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Subscribe to RSSIt’s not enough that they suck our blood and put us on edge every time we stay in a hotel room. Now, bedbugs are mucking up our love lives.
According to a new survey by the Facebook dating app, AreYouInterested.com, 45 percent of singles polled said they would cancel a date if someone admitted to a bedbug infestation.
“I consider bedbugs to be in the same category as murderers or drug addicts,” says Karen Tom, a thirtysomething writer from Manhattan. “That’s an undesirable category, something that would endanger my welfare, my personal well-being. I don’t want anyone at my house with bedbugs.”
Could you actually pick up bedbugs from someone you’re dating?
Yes and no, says Dr. Richard Zack, associate professor of the department of entomology at Washington State University.
“These are not like head lice or pubic lice – those live on people,” he says. “Bedbugs are very different from that. If you had a date and went out to a bar and had a drink with someone and then they dropped you off at your place with a good night kiss, you would not catch bedbugs from them.”
If things went particularly well, however, you might be both smitten – and bitten.
“If you were dating someone and you were sleeping with them in their bed and they had bedbugs, then you would catch them,” he says. “But you’d have to be someplace where the bedbugs were and then you’d have to bring them back, like if you had an overnight bag with you. That’s how they get around.”
“It’s like the new thing that gets you blacklisted from your friends,” says Tom, who admits that if a long-term boyfriend came down with an infestation, she wouldn’t kick him to the curb.
“A friend of mind lived in a building with bedbugs and she was being demonized for it. She said it was like in the early ‘80s when people didn’t know what AIDS was and were freaked out about it and didn’t want to have anything to do with people who had it. I think it’s a little different but there is some ostracizing going on.”
Bedbugs hit Howard Stern's NYC studios, limousine
Zack says that if someone with a bedbug infestation spends the night with you, ask them to stow their overnight bag in your garage or other out-of-the-way spot. And have them thoroughly shake out anything they bring into your house such as pajamas or a change of clothes.
As for crossing them off your friend (or love) list, though, that’s totally unnecessary, he says.
“You don’t need to ostracize them,” he says. “They’re not carrying bedbugs around with them.”
Easy for him to say. But are bedbugs a dating dealbreaker for you?
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You might want to reconsider going to the movie theater, staying at hotels, going to a store and trying on clothes, or getting in a taxi cab then, as bedbugs can be in all of these places.
Wow!! you really live up to your name.......with a name like that, I just haaad to check......
We quarantine our luggage in the garage when we get home from trips. We launder all clothing (used or not) immediately.
If you are living near/adjacent to someone with bedbugs, I recommend using comforters/blankets that do not go all the way to the floor. Move your bed from the wall. Then you can make a strong poison defense line on the bases/legs of the bed. This works for spiders and roaches, too. But you don't have to spray the entire room. Just concentrate on them not getting to you while you sleep.
I use permetherin. It doesn't last long, but it repels and kills. It's pretty mild to people and animals. It is the active ingredient in many flea repellents that you put on dogs. I first discovered it in pest repellent that hikers use. You don't want to spray it on your skin, but you can spray it on boots or pant leg bottoms. It only lasts a week, so re-apply.
Once they are in your matress, it gets harder. They feed at night, and hide during the day. You have to find where they hide. If you are scared of all the poison, sleep on the couch or take a vacation. My understanding is that bedbugs don't roam very far. It would take them a while to find you in the living room if you stop sleeping in the bedroom. Meanwhile you can really dose the bed.
They can only multiply/infest with the help of your blood. They may get into your whole house, but without the efficient food delivery of sleeping people, you should be able to defeat them. Kinda like not leaving food out for ants or roaches to eat.
Good Luck.
Ryan in Texas...Wrong...bed bugs will travel up to 100 yards for food and can live over a year without feeding, so moving into another room is a bad idea, you'll end up with 2 infested areas instead of just one, you want to keep them contained while you treat, you dont want to risk spreading them to other areas of your house.
MelBel - They can travel up to 100 yards for food, but not in one day. They don't usually go more than a few feet to hide for instance. It would be very unusual for them to hide in a room other than the bedroom, and then "commute" every night to your bed. Check under or behind the matress, they are usually there.
