Are bedbugs really that big a problem or is this yet another case of the media

[raccoon]

hyping some "threat" to the sky?

[bushisanidiot]

1. Media drama. They have to have bad news to report

otherwise they're bored.

[marmar]

8. They've got plenty of that sans bedbugs.

nt

[bushisanidiot]

10. There's plenty of bad news. But they cherry pick it over the good stuff that is happening.

Fore example, new jobless claims keep going down, which is a good sign the economy is bouncing back. It goes unreported in favor of something that sounds more dramatic.

[SoxFan]

12. Wrong

It is a problem, particularly in inner city areas.

[chimpymustgo]

28. It's a problem in CITY HOTELS. Not "inner city."

[SoxFan]

33. That's incorrect

I work with a local group that focuses on affordable housing and inner-city quality of life issues. Bedbug infestation is a very real problem in densely packed neighborhoods in the city.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/16275

http://www.wmur.com/health/19840388/detail.html

[chimpymustgo]

34. No.

NEW YORK (WPIX) —
A recent survey of pest control companies found bedbugs are now prominently invading commercial businesses -- such as offices, clothing stores and hotels -- rather than private residences.

PIX 11 News first reported in May that New York City was quickly climbing to the top of the list of having the biggest bed bug problem in the country.

In fact, at the time PIX 11 News found million dollar Upper East side homes riddled with the blood sucking creatures. In addition, President Bill Clinton also had bed bugs infesting his Harlem office.

Jeffrey Eisenberg, an employee at "Pest Away" said bed bug complaints to his office were up more than 100% since 2004. He said he was dealing with at least 40,000 customers a week who were dealing with the pesky critters invading their homes and offices.

In July, popular teen clothing store Hollister was forced to close its flagship store in SoHo due to bedbugs infesting certain parts of the store. A few days later, parent company Abercrombie & Fitch closed its store located at South Street Seaport after discovering a bedbug infestation.

-edit-

The city says the bugs, which are the size of apple seeds, are posing huge problems for rich and poor alike, in East Side penthouses and housing projects. The city's "311" helpline received nearly 34,000 calls last year, seeking information about bed bugs. Inquiries are up 54 percent from the year before.

-edit-

Experts say international travel may be the cause for the reason epidemic. People pick them up in foreign countries and since bed bugs are "excellent hitchhikers" that can live over a year without sucking your blood. Other causes may also include: organic chicken farms, lack of awareness and education, and a drop in routine spraying.

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-bed-bugs-on-the-rise,0,2726280.story

[emilyg]

36. ty

[uncommon]

2. I only know one person who has ever had them...

:shrug:

[sharp_stick]

17. That will change

I can pretty safely promise you.

[uncommon]

21. And why is that?

Conditions have to be pretty poor for this to happen most of the time. My one friend who had them in her apartment was extremely poor and had a roommate who brought a mattress into their apartment from the street which is where they came from.

I have never know anyone else who has had contact of any kind with bedbugs.

[BonnieJW]

26. Actually,

I heard an entomologist explain the bedbug surge. When we began dealing with roaches and ants by using bait traps, we stopped using pesticides that used to keep the bedbugs in check. It's not an imagined surge; it's real.

[sharp_stick]

27. Conditions don't have to be poor

much like head lice there is a stigma associated with bed bugs that says that you need to have an unclean environment for them to thrive and that is simply not true.

Like head lice all you need for bedbugs to start an infestation is a warm body, they love your nice clean house.

You can pick them up after a trip to a hotel, a ride on an airplane, bus or train. Sitting on a couch at the library, bookstore or coffee shop. Right now hotels seem to be the easiest way to pick up bed bugs and they are having one hell of a time getting rid of them, they are hard as hell to totally exterminate.

Once they get in they get under the sheets in your bed, they get into the fabric of your furniture and they can get into your clothes. You can kill them on the sheets with a dryer on high but the little bastards are still hanging around the mattress and happily climb out the next time you go to bed. You need a pro to get rid of the damned things with high temperature steam and/or pesticides.

Another common way to get them recently is the habit of picking up "free" furniture on the street.

[distantearlywarning]

29. Actually, I just read an article about rich New Yorkers and their bedbugs

Apparently it's a major problem among Manhattan's elite, but there's so much stigma nobody talks about it in public.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. And you are wrong

they are a problem in swanky hotels, as well as college dorms... and the east coast.

They used to be a very serious problem until they were mostly eliminated with the use of DDT... a few generations back.

Now whether they are as big of a problem as they are making them to be, I guess depends on whether you have contact with them. On the other side of the country, so far, they are unheard off.

And as far as infestations go... unless you are allergic to them, they are just extremely bothersome... as in VERY bothersome, as in distractingly so.

But the media is blowing it out of proportion and it is not yet a problem deserving of national coverage, while a certain explosion in San Fran took five hours for the MSM to notice.

[NightWatcher]

3. some of the bedbugs caught the swine flu when they were attacked by sharks at the beach, so beware

hype, what hype?

[MrScorpio]

5. Do those sharks have lasers attached to their heads? nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Plus you normally only find bedbugs in

muslin bed sheets

They need to mention that too.

