Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Tales of Bed Bug Woe
i've been living in my tent and still got bitten
(4 posts)-
letbedbugsempoweryou
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 1
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 17:43:20
#
Login to Send PM
i've set up my one person tent in my living room as a way to feel safe and was successful for a couple of months until a couple of nights ago when i got bitten badly. i want to say a few things about my process with bedbugs and maybe avoid what has already been said. The first is that i feel the bedbug's best weapon against you is paranoia - that running to extremes when you're bitten or first see them, with the exterminators, pesticides, extreme cleanliness, dumping responsibility on others, high tech gadgets, deciding if you should be using repellant, trying to decieve them with fake CO2 and heat, keeping new ones out of your house or apartment, keeping other people out of your place and fearing infecting others with yours and more. i think these all are important issues, but it's real easy to exhaust yourself and then lose the vigilance necessary when you think they're gone. With paranoia, you'll imagine them doing magical things and i've seen people develop or aggrevate emotional problems. Action is necessary - if you're bitten they will be in a position to lay eggs, right? But knowing everything about their life-cycle and abilities is really impotant to me. i feel a lot more research could be done. Are the differences in the characteristics of bite marks on the same person due to their gender or stage in development? i notice the wide-spread welts and wonder if it was just one bug being unsuccessful in getting blood due to it's immaturity. Other bites seem few and redder - are these from a mature bug who was able to get a meal? They evolved when humans first started living indoors about 50,0000 years ago, right? They use human blood but also bite animals. Can they use the animal blood and lay eggs or do they die from it? If they could use animal blood wouldn't they be infesting stables and farms? Also i wonder about the great ability to find and remember the route they take to where you're sleeping. i think they must have found the space between the zippers on my tent flap and gotten in that way and then out again. i think if i just changed the place of the tent in my room that would screw them up for a while. Can they actually communicate this route to others like bees do? Of course, i'll take all measures at this point - plug the hole with hand cream, spray the zipper with repellant, vacuum. Then on Monday i'm going back to the "simple bed in the middle of the room with legs coated with vasaline" idea. i'm thinking of designing a safe-space cocoon with mosquito netting and an effective zipper - giving or selling it to other people even. i' ve considered what i need to do to not take them with me when i move - the extreme situation - take nothing, not even the clothes on my back? The cat would need to be cleared as well as i've seen eggs on her and she'd never agree to a bath. i've put books and belongings in boxes sealed well with tape. Leave them there for the extreme estimate of their lifespan - 16 months. Now i've learned there is a product that you can include in the box to speed up this process - but can you be sure? - not a very good way to find out - after you made all the efforts in the move. i just discovered your website after wanting to start something like it on my own. i haven't explored it much yet but i like the idea of providing direct emotional support to people's crises situations, with factual information and a place for unique suggestions and new ideas and products. i feel the place for success stories is really important! Leaving issues with responibility and legal matters out of the process seems necessary. Another site i saw didn't have a moderator, only one person responding to another and i felt really lost. i've got to go now but i'll be back - and i still havn't vacuumed - i really hate seeing them in case i do.
-
buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 19:15:51
#
Login to Send PM
Are the differences in the characteristics of bite marks on the same person due to their gender or stage in development?
No.
I don't recall where it is, but there was a post (in FAQs? in a thread?) to a video of people undergoing a bite test in a lab. Both an adult bed bug and a nymph were placed on the arm of a person to see if the person reacted to bites. the adult bug and nymph were allowed to feed, time was allowed to elapse, and then we got video footage of the bite responses. The nymph and adult bites were exactly the same size.
Now i've learned there is a product that you can include in the box to speed up this process - but can you be sure?
That's a pretty major oversimplification. Some people are using DDVP strips to treat items that they can't bear to put into storage for 18 months, but simply putting them in with items in storage is no advised. DDVP can have a corrosive effect on electronics, for example. And it's an organophosphate which needs to be use carefully. DDVP strips are labeled for use in large, unoccupied areas, so putting them into items in storage without taking safety precautions is not advisable in the least.
-
buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 20:20:21
#
Login to Send PM
I meant to add this as well:
Of course, i'll take all measures at this point - plug the hole with hand cream, spray the zipper with repellant, vacuum
Using repellents of any kind with bed bugs tends to be ineffective at best and inclined to make the problem worse in worst case scenarios.
Someone in another thread asked why more research wasn't being done into any alarm signal chemicals that bed bugs use. The simple answer is that the bug experts who understand bed bugs best have noted that when bed bugs send out chemical signals to other bed bugs that say, "Oh, hey, danger over here so don't come this way!," that response tends not to get rid of the bugs as much as spread them around. Spreading an infestation around makes it worse.
Even if repellents don't have that effect, most insect repellents like DEET or citronella tend not to have any effect on bed bugs.
-
nycbedbug
junior member
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 51
Posted 3 months ago
Mon Aug 17 2009 7:40:28
#
Login to Send PM
Are the differences in the characteristics of bite marks on the same person due to their gender or stage in development?
No.
For what it's worth, my bites definitely look different. I have some tiny, hard ones and some larger mosquito-like ones, some single ones and some of the 2- or 3-in-a-row kinds, but I know they're all bedbug bites because unlike mosquito bites, they take a very long time to go away and remain itchy even when it seems they have almost disappeared.
Reply
You must log in to post.
