That warning about the bed bugs...
 

...you really had better take it quite seriously!

Warning: The pics of the wounds on the victim are yucky and will make you say, "ouch."

Just reading the story gave me major heebie-jeebies. While I think suing for $20 million is a little much, bedbugs are just gross. Ewww. Ewww. Ewww.

My roommate at the beginning of last summer brought them into our new apartment with her bed from a vacation condo in the Poconos. She had 30-50 bites and her doctor said that was the worst case he'd ever seen. Those little buggers survived the first fumigation and most of them the second round, too. The extermination guys finally told us to get some silicone to seal up the cracks in the walls and doorframe to trap any hiding ones, to spray with this heavy duty stuff in the cracks and in the rug and to vacuum every day for about a month because that's how often they generally feed and they just hide in tiny crevices until they need to do it again.

*shudder*

I'm glad that's all over now.


I wonder if the hotel is going to sue the pest control company.

http://medent.usyd.edu.au/photos/cimexpth.jpg

"They can hide in a space the thickness of a playing card."
"They can live for up to a year without food." (and then greet the new tenants.)
"There's a resurgance across the country due to widespread travel and the banning of various pesticides."

Blea.

Yuck I was wondering how big they are, cos i wont be going to bedagain without checking under my sheets. I agree 20 mil is a bit much but I wouldnt want to go thru that!!

Ask for 20 mil... settle outta court for 10 then give the lawers half. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Oh... and take your own sheets ;)

I'm going to move to America and sleep in dirty hotels. It's exactly like winning the lottery except the odds are better.

Agreed. Bedbugs... ewww. I actually got a couple bedbug bites once and I was miserable - I can only imagine how much it would suck to have 500 bites. Yikes.

I tried the local pet stores but they've all had a run on bed-bugs. Best I could get were brine shrinp. I hope they'll bite.
Then I find out the Marriott is completely booked.
Motel 6 had rooms but they wanted me to sign a bed-bug waiver.

Damn. Foiled again.

Are brine shrimp good on salad?

I throw my pillows in the dryer every time I bleech my sheets. As I understand it, bed bugs (and other critters) don't do well above maybe 130 degrees F for several minutes. It won't stop the matress bugs, but it's a start. Otherwise, check and see if your matress, pillows, sofas, etc. are treated with DDT (a very old treatement from the 50s-60s that makes quick work of bedbugs). If not, don't let the house get messy too often. SDouble check clothes and luggage after traveling. Check used furntire. Vaccume.

And a big fat ewwww.

That's hilarious! :thumbsup:

heh oh God...it reminds me of the first time I went to New York City..
I did all this research on hotels to stay at, and when I was reading reviews, I freaked out!!! Quite a few people had bed bug problems!!! As soon as I got to my hotel there, I inspected the room soooooo well....I had read about looking in specific places to find them during the day, and I was on the hunt! Luckily, I didn;t find any, but I still couldn;t sleep all night, because the slightest itch made me think they were all over me LOL....

Our pillows would have short holidays in the chest freezer wrapped in plastic - I understand it does the same thing. There is just something icky about parasites isnt there - although there is the poem by John Donne
The Flea
Marke but this flea, and marke in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
Me it suck'd first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled bee;
Confesse it, this cannot be said
A sinne, or shame, or losse of maidenhead,

Yet this enjoyes before it wooe,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.


Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
When we almost, nay more than maryed are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloysterd in these living walls of Jet.

Though use make thee apt to kill me,
Let not to this, selfe murder added bee,
And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.


Cruell and sodaine, has thou since
Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence?
In what could this flea guilty bee,
Except in that drop which it suckt from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou
Find'st not thyself, nor mee the weaker now;

'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;
Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.



Is there a sonnet to the bed bug?

Actually the overuse of DDT/pesticides is one of the reasons the fuckers are so hard to get rid of, they've been more or less immune to even DDT since the 60s. Nuking them in the dryer over and over is one of the only ways to kill them.

Bed bugs are a real problem in Cincinnati. I'm usually all for purchasing furniture at thrift shops, but that's one method of spreading the little buggers... creepy things, these little bugs.

I stayed in a hotel a few weeks ago. After listening to this interview, I followed her advice and tossed all of our luggage in the bathtub while I stripped the bed, pulled the cushions out of the chair, and checked for signs of bedbugs.

If I hadn't been so broke, I would have gone the whole nine yards and gotten Luminol powder to mix up in a spray bottle and check the mattress CSI style. As it is, I found no signs of infestation in reviews or in person, and can wholeheartedly recommend the Plaza Radisson Warwick in Philadelphia.