Saw this article, figured if it applies to bedbugs, chances are it applies to other bugs.
There appears to be more and more bugs out there.
Bedbugs make a return via low-cost flights
* Terry Macalister * The Guardian,
Increased foreign travel and a lack of awareness have been blamed for the rise in bedbug infestations being reported by airlines, train and bus companies.
Pest control company Rentokil says there has been a 40% rise in the number of call outs over the past 12 months from the transport industry. Britain is now struggling to cope with infestations not seen in half a century.
The overall number of inquiries to the Rentokil UK website about the problem has doubled in the last three months. The company will this week fly in entomologists from all over the world to discuss the issue at its technical centre in Horsham, West Sussex.
Experts such as Professor Mike Potteran, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky, will be among the figures speaking in Britain but also at a series of events run by the company in France, Italy and Spain in a bid to help staff and clients cope with the bedbug infestation.
The enormous increase in international travel as a result of rising western living standards and low-cost flying is seen as a major factor behind the revival.
"We think that some of the problems result from changing lifestyles: the increasing amount of foreign travellers returning home with second-hand clothes and furniture is a major source of the problem. But the banning of certain chemicals in the 1960s and 1970s around the European Union plus a general lack of awareness is also to blame," said Rentokil spokesman, Malcolm Padley.
The bedbug, Cimex lectularius, hides under carpets or in headboards or skirting boards. The red or brown nocturnal creatures, which are about 5mm long and can lay up to 500 eggs in the space of two months, feed on human blood.
Rentokil has been working on new insecticides, including the Cymexide Nano Fogger, which is being field-tested in France.
Posted by lymie tony z (Member # 5130) on :
YEP!
I saw the article in a Kentucky newspaper when I woke up after staying at a hotel on my way back down to Florida....
Unfortunately, I had already been infested with them in OHIO....
A lot of college kids are spreading them around as well...according to this and other articles I've read recently.
could they carry lyme and co's...why not!?
I would'nt want to be the next guy or girl that slept in the bed I did and got bitten by them!
zman
Posted by Angelica (Member # 15601) on :
I know someone who thinks they received Morgellons from bedbugs.
I have been bitten by them in a motel before.
I don't know if we can really blame them on travelers with second hand clothing. They have been found in some of the best hotels in the USA and often come in to the hotels on suit cases.
Used mattress factories have been known to over look them as well before they sell the mattresses again.
Posted by disturbedme (Member # 12346) on :
I have no idea if I have ever been bit by one, but I am pretty sure my hubby has. Not sure where he got them either.
He would come home from work with welt-looking bites on his arm and back.
And then we found one bed bug on our bed. That's all we found anywhere and we turned the place upside down. Three months later, we find another one (just one, and we looked hard again for more) on our couch. Since then, we've had the bedbug experts come out and spray the place.
Our landlord told us that whoever had the infestation was in our building and that the bedbugs were probably making their way into other people's places nearby. GREAT.
So disgusting, really... so now I'm always paranoid upon going to bed at night or even sitting on our couch. I don't like our landlords very much. I don't think they do as good a job as they should.
We've also since found out we have mice... it's like... geez, we shouldn't be paying the amount we are to live in such conditions. They should pay US to live with mice and bedbugs.
Well, hopefully the bedbugs are gone. Mice are just as disgusting though. And both are equally as hard to get rid of. Mice always find ways to get back in. And bedbugs... I've just heard they are very hard to all kill.
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
TKO Orange, a nontoxic, essential oil from oranges will kill them, and any bug, including ticks, on impact, and keep them away. It's an alternative to using pesticides.
It can be ordered from the company(www.TKOOrange.com) or obtained as Orange Guard in stores. If you use the concentrate, put a couple drops in a spray bottle and fill up with water.
Posted by lymedad (Member # 8074) on :
I manage a 300 unit apartment complex in Southern California. Just had our first infestation of bedbugs after 40 years of company being in business.
Bugs introduced by foreign national resident who brought bugs from Korea in personal bedding.
Infestation carried throughout 12 unit building. It took 3 months and $6000 to rid buidling of infestation.
Bad critters those little black basterds.
Posted by Angelica (Member # 15601) on :
I wish Orange Guard worked on all bugs but I have not found that to be true.
Posted by bejoy (Member # 11129) on :
Got some bites in France in a hostel as an exchange student in college.
Makes me wonder how many times I could have been infected by whatever. Eeeeeew!
I'm trying to get it through my head that being human means being symbiotic with parasites of all kinds,
but at the moment rather than feeling at one with the web of life, I'm just feeling grossed out.
At least this isn't the middle ages, when baths were an uncommon luxury, and flees, lice, and bedbugs, not to mention mice and rats, were just a common part of everyday life.
I am grateful every day for the privilege of hot running water, and the comfort it brings.
Posted by lymeHerx001 (Member # 6215) on :
Yuk,
You all know I am looking for a mattress and I am broke, I found the one I want but its in SOHO.
I wanna get it but Im affraid of bed bugs.
Funny, Im more affraid of them then taking 5 drugs in order to get 1/2 a-ss sleep on my sihtyy mattress from 1981
Posted by Ocean (Member # 3496) on :
I got scabies from a hotel once. Grossss!!!! I had to apply tea tree oil 4 times per day and put it in my bath water. It took 2-3 weeks for it to go away. I could hardly sleep at night, scabies are more awake at night. I get poison ivy bad, but the scabies were worse. The itching was insane!
Never had bedbug, hope I never do!!
Take care, Ocean
Posted by lymeloco (Member # 7192) on :
I saw on the news, that some N.Y. hotels and some cruise line ships were having trouble with them. They showed the woman with bites all over her and the magnification of these critters. GROSS!
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Mice are just as disgusting though. And both are equally as hard to get rid of. Mice always find ways to get back in. And bedbugs... I've just heard they are very hard to all kill.