Bedbugs on the Big Island

[AlohaSteven]

...You guys need to google bed bug hype....

An excellent suggestion. I recommend everyone do exactly this and read through the results which come up. I found this executive summary a particularly good read: http://www.principalinvestigators.org/be...l-or-hype/

LFA is indeed a serious problem growing larger, alas, yet I'd rather just be fighting them on the outer perimeter of the house without also having to fight bedbugs on the inside.


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Awesome photo (be sure and click on it to embiggen for even vaster awesomeness)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badast...e-picture/

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[TrevorKane]

@Obie

Pharoah ants (and similar) can be a real pain, literally, even the black ones sting!

I bought a house that had a major infestation in the "attic", except it was a flat roof with zero access, except for the insects. I drizzled Terro on the outside walls anywhere I saw an ant, and within a day they were lined up on either side of the "Terro lines" - Terro is basically a sticky solution of sugar and boric acid, but you don't need enough of it to worry too much about making your own, about half a small bottle killed the whole (probably hundreds of thousands) colony within a week.

I also kept a small aluminum boat in the backyard there, and it developed an infestation under the seats, drain-hole only access. Same deal, but this time it only needed a couple of drops on about 4 slips of cardboard scattered around where they would find them.

Too bad bedbugs won't go for bait - well, actually, I read that in the middle ages they would send a pig into the room before bedtime so that the bugs would get their fill of blood before the people went in to sleep for the night - maybe we could spike the pigs' blood?

[AlohaSteven]

We have an onslaught of visitors coming from Alaska, New York, and California over the next two weeks so I just updated the standard blurb I send in advance to everyone who will be bunking at our place. For the general good of the order here is the blurb for possible sharing with your visitors, if you want to do so:

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Hi-

We are looking forward to your upcoming visit!

Last year friends in Texas spent several months fighting their way through a very expensive corner of Hell because somewhere along the way while traveling either they or one of their visitors had a bedbug sneak into a suitcase -a bedbug which subsequently started living in their home. Laying eggs, too. These folks are neat and clean, well educated, affluent, and so on. A bedbug infestation can happen to anyone who travels frequently &/or has frequent visitors -and the odds increasingly are it will, too, unless active steps are taken to prevent the initial infestation from ever happening. The proverbial ounce of prevention is worth thousands of dollars in pest control services and months of time spent battling an unpleasant ordeal.

We are requesting all incoming visitors staying with us in Hawaii to please observe, as best you can, these prevention measures. So far our home has managed to remain completely bedbug-free and we would like it to remain that way for your sake as well as ours. Following these tips reduces risk both for us and for you, too: you really do not want to take bedbugs back into your own home after enjoying a wonderful vacation in Hawaii!

TIPS:

Plastic bags are our friend! Bagging everything you can inside your suitcase --transparent Ziplocks are so handy-- provides a barrier between bedbugs and the contents of your suitcase ...especially while the suitcase is stacked together for hours along with hundreds of other suitcases in luggage holds of aircraft and in airports. Placing lavender-scented mothball sachets inside the suitcase along with the bagged contents may also discourage bedbugs from climbing aboard your particular suitcase when there are so many others to choose from among.

Before checking in at a hotel, ask to see the room. Pull back the sheets and look for characteristic discoloration and spotting left by bedbugs along the seams of mattresses (bloodstains made as the pests defecate). Know how to recognize a dead or live bedbug if you see one as well as how to recognize a bedbug bite (photo links, below). Stay elsewhere if evidence of bedbugs is detected.

Place suitcases atop elevated luggage racks while accessing contents (versus opening and leaving suitcases laying open on the bed or sofa) and keep zipped other than when accessing contents.

Overnight, bag your entire suitcase and set it either inside the bathtub or on an elevated luggage rack while staying at hotels en route.

Some European travelers sprinkle milled lavender in hotel bedsheets to discourage nocturnal bedbug visitations.

Separately bag any clothing which is out overnight at hotels, then at your destination be sure the contents of the soiled/exposed clothing bag go directly into the washing machine (not into a laundry basket) to wash with hot soapy water and then into the drier (machine drying may be the step which kills bedbugs rather than the washing).

Check yourself, children, and traveling companions for a row of bites in the morning; their presence indicates bedbugs in the hotel room.

Upon arrival back at your home or at our home in Hawaii, placing the suitcase inside a large sealed black plastic contractor bag and allowing it to sit in full sun to bake with a lavender-scented mothball sachet for several hours is a useful step, if weather allows. Once you have unpacked from the trip keep the unpacked suitcase sealed in plastic and stored in the garage or in an outbuilding if possible, versus placing it directly in the bedroom closet.


FACTS:

One pregnant female bedbug can (and does) produce thousands of fertilized eggs.

A bedbug can live for a year between one meal and the next.

Reports of epidemic infestation have been filed from all 50 US states since 2007.

Begbugs prefer to feed on human blood, biting at night while people are sleeping. Bedbugs den in any gap or crevice which will fit a credit card inserted on edge -including framed pictures on walls, inside electronics (such as bedside clock radios and TVs), and bedside cabinets.

Three separate treatments (using a combination of noxious chemicals and heat) by a pest control service are usually required to eliminate the problem; if just one pregnant female survives then the entire process starts all over again. As part of the ordeal you will need to wash and machine-dry (at a temperature of 120 degrees F for 20 minutes) every item of clothing, bedding, curtains, and so on in the house plus bake all of your books in an oven. The toxic chemicals which are sprayed to kill bedbugs are not so great for the health of humans and pets, either.

Bedbugs will also feed on your pets as well as your human family.


