, particularly
| if you accidentally inhale it.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| It will also shred your vacuum cleaner if you're not
| careful.
| throwaway892238 wrote:
| There is food-grade diatomaceous earth (an anti-caking
| agent) which is completely safe for humans. But the whole
| idea of it is it's very jagged little dead sea creatures
| that tear insects to shreds, so breathing it is not
| advised.
| xupybd wrote:
| Silicosis if you're exposed to a lot of it.
|
| https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/.
| ..
|
| I'm currently fighting bed bugs and am using diatomaceous
| earth spray to make my bedroom toxic to the bugs. It seems to
| be working but I'm worried about the effects of the spray on
| me.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| What I would do if I had bugs again 1. clean and remove
| everything from the bedroom, find a bed frame that is easy
| to clean 2. get a special cover for the mattress 3. vacuum
| the room and clean the sheets at high temperature as often
| as possible
| xupybd wrote:
| We're also freezing our pillows and woolens that can't be
| hot washed.
| lathiat wrote:
| You should watch: https://youtu.be/2JAOTJxYqh8
| andrewstuart wrote:
| When I go to a hotel I put my bags and clothes in the empty bath
| and never put anything in the room where bugs could hitch a ride.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| How do you shower?
| andrewstuart wrote:
| I put the bag on the bathroom floor.
| syntheweave wrote:
| I've been dealing not with bedbugs, but clothesmoths. Similarly
| persistent and difficult to entirely eliminate. Not going to use
| the classic mothballs because toxicity. They activate in larger
| numbers when there is more keratin around, which mostly happens
| when hair is long enough to shed all over clothing(hence
| "clothes" moths). Using more synthetic fabrics and keeping hair
| short does a lot to hold them back.
|
| The pheromone traps for them do work, but I've gradually come to
| realize that their numbers can be reduced just by exploiting
| their stupidity: those traps kill by being sticky, and this is
| something you can add to by adding double-sided tape over
| anything you've seen them crawl on - like many bugs, they love to
| fly near lights and this can be made deadly even with low power
| LEDs. The larvae in particular HAVE to crawl and they usually
| fall down to the floor at some point. So if you add barriers all
| around and keep vacuuming the floor, they lose a lot of traction.
|
| This is something I've also seen recommended with bedbugs, even
| getting the ceiling "airdrop" bugs. I think the long term
| apartment infestations are a matter of the building as a whole
| not really pulling itself together to combat the problem, and not
| so much the existing techniques failing.
| hqowieuqosdkal wrote:
| [dead]
| nicoburns wrote:
| If you have bedbugs (and if you do then I'm so sorry) then I
| recommend _not_ using the chemical treatments. These supposedly
| just scatter them everywhere, causing them to spread. The two
| treatments that work reliably seem to be:
|
| - Whole building heat treatment, but this is the nuclear option
| as it involves heating the entire building (including cracks and
| crevices) to 60c
|
| - Repeated steam treatments. Superheated steam kills them on
| contact, but doesn't scare them away. Any remaining bugs will
| gravitate towards sleeping areas and can be got by repeating the
| steam treatment within a 2 week window which is how long their
| reproduction cycle takes.
|
| Source: https://www.bed-bugs.co.uk/educational/about-bed-bugs/ I
| did a lot of research on this topic after an unfortunate
| encounter with bed bugs while travelling, and this was the most
| reliable source I could find.
|
| EDIT: the Mark Rober video linked below
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JAOTJxYqh8) also contains much
| of the same advice.
| beardog wrote:
| I can confirm in my anecdotal experience that poison is not
| effective. The poison also made me itchy more so than the bugs.
| It is really difficult in large houses or multi-unit apartments
| because they can hide in walls or behind things. Pretty much
| have to do heat treatment but that can be rough on the
| structure.
| preommr wrote:
| > Whole building heat treatment
|
| When reading about this I've heard exterminators say that heat
| treatment alone isn't always effective because there are some
| areas that don't reach those temperatures, and it might not
| kill the eggs that tend to be more durable.
| wcarss wrote:
| I had to live through a bedbug infestation about five years
| ago; the neighbours had a "sweep up and don't tell the
| management" approach, which I did not adopt.
|
| After two rounds of standard chemical treatments, my apartment
| was empty of them -- it can be quite effective.
|
| Despite that, I still constantly found reasons to believe that
| it might not yet be resolved, and lived a horrible shell of a
| normal life for months until I had served out my lease and
| (still amazingly bug free), could move. Even months after
| moving, I feared having somehow brought them along.
