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Boom in tiny bedbugs is causing big trouble
mcclatchy ^ | 5/15/09 | By Barbara Barrett,

Posted on 05/17/2009 6:56:51 AM PDT by Flavius

The biggest bedbug outbreak since World War II has sent a collective shudder among apartment dwellers, college students and business travelers across the nation.

The bugs — reddish brown, flat and about the size of a grain of rice — suck human blood. They resist many pesticides and spread quickly in certain mattress-heavy buildings, such as hotels, dormitories and apartment complexes.

Two shelters have closed temporarily in Charlotte, N.C. , because of bedbugs, a Yahoo chat group dedicates itself to sufferers and countless bedbug blogs provide forums for news, tips and commiseration. State inspectors say that more emphasis may be needed to tackle the creatures.

Federal officials have taken notice of the resurgence. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency held its first-ever bedbug summit, and now a North Carolina congressman wants to take on the insect.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: third; world
third world
1 posted on 05/17/2009 6:56:51 AM PDT by Flavius
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To: Flavius
The money quote "Since the EPA restricted the use of several effective pesticides in the 1980s

I mean really why use what works, then complain about the bugs.

2 posted on 05/17/2009 7:01:33 AM PDT by svcw (The prerequisite for receiving the grace of God ... is knowing you need it.)
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To: Flavius

And of course we can’t fight it well. No more DDT.


3 posted on 05/17/2009 7:01:33 AM PDT by kimmie7 (THE CROSS - Today, Tomorrow and Always!)
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To: Flavius

The professor who works in the lab next to mine had a little plastic cube full of bed bugs that she was using in her lab class. (she teaches med students.) They were bigger than I imagined they would be. Bigger than a tick, even. Still, seeing them made my stomach turn a bit.


4 posted on 05/17/2009 7:01:56 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: svcw

seriously you ask? look around you, its an orgy of stupidity


5 posted on 05/17/2009 7:02:36 AM PDT by Flavius
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To: Flavius

Switch to air mattresses.


6 posted on 05/17/2009 7:02:48 AM PDT by Tax Government (Cult Obama? In 50 years he will be an ugly footnote)
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To: svcw

DDT or (’moral purity’ plus)whining, which would you choose?


7 posted on 05/17/2009 7:03:21 AM PDT by bboop (obama, little o, not a Real God)
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To: Tax Government

Or a water bed.


8 posted on 05/17/2009 7:03:38 AM PDT by Krankor (iT EMINDS ME)
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To: Flavius

Allergy barriers are your friend

9 posted on 05/17/2009 7:03:55 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: Flavius

Flavius, it is EXACTLY an orgy of stupidity.

Maybe they could use eucalyptus leaves, like hippies do.

Me, I’m for the Big Guns — pesticides, Snarol, DDT, the stuff that works.


10 posted on 05/17/2009 7:04:38 AM PDT by bboop (obama, little o, not a Real God)
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To: Flavius

We need a bed bug czar! Maybe even a new cabinet position!

Maybe they can send the zombie headless ants in to fight the bed bugs?

New Weapon Turns Fire Ants Into Headless Zombies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2252180/posts


11 posted on 05/17/2009 7:06:07 AM PDT by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: Flavius

It has been a problem in Hawaii and the State has gone through great pains to clear the problem up. HOWEVER, we just renovated my parents’ place on the North Shore across from the ocean for vacation renters and there’s all new bedding. The master kng-sized bed even has a cover on the mattress that won’t allow bed bugs OR dust mites in. It’s a brand new product because I know the mfg. (a huge linen co). Keep in touch with me as I’ll check on where that mattress cover will be offered (what stores and when).


12 posted on 05/17/2009 7:06:52 AM PDT by NordP (BHO's new book, "To Serve Man/United States" --- NO NO NO....RUN....it's a COOKBOOK!)
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To: Tax Government
Switch to air mattresses.

Actually their preferred location is in carpets or the insulation inside of walls. Once these suckers get into a house it is very hard to get rid of them as conventional insecticides can't be used, do to the close proximity of humans. DDT was perfect, but of course the libs too care of that. Parasites (human and non-human) appear to be the favorite cause of the left.
13 posted on 05/17/2009 7:06:53 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: Flavius

I shoulda stayed away from this thread.....tomorrow wifey and I begin a driving trip that won’t get us home until around July 1.......lotsa motels ‘tween now and then.


14 posted on 05/17/2009 7:13:04 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (Impeach now!)
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To: Flavius

DDT


15 posted on 05/17/2009 7:15:24 AM PDT by SampleMan (Socialism enslaves you & kills your soul.)
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To: ErnBatavia

I guess you will not cheap it out in the motel 6, eh?


16 posted on 05/17/2009 7:17:40 AM PDT by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: Flavius

I’ve noticed that libs often don’t understand cause-and-effect. For example, they ban DDT, then we get bed bugs, and they’ll never see the connection. Instead, it’s as if things just happen out of the blue. That is, of course, unless there’s a republican anywhere around they can blame it all on. :)


17 posted on 05/17/2009 7:21:46 AM PDT by ElayneJ
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To: Flavius

On a recent CSI program, the bed bugs gut provided DNA indicating that the girl had slept with the murder victim.....and another guy. He became a suspect driven by jealousy.

I couldn’t believe they were exposing the New York City bed bug problem.


18 posted on 05/17/2009 7:21:54 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Crucify ! Crucify ! Crucify him!!)
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To: listenhillary

Bedbugs are an intractable problem even in 5-star hotels. No class barriers with them.


19 posted on 05/17/2009 7:26:57 AM PDT by StatenIsland
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To: StatenIsland

The 5 star hotel won’t hand you the business card of the local exterminator if you complain.


