. . . recent stats show that ticks and bedbugs have been ramping up their itty-bitty attacks. Luckily, it’s easier than you think to KO the little creeps.

How easy is it to get rid of bed bugs?
Is it possible? yes.
Worth doing? absolutely.
Easier than you think? Maybe not so much.

It was nevertheless good to see bed bugs listed in an article about how to get rid of biting insects such as chiggers, deer ticks, and fleas.

Our number one enemy in the fight against bed bugs is lack of awareness.

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Go to this link.

Find “The Breakfast Show with JoAnne Good” in the list of programs and select the “Fri” button underneath the show title to select Friday’s program. You need a RealAudio plugin to hear it, so if it does not load automatically at this point, then click the button for assistance. I did, I installed it, it worked.

The show is 3 hours long and though David is only on at approximately an hour and a half into the program, there are some really interesting yet brief discussions of bed bugs leading up to that point.

So you don’t have to listen to the whole thing, consider scrolling through and finding at least some of these tidbits:

(Times are approximate minutes into the show, and may depend on the machinery with which you tune in.)

4:14 The topic of bed bugs is introduced: program host JoAnne talks about bed bugs as if they are dust mites

16:05 She mentions bed bugs again, and abandoned mattresses

17:45 Dean from Camden calls in about his real-life experience with bed bugs. He describes what clearly sounds like a bed bug infestation (he has spotted bed bugs in all the expected colors and sizes, and suffered many bites)

And then, unfortunately, “David” (not David Cain, mind you, but someone at the station), who thinks he knows more than the caller who actually had this horrific bed bug experience, attempts to correct Dean’s story, saying that this must have been fleas, not bed bugs, because “bed bugs eat dead skin.”

Actually, no, David-of-the-BBC (who JoAnne points out “was brought up with livestock”): you’re thinking about dust mites.

I can see David Cain will have his work cut out for him here, as far as spreading correct bed bug information.

Then, Dean goes on to explain what was involved in eradicating his bed bug infestation, and that they were indeed identified as bed bugs by pest control operators, and yet the radio folks nevertheless completely disregard his information and experience.

(I was throwing my hands up at this point.)

At some point, JoAnne starts to argue that since “this generation” has homes that are so warm, this is the source of the problem.

While it’s certainly true that central heating came very recently to Britain, it is also true that bed bugs survived quite well in the UK in the cold, dark days prior to World War II, not to mention the medieval period: and what could be colder or darker than the Dark Ages?

39:07 Again, more than 20 minutes later and a propos of nothing, announcer JoAnne declares she’s sure Dean had fleas, not bed bugs

46:00 John Kettley, the famous BBC weatherman, is asked by the host if he has ever encountered bed bugs while traveling, and he too appears to be thinking about dust mites when he replies that, of course, “everyone has bed bugs”

No! No! No! No! No!

They don’t.

1:08 JoAnne stops the presses to announce that, in fact, one of the show’s producers (Kate) had them (bed bugs, actual bed bugs, mind you) and confirms they are not the same as fleas (nor dust mites). She confirms she had to move out, get her place “fumigated,” “burn mattresses,” etc.

The JoAnne, once again, argues it’s the heating in British homes that is to blame.

At 1:27 David Cain comes on for about 10 minutes.

He brings a jar of bed bugs to show the hosts. He clarifies that bed bugs have not only risen by 250% in London, as JoAnne suggested, but in some areas of London, by as much as 1200% in the last three years. He also sets JoAnne Good straight about her “overheated homes” theory of the resurgence of bed bugs.

“Absolutely incorrect.”

Cain instead warns listeners about the fact that bed bugs can hitchhike from place to place and are spread by people moving them around. He clarifies the bed bug vs. dust mite difference for host Max, who still thinks “we all have them.” Cain also clues the audience in on the global nature of this resurgence in the last five years (a problem which has grown in that time, he says, from “an absolute rarity” to “a major problem”).

Astonishingly, and again, as if she did not listen to a word Dean said when he called in, JoAnne mentions his case to David Cain as that of someone describing flea bites. But the caller had bed bugs and his pest control operator knew it!

The topic of identifying what is biting one gave David Cain a chance to discuss signs of bed bugs, and how and where they can be detected.

Then Mohammed calls in to the show and describes the slow process of detecting the infestation in his flat. He woke up with swollen bites but did not understand the source. He thought they were mosquito bites. He then saw bugs he thought were ladybirds (ladybugs).

Only after he found black marks and blood stains in the bed did Mohammed approach his landlady, who ordered a solution off the internet “which didn’t work out.” Only then was David Cain called in. (It gets a little unclear at this point, sound quality-wise, but I think he said he eventually found out eight units in his building had been infested, for about 7-8 months.)

