Bed Bugs!

[Trekker4747]

So I'm visiting my mom and she's watching an episode of "Dr. Oz" where he's doing a show about bed bugs. And the way him and these experts were talking you'd think this was some huge, terrible, international pandemic that was sweeping the world and wiping out civilizations!

What's the worst thing that can happen if you get bitten by a bed bug?

You might get a rash... for a day.

The horrors! They were talking about all these different things people should do to prevent themsevles from getting the "bed bugs" and to check theater seats, hotel beddings and talking about a theater in NYC that was closed because of damn bed bugs.

They said bed bugs cannot carry or transmit disease and the worst that happens is you get a rash but most people get no effects at all. The whole segment just struck me as over-reactionary bullshit similar to what's being said in the Antibiotics thead where people overreact and overuse antibacterial soaps and such in fear of germs. (Ignoring the whole "you have to be exposed to viruses and bacteria to become immune to it" thing.)

So how about you? Do you fear bed bugs or are you like me and think you'll cope?

 

[Kestra]

The bed bugs and I cuddle together every night.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Different people react less or more to bedbugs, like any insect, just like some people have worse reactions to mosquito or spider bites, or bee stings, than others. I don't think you can generalize because it all has to do with how the individual's immune system reacts, and that's not a universal.

 

[Trekker4747]

Different people react less or more to bedbugs, like any insect, just like some people have worse reactions to mosquito or spider bites, or bee stings, than others. I don't think you can generalize because it all has to do with how the individual's immune system reacts, and that's not a universal.

True, but what I know about and seen about bed bugs is that they don't carry disease. A mosquito is a flying hypodermic needle that can cary any number of disease and viruses. A bed bug will just cause an annoying rash. Hardly something I see the need to freak out over.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Not necessarily. It doesn't take a bacteria or virus to set off a serious reaction in the body. An allergic reaction--what your own immune system does in response to foreign enzymes--more than enough. For some that means a small, annoying rash, but for others, the effects can be a lot more severe.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, from what I read and from what these doctors were saying the worse "side effects" from bed bugs are just the psychological ones.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

And those are certainly effects, too. But it's very important to remember that there are a lot of different reactions people can have to an insect bite.

 

[Trekker4747]

And lots of people can have severe effects from peanut butter.

Hardly a reason to make everyone going around scared to death of friggin' bed bugs.

 

[sidious618]

The idea of bugs in my bed is fucking disgusting and it creeps me out. I couldn't sleep the first night I heard about this. Everytime I moved and the sheets hit me in a different way I was like, "BEDBUGS!"

 

[Kelso]

You don't typically "get bitten by a bed bug." You can get bitten all over your body, every night (see?). And once they've infested your house, they're a pain to get rid of. You can't just toss out your mattress and be done with it.

I don't want any part of that shit.

 

[Trekker4747]

The idea of bugs in my bed is fucking disgusting and it creeps me out. I couldn't sleep the first night I heard about this. Everytime I moved and the sheets hit me in a different way I was like, "BEDBUGS!"

You realize their are countless microbial lifeforms living on your body and all over your home right now, right?

Why concern oneself over "bed bugs" (which according to this show are very visible when the most likely thing to happen as a result of getting bitten by one is an annoying rash?

 

[gturner]

People in New York have been wearing gloves and long sleeves so nobody can see their bedbug bites, because nobody wants to get near anyone with bedbugs lest they take the infection home.

I was about to mix up a batch of DDT (which is trivial to make) to sell on the black market in New York or Chicago, but apparently this new wave of bedbugs is DDT resistant, so I'll probably have to make some other banned insecticide.

 

[Kestra]

The idea of bugs in my bed is fucking disgusting and it creeps me out. I couldn't sleep the first night I heard about this. Everytime I moved and the sheets hit me in a different way I was like, "BEDBUGS!"

You realize their are countless microbial lifeforms living on your body and all over your home right now, right?

Why concern oneself over "bed bugs" (which according to this show are very visible when the most likely thing to happen as a result of getting bitten by one is an annoying rash?

Because they're icky.

 

[gturner]

^ staphylococcus aureus is part of our skin flora and common in our noses, but that doesn't mean a raging staph infection is something to laugh at. My caving partner's father (who I hung out with quite often) had gout and after suffering some back pains the doctor kept him on a gout medication that supressed the immune system, leading to his death from staph about five days later. A patient of my boss's wife got a cut on her leg playing soccer and was dead from staph three days later. I've had two MRSA infections from trivial skin breaks (one was from my car keys rubbing on a hair follicle on my leg, with the bacterial possibly coming from coins in my pocket) and they are scary.

