Post #426,329
11/12/18 10:36:01 AM
11/12/18 10:36:01 AM
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bite me!
Vacationing in Puerto Vallarta with friends at their somewhat spartan beachside condo south of town. The guest bedroom has proven to be infested with cimicids, or “bed bugs” as they are known to the laity. The bites of these creatures—I appear to be accumulating these at the rate of about a dozen per night—are what you might expect from a mosquito that has mated with a sprig of poison oak. The sites quickly raise disgusting blisters which presently rupture and ooze, so I am gradually becoming covered with suppurating sores. This does not conduce to a relaxing holiday; still less does anxiety about transporting the infestation back to The Crumbling Manse™.
Hell and damn.
vastly disgruntled,
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Post #426,331
11/12/18 10:45:14 AM
11/12/18 10:45:14 AM
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Good news! Getting rid of bed bugs is a solved problem.
Bad news! It involves burning the place to the ground.
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Post #426,332
11/12/18 11:26:12 AM
11/12/18 11:26:12 AM
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After you get to your home town visit a laundromat before going home
Buy some sweats, put them in a plastic bag. Ditch the luggage and put everything in a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes, get a shower if you can, and change into the new clothes.
If you can manage it, getting the new clothes and making that switch before the plane ride will be appreciated by everyone on your flight. Bagging everything inside the luggage might help too, but unless you just leave everything in Mexico you're going to be transporting them somehow.
Good luck. Bed bugs are a terrible thing to get rid of once they get in a house. Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #426,340
11/12/18 5:11:00 PM
11/12/18 5:11:00 PM
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Ah, yes!
Old friends in the refuge camp in Germany. As I recall, my father used kerosene to reduce their population. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #426,345
11/12/18 6:42:13 PM
11/12/18 6:42:13 PM
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Does the kerosene need to be lit to work?
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Post #426,346
11/12/18 10:42:34 PM
11/12/18 10:42:34 PM
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No! It's just a question of contact with the bugs or theur eggs in the crevices of the bed frame...
and mattress edges. I can remember the smell was not pleasant. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #426,342
11/12/18 5:27:42 PM
11/12/18 5:27:42 PM
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borax the crap out of the bed
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
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Post #426,347
11/13/18 12:19:30 AM
11/13/18 12:19:30 AM
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Ignore everything they say
There is a post travel antibedbug kit. It simply contains a plastic bag and a small "no pest strip". You have to leave EVERYTHING you bring back in the bag for at least 2 life cycles to get them all and be sure.
Do this BEFORE you go home. Hell, rent a car at the airport for the task, bag EVERYTHING with the strips, and then get your car. Take no chances.
I went through about 9 months of bedbug reinfestation after multiple kill passes (including the professional hormone disrupters) before I figured this out.
Of course, this was after I basically threw out everything in this room.
I also had a couch that had fleas. I wrapped it in plastic and threw a no pest strip in.
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Post #426,351
11/13/18 11:43:21 AM
11/13/18 11:43:21 AM
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At least 2 life cycles?
Adult bed bugs can live for a year without food.
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Post #426,360
11/14/18 9:14:52 AM
11/14/18 9:14:52 AM
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Actually much longer, but we don't need that
I kept one in a jar for a year. Fucker was still alive when my house burned.
I mean the amount of time eggs takes to hatch, grow to adult, breed, and do it again. Couple of months.
While the no pest strip vapor will kill everything BUT eggs, he wants to be sure they ALL hatch in the vapor enclosed space. And wait out the possibility of vapor blocked area. Shake that bag daily.
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Post #426,368
11/14/18 3:50:03 PM
11/14/18 3:50:03 PM
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Gracias indeed..
While I haven't the problemo, it's comforting to learn at least One 'What Actually Works!' recipe.. I've heard the horror stories too many times--endless re-'fixing' tries--to take for granted that ..I'm immune {somehow}. :-)
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Post #429,136
5/24/19 9:45:06 PM
5/24/19 9:45:06 PM
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bite me! part deux
We returned to the same premises last week, our host having sworn to us that the infestation had been addressed.
He misspoke. In fairness, the population appears to have been thinned out, and I averaged only two or three bites per evening, but this is not what one looks for in a tropical vacation.
We are undertaking the usual prophylactic measures back home.
irritably,
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