Then what was the old meaning?

And if they do, hit them with a shoe!

DamienOujia: You are supposed to squeeze them not hit them with a shoe.

If I remember corretly it is: "Nite nite. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. If they bite, squeeze them tight and they won't come back another night."

Well, I always heard, "If they do, blown them up with dynamite."

the saying actually came from when beds were made of straw and box springs weren't invented. Beds had ropes running under the straw mattress to keep the mattress from falling through at night and you would have to tighten the ropes before going to sleep each night because the ropes would be loose from the night before.

Yes exactly correct!

While your comment might appear cocky, there actually are some dangers for the general population with a half million illegals entering annually.

There is a reason why legal immigrants get medical exams before leaving and upon entry in the U.S. Many foreign countries' citizens carry diseases that are serious and easily spread. People who have come from poor economic situations have had little or no medical care and have no awareness of what they might have. In their illegal status, they are often afraid to enter the medical system (or can't afford it), so they fester and spread their disease. To make it worse, they often find jobs in hotels, kitchens, food handling and packaging, and so on, which are perfect places to effectively pass their problems to others.

Right because people with a passport or visa who stay in hotels obviously couldn't carry them. I mean that's just crazy talk. The GOP didn't mind cheap illegal labor when the economy was booming but now that economy is in the dumps, everyone is all distraught over this terrible problem.

When I hire illegal immigrants I spray them for bedbugs before they start to work. Problem solved. If a democrat or liberal gets past my security and sets foot on my land, I disinfect the land too.

To say nothing of the information in the article:

...they think it’s due to poor hygiene, or it’s a problem that only affects the lower classes. In fact, prior to 2006, bed bugs were mostly found in upper end hotels in business and leisure travel destinations such as New York, Boston, Orlando and San Francisco, Cooper says."

Yes, it is easier to blame everything that is wrong/negative on the the lower classes and people who are in some way different from the mainstream.

pgcl

Just another unintended consequence of the global economy and unchecked immigration.

Provide proof please, particularly regarding the latter accusation.

Oh wait...

You can't.

Please mind, I am no fan of 'unchecked immigration'. (Go Arizona!! *waves pom pom's*) However, attempting to implicate that an insect infestation that could have a myriad of causes (possibly several at once), is the result of 'unchecked immigration' is vicious, stupid speculation fueled by the usual ignorance, fear, and bigotry.

Perhaps when you can turn off the monkey-brain and stop merely shaking tree branches and begin to actually think you may be worth listening to.

And that goes for the rest of you providing this idiocy with 'attaboys'. Good grief.

Last time I checked with them the bugs didn't seem to care what your social status was. They will bite you no matter who you are!

Morgan S....

the article specifically mentioned "immigration" as one of the causes of the resurgence of bed bugs.

reading > you

Morgan I was merely stating a fact. We had all but eradicated bed bugs in our country. The easy travel between nations, that have not been so successful, is one major cause for the infestation in our country. You seem to be able to jump to conclusions with ease, maybe you are the one swinging in the branches.

bed bugs, though nasty, are the least of our medical worries when it comes to illegals. they are bringing a lot of diseases back into the US. pgcl is absolutely correct.

Racist, bigot republicans are the most disgusting creature on the planet. They should be deported, and keep the undocumented workers. Their attitudes suck!

EXACTLY. Let more brown skins in who sleep in the mud and wipe their butts with their hands and don't know about soap or deoderant... Mexico, India, the middle east and some Asian countries... man... we should spray them down with exterminating fluid and keep everyone in some form of hospital testing them at their expense for virus and infections .... no one cares anymore in our country you're labeled a bigot and rascists if you speak the truth... no one likes the truth especially Religious white americans.

I've heard the little buggers actually prefer first class to a walk in the desert.

I suppose increased global air travel is also Obama's fault.

Try the 'bedbug registry"(no joke) for info on a hotel near you.

