Bed bugs
09-30-2010, 11:41 AM
#21
Line Holder
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: CRJ
Posts: 68
I was curious what measures any of you are doing to prevent coming in contact with Bed Bugs? In our profession, it seems it isn't a matter of if but when.
My step mom recorded the Dr. Oz (???) show on Bed Bugs. The exterminator (I can't think of his name but he has his own reality TV show) had some good tips.
1. When you first walk into the room, prop the door open with your bags. DO NOT bring your bags into the room. Bring a flashlight with you.
2. Turn on all lights.
3. First check the bed and linens. Look for rust, brown, or dark colored spots on the sheets and mattress. The spots are actually feces and human blood. The bugs are no larger than a sesame seed. Pay particular attention to fabric folds or mattress folds, they hide there. Lift the mattress and look underneath. Check between the sheets and pillow covers.
4. Look at the headboard. The exterminator actually suggested lifting it off the wall (apparently they all lift vertically). Do one side at a time. Look for them hiding in any cracks or crevasses. Personally I think he's nuts doing this. I try to look along the edges and behind.
5. Check under the desk and the desk drawer (use the flashlight). Pay particular attention to where the wood makes a fold, edge, or corner.
The exterminator said that if you checked these areas and didn't see any signs of the bugs, you can rest up because the room is most likely not infested.
6. Once all clear, bring your luggage into the room and ALWAYS use the luggage rack. NEVER place any clothing or your bags on the floor, bed, or furniture. Try to keep everything on the rack.
7. When you get home, DO NOT BRING YOUR BAGS INTO YOUR HOUSE. Leave them outside or in the garage. Clothes are to go straight from the luggage and into the washer. The washer and dryer will kill the bugs.
Things to ponder. 30% of humans show no reaction to the bites and never know they've been bitten. The bugs can live up to a year between feedings. They are most likely found in dark places ... movie theaters, hotel rooms, etc. The bugs tap into your capillaries and suck your blood.
My step mom recorded the Dr. Oz (???) show on Bed Bugs. The exterminator (I can't think of his name but he has his own reality TV show) had some good tips.
1. When you first walk into the room, prop the door open with your bags. DO NOT bring your bags into the room. Bring a flashlight with you.
2. Turn on all lights.
3. First check the bed and linens. Look for rust, brown, or dark colored spots on the sheets and mattress. The spots are actually feces and human blood. The bugs are no larger than a sesame seed. Pay particular attention to fabric folds or mattress folds, they hide there. Lift the mattress and look underneath. Check between the sheets and pillow covers.
4. Look at the headboard. The exterminator actually suggested lifting it off the wall (apparently they all lift vertically). Do one side at a time. Look for them hiding in any cracks or crevasses. Personally I think he's nuts doing this. I try to look along the edges and behind.
5. Check under the desk and the desk drawer (use the flashlight). Pay particular attention to where the wood makes a fold, edge, or corner.
The exterminator said that if you checked these areas and didn't see any signs of the bugs, you can rest up because the room is most likely not infested.
6. Once all clear, bring your luggage into the room and ALWAYS use the luggage rack. NEVER place any clothing or your bags on the floor, bed, or furniture. Try to keep everything on the rack.
7. When you get home, DO NOT BRING YOUR BAGS INTO YOUR HOUSE. Leave them outside or in the garage. Clothes are to go straight from the luggage and into the washer. The washer and dryer will kill the bugs.
Things to ponder. 30% of humans show no reaction to the bites and never know they've been bitten. The bugs can live up to a year between feedings. They are most likely found in dark places ... movie theaters, hotel rooms, etc. The bugs tap into your capillaries and suck your blood.
09-30-2010, 11:48 AM
#22
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2010
Position: Lil Bus A
Posts: 412
Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite
80 here is some back ground info enjoy
:
A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
What's the origin of the expression, "sleep tight"?
Dear Straight Dope:
A Japanese student once asked the meaning of the phrase "sleep tight" (as in "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"). I have always been interested in word origins but I have yet to come across this one. I haven't even found anyone who could make a good guess. Can you help solve this riddle?
— Guy Nolan, Washington, DC
There are two possible explanations for this expression. We'll start with the one I personally like, because it's a lot more interesting, and then we'll get to what in all probability is the real one.
Explanation #1. Here in Cajun country where I live, before the days of mattresses, beds were square frames elevated from the ground, with ropes tied across in a sort of weave. It was similar to a hammock in concept. Anyway, in order to sleep well, the "mattress" couldn't sag, so the bed had to be "tight." (And free of bed bugs, but I thought that went without saying.)
For further insight I spoke to Dr. Jerry Lee Cross, a historian with the state of North Carolina. He confirms that the beds were, in fact, made of ropes tied across a frame. He adds that the origin of the phrase "sleep tight" is almost common knowledge among historians, simply because the modern bed is a little over a hundred years old.
But first a little about bedbugs. The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, under "bedbug," shows a critter not unlike a flea. Known to others as Cimex lectularius, this beast is a blood-sucker (literally). It is further described as nocturnal and capable of consuming its body weight in blood in five minutes. This one meal can provide nourishment for the insect for six months! This flat, oval, wingless bug measures about 0.6 cm long and produces irritating bites but is not known to carry disease. How comforting.