All staph needs to get rolling is a penetration of the skin, which is going to be conveniently provided constantly and thoroughly by the bedbugs.

But if the drug-resistant staph/bedbug apocalypse doesn't bother you, know this.

Female bedbugs don't have external sexual organs. Males bedbugs impregnate them by stabbing through a random point on their body, which is often fatal to other male bedbugs (and probably fatal to lots of female bedbugs, who lack a media outlet to decry the practice). So all male bedbugs are intense homophobes, as homosexual acts between bedbugs are fatal.

So not only do they drink your blood and put you at risk of a fatal infection, they're also rapists and homophobic killers (killer of homophobes? homosexual killer rapists? Regular rapists who get confused and fuck other males to death?)

Anyway, by any human standards they are vermin - who suck your blood as you sleep.

 

[T'Bonz]

Well, from what I read and from what these doctors were saying the worse "side effects" from bed bugs are just the psychological ones.

If you can deal with bugs crawling over you (big enough to be seen especially if they've already fed) every night while you try to sleep and if you can deal with the results of the bites (which range from nothing to allergic reactions) then power to you.

Just having ants in my house (common in Florida) is an annoyance. Bugs belong OUTSIDE and not in my house, certainly not in my bed chomping on me while I sleep.

They're a nightmare once you get them. To get rid of them is difficult and expensive (priced a mattress recently?) and the little bastards a) can live without feeding for a year and b) are spread easily.

No. Thanks. I thought lice were bad. I've dealt with lice before (most parents do and that was nightmare enough.) No thanks to bedbugs.

I actually know someone whose place got infested with them, probably from her partner's travel (hotel rooms are increasingly a place to get the bastards.) It's been a nightmare for them. Luckily in this case, their possessions are minimal, but still, dealing with that is just horrible.

Let me tell you, I pray to God they never get near me or my house. *brr* I'm a lot more careful when I travel now and I check beds *before* I settle in for the night at a hotel.

Again, *brr!*

 

[Starbreaker]

Ummm... I hope the next time you invite a girl over some large bedbug doesn't crawl over her.

 

[gturner]

As a side note, and one simpler than making DDT (did I tell you about the night I got a wiff of concentrated chlorine gas? Don't do it!), bedbugs can't take heat. Wiki says 7 minutes at 115 F will kill them all, so I think a kerosene torpedo heater in the bedroom for a couple of hours would eliminate any infestation.

 

[sidious618]

The idea of bugs in my bed is fucking disgusting and it creeps me out. I couldn't sleep the first night I heard about this. Everytime I moved and the sheets hit me in a different way I was like, "BEDBUGS!"

You realize their are countless microbial lifeforms living on your body and all over your home right now, right?

Why concern oneself over "bed bugs" (which according to this show are very visible when the most likely thing to happen as a result of getting bitten by one is an annoying rash?

I don't feel any of those microbial lifeforms on me. I would feel bedbugs. Not having a house infested by insects is a pretty important priority for me, as I would assume it'd be for most people.

 

[propita]

Not necessarily. It doesn't take a bacteria or virus to set off a serious reaction in the body. An allergic reaction--what your own immune system does in response to foreign enzymes--more than enough. For some that means a small, annoying rash, but for others, the effects can be a lot more severe.

I got one--one--bite from a spider on my arm. The next, it was swollen in a four inch radius. The day after that, my forearm was swollen from wrist up past my elbow and all the way around. I felt like Popeye. A similar bite a year later gave the same result, but much less.

Probably the same f-in' spider. I'm not sure which is worse, getting bitten or knowing that the spider was on me--I'm an arachnophobe.

 

[Arrqh]

I actually know someone whose place got infested with them, probably from her partner's travel (hotel rooms are increasingly a place to get the bastards.) It's been a nightmare for them. Luckily in this case, their possessions are minimal, but still, dealing with that is just horrible.

Last year my mom moved into a new apartment and it came with an extra bonus free of charge from the landlord, a bed bug infestation. From what we can piece together the landlord had known about it before and thought she had dealt with it, but obviously had not (when my mom moved in, she found a can of bed bug spray in the closet... not a good sign). Fortunately the apartment had been furnished so my mom didn't lose any expensive furniture, but she did lose some belongings. Apparently the eggs can last for a year on all sorts of surfaces from fabric to paper. They're so hard to get rid of that people will literally just walk away from their apartment and all their stuff and start over.

My mom didn't have any sort of noteworthy allergic reaction either, she just woke up covered in bites. Every morning. Over and over again. New bites. New, itchy bites. Every day. The idea that one would just get a slight, ignorable rash and that'd be the end of it is... misinformed.