In fact, much of this is caused because institutions now refuse to use bleach or ammonia for cleaning, citing allergic reactions. I have never met anyone allergic to either one, it is obviously a marketing ploy by chemical corporations manufacturing less effective substances for the same kind of cleaning. Unfortunately, hotel and hospital managers are beleiving it. Also, it has always been typical for motels and hotels to only wash sheets and pillowcases, neglecting the laundering of everything else, for 'who knows how many weeks'.

LOL! Bed bugs have been around for how long? Oh your right normally we require bed bugs to have a passport but since their hitching a ride its illegal immigration.

What an idiotic sentiment. It's well established that the outbreak started in primarily upper class domestic areas. Luxury hotels are pretty much the only culprit here. This is a homegrown infestation.

You people will jump on any opportunity to rage against the darkies won't you.

These right wing bigots will blame any thing and everything on the "Darkies" won't they! Wow!

Nothing like ignoring the data and just rolling with the bigotry and hatred!

When staying in an upscale hotel in Cairo, Egypt, I found I was being bitten by something. An examination of the bed showed the little black specks that the disease book said were indicative of bedbugs (Cimex lectularius). I reported the finding to the manager and he denied the possibility, but gave me another room. The next trip to Egypt, I carried flea powder, which I applied to the bed, wherever I was. I don't know if it worked; I only know that I wasn't troubled again.

Cimex doesn't carry any known disease and if you are in Egypt or almost any other country you can expect Pharaoh's Revenge (Shigella sp) or Mongtezuma's if you are in Mexico. In a month, your whole cutaneous ecosystem will change, whether you like it or not, follicle mites you haven't been introduced to and who don't like your own mites (yes, you have them), mossquitos carrying various things, little flies that carry scrub typhus, etc, etc. You itch just thinking of them all.

A lot of the increase in bed bug problems is because DDT was banned several years ago. It was very effective in getting rid of them. The insecticides we have now just don't work as well.

A lot of the increase in bed bug problems is because DDT was banned several years ago. It was very effective in getting rid of them. The insecticides we have now just don't work as well.

abanksone - I thought that was the most important point in the whole article - that most of the insecticides previously used to combat bedbugs have been banned due to environmental concerns. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Good grief - no one has blamed Obama for this yet?? - now it is the illegal immigrant. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this problem became a problem a few years back with businessmen flying back and forth and staying in foreign hotels. A friend who travels a lot around the world told me several years ago many of the business men were complaining of bed bugs in their hotels, and in several instances they brought the little bugs home with them. So be careful who you blame - you could be next.

flylowguy

What in the world has given you the idea that immigration or customs checks for bedbugs? Someone can have all their shots and be completely disease free, and still carry these little guys. If you read the article you will note that first class hotels were the first places where the problem was noted.

While I agree with you that poor people generally do not have access to health care (in that respect, the US represents a real danger to other countries since we have millions with no access to health care and an increasingly larger poor population) and that it is important that visitors from both sides have the appropriate vaccinations and shots and be free of easily communicated diseases including TB, etc., all that really has nothing to do with this problem.

Yes, illegals come here with their bedbugs or pick them up in stash houses and crammed vans that transport them to jobs in -- hospitality. Customers stay in the motel or hotel, pick up bedbug eggs on their clothes and carry them home. Where they hatch.

So even though it is well documented that the infestation STARTED in the hotels, not in the homes of the poor, not in public transportation where people of all modest means congregate in mass numbers, in which the single most important factor is not how many immigrants you have in your city but how many people and how many luxury hotels, it's all just a giant conspiracy to hide the fact that those damn dirty immigrants are living in filth and contaminating good ol rich Americans.

If that logic were a rubber band it'd snap in your face.

No, DDT doesn't work on them; it has been applied so much that, like most other common pests, they are resistant.

If you want to make medical care expenses and quality reasonable for the average person, then bring back your d.d.t. and dursban again. Otherwise, those are requests of fools.

Bed bugs are not resistant to DDT. It has been off the market so long, the current populations would be affected by it. They are showing resistance to pyrethroids, the most popular pesticides currently being used.

