10.26.10
National Bedbug Blitzkrieg
The Environmental Protection Agency is planning its second national bed bug summit for this winter in Washington, D.C. as the blood-sucking pest continues its blitzkrieg on the United States and EPA bans of more effective pesticides are under increasing scrutiny.
The long and short is that bedbugs can’t be controlled in 2010. The story blames most of it on pesticide resistance and the banning of some chemicals in 1996 and 2007. But that’s too simple.
Bedbugs travel with people and the Great Recession has caused a great dislocation. This churn in residences was very apparent during the 2010 Decennial Census. It was and is a golden opportunity for bedbugs to be fruitful and multiply.
Add to it an initial cutback in spraying regimes by property managers faced with diminishing revenues.
In this economy, lots of people, when faced with bedbugs in their apartments or homes, aren’t prepared to spend a few hundred dollars for a professional extermination. Depending on Terminix for social generosity or some local trying to make opportunistic bucks with his new bedbug sniffing dog just isn’t in the cards.
So there has been this:
One of the arguments cited by Rosile and other proponents of reviving the effective pesticides is that desperate bed bug victims – who feel helpless as zombie bed bugs destroy their lives – are resorting to far less safe alternatives to hit back, do it yourself style … Needless to say, heavy-duty agricultural pesticides were never intended to be sprayed at the base of one’s bed, and while certainly effective, they’re a rather perilous route to sleeping soundly.
Blow it out your ass, as some used to say in Pennsy.
From the DD tune, “Bedbugs”:
Spray some Raid around the bed
So to bedbugs you are not fed
Nothin’ like personal experience for the tempering of a strategy.
The “Bedbugs” song by DD. Give it a listen.
The lyrics are here.
nobody you know said,
October 30, 2010 at 9:39 am
there are other ways. Raid™ is all kinds of bad news. so is the spray i broke down and got. pesticides are no good, and they are (i believe) uneccessary: the cure is just *hell* of tedious. or should say ‘will have been’ hell of tedious, since at present we are just maintaining a relatively bite-free buffer untill i feel the kind of motivated to accomplish the final solution.
in addition to the below, we gather them (red flannel on a heating pad with bean leaves if you can get them, or iron tablet crushed if you can’t, and an alka seltzer on a wet sponge (separate). make sure the room is as cold as you can get it, and leave overnight — they will smell the CO2 and feel the warmth and gather on the flannel. better if it lets out a regular rythym, too…
to disperse them, on the other hand, a random irregular ultrasound beat — as irregular as possible — is supposed to work on them as well as roaches. units are sold; i saw one at Rite Aid…
(i wish yodeling worked…)
to keep them under control: of course, vacuum well, regularly, and *throw the bags out* (out of the house). they can’t climb glass, so if you have a four poster (i sleep on the floor myself) you can put little dishes under each foot and as long as your blanket does not touch the floor they are powerless to get you. hella strong tape on the legs works also. regularly run the bedding, if not through the washer/dryer, then at least through the dryer — ON HOT. (see below).
to get rid of them: you have to want to clean. really clean. and organize. yes, vacuum, as above, and washall beddingand basicallyanything that is cloth. heat kills them, 114?, instantaneously. (i like to set them on fire, but that’s overkill). 114 is not too hot — and here’s where the organization comes in — because you want to seperate out of all your stuff anything that cannot withstand that heat for, oh, long enough to kill all the bb’s in whatever it is. your old tapes and photos cannot take it. or candles, etc. but for the rest: go to a cheap thrift store and get a couple space heaters. borrow a couple more if you can. see where this is headed? you can cook all your possessions, box by box, pour boiling water on the floor (if it won’t rot it), and voila!
before putting the carpets back down dust with diatemacous earth (after its dry). this will get whatever is left — slowly, though.
apologies for typos. i hope this helps someone.
Dick Destiny » BedBug Blitz continues said,
January 4, 2011 at 9:21 am
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