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 ...
We use the same pesticides we have used for years, but the difference is that we’ve got 12 million illegal immigrants now.
I wonder if flooding a house with nitrogen or CO2 for extended periods would kill them.
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!!
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.
I thought the rise in bedbugs was due to the ban on smoking and nicotine. Nicotine is a great pesticide.
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!
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?
Solution: empty the hotel for an afternoon and irradiate the hotel with a robot.
Not unless I discover an odorless version of Lysol.
And cruise ships, dorm rooms, movie theaters.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-20-bedbugs-dorms_N.htm
Bedbug Registry - Check Apartments and Hotels Across North America
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.
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.
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.
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.
Right on!
Boraxo is great. It also rids a house of all types of termites.
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