Of course, we knew David Cain would have much useful information to share. But by the time he came on the air, I was completely exhausted from the idiocy and misinformation that appeared to take up so much of the program to this point.

It’s a sign of how badly informed the general public is about bed bugs, I guess.

What makes me angry, though, is that anyone tuning in before David spoke would have been given so much useless misinformation about “bed bugs.” If they were not able to stick around for his appearance, the misinformation might stick with them.

We can imagine that many of those listeners who did not get the correct story on bed bugs would then not have bothered to tune in to the BBC television program Inside Out, which aired later that night, and which also featured David Cain talking about bed bugs.

After all, they’re in everyone’s bed, right? No big deal.

If you don’t trust my recap (which of course could not be entirely accurate since I kept throwing my arms up to the heavens and exclaiming with absolute horror), and you want to hear for yourself the train wreck that was the Breakfast Show (prior to David’s appearance, of course), you have one more day. The “Friday” program will be replaced Friday morning.

Enjoy.

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• Bed bugs also causing havoc in England & Northern Ireland: university residence, hospital staff residence, possibly a school, infested

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On August 17th, 2006 the BBC reported that a residence for doctors and nurses in a hospital in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was infested with bed bugs. The unit was not attached to the hospital, so patients and visitors, the article said, were not at risk. (However, you do have to consider where doctors and nurses might have picked up bed bugs. A hospital, perhaps? They had to catch them somewhere. But we shouldn’t jump to conclusions–perhaps someone moved in and brought them.) Anyway, I’d bet there are currently a number of doctors in Fermanagh who just discovered the hard way that bed bug bites don’t all look the same.

This article from the BBC from February 28th, 2007 is about bed bug infestations in student residence halls at the University of Exeter. Eight students reported bites (so it’s likely there were more, who did not feel bites, right?):

Bedbugs hit university students

A university is fumigating student accommodation after an infestation of bedbugs in halls of residence in Devon.

Pest control experts were called in to the University of Exeter accommodation after about eight students reported they had been bitten.

A treatment programme is under way in the affected rooms and nearby areas.

A university spokesman said the outbreak was not the result of poor hygiene and the bugs had probably been brought in on someone’s clothes.

Bedbugs feed on blood, but can survive for many months without food. Bites are usually no more than a nuisance, although some people can develop an allergic reaction.

This additional BBC report, also from last February, is about a school infested with what are thought to be fleas sounds suspicious to me. (Apparently it did to the person who wrote the headline, too. See below.) Fleas are fairly easy to detect. Bed bugs are not.

School closed in ‘flea’ outbreak
A Devon school has been closed while an outbreak of what is thought to be fleas is dealt with.

St Luke’s Science and Sports College, which was opened in Exeter last year, will be closed until Monday while the building is fumigated.

The college website said there was a limited minor infestation in some parts of the college by “some type of small biting insect”.

The college will be “completely cleansed” and open as normal on Monday.

“The numbers of students affected are very small,” said the site.

“Having taken advice from the NHS, we have been assured there is no risk to anyone’s health.”

College deputy head teacher Julie Phelan said the school was being closed because chemicals used in the fumigation needed time to settle, not because the insects were dangerous.

It could be some other cause, of course, for example, bird mites. But it could also have been bed bugs. Whatever it was, I hope it is gone.

On the other hand, some people have no clue about bed bugs. This CBBC article for kids about “bedbugs” was published only two years ago, but features information about dust mites and a photo of a dust mite, while referring to bedbugs repeatedly:

Kill bedbugs - live like a slob!

Not making your bed could keep you healthy, as scientists say it could stop bedbugs infesting your sheets.

The bugs live on skin cells and sweat that come off you while you sleep. They also release chemicals which cause asthma and other allergies.

But scientists reckon leaving your sheets unmade allows air to circulate, getting rid of the stuff the bugs eat.

The average bed could be home to up to 1.5 million house dust mites, which are less than a millimetre long.

The researchers are looking into ways to reduce the £700m spent treating illnesses caused by mites in the UK each year.

They will soon be putting ‘mite pockets’ in 36 people’s beds around Britain to count their numbers and see what else affects the tiny bugs.

New readers, substitute “dust mites” for bed bugs in that article, and it will be factual.

Dust mites are no picnic, but they seem easier to deal with than bed bugs. Encasements and steam seem to be the way to go.
I’ve sent the Beeb a complaint outlining the errors, and hopefully they will remove it or fix it soon.

Finally, also from the BBC archives, a general story about bed bugs, dated February 22, 2007.

But can someone tell me what’s going on in this photo from Richard Naylor of the University of Sheffield? No, please, do not tell me.

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• Bed bugs. Are. Not. Dust Mites.
• Bed bugs under discussion at university housing officers’ conference

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