Also, if they only fed once a year, no one would care. A few bites a year is tolerable. But people with bad bedbug problems can get 10 a NIGHT. They may be able to live for a year without food, but they need blood to reproduce. More blood = More bedbug babies.
These creatures like the cover of darkness and are sneaky. Compare that to fleas or ticks, who come right for you in the middle of the day. Use that knowledge to your advantage. There is no way that you can get an infestation without them getting you in your sleep. They may hitch a ride on clothing or in bags in the daytime, but they need repeated bites to really push out lots more bedbugs.
But even if they were to "get" you while you slept on the couch for a week, you are exactly where you were in the bed. The difference is when you go back to your exterminated bed, the poison levels will be lower. Again, this is mainly directed at those who are scared of pesticides.
You can go as far as to put the legs of your newly exterminated bed into pans of soapy or poisoned water. They use this in parts of the less developed world with real big bug problems. Then nothing is crawling up into your bed.
Where I live there are Black Widows, scorpions, centepedes, fleas, ticks and red bugs/chiggers. I've had no problems with any of them in my bed, but it doesn't touch the wall, and the blankets don't go to the floor. (Plus, I heavily poison the OUTSIDE perimeter of my house.)
Really depends on how severe they are. The people who own the unit next to me had them and were/are getting rid of them. Lucky for me they didn't come into my home. My girlfriend is a nurse and we checked the unit out thoroughly before we spent the night (it's a summer place).
The key is to check everything being brought in that might have the bugs. The neighbors managed to take the bugs back home to Virginia. Sucks to be them
If you share a common wall with the infested unit then you have them too. You probably just haven't seen them yet.
Can we please bring back the pesticides that kept these little friggers at bay oh so many years ago. The movement to ban those pesticides goes along with the new mercury containing lightbulbs that we are now forced to bring into our homes as the dumbest ideas of recent past.
ToxicChemist - Most of the pesticides in the old days last years in the environment.
My real problem now is cost. When you had poisons that lasted years, you only had to buy them and spray them every year or so. Labor and material costs were way lower as you didn't have to constantly re-apply. (But it also would stay in the Human body for years.)
Now you can go to Lowes/Home Depot and get "Concentrate" Permetherin 1% for about $9 a quart. That is crazy. You can get 10% permetherin at Ag supply places for $17 a quart. At Lowes/HD /Walmart, that same amount would cost $90 when you compare poison to poison and exclude water and inert ingredients.
So I put it on the outside of the house every few weeks in the summer. I use Maximum infestation levels for concentration. Bonus is it repels mosquitos. I have an idiot neighbor with 2 old trucks in his back yard (the beds always hold water) as well as some buckets with stagnant water. I notice he doesn't spend much time outside. Just 1 old tire can breed 100,000 mosquitos in a year. 1 uncleaned bird bath can produce thousands.
But that is getting off on a topic about a different species of bloodsuckers...
I'm so happy I'm married.
I'm terrified of getting bed bugs because not only are they nasty, but they're so difficult to get rid of! Ew. I love to travel and my fear has gotten so bad that I don't want to stay in hotels. :( The last thing I need is to have them in my home biting me, my family and my dog.
Hi Angel's Lovely,
You may not stay in hotels because of bedbugs, but if you stay at friend's houses or apartments, there is still a chance that they have them too....they just don't see it..... sorry to burst your bubble. :o(
Yes! I work in the E.R. and have actually had patients come in with bedbugs in their clothing. How did I find out? When they were sitting on the gurney giving me the details on their complaints I watched as several of the little critters crawled out of their hiding places and began to walk away from their hosts. I have seen this happen on three (3) separate occasions.
I don't know, I think this is a well organized ad campaign ran by the bedding mfgr's association to boost their lagging sales .... I think people are seeing fleas and lice and have bought into this "bed bug" mania, and are freaking out over nothing we haven't lived with as a society, in some places, forever practicaly. Perhaps this an infestation hatched by the Bush administration? The Obama administration?
I'm sure the same people who bought into this scare also bought into the man-made climate change scare. I prefer to deal with real issues, thank you.
