Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Why would I post a picture of a man in a HazMat (hazardous materials) suit on my Oakland Raiders sports blog you may wonder?

Here's why:

BEDBUG INFESTATIONS IN MAJOR CITIES THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES

About two weeks ago a resident of my apartment building came to me with one hellluva horror story. He looked scared, tired, frustrated, angry and ready to move out of his rent controlled apartment he'd been in for over fifteen years. The reason was Bed Bugs. While talking in low tones in the hallway he informed me that new tenants had brought the bed bugs in and were now living in a hotel, hopefully an uninfected one, while their apartment was being fumigated.....again. He lives below them and believes when their apartment was detoxed the first time, the bed bugs simply moved one floor down to his warm and cozy abode.

I noticed as he talked that he was slurring a bit. he confessed that he hasn't slept much since the bug invasion and has slightly relapsed on his drinking problem because of the stress. He's mad at the tenants who brought them into the building, he's mad at the building manager for not immediately addressing the problem and trying to keep it hush, he's mad at the city of San Francisco for not warning its residents of the city-wide infestation that's been spreading over the past four years or so and he's definitely fed up with the bed bugs themselves.

To hear him talk of the abuse he's received from the biting bed bugs you'd think he was going to file a police report. The more he talked about the bugs the more agitated and upset he would get. Finally, as if he'd seen my impatience at listening to him vent, he felt he had to show me proof and so pulled up his shirt.

Now that I think of it, maybe it was I who asked what the bites looked like. Either way, the proof was definitely in the pudding. Looking at his pale white skin covered with red bed bug battle scars front to back was enough to get me quizzing him about the best toxic sprays to keep bed bugs away. He lowered his shirt, looked at me with sad puppy dog eyelids and whispered, "none work, you can kill the big ones but the eggs continue to hatch in a few days and the biting starts all over again."

The sound of his whisper convinced me that I was talking to a man who'd been shocked into submission by these critters. I'll never forget his final warning to me as he walked down the stairs, head lowered and shoulders slumped, a defeated man, he said "they only come out at night, you don't see them, you feel them, biting your flesh and slurping your blood."

I've been surfing the web for information about bed bugs ever since. You could say I'm now an expert on this field of bug control that just a month ago I would've thought foolish. There are many horror stories online, many like the one I just shared about my neighbor. What still scares me though is the cover-up. Because no city and or the stores in it, that depend on tourism, want to cause a panic and chase away good paying customers. One article I read was of a woman in the mission district who went to a neighborhood bookstore, sat in one of their comfortable old Victorian arnchairs to read and was bitten all over within an hour. She informed the store owners who are supposedly fumigating the store.

Not to scare the citizens of San Fransisco but it may not be a question of if you get bed bugs but when you get bed bugs. New York City is supposedly dealing with an infestation as well, along with Boston, Chicago and Orlando,Florida. Still wanna go to Disneyland?

So how do you get rid of bed bugs? The most convincing method I saw was to "heat" them out using a product called "Thermapure." They say its expensive but having a room heated to over 120 degrees for 24hrs kills the bugs and their eggs. All other methods take time and there's no guarantee. Putting Vaseline on the legs of your bed prevents them from crawling up onto the mattress, but they're very persistent creatures and will find other ways like scaling a wall and dropping down from the ceiling.

Or you could do as one biology student suggested; buy a HazMat uniform and sleep until your hearts content. Starve the little critters to death. If you choose this method of extermination understand that bed bugs can survive for as long as 365 days, a full year, without eating.

Oh, what do they eat you ask? Blood. They follow the food, which is a warm human body or a small mammal like a rodent will due temporarily. They feed at night and return to their lair, your mattress, come sunrise. They were exterminated in the U.S. in the 1940's & 50's using DDT which was later determined to be a health hazard to us humans. The United States began seeing their return in the last fifteen years or so. It is reported that cities with international travelers are at high risk for bed bug infestations. Again, its not a matter of if bed bugs will hit your city, its a question of when.

Arm Yourself By Getting Informed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRtaPsdqw8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfIgVqvg1bs

http://store.pksafety.net/tycbrlevsuit.html

http://www.bed-bug.org/bedbugs-information/

http://www.sfbg.com/40/10/news_bedbugs.html

http://www.mappost.org/bedbugcity7.php

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2105.html