bed bugs and books (1 Viewer)

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Okay, we've got a big bed bug invasion in this region of the country, and out of mild curiosity, I Googled "Bed Bugs" +books. It seems many people whose homes get infested with these nasty critters end up tossing out almost everything they own. The bugs like to hide in clothes, furniture, BOOKS, and all sorts of other common household items. The experts warn against bringing any USED ITEMS into your home (such as books, clothes, furniture, etc.). Also, avoid THRIFT SHOPS and FREE TABLES. Jesus, this could change my whole lifestyle. Now I'm afraid to go into thrift shops and buy used books. Rummage sales, yard sales are out. People can get infected in LIBRARIES, hospitals, stores, movie theaters. The damned bugs are almost impossible to get rid of, and expensive (pesticide treatments, steam heat treatments). You don't really need to throw out everything if this happens to you. You can seal up all your books and other possessions in ziplock bags and store them for 18 months, and the bugs will die from lack of food (your blood). Crimony, this is the one thing that could push me towards using a Kindle.
 
Crimony, this is the one thing that could push me towards using a Kindle.

May get unbearably itchy but at least with a real book you can keep on reading. Scratch - turn page - scratch - turn page......not so bad really with a little practice. Get a bug using a Kindle and your reading may go entirely kibosh.
 
...Or maybe instead of using a Kindle, I'd switch to buying only new books, shipped from the publisher's warehouse, or from Amazon. I'm not normally squeamish about bugs, germs, etc.. What alarms me about this problem is that the bugs are so hard to get rid of that it takes over people's lives for months and they end up spending thousands of dollar eradicating them. And if they have a lot of clutter in their home, that's just more stuff in which the bugs can hide. So they have to declutter their home. That alone would take me months of work. So, it's the hassle factor, not the "Eeeeww" factor for me. I usually buy used books, cheap copies, only getting new books when its an author I care about and a new book -- like Bukowski. But the low price of a used book is no bargain if you end up infesting your home. Then there's the trickier problem of people picking up bugs in offices. You can't not go to work. But there are things you can do to lessen the chances of bringing home a bug from your office. Like don't sit on the chairs in the break room, or don't bring (as I do) a backpack to work everyday to carry your lunch in. This problem is new here in the northwest. It should be an interesting winter. I'm waiting for the first email to come out warning us of the potential for bed bugs in the office. That should get everyone paranoid as hell. Me, I already was paranoid, and it's just one more thing to be on guard against.
 
Yesterday NPR aired a Terry Gross ("Fresh Air") interview with an expert on bed bugs, and he said they are not known to carry diseases. Good. But then I came across the following (not that I believe everything I find online):

"The plague which killed millions of people in Asia and Europe were because of bedbugs. Known as the plague or black death in the middle ages caused high fevers, chills, headaches, vomiting, swollen lymph glands, and spots covering the entire body known as hemorrhaging spots. It is stated by experts that a plague such as this could happen again if pests, including bedbugs are not controlled."

Holy Shit -- the plague? Maybe I should not even leave the house. Luckily, according to the same website, you can treat your home for bed bugs with herbs including "Lavender, Mint, Cayenne, Cilantro, Black Walnut, Garlic, Red Pepper, Black Pepper, Rosemary, Thyme, and Clove." Well, at least if all of civilization grinds to halt due to Black Death, most of us will already have the herbs we need to survive.

Here's where I read this stuff: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/how-to-treat-bedbugs-using-home-remedies.html The bad grammar/poor writing makes me wonder how reliable this information is.
 
easy, Mulder (geek joke!). stop reading the interwebs.

bed bugs are not known to carry disease. maybe the buzzle article meant fleas which were a carrier of the bubonic plague? they just used rats as transport.

have you had drinks with Oliver Stone recently? I think he may be the root of your newborn paranoia. heh.
 
Hell, I schooled Oliver Stone on conspiracy theory. He kept the real story out of "JFK" -- didn't have the nerve to spill the truth. Loved his film "The Doors" though.

Yeah, that's what I'd always thought: that it was fleas riding rats that spread the Black Death. That's easier to take.
 
Don't want to downplay what very much seems a concern of yours, Rekrab, but I personally just don't give audience to the mass media's non-stop need to generate/create these Panic Passion Plays. West Nile, Swine Flu, E. coli, school bullying, terrorists bombing the local power plant.....ad infinitum. 6 months from now there will be a new Doom and Gloom cookie to chew on and a new pill created to offset the indigestion. And don't hesitate to tell me to stick my lack of concern up my ass if you happen to spy one of the little buggers crawling about a book or two.
 
Stavrogin: I agree with you. I'm not really worrried about bed bugs -- I think it's more funny than scarry. Still, I am backing away from the thriftstores and yard sales. Bed bugs are a good reason not to spend half a day looking through someone else's junk looking for something I can sell on eBay. I didn't fall for the swine flu hoax, didn't get the flu shot. Fear is one of the tools used to control the masses, and it works. The bed bugs / books connection fascinates me, kind of like a sci fi story idea. What if you could get a horrible disease from a book? What would you do? Burn them all? Sell them? Seal them in plastic and bury them? What if bed bugs did transmit diseases, like AIDs, the plague, some terrible new super bug? What if the bugs were mutated in secret labs and weaponized, released into the wild to create chaos and mass death? I don't think any of that is going on, but it's interesting to think about the possibilities.
 
I didn't fall for the swine flu hoax, didn't get the flu shot.

Umm, the swine flu wasn't a hoax. It didn't turn out to be as bad as predicted, but if you or someone you know had it, they were probably extremely ill. When my oldest son had it, I was really afraid that he might die... he was that sick.
 
chronic: hope your son is fully recovered. I wasn't very clear. I know the swine flu is real. What seemed bogus to me was the (apparently) cynical fear mongering by authorities before the flu season began, followed by the roll out of millions of doses of a vaccine that, some allege, didn't provide any protection against the flu and might be dangerous in itself. Who knows what the truth is when it comes to controversies like that, I sure don't, but all along the drive to get everyone innoculated felt like bullshit to me. I knew a few people who got swine flu and they were all lucky in that it was mild and didn't last long, maybe 2 or 3 days, but I also heard that there were deaths, and of course I believe that. Thanks for bringing a little reality into this thread.
 
I just came across the consonance of book bugs and Buk books... okay, the sleep I had last night was shredded and I'm waking up from a nap.
 
I like that, Mark73. Some of my best ideas come when I'm half or fully asleep. Unfortunately, some of my worst ideas also come when I'm half asleep, as you can see in many of my posts.
 

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