Outwitting Bedbugs

As covered in previous articles, bedbugs, officially know as C. lectularius, are on the rise throughout the United States. Travel is often to blame for the spread of pests, and bedbugs are no exception: The more people move around, the more bedbugs spread. Bedbugs have a happy relationship with humans: The more of us there are, the more food there is for bedbugs. Bedbugs don't kill or cause disease, so there's no chance of their food source dying off.

Tomorrow on All Life Is Local: Outwitting Bedbugs

Bedbug toy by Jackie Gallagher

Coming tomorrow on All Life Is Local: Outwitting Bedbugs. Be sure to check this space for travel and returning-home-from-travel tips on dealing with bedbugs. The lovely hotel you stayed at over the holiday weekend may have given you extra company to bring home.

In the meanwhile, you can read our previous articles about bedbugs here and here.  

Bedbugs typically feed on human blood at night (though if hungry enough they'll eat any time of day.) Sleeping only during the daytime with your bedroom lights on full bright is certainly one creative way to thwart bedbugs. But then you'd also have to avoid offices, movie theaters and retail stores, where bedbugs also lurk. And probably airplane seats, too, until airlines start charging extra for bedbug-free seats. Oh no:  Did I just give the airlines an idea?

Bedbugs Aren't Just in Beds Anymore

Update:  One solution for thwarting bedbugs while on the road is to use a light weight sleep sack.  With a sleep sack you don't come into contact with the hotel's bedding and bedbugs can't come into contact with you.  


When the New York City Soho store, Epic Hollister, closed for ten days in July because of a bed bug infestation, the world changed.  What? I could get bedbugs just from shopping?

I was listening to a conversation about bedbugs on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR about bedbugs today and also learned that bedbugs are being found in offices and movie theaters, too.

I guess that's the final straw: I'm going to live my entire life inside of Facebook and never go out again. 

Why are bedbugs spreading beyond homes and hotels? Nobody knows for sure, but it may have to do with the classic predator-prey relationship: The size of the prey's population --humans-- is growing, so the size of the predator population, that lives off of the blood of humans, is also growing.  Bedbugs can easily hitchhike from person to place.

Thwarting and dealing with bedbugs isn't easy.  But having bedbugs isn't fun.  So, what to do? Other than scream, that is.  There are some treatments that you can deploy to get rid of bedbugs: Some of these involve heating your home or apartment to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature at which neither bedbugs nor wax figurines can survive. 

Before you travel, take a look at the Bedbug Registry, a database of hotels that have, um, problems.

And remember, if you get bedbugs, you're allowed to cry no matter how tough or unemotional you are otherwise.