This is a real issue. A very real issue. I hope you don't get bedbugs, but if you do, you will get to experience firsthand just how horrifying they are. I had them many years ago, brought them home from my friends house, where I had spent the night. I woke up with what I thought was a ridiculous amount of mosquito bites and whithin a couple of weeks there were so many in MY own bedroom it was absurd. The amount of cleaning I had to do, checking the furniture, spraying it, I even set off a bomb, and, yes, I did throw out my mattress. You don't have to, you can always put a plastic cover on it but why would anyone want to sleep on a bed that's full of trapped/DEAD bedbugs? Then as if all that isn't bad enough, the little bastrdz go and stain up your walls, furniture, whatever with their crap stains! EWWWW! Then there was the cost for my laundry...I spent over 80 dollars washing all my clothes, myself at the laundromat. SMH honestly, as bad as bed bugs are or can be, I wouldn't be surprised if a terrorist set them loose on us. (lol that was just a joke, I already see the replies of ppl tellin me I'm crazy lol)
STexan...Sorry but you cant blame this one on the gov't...their real...and their extremely hard to get rid of. Until I had them I never knew what they were, just thought they were part of a cute little rhyme, or something like dust mites...but alas...I was oh so wrong. These darn little suckers can hide anywhere and will feed on you and ur entire family (pets included)...They hunt by night and hideout during the day. And dont for one moment you can get ride of them like a flea or ant infestation because you cant. My father also had them and we decided to use bug bombs...that was the biggest mistake we could have made. They went from being on the funiture to litterally every nook and crany of the house.. it just made them spread out, making it harder to get rid of them.
Finally after $4000, 3 months and 4 "bite proof" mattress covers were finally rid of them. But a day doesnt go by that I dont inspect every inch of my bedroom and living room...take it from me, be careful and dont get them. I will never again let someone with bed bugs in my home.
Sleep tight, dont let the bed bugs bite...
We don't really know the exact scope of the bedbug problem. Every article uses a survey of pest control companies to see if they have run into the problem. Those numbers have increased, but we never hear what percentage of all houses have bedbugs.
Just as some houses have roaches, others spiders, and still others silverfish, some have bedbugs while houses/apartments near them do not. I would speculate that some places are more difficult to get a bedbug colony established in. They usually hitch a ride into a house. That tells you right there that they don't just roam around looking for new victims. They would get eaten by lots of other predators on the outside, it is the predator free zone inside that they require.
Since almost all housing in Texas is spread out, it will never be the same problem as in New York, where the next victim is obtainable without going outside or traveling more than a few hundred feet.
Doesn't it bother anybody that the fear barrel has been scraped so low that begbugs are being used to scare us now? This is just the new Swine Flu. Certain people benefit from encouraging us of being afraid of non-danger. Now we're being convinced we're not safe in our beds because of the dastardly bed bug. Man is this 2010 or 1910? I guess we better start fearing fleas and ants next. And how bout all those spiders that skitter across your body while you sleep? Something must be done to stop this outrage. Idiots
the son of a friend of mine brought the critters home with him..luckily they were found and contained in his room BUT the whole house had to be torn down to be treated,ALL their clothes had to be laundered or dry cleaned.
the exterminators gave up some valuable info..these buggers have short legs, do not jump like fleas, do not fly around. if you go to a hotel stow your belongings in the bathroom as they cannot move around on tile. if you see one on you just brush it off and destroy it. they, at this point, do not carry disease either.
so best bet is caution and attentiveness wherever you go.
must say though i was itchy for a couple hours after i left their house.
aaahhhh! bed bugs are like aids!!!
How can you make such an ignorant comment?
So many cities are dealing with bed bug infestation, including Manhattan and all the rich beautiful people who reside there. 2 years ago the Victoria Secret store had to close to deal with an infestation and just recently the Nike Store. I hope karma comes back to bite you in the ass for saying something stupid like that.
Why little blood sucking cuties! With all the vampirella crap out, ya'd think that crab lice and bed bugs and any other blood sucking life form would be the rage.
They are just waiting for a movie deal
Seriously though, I have traveled half the world and been to more then half the states in the USA and even dated women over the years. NEVER have I had a date that had bed bugs in the home and I have never been bitten by them. Most people that are paranoid about this would be paranoid about any item that got bad news reports. These poor people should try and seek some help, a good counselor may be able to help.
Ignorance breeds fear, this leads to hatred.
Michael, .........I'm from the hospital.....your test results have come back..........that rash you told us about is caused by bedbug bites........