|
| In retrospect, it's hard to believe: but they were gone after
| those two treatments. The greatest toll was the mental toll and
| the uncertainty of whether it could ever even be resolved. If
| anyone reading is going through it, just follow the
| instructions of a professional, and know that one day, you
| _will_ be past it.
| Retric wrote:
| There's very different bedbug populations in different areas
| with wildly different levels of resistance to these
| chemicals. NYC and a few other major metropolitan areas have
| in practice spent decades maximizing how resistant these bugs
| are.
|
| It might sound preposterous but even within NYC there's very
| different lineages where wealthy areas tend to be much harder
| to deal with because people don't want the stigma and so
| don't tell anyone when they fumigate and they also travel
| more which means constantly risking exposure in hotels etc.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| It's so hard to get rid of an infestation of the wealthy.
| katzenversteher wrote:
| I guess chemical treatment or the suggested "heat to 60
| degrees celsius" might work. But the f*** are pretty
| mobile and escape or call security / police.
| stuaxo wrote:
| I read this years ago, has there been any advance in making a
| repellant based on this - or can you just buy the leaves ?
|
| (Luckily I don't have to deal with bed bugs any more, but would
| be good to know)
| galaxyLogic wrote:
| > they can't jump or fly,
|
| I think they can climb the wall and the ceiling then walk over
| your bed and drop onto it. I can not prove this happens but I
| have seen bedbugs in the ceiling. Anybody else know if this
| happens in practice?
| dkjaudyeqooe wrote:
| We don't have bedbugs, cockroaches or ants because of what we do
| have: house centipedes. They eat everything. Given that they bite
| (I've never been bitten) they're not exactly great to have
| around, but cockroaches and bedbugs are truly disgusting.
| xmcqdpt2 wrote:
| Centipedes are very common in Toronto basement apartments. They
| look absolutely ghastly and their bite is somewhat painful and
| itchy, but yeah they are ravenous and great at controlling
| other insects. If you get way too many of them though...
| usually means you have another problematic arthropod invasion.
| pfdietz wrote:
| How about using ivermectin? The bed bugs may bite, but now you're
| toxic to them.
| ericbarrett wrote:
| Seems like it might work:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23871326/
| katzenversteher wrote:
| I don't know if the product has the same name in the US but
| here we have this spot-on products against parasites for pets
| called "Frontline". It's pretty effective against ticks, fleas
| etc. and so far my cats and dogs still seem OK.
| pfdietz wrote:
| That's Fipronil.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipronil
| MrOwnPut wrote:
| Interesting:
|
| > Fipronil is one of the main chemical causes blamed for
| the spread of colony collapse disorder among bees
| TimBurman wrote:
| Bedbugs invaded my apartment after a new tenant moved in above
| fall 2020. Infestations were discovered in apartments above and
| next to me in the summer and fall of 2021 but not sprayed until
| then.
|
| I captured over 300 bed bugs and documented them to the landlord,
| who had to get exterminators to eliminate them. They sprayed the
| apartment 11 times from 2021 to early 2022, but nothing reduced
| the numbers until they attacked the source infestations.
|
| What worked: Buying white box spring and mattress covers that
| bugs cannot get through and make them easy to see. Steaming and
| vacuuming the bed.
|
| Putting glass and plastic traps on the floor under the bed legs.
| Bugs can't climb (some/all?) smooth, vertical metal, plastic and
| glass surfaces. Test for yourself. Large numbers of bugs could
| fill the traps so they have to be checked.
|
| Tucking in bedding so that covers and sheets never slide onto the
| floor during the night.
|
| Vacuuming floors every day to pick up bugs in the carpet or
| hidden under the baseboards.
|
| Sealing pipes, lights, electrical plugs and switches with clear
| tape so the bugs cannot enter that way. I found two dead bugs
| trapped in a hallway light and then two more crawled out while
| applying the tape.
|
| Completely sealing the vent above the stove after several crawled
| down, followed by more that were trapped in the clear plastic.
|
| Sealing the bathroom vent with clear plastic packing tape around
| all edges of the wall, which bugs cannot climb, then sealing the
| fan cover onto the wall on all sides except the top so air could
| still escape. Every surface inside the cover and outside had
| smooth tape.
|
| Some appeared on the floor near the front door into the common
| hallway, so I covered the first 60 cm / 2 feet of floor in
| bleach. This seemed to kill smaller bugs but a few larger ones
| made it through alive. The exterminator said they follow the
| smell of each other.
|
| My freezer is -20 C. I put every bug in there for at least 2
| hours, in a plastic bag, and none came back to life after they
| were removed and thawed.
