2.26.2008

TMI: Don't Let Them Bite Edition

What better way to complain about media oversaturation than to feature two articles on the supposedly covered-to-death subject. That's what The Washington Post did today regarding bedbugs. An article complaining about the surplus of bedbug horror stories right next to a bedbug horror story. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

Do I have any readers who have had bedbug infestations? Because I suffered through one for almost a year. It was absolute Hell. One was crawling on my head and fell into my ear. I had to stab it to death with a Q-Tip. My bedsheets were covered in blood dots. I woke up at least three times every night. Even when I wasn't getting bit I would wake up and turn the lights on quickly just to make sure.

If you've suffered through bedbugs, you know that all the newspaper stories in the world aren't enough.

14 comments:

  1. I'm curious to know...how do people get bedbugs?

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  2. It crawled in your ear? How very Wrath of Khan. Are you sure you got it? I don't think we can trust you any more.

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  3. Oh my God, you and your vermin aren't allowed in my apartment.

    JK!

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  4. The stories were especially funny in the print edition, because they were side by side and totally, "Beg Bugs aren't a problem/Oh yes they are!"

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  5. Rusty, are you sure that thing in your ear wasn’t an earwig? Although the belief that they lay eggs in your brain is utter bullshit, earwigs most certainly would love to crawl up your canal. Your ear canal that is.

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  6. Oh yeah, I had them. What a complete and utter pain it was. And the loss of the idea of the bed and bedroom as a sanctuary of peace was even worse. Going to bed became a stress. I'm so glad that's finally taken care of.

    Lauren, people can get infested in many ways. I think we got infested from travel. Apparently, it's becoming a big problem in hotels -- even high end hotels.

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  7. dc dude, i have seen many a bedbug. i knew exactly what I was pulling out of my ear.

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  8. Kevin, a reader, at bedbugger.com suggests:

    "I heard a way to get rid of bedbugs is to smoke a lot of pot, and then go to bed so when the bedbugs feed on you, the THC in your system will poison them and kill them."

    Oh, pothead theorists!

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  9. Kevin is right. That's also a surefire way to get rid of rodents.

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  10. I went through that hell, but it was when I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (ground zero for the bedbug rennaissance of 2005).

    I threw away most of my clothes, sent my mattress to the dump, and moved out of the city.

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  11. I brought bedbugs back from a youth hostel once...they hitched a ride in my suitcase.

    Lucky for me then...it wasn't a full-blown infestation when I realized I had them the night after I got home. To rid yourself of them you need to do 3 things:
    1. put your mattress outside in dry grass in the sun ALL DAY. Flip it over half way through the day. The bugs hate light and will vacate your mattress for the grass. (Um...yeah...must be summer to do this)
    2. Wash EVERYTHING in your bedroom in HOT water or get it drycleaned.
    3. If your bedroom is carpeted, buy anti-vermin powder and shake onto it (move all furniture away from walls to get into corners and cracks). Vacuum up after a full day.

    Also...if you are wondering if your bites are from bedbugs - you can usually tell by the fact that bedbug bites occur in lines of like 3-15 bites along your limbs and torso and even onto your FACE!

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  12. "Breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

    If your bites look like Morse code, then you have bedbugs.

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  13. To expand on what Stephanie said, if you're dealing with bedbugs in the winter (as we were), find/get a big tarp, put your mattress and all your bedroom furniture on 1/2 the tarp, then fold it over and tuck it in to form a nice big weatherproof envelope.

    Prolonged exposure to deep cold will also kill them. I think we only needed to leave it outside for a few days, but when we were freezing them out, the area was undergoing a prolonged cold snap, so we left them outside on our deck for three weeks. (It's also a sign of how desperate we were to make sure this was over once and for all.)

    Before we brought the stuff back in, I slept on the floor in the bedroom to verify that there were no more bugs in there. After a couple bite-free nights, we brought the mattress back in, tried that, then slowly re-introduced the rest of the furniture. What a PITA it was, but it finally finished off the bugs.

    I can now, after over a years, mostly sleep through the night without waking up thinking I'm being bitten. (Not that I could feel the actual bites...)

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  14. Though the pothead theorists perhaps did not *notice* the bedbug bites, I can tell you that it's absolutely false that they won't get them. My ex had bedbugs for about six months, and despite the fact that he has a serious weed habit and I never touch the stuff, we were both covered with those nasty welts. This was in Mount Pleasant about 9-12 months ago.

    Now I'm utterly paranoid. Twice in the last 5 or 6 months I've gotten some weird bites while I slept, but they're smaller than bed bug bites, and also it's so infrequent. I'm hoping it's just the stray spider, but I'm also worried about letting an infestation grow...

    (P.S. Different Lauren than above. Sorry I'm not more creative with the names).

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