[Editor’s Note: Every so often somebody writes something so interesting on our super-secret internal email list that we feel obliged to share it. This time it was a rant on the return of bed bugs of all things. Since Angry Military Man is too busy to post this himself, the duty has fallen to your hombre-in-chief Angry New Mexican. I’ve also included a few select comments by other Angry Men which tickled my funny bone. Enjoy, muchachos!]
Angry Military Man
Bedbugs are real, they are very thin (thinner than a sheet of paper) tiny as bags (width of a full grown adult is about the size of pen dot) that hide away in tiny crevices (like between pages in books), cracks (in the floor/ceiling/wall/electrical wiring) and especially fabric (bedding, box springs, rigs, chairs, etc).
They go several days to weeks between feedings, and each feeding launches them to the next stage of growth (about 7 levels) at which they then begin to breed profusely. The eggs they lay take between 3 days to 3 weeks to hatch. They can go without feeding for over a full year before starving to death, and 4-6 months without oxygen.
They are immune to most all commercial pesticides in use (even Borax). Effectively, only direct contact enzyme killers that eat away the protein exoskeleton, and silica based powders that slice and dice em work. The trouble with all other poisons etc that are residual contact killers is that bedbugs can sense and avoid them… very very well. Roach bombs and fumigation don’t have particles small enough to reach into the cracks where they hide, so only very special nerve gas agents actually work to kill them if you tent a building. The military learned to deal with them in the third world countries by temperature control. Cover a building and raise the internal temperature to above 130 degrees for 12 hours will kill them, as does below freezing (the ENTIRE building) for 6-9 days.
Their one Achilles heel so to speak was DDT. They couldn’t sense it, and even the remotest traces of it killed the fuckers dead in minutes. This is why people think that bedbugs are a myth. For nearly 4 decades America sprayed every damn thing with DDT, which soaks into wood and has the ability to residual kill bedbugs for 30-40 years. So with every building essentially a chemical death trap for the critters, they essentially disappeared. However they existed elsewhere in the third world etc. Once the US banned the use of DDT back in the 70’s the defense against them declined.
Fast forward to modern day, and you get travelers from overseas, who get hitchhikers in their luggage and either bring them home, or bring them to a USA hotel. Being that cleanliness has nothing to do with the bedbugs (it neither draws nor kills nor deters them and in fact apparently encourages the spread of them as they scatter and spread when smelling cleaning agents) almost every single major 4 and 5 star hotel checked by the health departments in NYC, LA, Boston, and SF has tested positive for bedbug infestation in at least some portions of the hotel.
Cities are getting them faster as the article mentions due to used furniture and clothing, but they spread in other ways (physical contact on the streets from person to person in the dense subways). Building to building, and through electrical wiring and plumbing. as well as through used books (they LOVE hiding in between pages). They have also been cropping up in new books (that go through warehouses housing old books) and mattresses (through the delivery vehicles carting off used mattresses next to new ones).
Thankfully they are nothing more than a nuisance unless one is highly allergic. But they are near impossible to get rid off, and truly do take over one’s life.
For those not in the ‘know’ my Brooklyn apartment building got them and though we never got rid of them, I managed to control them in my place so that I went months without a sighting or bite, and when I finally moved I managed to rid myself of them so that they did not follow me. This is very rare and in bedbug support groups I am known as one of the ‘survivor’ stories.
Angry Immigrant
I like nature and all, but I like DDT, too. We need some non-“Silent Spring” hippies to study its actual effects. This is something all non-hippies can get together on. The rich stop being infested with bed-bugs (though the irony of that kind of egalitarian problem amuses me) and the poor stop dying of malaria by the hundreds of millions. DDT – it’s what kept America great for a thousand generations, until the stupid Empire killed it off…
Angry Midwesterner
Well there was one real complaint about DDT, it was killing bald eagles. Bald eagles may be pathetic as hunters, but they sure do look awesome next to the flag. America. Fuck Yeah!
Angry Military Man
I imagine if bedbugs keep spreading as fast as they are, in no time at all we will be repealing DDT laws.
Believe me living in NYC I ran into plenty of hippies/liberals who got the nasty things. A few months of living that life is enough to make even the most hardened leftist shout, “Fuck the bald eagle eggs and spray the strongest shit you got”.