|
| Almost everything I have was put in either clear plastic bags or
| dozens of 60L clear plastic storage bins. I only found one bug in
| a clear bin that was right under a fire sensor I could not cover.
| It appeared to have crawled inside through the sideways U shaped
| top seals on the ends and died.
|
| The plastic traps on the bed were in this form: TTT Window TDT
| TDT Put these letters in 3 rows with the TTT at the top and
| window to the right of TTT in your mind.
|
| The darkest traps labeled D had most of the bugs I found in the
| bedroom (~20 total), which led me to think they avoided light
| even though I slept head near the window where they would smell
| CO2. So, I started leaving all the lights on every day. I also
| turned down the heat but don't know if either helped.
|
| Before I knew they were bed bugs, I killed about 12 in the
| bathroom over 3 months. Most would burst in a strange gray cloud.
|
| Secure your bed, clothing and furniture. Then it is easier to
| deal with the stress and sleep in comfort. If you have to move,
| everything in plastic is safe and can be checked at the new home.
|
| If it is really bad, make sure you and movers have covers on your
| feet. The first exterminator tracked them back to his house
| because he didn't cover his feet, but the government inspector
| always wore them when inspecting the building.
| patrickdavey wrote:
| I'm somewhat anxious at times, and definitely one of the things
| I'm paranoid about is getting bedbugs (hasn't happened yet!)
|
| One day our daughter had some small bites on her arms, and then
| we found _small creatures_ in her bed... my brain went straight
| to "* _k we have bedbugs, burn the house down and start again,
| but_ fortunately* my friend is an entomologist and his partner
| was visiting and she took one back for him to look at.
|
| The answer came back that it was a definitely a carpet beetle and
| not to worry (simpler to get rid of, which we did).
|
| I recommend having a friend who's an entomologist. Definite life
| hack ;)
| wlesieutre wrote:
| If you don't have an entomologist friend, there's a subreddit
| for that
|
| https://reddit.com/r/whatisthisbug
| testfoobar wrote:
| Hilarious story. And definitely relate to an unusual anxiety
| about getting a bed bug infection (for me this is a type of
| catastrophic thinking - CBT works quite well). I have a routine
| that I follow when I check into a hotel consisting of examining
| mattress seams for bedbugs and hunting for hidden cameras
| (smoke detectors, outlets, lamps, etc.)
|
| Surprisingly, I've never found a bedbug or hidden camera.
|
| I did once find a 6-inch centipede in my kids' bathroom on the
| 10th floor of a hotel property on Maui.
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244901/
|
| "Bites from centipedes can cause extreme pain, edema, erythema
| and other localized symptoms as well as anxiety and panic."
| patrickdavey wrote:
| Hah! Very good. Yes, just starting to work on the CBT. I'm
| definitely a work in progress :)
| xtiansimon wrote:
| I live outside of NYC and assume I got them from the bus. I've
| seen them on the bus, anyway.
|
| It got bad before I realized. I did my research-- bought the bed
| covers, put everything near the bed in clear plastic bags, and
| bought a steam cleaner.
|
| The bugs infest your bed, reproduce, and spread out. To get rid
| of them you do the reverse--kill them on the bed with steam. Wait
| a day or two for the commuters to repopulate the bedding, repeat.
|
| Most important thing is don't panic. If you panic, throw out your
| bed, then you will prolly end up dragging your bed through your
| home and spread the bugs everywhere.
|
| A year later I was volunteering at a community program teaching
| adults to use computers. The topic of bed bugs came up. A person
| said the Cedarcide product was absolutely the best product. I'm
| adverse to using any poison on or near my bed, so I gave it a try
| --it's just cedar oil.
|
| Well, I tried it and shared the product with my neighbors. I
| didn't see any direct effect on the bugs. What I did realize was
| the smell of the product is distinct (and pleasant). Living in an
| apartment building, when you smell the product, you know someone
| has the problem and you can catch an infestation early. This is
| key.
|
| Also, once you find and deal with the issue, best to continue to
| check your bedding twice a week. I found spring through to early
| summer is the worst. If you can get past that time, and you know
| your neighbors are clear, then you're good. But as long as your
| neighbors have a problem, then you too have a problem.
|
| There is a lot of irrational shame when people have the bugs.
| They deny and deny, so communication is key--even if it's coded
| communication as the smell of whatever spray people use to treat
| and kill the bugs, or empty bug spray cans.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| How dirty does a public bus have to be to have an ecosystem
| living on it?
| PhasmaFelis wrote:
| Bedbugs have no correlation with filth. They're not flies or
| cockroaches, they don't live off your waste. They live off
| _you._
|
| All it takes to start a bedbug infestation is for a female
| bedbug to crawl on someone, in their clothes or bag, and then
| fall off in a new place and start laying eggs. It can happen
| in the cleanest spaces in the world. They're highly resistant
| to insecticides and they hide in cracks barely wide enough to
| slide a strip of paper, so even a thorough washing and
| vacuuming won't remove them.
| kijin wrote:
| Everything has an ecosystem living on it. Are you sure your
| laptop is any cleaner than the toilet seat? How long has it
| been since you disinfected its surface with alcohol, bleach,
| or citric acid?
