Bed bugs are taking over

Caravansera We also have millions of people arriving from all sorts of places across the world, both legally and illegally, carrying goodness knows what with them. In London some of them are living in very cramped conditions, working day and night and sleeping in shifts in the same beds. The bed bugs can move around quite freely.

10 yrs ago the first night of an Africa trip l saw 2 women near the pool, their legs were covered in bites. Expecting insect problem I had taken a large can of insecticide, and sprayed the bed thoroughly before dinner. It was fine afterwards, I did need it later in the trip for flying insects.

In 2016, the National Institute for Health was reporting that the global population of bed bugs was increasing by 100%-500% a year, largely driven by the global travel industry.

Bed bugs neither fly not jump. They can only crawl from one source of blood to another. Females need a supply of blood before they lay eggs.

One of the most common hiding places is said to be behind the fixed headboards in hotel rooms.

NIH report that bed bugs carry 45 or more disease pathogens but that no published study has demonstrated a causal relationship between bed bugs and infectious disease transmission in humans.

Bed bugs are thought to date back millenia when man shared caves with bats. We know that some of the most dangerous viruses in recent years have transmitted from bats into the human food chain possibly through cross pathogens so it doesn’t seem out of the question that bed bugs might, one day, be responsible for something similar.

I suspect this currently plague is a result of the period of lockdown followed by a subsequent surge in travel. Bed bugs go into full or semi hibernation, allowing them to survive even without a blood feed for more than 6 months. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that they are capable of increasing their egg-laying after a period of “drought” so that two years on from when travel restrictions were lifted, this is the result, aided by very warm weather conditions.

RosiesMaw

Trust the DM to help whip up a panic.
Keeping what other news off the front pages I wonder? The Labour Party conference perhaps ?
( Unworthy thought Maw )

I recently heard the port Brian Bilston read this one of his poems

I would rather
eat Quavers that are six week’s stale,
blow dry the hair of Gareth Bale,
listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,
than read one page of the Daily Mail.

If I were bored
in a waiting room in Perivale,
on a twelve hour trip on British rail
or a world circumnavigational sail,
I would not read the Daily Mail.

I would happily read
the complete works of Peter Mayle,
the autobiography of Dan Quayle,
selected scripts from Emmerdale,
but I couldn’t ever read the Daily Mail.

Far better to
stand outside in a storm of hail,
be blown out to sea in a powerful gale
then swallowed by a humpback whale
than have to read the Daily Mail.

Even if
I were blind
and it was the only thing
in Braille,
I still would not read
the Daily Mail.

Not a fan then? 😂😂😂

Is it to do with the weather getting warmer accompanied by the humidity of rain... might be a perfect breeding ground?

RosiesMaw Of course the DM love to whip up a panic about anything, but they haven't made up the panic about bed bugs. These are pictures, videos and comments that London travellers have posted.

I agree their main page is usually awful, but if you scratch beneath the surface there are some fascinating and beautiful articles about people and places (in their Science or Travel sections). They have also run some very worthwhile campaigns (i.e. pornography campaign) so they're not all bad.

Just in case some people think that bedbugs are caused by dirty homes, they’re not. They just love human blood.
I suppose you could call the the insect community vampire 😂

www.bedbugsinsider.com/are-bed-bugs-caused-by-poor-hygiene-and-uncleanliness/

karmalady

I expect they are a lot smaller before they have a meal

This is really horrible but that did make me laugh, karmalady.

My friend said years ago that she used to spray their bed with insecticide every few months and was surprised that I'd never heard of this.

But if they've become resistant to insecticides what now?

Meryl your post reminds me of my favourite Pam Ayres poem -

My mother had a Flit Gun
It was not devoid of charm
A bit of Flit shot out of it
The rest shot up 'er arm

Boom Boom

POET not “port” ! 🍷

Trust the DM to help whip up a panic.
Keeping what other news off the front pages I wonder? The Labour Party conference perhaps ?
( Unworthy thought Maw )

I recently heard the port Brian Bilston read this one of his poems

I would rather
eat Quavers that are six week’s stale,
blow dry the hair of Gareth Bale,
listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,
than read one page of the Daily Mail.