ToxicChemist....LOL...Michael, just becuase you have not seen them doesnt mean that you havent been in their presence...and maybe you havent encountered them, yet....the only one being ignorant is U.....
You dont get them from sex partners , you get them from euros who sleep at hotels before you do, and you climb into bed or on a mattrress and they yes, cling to your clothes , shoe laces and carpet and you bring them home and their eggs....un huh!
If they get into your carpet or bed you pretty much need a new mattress or in ur carpet too... they are very tiny and are like little barely visible spider mites that leave blood spots on ur sheets and tiny looking pimples on ur legs or where they suck the blood from and they are like spots ...
when they bite or suck you will know because every time you will feel them .
I got something for them if you want to save your carpet and mattress, leave your email address in a reply here.
I have a remedy, works great! was in europe so i know how to get rid of them.
If you know how to get rid of them, why would you NOT want to just post it publicly?
Hey MICHAEL-273917,
Nice way to brag, there. Happy for ya, datin' women and traveling around the USA like you have. You sound very exotic.
The reason for all the so-called paranoia is that these bedbugs are resistant to pesticides and other methods that killed them in the past. At this point, it takes pretty extreme measures to get rid of them once you get them, which is why they're spreading like they are right now.
If you get them, you're pretty much screwed unless you can contain them and kill ALL of them as fast as humanly possible.
I've heard of some heat treatments that are being tried out, and they even have bedbug-tracking dogs who can sniff around your house to see if you have them, and where they are.
EH! Just thinking about them gives me the willies. Good thing I don't have a life or get to travel at all. Hopefully I won't have to deal with them personally.
I never had to deal with bed bugs either until my boyfriend's apartment building became infested! His apartment was free of them for months but it was just a matter of time before they made their way in. The worst part is that him and his room mate are completely unaffected by them. Neither of them ever get bit! So not fair. I wold get such anxiety whenever I knew we would spend the night at his place. I've had to stop going over there cuz they were eating me alive. It honestly is a little traumatizing.
"When bedbugs infest your love life"
ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!
Well; I think putting on the black list with murderers and drug addicts is a bit over the top. But I wouldn't date them until the problem was completely resolved. I would appreciate their honesty and I wouldn't loose any respect for them, it can happen to anyone and nobody is immune.
From my understanding they can hitch a ride in clothes, get into your car and from there to your home.
They are very hard to get rid of once you have them. as someone else mentioned the most affective pesticides have been banned or restricted. I read about one person who bug-bombed his house twice and still had them. In an apartment building it would require that every one treat for them at the same time and that they all do a very through job of it. One reason they are such a big and ongoing problem in hotels is that they pretty much have to shut down and treat all of the rooms. Many try partial attacks on only rooms where they are found and that doesn't get rid of them.
Yeah and the most effective pesticides were banned because they affect human beings and other animals adversley. You could use them to kill the bedbugs but the residue that you would be breathing, injesting and absorbing through your skin would be far more harmful to your health than the bedbugs. The bedbugs are annoying but the banned pesticides are deadly to you not just the bedbug.
I can see having problems with hotels and the such, as my wife worked at some of them around are town cleaning the rooms sometime ago. Hot tubs in a room, with blood and other bodily fluids, same with the beds, bathrooms and so on. The standard cleaning was to wipe all surfaces with disinfectants till clean but on hot tubs all that got cleaned was the outside parts, all the tubing and pumps still have the same used water still left in them, the bedding only the under sheets are removed and replaced daily keeping the top comforter there for a month or so, having many ppl using it over a over again till it was time for the monthly cleaning or if it had been soiled on it would be replaced at that time.
So if we do have to go get an hotel room for the night I make sure I never get a hot tub room and always ask the the bedding gets clean sheets and a new comforter upon the time of checking in. Just from hearing some of the horror stories of used condoms in draws and in the bibles of all places, I keep everything in my own bags Thank God that was a short bad stretch of luck, that she had to have as a job.
ICK! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKCcSPCOQo
This resurgence of bedbugs is a reality. Placing your head in the sand is the worse thing you can do. Early detection makes eradication easier and less expensive. Until entomologists figure out better treatments, I have restricted my visits to hotels. I have been fortunate to avoid an infestation, but do a few things to improve my odds of staying clear. Whenever I return from somewhere where there is a significant chance of picking up bedbugs (bus, trying on clothes, movies, college dorm visits), I go straight to the laundry room, carefully undress, and dry everything I am wearing for half an hour on high heat. I use a washable purse and also put that in the dryer. These steps really do not take much effort, and will help avoid an infestation. I have faith that scientists will come up with cures that will make tackling bedbug infestations much less expensive and much less trouble, as well as helping prevent infestations in the first place.