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| The toilet always gets brought up in these conversations.
| For example, the toilet in almost every restaurant is
| substantially cleaner than any surface you eat on. It's
| made of ceramic and doused in bleach (and other cleaners)
| on a regular basis, so it comes as no surprise that it is
| cleaner.
|
| Comparing to the toilet is a fallacy because of this and
| the fact that no one I know defecates on their laptop.
| vlovich123 wrote:
| It's cleaner on average. But boy is it extremely variable
| whereas my table is dirtier on average but never has
| spikes drastically worse than average. Not to mention
| people eat off plates, not off the table itself directly.
| kijin wrote:
| The toilet is actually a very good example that
| illustrates the importance of easily cleanable surfaces.
| It doesn't matter if you poop on it every day as long as
| it can be doused in bleach from time to time! Can't say
| the same for a MacBook Pro. (By the way, one usually
| poops _in_ the toilet bowl, not _on_ the toilet seat...)
|
| We won't get cleaner buses by magically wishing all the
| passengers to have better hygiene. The answer is to cover
| all internal surfaces with non-porous, corrosion-
| resistant, easily cleanable materials and to eliminate
| nooks and crannies where dirt can accumulate. Ideally,
| you should be able to hose down all the seats of a bus
| after a day's service.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| This would make each bus cost tens of millions of
| dollars.
|
| Actually seamless welding and assembly, for large objects
| like busses, is only used by very high end manufacturing
| like rockets.
| brokenkebaby wrote:
| Making buses salons washable doesn't cost millions. Maybe
| seamless assembly is expensive, but you don't need it.
| Steam washable is enough.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| Bedbugs can hide out in tiny cracks for several days.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| thermal expansion would also be an issue I think.
| kamaal wrote:
| Public bus, air plane seats, delivery packages, hotel rooms,
| even your office chairs. You will be surprised how common
| they are and how easily you could get them. Often there is
| only one thing standing between you and them- Luck. One wrong
| move and it could be over.
| IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
| downtread poster suggested :
|
| Fly paper on bed posts and pull the bed away from the wall.
| This'll let you get a good nights sleep while you engage all
| the additional preemptive measures you point out.
| voidfunc wrote:
| Aren't the bugs usually in/on the mattress tho? They don't
| climb up the bed posts.
| finfrastrcuture wrote:
| Its a precaution for when you turn the bed into a safe
| zone, they don't re-infest the bed (provided you are being
| super careful about what you're putting on your bed).
| kirykl wrote:
| actually they do, source: "Mark Rober Bed Bugs- What You've
| Been Told is Totally False"
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JAOTJxYqh8
| tashoecraft wrote:
| Was about to suggest this video. Seems everything you
| need to know about an infestation and preventing the
| chance of getting them is described.
| voidfunc wrote:
| Well I just learned a shit ton about bed bugs (saw this
| in another post). Cool.
| [deleted]
| seu wrote:
| There's something I really, really don't understand.
|
| > The fabricated leaves did snag the bugs, but they didn't hinder
| the insects' movements quite as effectively as the living plants.
| But the researchers are not deterred by these initial results.
| They plan to continue working on the problem and improving their
| product by more precisely incorporating the mechanical properties
| of the living trichomes.
|
| Why not grow leaves and use those? Why do we need to make
| artificial replicas of the real thing, when we could grow the
| plant and A) get rid of bugs, B) Enjoy the beans and C) benefit
| from the nitrogen-fixing properties of the plant.
|
| This obsession with creating artificial replicas of things that
| we know, because we want to have perfect, lab-conditions control
| of everything, is just crazy.
| [deleted]
| nyagaga wrote:
| Your idea is unfortunately less likely to move as much money
| for someone to create a startup and profit as much from it.
| kuhewa wrote:
| The market for fresh kidney bean leaves wouldn't be big enough
| to justify shops keeping them in stock, growing bean plants
| would take weeks and typically be impractical otherwise due to
| space and seasonality constraints, bean leaves dry out quickly
| so you would need a constant supply to fight an infestation,
| and given they are a discrete size and you have limited options
| for how and where place them versus a synthetic tape...