Actually, once resistance is in a population, it is essentially there to stay. It's very easy to breed in resistance (only the resistance ones survive in the face of pesticides), but almost impossible to breed it out (there's no good reason for the resistant ones to die faster than non-resistant, once the pesticide pressure is removed). So yes, they are still resistant to DDT. Highly resistant, in fact. So the answer is not simply "bring back DDT, you hippies!".

Maybe you should have read the article.....see below.

"The cost can be anywhere from $800 to $1,200 or more for a one-bedroom apartment, a steep price tag in the midst of a tough economy. The result, says Cooper, is that bed bugs are “rapidly reservoiring” in lower-income communities."“It’s bad news for the country,” he says.

You are absolutely correct and I made a similar comment as you did to his earlier post on bed bugs a few weeks ago. The problem is not immigration or illegals. As well as the comment about legal immigrants getting health inspection before and after leaving the US. Obviously this person has never traveled outside the US, so therefore ignorance is bliss. Just another assumption of which we all know what assumptions are. Other countries might have issues with medical conditions, but I think the problem with bed bugs is becoming a US problem. Travelers from outside the US should be more concerned about returning home with these little American bugs than we should be concerned about them being brought into the US.

the article specifically mentioned "immigration" as one of the causes of the resurgence of bed bugs.

reading > you

Illegal aliens and immegrants that do food work, housekeeping at the lower pay scale are the major reason for infestation and the spread of disease through poor hygiene, this affects meat plants, restaurants, produce farms and hotels.

People wake up and realize the government won't tell you the truth and neither will the news media but if you ask the people who know they'll tell you it goes back to third world hygiene and lack of training with no care of the consequences, it's all about maximizing profit and breaking American labor.

About 10 years ago I purchased a dresser from a flea market. I took it home cleaned it out and about 2 months later I noticed red bumps on my body and they were very itchy. Well it ended up being bed bugs. I had my place exterminated (one bedroom apartment) for about $350. I doubt the dresser belonged to an illegal immigrant.

I rented a terrible furnished place once upon a time, and woke up ransacked with bites. I scrubbed down, sent out all of my clothes to be cleaned, took a place with hardwood only floors, had it completely scrubbed down, then proceeded to buy new furniture. I can only imagine you would literally have to rip out your carpet and throw out all bedding including your mattress to get rid of these nasty little bugs.

Are the effects of chorpyifos cumulative or does the body pass the chemical off after a period of time? Is there an antidote for the chemical?

Some chemical are residual and the body retains them and th effects are cumulative, I think DDT was like that.

The bed bug issue is but a symptom of people trying to save money and the environment over their own health. I am an environmentalist, but I use bleach for my whites. Yes, bleach is not environmentally friendly, but I don't like athlete's foot. If there is a better way to sanitize something with for it, i.e., a dishwasher, or steam mop, but bleach is best for sanitizing. I also use it to disinfect doorknobs, light switches, cell phones, etc., along with bathrooms and kitchen counters. Until I find something better, bleach stays.

Same thing for saving money. I do not lower the temperature on my hot water heater to save money, nor do I wash my clothes in cold water. Sheets, towels, etc., get hot water; everything else gets warm water, sometimes I even wash my colored and delicate clothes in hot water. There is almost nothing better for cleaning something than hot water, unless you can get steam.

I also get an exterminator on a regular basis, and he does not use the new environmental stuff.

Saving the environment is great, but not at the expense of my health. As a result of my efforts, I have not gotten a food-borne illness, a serious bout of the flu, bedbugs, roaches, etc.

It's called infestation for a reason. Once you get these bugs, the solution is expensive, and your social/economic status has nothing to do with if you get infested or not. I remember seeing an article a few years ago that reported that high-end hotels in large cities were getting more and more infected by bed bugs. I'm talking $400 a night hotel rooms. Since people didn't know what they were, by the time they got home and infected their own houses, the clean-up was extensive. This has nothing to do with immigration.

I view my front door as the front line of defense; wash your hands immediately when you get home, leave your shoes at the door, and sanitize regularly. You will be amazed how less sick you get.