[jayfish]

20. A mosque at the hallowed 9/11 site. Bed bugs.

What are those awful muslins going to think of next.

[pipi_k]

9. Did all that happen before or after....

the bedbugs were involved in a slow speed car chase involving 25 police cruisers on farmland 150 miles from any large city?



:+

[lonestarnot]

4. They know they can make everyone itch at the thought of them, something like the fuckwadnitwits

trouncing pugs in the primaries. :evilgrin:

[TygrBright]

6. Squirrel! n/t

[SoxFan]

11. It's a real problem

I can only speak for my city (Manchester, NH), but it is a real problem here, especially in poorer inner city neighborhoods. A transitional housing agency had to bug bomb an entire building last year after a major infestation.

I do some volunteer work for an affordable housing/community revitalization group, and this is one of the issues we've been working on this year.

[pipi_k]

13. It's a problem, yes, but I think what many of us are wondering...

is whether it suddenly became a (real) larger problem this year than in past years.


Just like the big shark scare during the summer of 2001, I believe it was...all we heard about was shark attacks here, shark attacks there...

It seemed like some sort of weird plot by sharks to terrorize humans, when in reality the numbers of shark attacks that summer were the same as, or maybe even below, the "norm" for any year.

[mainer]

14. I know at least one family that's had them

And they're a very well-to-do family on the upper West Side of NYC. They brought them home from the maternity hospital. With a newborn infant, they had to move out of their apartment for two weeks while the exterminators went to work.

[zipplewrath]

15. It's a bit like the two definitions

It's like the definitions of recession and depression. A recession is when my neighbor loses his job. A depression is when I lose my job.

If you got them, they haven't over hyped it.

The reality is that I know alot of people (more than 10) that do alot of traveling for work. They have never encountered a problem. One of the travel writers on NPR mentioned that he had actually stayed in hotels where they had infestations. They tend to be on a room by room basis and the vast majority of them get few rooms infested, but not the whole place.

The reason it is easily hyped is because the solutions aren't easy or cheap. Chemicals don't always work, and the little buggers last a long time before dying off completely.

[edhopper]

16. it's actually

a bigger problem than the news is reporting.

[jayfish]

18. Sharks!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_the_Shark

In terms of absolute minutes of media coverage, shark attacks were 2001's third "most important" news story, behind the western United States forest fires and the political scandal resulting from the Chandra Levy missing persons case. However, the comparatively higher shock value of shark attacks left a lasting impression on the public. According to the International Shark Attack File, there were 76 shark attacks that occurred in 2001, lower than the 85 attacks documented in 2000; furthermore, although 5 people were killed in attacks in 2001, this was less than the 12 deaths caused by shark attacks the previous year.

[lonestarnot]

19. Some richie rich got the bugs.

[pipi_k]

22. Hah...here's some irony...

I went looking for information on whether bedbugs (or reports of them, at least) are on the rise.

Last paragraph talks about a solution to the problem. The only problem with that solution is that if one doesn't want to use chemicals, etc., their fiercest natural enemies are cockroaches.



http://www.physorg.com/news200844552.html

[notadmblnd]

23. I don't know. Butyou can bet that if I'm staying at a hotel, I'm going to check the matress

[Hubert Flottz]

24. Where are all of Tom Ridge's terra-ist crop dusters when we need

them?

[Frustratedlady]

25. Here is a link to an article I received yesterday. It is a problem...

It just depends on where you are located.

Itch warning!

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100914022

[Howler]

30. Bed Bugs are a VERY big problem

Here in Dayton Ohio.
They have had to evacuate a retirement housing complex downtown and spray for outbreaks in apartment complexes in some of the surrounding suburbs.Its no joke.

[surrealAmerican]

31. It depends on where you are.

In NYC, yes, it's a real problem. I'd be vigilant, too, if I had to stay in hotels frequently.

[emilyg]

37. It's a problem coast to coast.

[wishlist]

35. La Quinta in Colorado Springs Co had infestation 4 years ago when I was there

I checked in and went to the ground floor room they gave me. It smelled funky (a warning sign) and when I pulled away the bed covers at the head of bed as I always do before taking a room, a couple of bed bugs scurried away. I had not brought in my suitcases. I reported to management and they moved me to another building above ground. I inspected the second room carefully and stayed there as it seemed okay. This was the only incidence in my many trips across country. I stayed in Montana recently at Glacier National Park and had rat (scurrying and scratching for hours in the night) infestations in two of the rooms behind the walls but thankfully no bedbug problems.

[mainer]

38. Travel tip I heard: never put suitcases on a hotel bed

The critters crawl into your suitcase and hitch a ride home with you.

Another tip I heard: place your sleeping clothes in a plastic bag and wash them as soon as you get home.

[LynneSin]

39. Tips for the travellor

First, bed bugs are actually a real issue especially in some of our major cities.

Best suggestions for travelling.

First, keep your luggage in the bathroom. Think about it. You can store your suitcase in the shower and just pull it out if you're going to use it.

Also - take one or 2 of these along for dirty laundry


Put all of them in there and seal the bag. The clothes should stay in there until you're ready to put into the washing machine or send to the dry cleaners. The clothes should be washed at hot temperature if possible. Bugs die around 110 degrees.