| yreg wrote:
| a) Making artificial replikas and testing them out lets us
| learn something new and it is an interesting area for research
|
| b) Artificial leaves can be "painted" on continuous surfaces
| anywhere. E.g. on the foots of beds, inside the walls,
| doorstep, perhaps even luggage...
|
| c) Artificial leaves require less care and maintenance than
| bean plants.
|
| Come to think of it I don't understand at all how would you use
| actual live bean plants to protect a home from bedbugs.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| _b) Artificial leaves can be "painted" on continuous surfaces
| anywhere. E.g. on the foots of beds, inside the walls,
| doorstep, perhaps even luggage..._
|
| Mmmmhmmm.
|
| It's basically like flypaper and they get stuck and die. Who
| would want products with the ability to kill bugs in a manner
| such that now they are permanently covered in dead bugs?
| yreg wrote:
| >Who would want products with the ability to kill bugs in a
| manner such that now they are permanently covered in dead
| bugs?
|
| E.g. people who use flypaper.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| People who use flypaper are using a disposable product
| that gets thrown out.
|
| That's fundamentally different from "your bed or luggage
| now works like flypaper."
| yreg wrote:
| No, it's not?
|
| Bedbugpaper can be just as disposable.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Yes, but bedbugpaper is not at all what you described.
| yreg wrote:
| It is, you would usually want to have this user
| replacable/washable (that's why I said less maintenance
| than plants, not no maintenance). Although e.g. during
| construction it might make sense to install it even
| permanently.
|
| Anyway, my only point is that there might be possible
| applications where this technology fits better than the
| bean plants suggested by seu.
| pflanze wrote:
| seu still has a good point. That there are mechanisms
| (like companies making more money via cheaper
| production/handling when scaling, or catering to careless
| customers) that lead us to use artificial products
| doesn't always (or even often?) mean that it's the better
| solution for us as a whole, long term. Because the
| drawbacks of artificial solutions may show up in places
| that the producers or consumers don't feel.
| kuhewa wrote:
| That's sometimes a good point. Doesn't seem to be a good
| point here unless you live next to a bean farmer. Coming
| up with a biomimicking synthetic makes plenty of sense in
| this instance.
| ajuc wrote:
| A huge improvement over having alive bugs there.
| kuhewa wrote:
| that's a good problem to have, if you have bed bugs at all.
| Its like saying why would you have a crumpling car bumper
| that would be destroyed in a wreck and then he unsightly or
| need an expensive replacement.
|
| I would happily have this stuff permanently painted on bed
| feet. If you have bed bugs to get attached id much rather
| have them impaled even if I had to refinish my beds legs
| (in reality you would just clean them off or replace the
| temporary flypaper)
| ajuc wrote:
| Leaves need to be replaced regularly. You'd have to transport
| them to places where you can't grow them. I'm not even sure it
| would be a benefit for the environment.
| eecc wrote:
| You can't patent leaves
| throwaway290 wrote:
| And oil will not sell itself (those artificial ones are
| probably plastic)
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Monsanto enters the chat, gets a judge to shut chat down.
| flockonus wrote:
| In case of a "mild" infestation, isn't it a feasible solution to
| have some plants, how about every week collect some leaves and
| tape around tightly the feet of the bed?
|
| Beans are very easy to grow (the easiest plant I've grown at
| least).
| piyh wrote:
| It's easier to surround your bed with diatomaceous earth
| throwaway892238 wrote:
| FWIW, diatomaceous earth works just fine against bed bugs. Cover
| the surface of basically everything in your home (the mattress,
| the floor, under the bed, the bed frame, headboard, box spring,
| baseboards, on top of and under carpets, drapes, whatever) in
| diatomaceous earth powder. Leave for 12-24 hours. Vaccum it up.
| That's it! You'll want to wear a respirator to keep from
| breathing it in (it's non-toxic but may irritate your lungs).
|
| Borax is also effective, though it may need to be wet first and
| may take longer to work. Diatomaceous earth doesn't work if wet.
| chimen wrote:
| until eggs hatch again and you're back to square 1. It's really
| hard getting rid of them.
| xupybd wrote:
| It's a long game. We're in the middle of it. Daily vacuuming,
| steam treatments, diatomaceous earth spray, and commercial
| exterminators have all been used. I think we're starting to
| see progress.
| uwagar wrote:
| i heard at some party then when u got a bedbug problem, its
| time to change your life.
| sbaiddn wrote:
| First time hearing this, but after I moved into an
| apartment with a bad bedbug infestation, I really changed
| my life.