If it is a major hottie then I don't give a damn about no stinking bed bugs. There's no furniture, bags or clothes in the shower so just jump in and get your freak on. Just make sure to wash all nether regions first. ;) Happy Loving...
People might try using a small amount of regular/original Listerene (brownish/orange color) in the washing machine, as a final rinse when washing hair, and as an additive to a bath.
I saw a post from someone who grew up as an army brat and their mother used to do this to avoid lice which was prevalent in army barracks and base housing.
The person posting said she and her siblings never were plagued with the bugs like other kids on the base were.
Using Listerene like this is also good as an antifungal. That I know from personal experience.
The bedbug infestation is very real, folks. It's not an exxageration or manifestation of paranoia. I keep a clean place and I got them, BAD! By the time I realized what was going on, they had multiplied like crazy around my bed. I had Isotech (the #1 bedbug eradication experts in the nation) come in and treat my apartment, and they had to come back two more times after that. It's real and it's beyond disgusting. It takes over your whole life. You can't have people over. You have to do more laundry then you've ever done in your life. You have to wash ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in your home that's made of linen or textile. I am SOOOOOOO FREAKING HAPPY they are finally gone and I'm also extremely fortunate I have such an understanding girlfriend who stood by me during the ordeal. Good luck to anyone out there who has them. Fortunately for me, my building paid for all three treatments. I don't know if most apartment managers would be so amenable.
Grossssss! EEEW I can't imagine that. What about those things you plug into the wall and they send out a high pitch to drive off things like that. Or, don't "sleep around". Ha ha
OH HECK YEAH! If you've got bed bugs, you'd better do something about it.. Not only is it a recipe for leavin yo ass, but If I found out my friends had them and didn't do anything to prevent further infestations, you'd be kicked to the curb too..
hahahahahaahhaaha! I'm horrible, I know.. ((((:
Consider that bedbugs are being found in such "low class"places as Macy's and Barney and resturants all around the New York area. Are you going to stop "seeing" them. Maybe you'll save some money as well as itchy skin!
Next we have to do something about the millions of microbes that swarm across our bodies everyday. If bedbugs creep you out try not to think to deeply about all the things crawling on your body 24/7 that you can't even see.
@Lame: "try not to think to deeply about all the things crawling on your body 24/7 that you can't even see."
Watch out, lame! those McRobes er crawlin into yer eye sockets and devourin your eyeballs!
Which is harder to get rid of, bedbugs or crabs?
Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) will continue to proliferate, until a pesticide with the killing power of DDT is developed and marketed world-wide. "Most uses of DDT were banned in the USA in 1972, after the EPA determined that it contributed to the thinning of egg shells, among other concerns including a possible cancer risk. Shortly after, worldwide agricultural use was banned, under the Stockholm Convention. But, increased International travel to and from poorer underdeveloped countries is being blamed, in large part, to the re-emergence of this pest." ( source: "How to tell if you have Bed Bugs" - on eHow.com )
If DDT had not been banned, bedbugs would have developed resistance to it by now anyway. And all the birds would be dead.
@DRK: "If DDT had not been banned, bedbugs would have developed resistance to it by now anyway. And all the birds would be dead."
Not for nothing, but a Swede got the NOBLE PRIZE for discovering the insecticidal properties of DDT. That's how useful pesticides can be for controlling disease vectors. Typhus, Malaria. Before you get too hyped up about the nebulous evidence supporting vilification for a useful compound, have a coke and a smile!
If DDT had not been banned, bedbugs would have developed resistance to it by now anyway. And all the birds would be dead.
DRK: "And all the birds would be dead."
That's a bald faced lie, and no less because a ban on hunting the bald eagle was obfuscated with the reduction in DDT to miraculously produce "postive proof" that DDT was killing the good old bald eagle!
If you don't believe me, but have the guts to challenge the bunk philosophy you obtained second-hand, google: DDT scam.
Be a sucker, ignorance is bliss!