https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2023/10/15/23914204/paris-france-bed-bugs-infestation-outbreak
It’s a bedbug’s world now. We’re just sleeping in it.
It’s a bedbug’s world now. We’re just sleeping in it.
I was driving through Maryland, it was getting late, and I saw a hotel that was $45 per night. I literally thought to myself, "WTF, I just need a bed, how much could really go wrong if I stay here."
The room opened straight to the parking lot, and there were cats everywhere outside crying. I said hello to one of them, he was clearly in bad shape and so I went and got some cat food and invited him in and gave him some food. He bit me so I put him back outside and went to sleep.
I was most of the way on the drive home when I noticed I had red welts in a little line down my arm. You fucker, you have to be kidding me.
I basically stripped in the parking lot of my place, went in and took a long shower first thing, and put into the garbage all the clothes I'd had with me, suitcase, shoes, my backpack after taking the computer and notebook out. I put them all in a trash bag in the parking lot and then threw it in a dumpster that wasn't near any residence. Then I vacuumed my car and took a long shower again.
Fuckin bedbugs. I had no bedbugs carried back to my place after that and that's how I like it. $45 for the hotel cost me maybe $300 worth of stuff that I decided to get rid of.
so I went and got some cat food and invited him in and gave him some food. He bit me so I put him back outside and went to sleep.
I love cats but this is just ridiculous lmao. What a well meaning person.
Little buddy was suffering. Nobody wants to see that and I had nothing else going on that night anyway. On the other hand, if it turns out he's an asshole, then I feel comfortable saying he's not my problem.
Just as a quick note. Cats can have rabies. You might want to go and tell your doctor that you've received a cat bite from an unknown cat and get a rabies shot because once you start showing symptoms you're already dead.
Hm, yeah, this is a good point. This was at least 10 years ago so I think I'm probably safe but I agree with the principle in general.
If a cat bite breaks the skin you should see a doctor regardless. Cat bites are no joke, and can give you a serious infection.
Indoor cat bit and scratches my mom's leg because its tail got caught.
Cue a 4 month ordeal of constant wound care visits and packing infected, necrotic tissue...
Just go get antibiotics immediately. Especially if they're remotely deep.
Just because the person talking about rabies wasn’t clear, it can live in your system for years without symptoms
Again, as soon as you have symptoms you’re already dead
Oh no I totally get it, I would love to save a random street cat, but like, in some random hotel room? You're the reason hotels have fleas and bed bugs lol. You're very well meaning, but clearly lacking in common sense.
Wat
There are a lot of people who've interacted with cats they don't know. Between the cat, animal control, the hotel, and the local health department, I like how you've chosen me as the one in this situation that clearly did something wrong lol.
The one time I encountered bedbugs was also a cheap ass motel. Wtf was I thinking? Never again.
At least I don't ever have to worry if there is an infestation. I'll know. Some people apparently don't get the red welts?
Fucking bed bugs, indeed. I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy except maybe Putin.
They literally cost our entire Spring in tearing our house apart to address them. So much shit moved, tossed out, cleaned, then cleaned again... No idea where they even came from.
My wife works in a public library and they regularly have a bedbug-sniffing dog come in. She tells me it's very cute.
At one point our neighbors self treated their bed bugs and it spread throughout the apartment complex and into our unit. In any case, the dog that came to our unit was a beagle. And it made my day in that shitty situation. It was adorable.
Prepare your flats and take that shit seriously when traveling. Just look under ever mattress you sleep on. And tell your friends and family to do that. For real, we need to get a hold on that.
At the very least, treat your bed frame and headboard. Remove any skirts around your bed so the only place the bedbugs can access your bed is the treated surfaces. When you do get them it will slow them down significantly. My best advice to prevent them is to avoid using public coat racks at places like work. Edit: also if you thrift clothes or go to yard sales, keep that stuff in a plastic bag that’s tied shut until you can clean it/inspect it
Check any hotel you stay in. Look under the mattress and in crevasses and seams. And don’t put your suitcase on the bed. Use the luggage stand or a desk.
And even if you check carefully, put your clothes straight from the suitcase and into the dryer and run for 60 minutes on high. The heat will kill bedbugs. If you can, also heat the suitcase or keep it sealed in plastic.
Also, protect your stuff. Put your mattress in a zippered encasement.
Check the straps of those portable luggage stands first those. They are a favorite location of bed bugs since the don't often get treated. Unroll the straps a little bit to check underneath them next to the tubes.