I know — I tried to coax my chemist buddy into making me DDT in her lab, and at one point actually started work on making homemade chlorine gas to ‘fumigate’ my apartment. Luckily common sense over-rode my desire to kill all the biting fuckers and I realized how bad an idea it was. I mean I actually liked most of my neighbors and all.
January 28, 2009 at 9:34 am
[…] The War on Bed Bugs in NYC […]
September 20, 2009 at 8:19 pm
We found a place in Queens called Moving Right Along, they take everything in your apartment including kitchen cabinets and put it in a truck put hoses into the truck and gas it for something like 25 hours with a chlorine gas. In the meantime we have been removing all the wooden trimming & closing up all holes. I’m with you on the DDT, funny how we ban it in the US yet still sell it to 3rd world countries and they still use it to on the farms and we still get in our fruits and products imported from those countries.
http://www.movingrightalong.com/bedbug.html
October 3, 2009 at 3:56 pm
As an exterminator in NYC I can tell you that the amont of calls we get for bed bugs are going thru the roof. I guess the biggest thing I notice is how miss informed people are about this epidemic. Bed bugs are running rampid.
April 14, 2014 at 11:30 pm
I CAN HELP!!!!!!!!!! I MADE A SOLUTION THAT KILLS THE EGGS,LARVA,& ACTUAL BUG ON SITE & KEEPS THEM AWAY!!!! I LIVE IN THE WASHINGTON STATE NORTHWEST NEAR SEATTLE & I WANT TO HELP MILLIONS OF PEOPLE!!! PLEASE CALL ME!!!! 509-322-8807!!!!!!! ANYTIME!!!!!!
December 1, 2015 at 7:29 am
I need help, support for the blame, in my cirlce of friends lays blame on me.
I really do not think i have them outside my matresses cover.
Havent seen one.
First git them years ago.
Steamed and moved, then a friend moved in w them.
So. I moved, started seeing a few, steam cleaned, put on a second cover and bommed the house away.
Havent seen one scine!
But the blame when they are rampid?
I would love your remedy, as i am always recleaning my surroundings!
Erica
Ps. Right now, i am hurt due to others blaming me for them, and I love people, I feel their pain, but being blammed hurts!exit36201
December 1, 2015 at 7:31 am
Crap,
November 15, 2009 at 9:02 pm
@Lex: No kidding. With all my travel, I’m surprised I’ve managed to escape bringing any home yet…
January 29, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I have done a lot of research on bed bugs, and hearing about all the different ways they can or can’t be killed. Most everyone seems to agree that todays chemicals aren’t effective, and other treatments cannot reach into the harborage areas. However, extreme heat or cold is 100% effective in eliminating bed bugs if they are exposed to the proper temperatures for the required time to kill them. There is a new patented process now available in New York called ThermaPureHeat. You can find out all about the process at http://www.thermapure.com/bedbugs.php. In a nutshell, if you have bed bugs, they come in and use a heat technology to eliminate bedbugs and the eggs in one single treatment. Bed bugs cannot survive at temperatures above 113 degrees. When ThermaPureHeat is used, the area is sealed off, and heated using special heaters, fans, and air scrubbers. The temperature is brought to about 140 degrees and held there for 3-4 hours. This allows the heat to penetrate into mattresses, boxsprings, woodwork, and all the harborage areas of the bed bugs. The process is not only proven to be 100% effective, but only takes one day. You have no need to replace anything in the rooms treated, and it even improves the air quality of the rooms by destroying odors, dustmites and some bacterial and viral problems. Fortunatley, there is one (and currently ONLY one) company that is licensed to use the ThermaPureHeat process in the New York Metropolitan area. They are Expediant Environmental Solutions LLC. I know this, because I am their project manager in charge of bed bugs. If we can be of assistance, please send an e-mail to ptilstra@moldybugs.com. Visit the ThermaPure website first to verify everything I have said.
October 26, 2010 at 4:57 am
I’ve been living with these little Fuckers for almost three years in my pad in L.A. Without a night of sound sleep.
Fumigated,Painted,laundered my clothes, even threw out my bed,dresser,and my desk.Turned my place in disarray.
I don’t know what else to do.
Afraid to move in case I take them with me.
What the fuck?