LINKS:

Know Your Foe
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/...dbug_today
and
http://bedbugger.com/photos-of-bed-bugs-...-bed-bugs/

Photo of Bedbug Fecal Spotting on Mattress Seam
http://www.burnspestelimination.com/blog/?cat=3
(scroll down to last photo; click on photo to enlarge)

Slideshow of Bedbug Bites
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-t...ow-bedbugs
(also, Google "bedbug bites")

Photo of Bedbug Waste
http://www.bedbugsguide.com/identifying-bed-bugs.htm

Snopes Urban Myth Debunking:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/bedbugs.asp

Bedbug Plague Real or Hype?
[url]http://www.principalinvestigators.org/bed-bug-plague-real-or-hype/
[/url]
The tips, facts, and links above are gleaned from diverse reports on bedbugs; you may want to run a search yourself as new information comes out all the time.


Remember, millions of people can and do travel every year without encountering any difficulties with bedbugs. Though bedbug populations are on the rise this problem can largely be countered by using these simple and effective prevention measures.

We genuinely are looking forward to your visit!

Best,
Steven

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Stairway to Gilligan's Island
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCYLbFxTpI&feature=related

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Edited to correct typo: "choose" instead of "chose"

[Bullwinkle]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/bugs...n-you.html

some good pics of the little critters

[AlohaSteven]

The standard procedure I have been using with smallish items from yard sales is to bag them in black plastic and then set the the bag in full sun for at least several days to make sure the items within are well and truly baked before removing the black plastic bag and bringing the items into the house. Seems to work well but is a relatively slow method.

Last week a couple of yard sale treasures seemed too delicate to risk breaking via this treatment -after a week in the sun inside a black bag one tends to forget what exactly is in there! So, I thought of an alternative which worked at least as well if not better. The items in question were a terra cotta oil lamp (this type: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_lamp ...I wondered how it would work with kukui nut oil) and two owl figurines. All three have cavities in which bedbugs and other pests could Trojan Horse their way into the home. Since none of them were metallic, however, they could be microwaved. Indeed, hitting them with bursts of ten seconds on a rotating platform in the microwave, thus warming them evenly and slowly, raised each of the items up to a temperature at which no insects or eggs could have survived inside. No damage to the items themselves; the microwave treatment was accomplished in a couple of minutes time.

Since microwave ovens are set to vibrate water molecules it may be this approach could be used for zapping items other than terra cotta and ceramics, since the insects and eggs will contain water. I am unsure, though, if the principle would hold for, say, eliminating silverfish or bookworm eggs from a book (without igniting the paper). Probably one would need to experiment, carefully, with low value items and safety precautions in place in order to determine just how much microwave energy a specific oven can pump into a specific type of item to pass the insect-kill threshold but not damage the item itself. Of course, if one is in no hurry to bring the book or other item into the house then a week in a black plastic bag in full sun may work as well or better.


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Mind-Boggling Scandinavian Strangeness In Space!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA5GkLM5C7M

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[terracore]

Hello,

I have flown about 500 times in the last 5 years and have stayed at too many hotels to count, and I've never been bitten by a bedbug. I'm sure that luck has something to do with it, but so does common sense. First off, pull the mattress away from the box spring and look for bedbug "dirt" (feces, looks like dried blood). Also look for bedbugs themselves. At their largest, they are the size of an apple seed. If you see any of the above, stay at another hotel.

More and more hotels are outfitting their mattresses or box springs with a thin fabric cover that is impregnated with pyrethrin. Pyrethrin has been used successfully for decades on mosquito netting. Pyrethrin is a natural insecticide extracted from Chrysanthemum flowers and is "considered" harmless to humans. If you see a thin material cover on either the mattress or the box spring it could mean that either there has been a bedbug infestation in the hotel OR they are very proactive. The covers last for a few years so it's cheap insurance.

One person in my office travels only with a fabric duffel bag as luggage. When she gets home from a trip she leaves her stuff outside until it can go directly into the washer and then the dryer, which will kill anything. The duffel bag is then washed/dried/sanitized before being used again.

Do all of the above, and you still risk getting bed bugs anytime you use public transit, go to a movie theater, or exist anywhere that other humans congregate.

I practice common sense while traveling, but I know I'm not going to be immune forever. I am allergic to practically every type of insect bite or sting, so I travel with a tube of hydrocortisone so I can medicate bites if I get them.

Some of the more paranoid actually travel with a pyrethrin-impregnated mattress cover and apply it to every bed they sleep on.

[mar1957]

Info on head lice:
Tea tree oil works!
Every sunday my children would get a few drops added to their shampoo. It workes my children never had a problem..
Their school had them so bad that the school nurse would do weekly "head checks" ....

[tonnymilson]

Yes, removing bed bugs from the living is not the easy task so if you are suffering from bed bug then you should use a separate bed and always wash your clothes once a week in warm water.

[bed bug mattress protector|http://www.universitymattressdirect.com/]

[AlohaSteven]

Damon Tucker just posted an update to this topic on his Facebook page. The ABC News report he links shows exterminator companies' infestation rankings by city based on responses to bedbug complaints. Honolulu has dropped nineteen places in the 2012 rankings compared to 2011. This much, at least, is good news. That bedbug populations are increasing overall nationwide, however, is distinctly not good news and underscores the practical utility of routinely using bedbug prevention techniques.

http://news.yahoo.com/top-city-bed-bugs-...ealth.html

I sure hope Hilo and Kona forever stay off this list.




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Nina Paley's music video "All Creative Work Is Derivative"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcvd5JZkUXY&list=FLP7Vhr8C1-hS6BNSE3s6sMw&index=57&feature=plpp_video

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[Lee M-S]

My aunt in New York forwarded the rumor that bedbugs are being spread by library books.
She also said that they don't do well in humid areas, which may be why Hawaii isn't top of the list.

I plan to ignore the first item, and believe the second.

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Aloha spelled backward...think about it.