|
| I ended up marrying the girl I was dating, finished my
| PhD that was going nowhere, etc.
|
| I attribute it to seeing how bad mediocrity, and just
| letting things be can get.
| xupybd wrote:
| Perhaps that is true. We've not been on vacation since
| the trip that brought them home with us. We're not going
| to stay in anymore small town hotels anymore.
|
| The funny thing is Ed Sheeran was at the same place a few
| weeks after our visit.
| sbaiddn wrote:
| Sheeran updates his lyrics to:
|
| "Now my bedsheet are stained of you!
| nicoburns wrote:
| I believe they take 2 weeks to reach maturity (when they can
| lay eggs), so if you treat every week you should get them all
| after a few cycles. Not easy, but doable.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| > Leave for 12-24 hours
|
| If you leave, the bugs will stay safe wherever they are since
| there won't be any host to attract them. And the eggs are most
| likely in tiny hole and won't be affected by the diatomaceous
| earth. Maybe it'll help to reduce the colony, but I'm skeptical
| it'll solve the problem.
| bearmode wrote:
| I presume he means leave the diamotaceous earth, not leave
| your house. You sleep normally after putting it down.
| GoldenRacer wrote:
| One thing to note with diatomaceous earth is it works best with
| an even dusting. You don't want to just spread clumps. Many but
| not all bags come with a little device for spraying it as a
| nice fine dust.
| mmarq wrote:
| That's how you develop silicosis while the beasts stay put in a
| crack in the wall.
| kuhewa wrote:
| This is bad advice, don't bullshit please. Bed bug egg
| gestation is ~6 days
| kijin wrote:
| Give the bugs another dose of poison next week, after they've
| begun crawling out of their eggs but before they've had a
| chance to reproduce. Repeat a few times and you'll definitely
| begin to see progress.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Borax also works really well against ants. I had a terrible
| infestation, and put it all around where they were coming
| inside. It must have wiped them out at the source when they
| brought it back to the nest, because I never saw them again,
| even outside.
| amluto wrote:
| Do you really want a respiratory irritant on your mattress?
| Vacuuming might remove a decent fraction, but it won't get all
| of it.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| Yeah, I was always worried about getting some kind of
| silicosis.
|
| From[1]:
|
| > _A very small amount of crystalline diatomaceous earth may
| be found in pesticide products. Long-term inhalation of the
| crystalline form is associated with silicosis, chronic
| bronchitis, and other respiratory problems. The bulk of
| diatomaceous earth is amorphous, not crystalline. The
| amorphous form is only associated with mild, reversible lung
| inflammation._
|
| [1] http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/degen.html
| throwaway892238 wrote:
| Put a plastic sheet over the mattress and a HEPA filter in
| the room and I'd say your worries are over
| pa7ch wrote:
| The bedbugs under the plastic will also be worry free.
| brianwawok wrote:
| Encase in a plastic bag and they will die eventually
| amluto wrote:
| You can buy anti-allergy zippered mattress enclosures
| that are supposedly impermeable to bedbugs. If they're
| made well, they will be permeable to air and a lot more
| comfortable than a plastic bag.
| kevviiinn wrote:
| Can't bed bugs last 6 months to a year without feeding?
| Have fun waiting them out
| itake wrote:
| What's the issue with waiting them out? You're not
| comfortable sleeping with a mattress protector or
| something?
| kevviiinn wrote:
| What is the HEPA filter for, are bedbugs airborne?
| kamaal wrote:
| >>Do you really want a respiratory irritant on your mattress?
|
| Once you have a bed bug infestation, your mattress is pretty
| much gone anyway. You have to replace it, or risk living
| through the nightmare in only weeks after this.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| I actually wonder how people manage to get rid of these bugs, and
| why they aren't more spread considering how resilient they are.
| It's so hard to get rid of them that they should be literally
| everywhere.
|
| I moved to an apt in NYC that had bedbugs. Probably not that many
| because I cleaned the place inside out so many times and I could
| rarely spot one. Eventually, I called an exterminator but the
| bugs were back a couple of months later. I eventually left this
| place. I'm super paranoid since then.
| silisili wrote:
| My brother, ever the cheapskate, decided to buy a used couch. I
| guess you know where this is going...
|
| The $500 or so he saved didn't come close to the cost of full
| apartment treatments, the headaches, and being basically
| outcast by the family for a month.
|
| Protip: Unless you're really hard up, don't buy a used couch or
| mattress. And if you have to, figure out a way to deep cleanse
| it first.