April 14, 2014 at 11:26 pm
I CAN HELP I CAN HELP I CAN HELP!!!!! PLEASE CALL ME!!!!!!! (509)322-8807!!!!! IM IN WASHINGTON STATE NEAR SEATTLE!!!!! I GOT RID OF THEM FOR GOOD WITH A SIMPLE SOLUTION I MADE!!!!!! I NEED HELP WITH TESTIMONIALS & GETTING MY PRODUCT OUT THERE!!! I STAND BY IT 150%!!!!! HAVENT SEEN A BUG IN WEEKS SINCE USING IT!!!!!!!!!! I SOOO WANA HELP MILLIONS OF PPL!!!!!! I AM A MOTHER OF 1 & MY DAUGHTER IS MY INSPIRATION!!!!! I CAN HELP YOU!!!!! PLEASE LET ME HELP!!!!!!
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December 1, 2010 at 11:50 am
i have so many funny bones in myself that is why i would love to be a comedian `,”
February 2, 2011 at 10:03 pm
The fact that they can endure a lot of the cleaning agents makes the cleaning very hard.But has to be done and not only cleaning but also cutting the germs from the area which will make the home safe and healthy is the lookout.
March 7, 2011 at 3:22 pm
I am in doubt of this whole essay because an adult bed bug is about the size of an apple seed. I know this because I found one last week and just finished all of the cleaning and have pest control start the three-series spray this morning.
April 14, 2014 at 11:22 pm
I CAN HELP!!!!!! I CAN HELP !!!!! PLEASE CALL ME 509-322-8807!!!!! ASK FOR TAMI!!!!! YOU DONT HAVE TO THROW EVERYTHING AWAY!!!!!!!!
March 7, 2011 at 3:25 pm
They are only in your books etc. if your infestation is really bad. Otherwise they are usually within 10 or so feet of where you sleep. So they would be on your mattress, box spring, bed frame and anything near or under your bed including the molding around the wall and outlets.
I think this is an unnecessarily scary post and it doesn’t help anyone.
I also don’t think people should think of them as the end of the world because worse comes to worse you move and don’t take your furniture with you. Maybe you launder the clothes you like best, do you really need all of those clothes? And you move in with only clean clothes and maybe an air mattress. Its not the worst thing a person has ever gone through.
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August 19, 2011 at 5:49 am
I read that supposedly most current strains of bed bugs are resistant to DDT. I’m not sure I believe it and am thinking about going to Australia, India or Africa just to try to smuggle some back into this country. Once I rid myself of them I could then make A LOT of money ridding other people of the problem too.
I live in NYC so everyone here knows someone currently battling bed bugs or they have battled them themselves. I think it’s sad so many move just to get rid of them.
I pray I don’t have to move. I love my apt and my neighborhood. I have been here 4 years and had no desire to relocate but a bug might change that. It’s unreal that in 2011 a bug can drive us out of our homes no matter how much time, money and effort we put into fighting them. I hope soon the “magic bullet” aka new DDT is found to help all those suffering this waking nightmare.
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July 6, 2012 at 11:18 am
Bedbugs are a huge problem. So are the contarctors licensed by out tax dollars to eradicate them. They are making massive amounts of money to spray chemicals that we know nothing about . Well …have you ever heard of CB-80 Extra,Tempo 1% dust,Transport Mikron & Bedlam …? Do you know how to safely clean up after a treatment ? I don’t and I downloaded all the labels in full. The company supplied partial labels to my landlord who did not supply them to me, i had to make a formal request to the company and threaten them with DEC complaint . I think it should be posted on every treated apartment .. people need to know what they have been exposed to … we are gassing & and dousing our children.
December 31, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Hi there Twelve Angry Men.
I’m a ”Silent Spring” hippie type that has discovered the Achille’s heel of bed bugs. Could this be true? Find out for yourself and search out self-sterilizing beds.
We are 3 eco-entomologists that created a technology that allows anyone to eliminate and prevent bed bugs with minimal effort, and repeatedly if needed. It’s the Kung Fu of controls, using the obligate parasite’s own requirements to be its own downfall.
Get real angry, cause it’s not available yet!
After you confirm this technology for yourself, please help us with your anger. Channel your rants to promote my hippie poem:
GoodKnight
Sleep without DDT or a single bite
Bed bugs will feel your blight
The self-sterilizing bed is tight
In the morning you will feel alright
Don’t just survive bed bugs, win the war and thrive!
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December 19, 2014 at 4:28 pm
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December 2, 2015 at 8:47 am
Tim releases 1200 bed bugs in this isolation chamber, and sleeps in a GoodKnight self-sterilizing bed during 6 weeks. It’s a controlled experiment you can see at