As for the illegals bringing the stuff in--my dad told me that after WWII, the Americans sprayed DDT on everyone and head lice disappeared from Greece. The hippies brought head lice back to Greece. Maybe we should ban Americans from traveling? Reality check--bugs don't check your immigration status.

I say that we should find ways to use DDT and Dursban again, albeit in a way that wouldn't harm people or the environment. How hard can it be to find environmental equivalents? I'll bet our grandparents had solutions for this problem.

Bleach, and also ammonia, are the most environmentally friendly inorganic cleaners that exist. But an environmentally friendly, and also food-safe, heavy duty cleaner is white vinegar, a 100% natural disinfectant.

If you want to make medical care expenses and quality reasonable for the average person, then bring back your d.d.t. and dursban again. Otherwise, those are requests of fools.

The loss of DDT (a large part due to Silent Spring) was a huge blow to fighting pests. More people were killed by the book than DDT. DDT is stored in human fat tissue, but does not break down into any compound that affects us. No research has ever tied cancer or disease to DDT exposure. There was a professor that ate a spoonful of DDT in front of his class every semester to show how safe it was.

The thinning of eagle and other raptor egg shells (and pelican and other birds) had nothing to do with DDT, it was due to the use of low-calcium diets in the test studies. Raptors had bounties on them for decades before the use of DDT and this is what drove down their numbers.

Here is a good rundown of DDT facts:

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.html

Great post Bugman, thanks for sharing.

Maybe the bed bugs can be killed with oil and we can give tax cuts the richest in america so they can protect themselves from their immigrant workers that clean their homes.

Only if the bushies left them behind. At least we would understand what Obama was saying if he did give a speech. Oh well, an idiot or an educated person at the helm - you pick yours, I'll pick mine. His tax cuts sure did enhance my personal fortune - how is yours doing?

ok we get it...You don't like the administration...it's old, it's tired...move on.

Jim-631302

His tax cuts sure did enhance my personal fortune - how is yours doing?

__________________________________________________________________________

Yes just like "Mr." Obama's tax cut gave me a whopping $16 dollars a month but at the end of the year I had to pay $1100.00 to the IRS. That was an increase of almost $900 dollars from the year before and the only increase in my income was the $16.00 dollars a month so yes I am really excited by the new administration. All of Washington is infested with blood sucking bugs but they are all human. I'm beginning to think I could live with the small bed bug easier than the Washington variety.

We all realize that you have your political differences. However, what does that have to do with the subject at hand: bedbugs.

Jim and Gimainco.

it would suffice to say that neither President Bush nor President Obamas tax cuts did a hill a beans for either of you. It is probably true that neither are you are in the upper 5 % of income earners in the country. But I'm sure one of you will continue to argue the bogeyman that repealing the tax cut for those that are in that upper eschelon will somehow harm you, your neighbor, and bring and end to the country as we know it. Somehow we don't see that we're all in the same boat. Unforturnately many think that taxcuts are any different than spending.

You can check bedbugregisrty.com.

It is a free, public database of bedbug infestations. After unknowingly inheriting an infestation when we bought our house, we discovered this site and now we always check it before we book hotels.

Believe it or not, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is listed.

That's President Obama by the way.

Maybe you burn the house down?

Yep, burning the house down would effectively eliminate your bedbugs!

But, I think the preferred choice of professionals is trying to draft liquid nitrogen over the hiding places they prefer. Instead of putting a lot of heat into them, using cryogenics sucks a lot of heat out of them, essentially a 'reverse burn'.

You're still probably looking at throwing out your mattress and I wouldn't be surprised if your sheets, blankets, pillows, carpet, and drapes also have to get pitched...

We inherited an infestation when we bought our house. The heat treatment basically consisted of a large heat pump and a some flexible ducting running into one of the windows. I believe that 'salamander' is the commercial name for the heat pump they used. I've seen smaller versions of them on the sidelines at football games. They raised the temperature inside the treated rooms to 150 degrees F for 90 minutes. The overall treatment took a little mroe than two hours. It cost us two grand, but was soooo worth it.