My suitcases always stay in the shower or bath tray and I sleep naked. Fuck that risk.
What if bedbugs evolve resistance and take over the world eventually. Bet no one had that on their Great Filter bingo card.
I don't know if they can adapt to resist diatomaceous earth in any way? It's one of the more common treatments and it just slices them up.
The article actually addressed this and apparently they are even developing some resistance to diatomaceous earth. The only sure fire treatments described are extreme heat or cold. It's a pretty horrifying situation we've made for ourselves.
Cedar oil. Fry them before your very eyes.
Also, the fumigation packets for livestock stalls, but you need to duck tape your contractor bags of clothes, etc. closed and leave them outside for 6-10 days.
I once had a pretty bad bed bug infestation and tested DE by putting a bedbug in a cup of it... It lived for weeks before I killed it by hand. DE only hinders their movement in my experience, you need stronger stuff to kill them.
Cedar oil literally melts them. After weeks of trying everything we could get our hands on ($$$ gone), I tried straight up cedar oil in a spray bottle and found immediate delight in watching those motherfuckers writhe in agony as they shriveled and died. The others tried helplessly to flee, but I was undaunted and hunted them down, one by one. None lived to tell the tale, and all were chemically dessicated and vacuumed up.
They already have evolved resistance to the chemicals we use to kill them, hence the resurgence.
Edit: from todays Morningbrew:
It’s possible that France really is suffering from a bedbug epidemic. The critters have been making a comeback globally in recent decades after being nearly eradicated in the 1950s using pesticides. Bedbugs have since developed a resistance to these chemicals, and high levels of international travel also haven’t helped.
However, French exterminators are saying that the public might be overreacting.
The creator of the pest control website badbugs.fr told the BBC that 75% of bedbug inquiries his company receives are false alarms. Normandy-based pest controller Romain Morzaderc explained to the Ouest-France newspaper that in 99% of cases, other “nasty black insects” get mistaken for bedbugs.
There's also the fact that we quit using DDT in most of our insecticides and DDT was great at killing bed bugs it just was also cancer causing in humans.
FTA:
But the main reason why it’s boom time for bedbugs, according to the review, is that they’ve evolved resistance to many pesticides, our main line of defense. Indeed, these critters are now resistant to “most of the major classes of insecticides,” the review states, including pyrethroids, which is still one of the most commonly used insecticides. They’ve also developed resistance to DDT, which attacks insects in a similar way to pyrethroids.
Not even that would save us, FWIW.
i think it shows a healthy sense of humility to admit that even the bedbug could unravel this mess at this point
God, my brother once brought in a couch he found outside for his room about a year and a half ago. First time and only time I ever had to deal with bedbugs. Didn't help that the people in charge of the apartment complex took forever to do literally anything about it. I hope I never have to deal with another infestation ever again and that we find ways to completely eradicate them. Even if it means destroying an ecosystem or food chain, I'd be happy to see them go the way of the dodo.
Well, their food chain is us and honestly we're doing a pretty good job of destroying it already.
As someone who's had bedbugs multiple times... Yes it's very much worth throwing away your entire wardrobe if you have to. Do everything you can to prevent getting them.
Yup. Had em 3-4x in this very apartment. First day we discovered them I was hauling my box spring the fuck outside and dumping it by the trash downstairs at 3am while my wife was panicking.
Thankfully been several years since I've seen em and I aim to keep it that way.
The first time it happened, I remember killing everything with fire. I even slept on a plastic covered mattress and did daily vacuuming for like two months. Even worse, the bug bites caused my cat to be extra irritated, forcing him to clean himself nonstop from all the bites and having us lock him out of the bedroom else he go through another "obsessive bite cycle".
It was near impossible since the neighbors didn't care and solved it by moving.
I don't recommend it at all.
All four things have existed simultaneously since the dawn of humanity.
Perhaps really we've just been in a big long apocalypse this whole time.
I'm sure there are multiple reasons, but I think the biggest cause is how much international travel people are doing now. It's kind of nuts how many more people travel for fun these days than even 10 years ago. Any place that is even slightly known in the tourism circles has about a billion people showing up every day, so the bed bugs are just being shipped around more efficiently these days.
Yes, I'm one of those people who are traveling internationally much more often than I did 10 years ago, so I'm not disparaging them or judging them. It's just a fact of the world we live in now that more people have the money to go to more places now.