20 posted on 05/17/2009 7:29:26 AM PDT by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: Flavius
Mexico, central and south American, not to forget all of the united nations trash.
21 posted on 05/17/2009 7:47:02 AM PDT by org.whodat
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To: Flavius

We use the same pesticides we have used for years, but the difference is that we’ve got 12 million illegal immigrants now.


22 posted on 05/17/2009 7:47:21 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: GonzoGOP

I wonder if flooding a house with nitrogen or CO2 for extended periods would kill them.


23 posted on 05/17/2009 7:49:46 AM PDT by Tax Government (Cult Obama? In 50 years he will be an ugly footnote)
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To: Flavius

We take a month-long trip from the midwest to the west coast on our motorcycles every summer. The motels we have stayed in have been 90% filth. Keep in mind, these are supposed to be the “better” chains. Now you add this to the mix. This year, if we can afford it, we plan to buy a toy-hauler, and stay in our own filth!!


24 posted on 05/17/2009 8:00:39 AM PDT by gibsosa
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To: Flavius

Parts of my apartment complex are contaminated with the bugs.

Fortunately, the management is very aggressive in attacking the problem. They recently inspected all apartments in the complex. My unit was found to be clean.


25 posted on 05/17/2009 8:06:55 AM PDT by jimtorr
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To: Flavius

I thought the rise in bedbugs was due to the ban on smoking and nicotine. Nicotine is a great pesticide.


26 posted on 05/17/2009 8:14:01 AM PDT by revolted
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To: Flavius

TB.....bedbugs....I think I see a pattern here.Illegals.Not illegals from Ireland...or Italy...or Canada,etc.Illegals from south of the border!


27 posted on 05/17/2009 8:19:14 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Christian+Veteran=Terrorist)
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To: Flavius

As i recall from my Navy days DDT sprayed in the seams of mattresses get bed bugs every time. Too bad we no longer make DDT. Ain’t progress wonderful?


28 posted on 05/17/2009 8:19:41 AM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

Solution: empty the hotel for an afternoon and irradiate the hotel with a robot.


29 posted on 05/17/2009 8:36:40 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: listenhillary
I guess you will not cheap it out in the motel 6, eh?

Not unless I discover an odorless version of Lysol.

30 posted on 05/17/2009 8:44:17 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (Impeach now!)
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To: StatenIsland; listenhillary

And cruise ships, dorm rooms, movie theaters.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-20-bedbugs-dorms_N.htm


31 posted on 05/17/2009 8:49:23 AM PDT by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.... Obama even worse than Carter.)
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To: StatenIsland; listenhillary
A nice resource.

Bedbug Registry - Check Apartments and Hotels Across North America

32 posted on 05/17/2009 8:55:13 AM PDT by thecodont
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To: Tax Government
I wonder if flooding a house with nitrogen or CO2 for extended periods would kill them.

I wondered the same thing. Nitrogen would be cheaper in large quantities, a 45-gallon dewar flask of LN2 is about $90.00. That ought to do the job.

33 posted on 05/17/2009 8:55:32 AM PDT by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
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To: Tax Government

Would probably be easier to just move out for a month. Unlike ants and roaches they can’t scavange for food. They have to eat from live warm blooded animals at a minimum of once every 30 days. Keep them away from food, in other words you and or your pets, and they die of starvation.


34 posted on 05/17/2009 11:15:11 AM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: GonzoGOP
From the above USA linked article. Not saying you are wrong, but one of you must be.

The size of an apple seed, the nocturnal six-leggers hitchhike on luggage, old furniture and clothing and can live up to a year without a blood meal. So a dorm room left empty over the summer poses but a brief nutritional challenge.

35 posted on 05/17/2009 11:18:45 AM PDT by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: GonzoGOP
Parasites (human and non-human) appear to be the favorite cause of the left

Exactly.....tag line material. ;)
36 posted on 05/17/2009 11:24:12 AM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Yonder stands your orphan with his gun)
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To: Flavius
Borax or boric acid should work well on bedbugs. I was an apartment manager who found after talking to a guy from flea busters that insects with chitin shells like ants, fleas, and cockroaches I would guess bedbugs as well just cannot live in the presence of borax compounds.

I had a cat that had fleas and if you don't catch them in time you have flea-festation. They turn to humans when the pets are gone or need more food. About a 1/4 cup in a entire apartment will kill them all in one day. I used borax since it is sodium borate the sodium salt of boric acid. By next morning the fleas were all dead and the a few had jumped into the cats water dish to get away from the borax.

Twenty mule team works great. For bedding I would open the bedding up sprinkle about 1/10 tsp on, under the pillow on the sheets and leave them for a few hours before bed. It takes a really small amount of borax to kill insects. Then just brush or shake the sheets and bedding before retiring. Borax is considered to have the same toxicity as table salt. If you don't feel comfortable with this don't do it.

Borates including boric acid have been used since the time of the Greeks for cleaning, preserving food, and other activities. This was from wikipedia.

Here's some more. A new law is being enacted nationwide by the CPSC within the next year which requires all mattresses to resist ignition from open flames. The primary chemical used, as a flame retardant, is a chemical called Boric Acid. I believe this law is now in effect.

In spite of the above, some websites go on and on about the toxicity of borate compounds. This is mostly by mattress manufacturers that sell borate-free mattresses.

Please don't get freaked out about this information use your own discretion. It is however toxic if you ingest boric acid compounds. If you are dumb enough to do that then you get what's coming to you. Let the buyer beware.

37 posted on 05/17/2009 4:46:40 PM PDT by Alex Kida
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To: Alex Kida

Right on!

Boraxo is great. It also rids a house of all types of termites.


38 posted on 05/17/2009 4:50:25 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (The beginning of the O'Bummer administration looks a lot like the end of the Nixon administration)
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