On a smaller scale, using a steam cleaner to heat treat known infestation areas can also be effective. We used this during the three weeks we were waiting for the 'big guns' (had to schedule weeks in advance). Steam seemed towork pretty well, but was definitely labor intensive, and required lots of inspections.

I'm not certain that I'm familiar with a 'salamander', but if it's what I'm thinking you're referring to, it's portable propane or kerosene fueled forced air furnace. Around my parts, they're usually known as a construction heater, since they're usually used to heat the inside of a building while carpenters finish it off during the winter. I'm sure it could heat things up to 150 after a while...they're kind of like standing in front of a small jet engine. If it really worked for you, maybe 150 ambient temp for an hour and a half will reach 'em where they hide and do them in. My fear would have been that the cracks and crevices they were in wouldn't warm up quite that much, maybe just to a hundred or one ten, which is about what a hot air duct is when the furnace is running.

Thanks for the info. I will look into these things.

They key to this may be the word 'HOT'. Most water heaters are set to about 120 from the factory...I'm not sure that's hot enough. While the luggage is sitting outside, you may want to turn the water heater up as high as it will go and wait a bit for it to reach that new high temperature. Otherwise, you could boil water on the stove to pour over the luggage.

Ultraviolet light is detrimental to a lot of things, so setting something in the bright sun all afternoon may really help in and of itself.

I use 91% isopropyl alcohol to sterilize a lot of things that are sensitive to bleach, since it evaporates very quickly. This works quite well for mildew, as does sunlight, so spraying alcohol from a pump bottle onto a garment or suitcase that is then left in the sun may help.

Another good one is carburetor and choke cleaner. It is also very volatile and is gone almost instantly. Part of the effect is that anything it's evaporating from becomes very cold. Not liquid nitrogen cold, but cold enough. It's very effective at killing insects, as it chemically burns them while virtually freezing them at the same time. I'm not sure how well it works on bedbugs, but it's cheap enough and typically won't damage things too badly. Do it outside, naturally, with the standard precautions for a volatile, flammable chemical, and let your stuff air out well afterwards. Of course, you will definitely want to try some on that inconspicuous corner first to test for colorfastness, just in case!

I wonder if using a fire extinguisher on your clothes and suitcase before bringing them in the house would work?

I'll bet it would. Just be sure that it's a carbon dioxide extinguisher!

Carbon Tetrachloride and Halon are now a thing of the past...not sure if they'd work for bedbugs, but both are very effective for rodents! Problem was, they might as well have been carbon monoxide...they worked by displacing oxygen to suffocate the fire, and hence, anything that requires oxygen, for that matter...

You see mostly dry chemical extinguishers, which I wouldn't recommend. They probably wouldn't work, but they also make a heck of a mess, too. A stainless steel water bottle, the kind that you always used to see in school hallways, isn't going to do much, either, since it's just pressurized water to combat a class 'A' paper fire. Not too many of those still around, though.

If you can find a CO2 extinguisher, the kind with the big bell at the end of the hose, it sure as heck will freeze the little buggers. My dad occasionally recounts how a favorite trick at Cam Rahn Bay in Viet Nam was to put your beer in a Styrofoam cooler, raise the lid just enough to insert the hose nozzle, then spray away. Voila! Instant ICE COLD BEER!!! And an empty fire extinguisher...

One could check around with industrial gas suppliers to see what a cylinder of CO2 for soft drink carbonation or as inert shielding gas for welding would run and what it would take to adapt a pressure bottle of it for this duty. Might need gloves, though, because whatever you use to distribute it into the floorboards and wherever could get frosty cold in a hurry!

Um hate to break it to you but this is not just a NY problem also you probably wouldnt see a bed bug as they are tiny.

10mm is 3/8 of an inch. That's half the size of a dog. How can't anybody see the things?

Holy crap how tiny are your dogs??? Also, you don't see them often, because they're nocturnal. That's what happened at the Hollister store, since they keep it dark all the time, they didn't know when night was, and the bugs just went crazy all the time.

I am so sorry that you went through such a nightmare! I travel internationally and am terrified of bringing bedbugs home with me. Thank you for sharing your story - I hope it will make others realize how serious of a problem this is.