| raverbashing wrote:
| "deep cleanse"
|
| More like wrap it in black garbage bags and leave it out in a
| sunny day in Arizona or something.
| [deleted]
| xupybd wrote:
| Apartments must be horrible for this. Unless everyone treats
| for them they'll keep coming back.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| I moved from a bedbug infested apartment to a cockroach
| infested apartment once. When I left, I made sure to do it
| during the summer. Anything I kept (clothes, etc) went into
| black plastic bags and then into my car during the 105F+
| degree summer heat. All the furniture made it into the trash
| bin.
| xmcqdpt2 wrote:
| I only lived in a mice infested apartment and as gross as
| it was, at least mice are easy to see, satisfying to kill
| and don't follow you anywhere or lay eggs.
|
| We only found the nest when moving out though.
| kamaal wrote:
| I'd take the cockroach any day above the beg bugs.
| Cockroaches can be controlled to a point they could either
| be entirely harmless or at least live in some sort of
| symbiosis with you.
|
| Bed bugs are the absolute worst of the lot. Mosquitoes feel
| like welcome guests compared to them.
|
| Short of nothing less than setting everything you know on
| fire, there are 0 ways to get rid of them.
| chefandy wrote:
| The bugs themselves are really easy to kill! Spray them with
| rubbing alcohol and they're dead. They walk over diatomaceous
| earth and they're toast. Reach 115 degrees for 30 seconds and
| they're done. But yes, _infestations_ can be resilient because
| they scram at the first sign of trouble and hide really well if
| they 're forced to live somewhere other than your mattress/box
| spring/bed frame. They will hide in electrical outlets,
| clothes, cracks in trim, in furniture, under carpets, move to
| different apartments, etc. However, they need a reason to leave
| your bed-- e.g. the mattress is too crowded with other bugs,
| has been treated with insecticide, etc.
|
| The situation you had in your apartment would never have gotten
| better. Without treating the whole building, spraying
| insecticide will just push them into adjacent apartments. Many
| jurisdictions distinguish between infestations local to one
| dwelling to be handled by the tenant and infestations that are
| building-wide which landlords have to treat. If they just keep
| pushing them around, they never have to shell out for a
| building-wide treatment and they always look like a hero
| because technically they didn't even have to pay to get your
| apartment treated.
|
| Step 1 is to clean every tiny little crevice of your bed frame,
| bedding, box spring, and mattress and if possible, get a
| mattress bag. Step 2 is to put bed bug traps under each leg of
| your bed-- they can't jump or fly, only climb. Step 3 is to
| make sure no part of your bed or bedding is touching the wall
| or floor. Step 4 sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the base of
| your bed and the edges of your room.
|
| That's actually enough to stop you from getting bit right there
| and if your infestation is really minor, is probably enough to
| entirely eradicate it. Unfortunately, they can go 70 days
| without feeding, so you'd need to keep that diligence up for
| quite some time. That's why a proper extermination will be
| building-wide and happen at least twice with the second
| treatment being after the eggs should have hatched. The best
| method, IMO, is tenting the building and heating it to 115
| degrees for a few days. Not cheap, though, and obviously very
| disruptive.
| wcarss wrote:
| Diatomaceous earth seems to bother/deter them, but it really
| doesn't kill them very quickly.
|
| During an infestation about five years ago, I was curious if
| what I'd bought and sprinkled everywhere was any use at all,
| so I captured a bug in a glass and absolutely covered it.
|
| It continued wandering around in there for 4 more days.
|
| But I agree with a lot of the rest of what you're saying :)
|
| Also: - double sided carpet tape is difficult, if not
| impossible for them to cross, so wrapping it around the leg
| of a chair or bed in addition to a trap can be a big help -
| you can measure the heat of a dryer with an instant
| thermometer by putting a few towels in the dryer and pulling
| them out right at the peak, before the cool cycle at the end,
| and tossing the thermometer right into the middle of them.
| Most dryers are suitably hot, but you should check before
| relying on it -- you should look up the temperature needed to
| ensure the eggs are destroyed, and always do a dryer run
| without washing first, so the heat applies directly and isn't
| just evaporating water! But after all that: lots and lots of
| stuff can be put in the dryer, and tied off safely afterwards
| in bags / taken away from a place it can be reinfested. -
| putting books or electronics in an oven, even set very low,
| is usually a bad idea.
| nicoburns wrote:
| > It continued wandering around in there for 4 more days.