If I were bored
in a waiting room in Perivale,
on a twelve hour trip on British rail
or a world circumnavigational sail,
I would not read the Daily Mail.

I would happily read
the complete works of Peter Mayle,
the autobiography of Dan Quayle,
selected scripts from Emmerdale,
but I couldn’t ever read the Daily Mail.

Far better to
stand outside in a storm of hail,
be blown out to sea in a powerful gale
then swallowed by a humpback whale
than have to read the Daily Mail.

Even if
I were blind
and it was the only thing
in Braille,
I still would not read
the Daily Mail.

Here is another article. There is panic spreading (understandably) but I do wonder if they have all actually been identified as bed bugs. People will be freaking out if they see anything bug-like.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12613829/Bed-bug-panic-London-Underground-TfL-Tube.html

Thanks whitewave,Nicenanny and Chestnut. Now I know! I don’t think I have ever seen one but will be watching out now. I have seen a lot of fleas, however, on various animals we have had at times. I deflea the cats every few months, more often in Summer. We had a plague once and had to bomb the house, horrible little beasts andI suppose they are a bit similar.

Yuk!

They are about the size of a medium size woodlouse, you can see them definitely but they move quite quickly, when you see one there are pal's near by..

I have guests coming from london and had read about the bedbugs. Got the heebie jeebies and I will be going into their room as soon as they leave, to wash bedding, upend mattress vacuum etc. Luckily it is a new house with no gaps in skirtings and with quickstep flooring. I have removed the thin woollen rug to a different room

I hope your friends/family never discover you thought they might bring bedbugs with them!
How much does this remind me of the provincial ladies that evacuees from the cities were billeted on in WWII.
As usual the media have hyped this up to the point of panic- I wonder which particular bad news hey are aiming to “bury” ?

I expect they are a lot smaller before they have a meal

For all those asking about the size, look at the video of the man who filmed one on his trousers. You can clearly see it.

I can hardly believe all this. I was born and raised in London and travelled the tube daily for about 7 years. But I have never in my life seen bed bugs.

Normally , I pick up fleas on the bus around Christmas time when the bus is full of people , who look a bit rough .
I'm not criticising them - who knows what sort of conditions they have to live in .
But I picked up about a dozen of them about a week ago .
One of them gave me a nasty bite , which became infected on my boob !
A good shampoo followed by a soak in the tub usually gets rid of them .

I'm wondering if a hot iron passed over soft furnishings and mattresses would kill bed bugs .

0:09nanna8

How big are they? Can you actually see them or are they really tiny ? I have been in motels where I itched half the night but couldn’t see anything, maybe that’s what it was ?

All parasites are revolting. Ticks are another thing I loath and looking at pictures of tape worms etc 😮😮😮😮

They were just part of life for thousands of us growing up in poor housing. I was 15 when they started what they called slum clearance in south London. Everyone’s belongings were fumigated before we moved into new housing.
If your squeamish don’t crush it with your fingers, they are full of blood, that’s what they do at night while you’re asleep.
A favourite hiding place is the seams of mattresses.
It’s a wonder that we are all still alive given the amount of Flit my mother sprayed around 😱

nanna8 read that they are like a flat apple pip.

To stop the spread, do not place your overnight bag/suitcase on the bed when you travel/return home. Putting it into the bath seems to be the advice.
If you have them, a useful tip is to buy a plastic cover for a new mattress when you buy one. You can buy little Interceptor Traps for the feet of your bed from Amazon once you've been fumigated. Wash your clothes and place in airtight bags.

Is this yet another reason to turn into a hermit? COVID has definitely made me quite anti-social, I’m happy to admit I’ve become quite reclusive, am much more reluctant to mix with strangers, etc. than I used to be.
Maybe we’re just reverting back to life as it was. Bedbugs, fleas, etc. used to be common place.