Bobby, I'm so sorry that happened to you. My sister and I were landlords and our tenants, after living in the house for a year, somehow brought in bed bugs and didn't let us know until it was a full-blown infestation. It was rented as a furnished house - every single piece of furniture, drapes, etc. had to be thrown out. The tenants had to move out. We exterminated 5 times before the problem was under control, and the place needed to remain vacant for over a year until we could be sure the problem was under control. At that point, every square inch of the place - corners, ceilings, closets - had to be scrubbed to remove dead bedbug residue. It was a nightmare and cost us well over $10,000. We would come home after scrubbing and undress outside and then throw our clothes away after each day working on the house. I would see "bedbugs" everywhere I looked even though they weren't there. Simply awful! And our tenants asked if they could have their security deposit back. You have every right to be really angry with your landlord. It doesn't sound like they did the right thing.

My friend had a situation in a college dorm with bed bugs. They got a foreign student from Ethiopia and this guy was disgusting as hell, hygeine-wise. Well, everyone started to get these rashes sometime after the guy left the school. Someone realizes it was bed bugs and they found out the source when they went to move the mattress that the foreign student had slept on. The bed bugs were on/in the mattress as well as the couch that he had slept on (no one used that couch anymore after he had slept on it because there was a smell on it and a 'stain.') So, 3 things happened and you'll laugh at the third one:

1. an exterminator was called and the building was going to be 'tented,' if you want to call it that.

2. my friend had a hard time covering his fish tanks (he had huge tanks and they needed to be covered. There is no way you can move these tanks out. I have no idea how his fish lived).

3. Before the exterminator came, the guys living in the dorm took out the mattress and couch and set it on fire. The school was going to chuck those items out, anyways, as they were getting in newer furniture for the coming semester (they way my friend described it was that you can bring a couch home if you wanted to and the school didn't have a problem with it). When I asked why they didn't just leave it there, he said that no one was going to use the mattress and couch again. The B.O. this guy had would not leave the couch/mattress (along with the stains) and one of the guy's mothers tried to clean them. The smell wouldn't leave. So, setting it on fire was the only option, lol.

In the decade from 1990-2000 the illegal population increased approximately 142%.

from 2000 to now the illegal population has increase around 35%.

The bedbug issue has become an increasing problem (3-fold increase since 2008 ) recently.

I guess you're saying illegal immigrants just decided to start bring bed bugs with them?

Ok we get it. You're mad at something and have nothing to offer.

Why, yes, bed bugs only come into the US with illegal aliens. There are no bed bugs in any other country in the world because all of them are now in the US, through illegal immigration. Bed bugs can sense legal immigrants AND tourists and avoid all of them. And certainly, bed bugs could not be indigenous to the US.

Actually, bed bugs did not even exist before 1986, when Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law that granted amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal immgrants.

How ignorant of people to believe that bed bugs are the result of illegal immigration!

you need to educate yourself - it angers me to see illegal immigrants and/or aliens blamed for every problem that befalls us.....get a life

My husbands parents told me about renting a small house, when they were first married. (Remember this was at least 50 years ago.) When they went to bed, they felt something dropping on them, and it was bedbugs dropping off the walls and ceiling! So this is NOT a recent occurrence. I suspect they sprayed with DDT, but they never told me how they got rid of the things. This was in NC, where the weather is generally mild. Plus, there were very few immigrants back then, except for legal ones. For a long time, you never heard of bedbugs, now all of a sudden they seem to be every where. So what does this mean? Were they possibly eradicated until people brought in a new plague?

Will they get it? Our environment is already soaked with pesticides.

Only food grade diatomaceous earth is not harmful to pets and humans. I had to order it online. The stuff sold at places like Lowe's and Home Depot is not food grade and is poisonous.

You are missing the fact that the illegals work for the rich and also in the hotels that cater to those rich people. The article said the bug can be transported on clothing and bags. I'm not saying they came from the illegals but I'm also not counting that out since it is a possibility.