Dr. Cross's wife, Carolyn, adds that she remembers her mother telling her stories about how she slept on such beds. Mrs. Cross recalls how her mother said she had to put the bedposts in small cans (like tuna cans) filled with kerosene, in a sort of moat-like fashion to keep the bedbugs from climbing into the bed (the bugs being wingless and all). Mrs. Cross also says that there were "rules" for sleeping: you couldn't let the sheets hit the floor or have the bed too close to the walls, lest the bedbugs could climb into bed that way.
In Charles Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things (sorry, Cecil), he writes that mattresses were made of organic materials such as "straw, leaves, pine needles, and reeds" and tended to rot, mildew, and harbor rats and mice, who were hunting for bugs! Inorganic materials didn't appear on the scene until about the 1870's or so, when conical springs came into use. Cylindrical springs, which had been attempted earlier, had problems with no support, too much support, as well as spring failure from the poor metallurgical methods of the time. (Personally I say if it doesn't have Magic Fingers, it ain't a bed.)
The point is, when people used to say, "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite," they weren't trying to be cute. They meant it.
Explanation #2. That last one was a nice story, eh? Unfortunately, the Oxford English Dictionary, which knows a bit about such things, doesn't buy it. Here's what they say: "It seems that tight in this expression is the equivalent of the only surviving use of the adverb tightly meaning 'soundly, properly, well, effectively'."
I think anybody reading that would have to concede: It's boring and unimaginative, and thus probably correct.
My Grandmother used to say this my Sis and I when were going to bed. I never knew what she meant, I just figured it was another old country saying.
:A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
What's the origin of the expression, "sleep tight"?
Dear Straight Dope:
A Japanese student once asked the meaning of the phrase "sleep tight" (as in "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite"). I have always been interested in word origins but I have yet to come across this one. I haven't even found anyone who could make a good guess. Can you help solve this riddle?
— Guy Nolan, Washington, DC
There are two possible explanations for this expression. We'll start with the one I personally like, because it's a lot more interesting, and then we'll get to what in all probability is the real one.
Explanation #1. Here in Cajun country where I live, before the days of mattresses, beds were square frames elevated from the ground, with ropes tied across in a sort of weave. It was similar to a hammock in concept. Anyway, in order to sleep well, the "mattress" couldn't sag, so the bed had to be "tight." (And free of bed bugs, but I thought that went without saying.)
For further insight I spoke to Dr. Jerry Lee Cross, a historian with the state of North Carolina. He confirms that the beds were, in fact, made of ropes tied across a frame. He adds that the origin of the phrase "sleep tight" is almost common knowledge among historians, simply because the modern bed is a little over a hundred years old.
But first a little about bedbugs. The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, under "bedbug," shows a critter not unlike a flea. Known to others as Cimex lectularius, this beast is a blood-sucker (literally). It is further described as nocturnal and capable of consuming its body weight in blood in five minutes. This one meal can provide nourishment for the insect for six months! This flat, oval, wingless bug measures about 0.6 cm long and produces irritating bites but is not known to carry disease. How comforting.
Dr. Cross's wife, Carolyn, adds that she remembers her mother telling her stories about how she slept on such beds. Mrs. Cross recalls how her mother said she had to put the bedposts in small cans (like tuna cans) filled with kerosene, in a sort of moat-like fashion to keep the bedbugs from climbing into the bed (the bugs being wingless and all). Mrs. Cross also says that there were "rules" for sleeping: you couldn't let the sheets hit the floor or have the bed too close to the walls, lest the bedbugs could climb into bed that way.
In Charles Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things (sorry, Cecil), he writes that mattresses were made of organic materials such as "straw, leaves, pine needles, and reeds" and tended to rot, mildew, and harbor rats and mice, who were hunting for bugs! Inorganic materials didn't appear on the scene until about the 1870's or so, when conical springs came into use. Cylindrical springs, which had been attempted earlier, had problems with no support, too much support, as well as spring failure from the poor metallurgical methods of the time. (Personally I say if it doesn't have Magic Fingers, it ain't a bed.)
The point is, when people used to say, "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite," they weren't trying to be cute. They meant it.
Explanation #2. That last one was a nice story, eh? Unfortunately, the Oxford English Dictionary, which knows a bit about such things, doesn't buy it. Here's what they say: "It seems that tight in this expression is the equivalent of the only surviving use of the adverb tightly meaning 'soundly, properly, well, effectively'."
I think anybody reading that would have to concede: It's boring and unimaginative, and thus probably correct.
My Grandmother used to say this my Sis and I when were going to bed. I never knew what she meant, I just figured it was another old country saying.
09-30-2010, 03:06 PM
#28
Don't want to participate
Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: 737 Left Seat
Posts: 1,016
My hometown newspaper (Florida) said that bedbugs don't seem to do well in humid environments (like Florida). I don't know, maybe the mildew kills them or the lizards eat them. Anybody have a comment on that?
09-30-2010, 09:02 PM
#29
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Jan 2008
Position: blueJet
Posts: 4,535
10-01-2010, 01:20 AM
#30
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2008
Posts: 299
It's not just bed bugs - cockroaches are a serious problem too. Their eggs are very small and are typically found in many hotel / apartment carpet floors. The eggs are also very resilient and stomping and crushing them does nothing.
Talk to anyone who does work in peoples homes for a living (generally in the ghetto) and they keep a separate pair of work boots that STAY AT WORK.
Talk to anyone who does work in peoples homes for a living (generally in the ghetto) and they keep a separate pair of work boots that STAY AT WORK.
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