What happens next? « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

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What happens next?

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lieutenantdan

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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Dec 4 2007 16:16:34
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I was thinking.
When you see a bed bug stained mattress and furniture thrown out at curbside waiting to be picked up by the sanitation dept or a garbage picker, what happens to the bugs that remain on the bed or in the box spring or tucked away in the furniture while the furniture sits out on the street? That is of course whatever bugs are left after the furniture had been dragged through the house/apartment and down the halls. Do some of the bbs walk away from the infested furniture? If so where oh where do they go and how far will one continue to walk?
pleasehelp

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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Dec 4 2007 16:27:29
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Thanks for asking this, Dan, I've wondered this too. I guess some of the ones that make it to the dump find rats for hosts, but I'm more worried about the ones that bail sooner.
itchyincharmcity

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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Dec 4 2007 16:49:31
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I agree some might go after rats but I bet a lot stay in the furniture. In much of the US it is getting cold now, they'd want to stay in the insulation. If they are lucky someone will take the discarded furniture home and they can set up shop on some new hosts. If they are unlucky they go to the landfill.

Man, I bet garbage dumps and ladfills are just crawling with all kinds of nasty things.
lieutenantdan

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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Dec 4 2007 17:12:58
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The sanitation depsrtment workers are probably bringing bbs home too.

If the bugs in curbside furniture do decide to wander my guess is that the can wander right through the bottom of your front door or up your outside wall and through a screen or air conditioner or vent. They must do some traveling. How do they find their way to a birds nest or mice nest? I think I read that in Campbell's 1905 data that they can travel 500 yards.

I found it, here it is.

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302hsted/030212campbell/campbell%203-1.htm

PART III
Résumé of Experiments on Variola
By CHARLES A. R. CAMPBELL, M. D.
San Antonio, Texas

My Observations on Bedbugs
By CHARLES A. R. CAMPBELL, M. D.
San Antonio, Texas

Eradication of Small Pox by Other Means Than
Vaccination. (Founded on the above.)
By J. A. WATTS, M. D.
San Antonio, Texas
Dedicated to the People of Mexico

Foreword
By
J. A. L. WADDELL, D. E., LL. D.

"The ability of bedbugs to remain under water for an indefinite time is also established by the following experiment : I first took a pole about seven feet long, and putting a number of these bugs on one end of it, I placed this end almost at the bottom of a tank containing about five feet of water; immediately the bugs began crawling through the water and up the pole; I then changed ends and reversed the operation, submerging the bugs on top of the pole again in the water, and I continued this operation for five hours without intermission—but to all appearances the bugs were not in the least injured, notwithstanding the fact that, in addition to the submersion, they had travelled a distance of nearly 550 yards."

" The power of migration of bedbugs is wonderful. I have made experiments at the Old City Hospital (replaced now by the K. B. Green Memorial Hospital) and have positively demonstrated that they will travel the full length of a large ward, and go from bed to bed when these are occupied. I demonstrated this by catching a few bugs and making a tiny mark on each of their backs with an adhesive mixture of balsam fir and flake white, thus marking them distinctly. I then placed them in an unoccupied cot at one end of the ward in the evening, and the next morning discovered them in an occupied cot at the other end of the ward."

I can believe it! Dan
angie

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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Dec 4 2007 18:01:52
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I often thought about that too. When I threw the beds out, I dragged them through the apartment and down 4 flights of stairs across the yard to the dumpsters outside. I know that I lost bugs that day but I didn't care. Now when I threw out my futon, I vacummed up the bugs and any eggs that would fall off(turned out I had a whole nest of them there...100+) and then I asked one of my neighbors to help me carry it down. Typical male!! His girlfriend and I decided that instead of touch it too much, we hauled it to the balcony and over it went!!! 3 stories!!! I then went down and with the help of my 11 yr old, we drug it to the trash. Actually, I was hoping that my property manager would have a few crawl into her apartment so she would know what the rest of the infected tenents were going through. All the furniture that we threw out was defaced with a sharp knife so no one else would bring them into their home. And the contents of my vacumm canister was sealed in a plastic bag and put in the dumpster also.