AK: Second-hand mattresses and upholstered furniture is an absolute no-no! Why do you think IKEA was invented?

I believe that we once brought bedbugs into our home from a long, long flight from Down Under, and it took alot of hard work to get rid of them. The nasty little critters had all of that time to creep into our bags and possibly even our clothing. Another possible factor was that the neighborhood in Sydney where we stayed was too fancy for laundromats, so we elected to hand launder our clothes and then dry them on the lanai, opening us up to endless possibilities. What now, voyager!

AK: Second-hand mattresses and upholstered furniture is an absolute no-no! Why do you think IKEA was invented?

Um, you say that as though I was advising people to do it...

NO

Yet, to the ignorant, that is the first, and only solution.

Actually, that isn't true about lice. If your kids have nits they will be sent home from school - at least all the schools my kids have been to. We got a lice infestation from our neighbor's kid - what was worse, I was pregnant at the time so there was no way I was going to use incescticides. On the good side, I can get rid of an infestation quickly (1 treatment using oil and a shower cap and a day of cleaning) albiet with a lot of work.

Last time the kids had a problem my youngest daughter kept being sent home from preschool because they saw an adult louse on her. At the time her dad and I were in the middle of a huge nasty divorce and custody battle, he insisted that my home was the source. I kept checking her, not a nit in sight - but the school kept sending her home after seeing live louse. After a month of this, he finally figured out he had a full infestation on his own head! No more problems since then - but if I get wind of an infestation at school, I break out the essential oils. Lice dislike oily hair, they can't lay eggs on an oily hairshaft and certian smells they stay away from.

The bed bug issue is on the rise in prominent hotels as well.... One of the highest end hotels in Whistler BC has had an infestation in some of their high end suites... Foreign travelers from the Middle East and China... It is very common there... Makes you love them even more...

This is really nothing in the big scheme of things... Wait till there is a Pandemic, they will bring things that will kill you...

I am amazed that every time I see someone with a face mask in public it is an Asian and mainly female...? When I was in Hong Kong it was so common to see face masks everywhere, from the airport to just walking down the street..

I am getting to the point where I think travelers should be quarantined or at least have their luggage scented over by a dog to see what pests they are carrying... This and other issues are going to become bigger and bigger in the future with drastic consequences...

I don't know about the Middle East (where it's often very hot) or China Greg, but I do know that even 20 some years ago when I lived in Europe, it never stopped being an issue---in Germany, Holland, Russia and France to name a few. With the exception of France (and I am attesting only to my own experience, not on the country as a whole) they are very clean nations who scrub everything that can be scrubbed. The first thing my Landlady in Germany told me when she showed me my apartment was to strip my bed and air out everything all day long every day, and turn my mattresses, to avoid bedbugs. And I would sooner have eaten off her kitchen floor than most American restaurant's dishes. It's not a cleanliness issue. I do like the idea if it is feasible to screen luggage for vermin however. Especially if it can be done by dogs which is relatively inexpensive.

Are you thinking of the SARS issue in China leading to the face masks? I personally haven't seen that except for then...not in large numbers anyway. I guess I don't see the correlation.

Crapoola: I can agree to a certain point but where I live there are NO foreigners and NO one of any other race other than Caucasian (with the occasional Indian when we venture off the rez--ha ha) and here, we have fun with lovely Hepatitis that the nice white servers and cooks pass on...the same way. Or by sharing their nice drug needles and infecting themselves and everyone they come in contact with. Don't make it an "Un-American" issue...I have never seen more filthy yards, homes and children in my life as there are here. As opposed to when I lived in an ethnically diverse area and you could tell the immigrant's homes in the poor sections of town---they were nicely painted, the grass was cut, flowers were blooming and the sidewalks and curb was scrubbed. The children were clean and courteous. And the adults diligent workers. That may be why they got the jobs and the kids got such good grades in school, hmmm?

• 
  Adela-884556, in fact, this depends upon the particular country.

As if bedbugs couldn't enter the country across borders...maybe we should close the Canadian and Mexican borders to bedbugs? Maybe we should stop importing goods into the country...