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Infested


Allow me to tell you about a book by science writer Brooke Borel: Infested: How The Bedbug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms And Took Over The World. I’ll share what I learned, still hoping you are able to sleep tonight.
Of about 14,000 sanguinivorous1 species that feed on blood, bed bugs are the species most dreaded of some 300–400 insect species routinely feeding on human blood.
We fear bedbugs because they attack in the night while we sleep, leave us itching with telltale blood spots on pillowcases and bed sheets, and retreat unseen, sometimes becoming uninvited companions that attach themselves to our bedding, clothing, or suitcases. Their clandestine behavior makes us suspicious of strangers, visits by friends carrying luggage, as well as possible travel via ship, plane, or taxi.
Borel discussed scientists’ research into bedbugs’ role in transmission of numerous serious diseases. Some of the more exotic or hot button health crises included leprosy, typhus, TB, typhoid fever, plague, polio, malaria, elephantiasis, hepatitis B, and HIV. She also mentioned cat scratch fever, a malady examined in North Carolina. (Go Tar Heels! ) However, you may relax. For all of these afflictions, the bed bug link was inconclusive. Indeterminate, questionable, uncertain.
I suspect offending insects maintain a mutual, non-compete clause. Mosquitoes enjoy the rights to malaria, West Nile virus, and other fevers; while fleas hold the typhus territory, and various biting flies dispense sleeping sickness and river blindness. And deer ticks reign over Lyme disease.
But you shouldn’t ridicule humanity for its bed bug paranoia. For some individuals, allergic responses go well beyond a simple rash and itching. Pity the unfortunates who suffer hundreds of bites per day as bed bug blood donors and sometimes develop anemia, to say nothing of psychological fear. “Once bitten twice shy,” I’d say. After all, isn’t risk of infestation as devastating as having your identity stolen or your home burlglarized? Think loss of sleep, stress, unexpected financial costs for anti-anxiety meds and exterminators, and in rare cases, PTSD. It's not for nothing that paranoid schizophrenics see bugs crawling on their bodies.
Bed bugs feed every few days to once per week for about eight minutes duration, then scuttle back to their bedframe or mattress-fringe hiding places. Engorged with your blood, they assume the size and shape of a lentil, or as one of Borel’s entomologist acquaintances described them, “a drop of blood with legs.” Bed bugs surreptitiously nip through your skin where they sense blood flow and suck up the blood with a mouth eight micrometers wide, about the size of a strand of silk. That’s about one-half a micrometer wider than a red blood cell.
Control and study of bed bugs is not a simple matter. Because they are not vectors for agricultural calamities or health epidemics, little federal research money is available. In some research programs, bed bug broods often sup directly from the researchers’ veins. Less desperate researchers use artificial feeders, some with heated and recirculating non-human blood.
The pesticide DDT, invented in 1934 in Switzerland, experienced widespread use during WWII and almost completely purged the worlds’ bed bugs by the early 1950s. However, biologist Rachel Carson warned the world of over-enthusiastic application of DDT when she published Silent Spring in1962, and DDT was banned in the U.S. in 1979. Sadly, during its use, some bed bugs grew resistant to the pesticide. Although once thought vanquished, the little beasties began a resurgence by the 1980s, and it’s been mandible-vs-sprayer ever since.
Benevolently, for all of us who fret every time we enter a hotel room, Borel’s book contains a useful epilogue based upon her research, Brooke’s Bed Bug Guide:
w Would she hire a professional pest controller? Not immediately. Treatment is costly; bugs are resistant to many products; some don't work. She suggests verifying you have bedbugs before spending hundreds of dollars.
w If you hire a pest controller, what chemicals would she recommend? Use a pyrethroid-neonicotinoid combination. Skip insect growth regulators; allowed dosages are too low to help.
w What about all-natural powders such as diatomaceous earth? She’s not a fan. Not good for one’s lungs.
w What about all natural sprays or “contact killers”? Save your money. Hit the bugs with a hammer.
w What about heat treatments? Possibly OK for a single-family home if truly infested and your furniture and clothing can be placed in a heat trailer.
She had more suggestions and other appendices in which she listed famous bed bug songs (for example, Papa Joe Grappa’s “Bed Bug Boogie”), bed bugs in literature (even Goethe wrote a poem), and catchy limericks, such as:
There was once a C lectularius
Whose odor was very nefarious
He smelled like old fruit
So foul and acute
So nasty, it was quite hilarious

Wasn’t this fun? I bet you're wondering if the library has a copy of the book. Enjoy.
Footnote 1. For a list of sanguinivorous insects and clickable color photos, go to InsectImages.org at https://www.insectimages.org/browse/catsubject.cfm?cat=113 

Copyright © 2018 Richard Schram 

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