|
| For a bedbug, dying in 4 days is quick! They can live for
| up to a year or more normally. I think you'd normally want
| to combine a steam treatment to kill the bulk of them with
| diatomaceous earth to mop up the stragglers
| ChocMontePy wrote:
| > Step 1 is to clean every tiny little crevice of your bed
| frame, bedding, box spring, and mattress and if possible, get
| a mattress bag. Step 2 is to put bed bug traps under each leg
| of your bed-- they can't jump or fly, only climb. Step 3 is
| to make sure no part of your bed or bedding is touching the
| wall or floor. Step 4 sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the
| base of your bed and the edges of your room.
|
| I can confirm this through personal experience. I had a bad
| bedbug infestation two years ago, did the first three steps
| and haven't had a problem since (I didn't use the
| diatomaceous earth in Step 4).
|
| You basically turn your bed into a castle. No bedbugs
| currently in your bed + defenses so they can't get onto your
| bed = no future bedbug problem in bed.
|
| One good trick I used is that you can make "bed bug traps
| under each leg of your bed" yourself by putting little
| plastic containers under each leg that you fill with an inch
| of baby oil. The bedbugs can't get passed it.
| chefandy wrote:
| Nice. Good call with the oil. I immediately thought "hmm I
| hate the smell of baby oil-- wonder if you could use
| vegetable oil instead of baby oil" but then you'd attract
| cockroaches. Unscented mineral oil it is.
| lta wrote:
| I've had some in my van and had the opportunity to try a large
| variety of things, including essential oils, various
| pesticides, cleaning, etc.
|
| What worked for me and was quite radical was steam cleaning. It
| takes a lot of time to be thorough, but it kills them very
| quickly, includes the eggs, and can safely go almost anywhere
| (except on my poor books)
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| I always feel bad when using mouse traps. I find mice really
| cute, and innocent.
|
| Wasps and hornets, on the other hand, bring out my darkest
| urges.
| beardog wrote:
| >Eventually, I called an exterminator but the bugs were back a
| couple of months later. I eventually left this place.
|
| I am very glad that the exterminator I called was honest with
| me despite my desperation and told me bluntly that no one could
| permanently solve the issue without treating the whole
| structure.
| porknubbins wrote:
| There are horror stories about bedbugs in luggage making it
| into your home but from researching when I thought I might have
| them its a pretty low probability. There seems to be a critical
| mass needed and most infestations where people are getting
| bites every night there is actually a huge disgusting colony
| somewhere around the bed that is never cleaned. With your
| apartment I bet there was a pretty unsanitary tenant before
| you.
| [deleted]
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| I had an experience where I believe a single bed bug somehow
| made its home in my home. I was getting occasional bumps on
| my skin that looked like bites. At first I got worried and
| threw a bunch of my possessions out and inspected my bed area
| but then I just wrote it off to mosquitos.
|
| A few months later I was outside my house and felt something
| on my neck. After slapping it I came to the conclusion it was
| most likely a lone bed bug.
|
| Not everyone reacts to the bites severely so some just write
| it off as mosquito bites or a rash like me. Also in order to
| get an _infestation_ from a hitch hiking bedbug one of the
| following conditions must be met:
|
| 1. A male and female bedbug must both hitch a ride together
| and later successfully reproduce. OR
|
| 2. A pregnant female must hitch a ride. OR
|
| 3. There must already be a single bedbug present at your
| address and the hitchhiking bedbug must be of the opposite
| sex. These two bedbugs must go on to successfully reproduce.
|
| Keep in mind also that the hitchhiker must make it all the
| way home to the residence and not wander off somewhere before
| hand.
|
| Hotels and people who travel to decent hotels are quite aware
| of bedbugs too so the chance of encountering bedbugs and
| taking them home from there is quite low. e.g doing simple
| stuff like not leaving your luggage on or near your bed
| mitigates a lot of risk.
| nicoburns wrote:
| > Not everyone reacts to the bites severely so some just
| write it off as mosquito bites or a rash like me
|
| Some people don't react to the bites _at all_. Which is one
| reason why it can be hard to get rid of them. It 's hard to
| even tell if they're there if you don't react to the bites.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Yeah, despite how hard bed bugs are to get rid of once you
| have them, that Airbnbs aren't constantly plagued with bed
| bugs shows that spreading them probably isn't as simple as
| just moving luggage through a place that has them.
|
| You probably have to not just get some passengers in your
| luggage but also park the luggage in a place in the infected
| location where they actual fester, sleep, and lay eggs.
|
| It's somewhat reassuring.
| matt3210 wrote:
| Fly paper on bed posts and pull the bed away from the wall.
| This'll let you get a good nights sleep while you prepare for
| treatments.
| IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
| this seems practical advice that is simple to implement for a
| good night's sleep
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