The importance of being scientifically literate, that is, being able to sift through the information and decide what seems likely to be true, was brought home (literally) to me this month when I discovered a “colony” of bed bugs in our house. Colony sounds so much nicer, more David Attenborough, than the word “infestation”. While fascinated with the thought that these small animals had been sharing a family member’s bed for at least a month without disturbing the sleeper (what a good system in which the blood-sucker feeds without harming the host!), I immediately went into search-the-bedrooms, search-the-Internet, and destroy-the-insects mode.
And there was a lot of information about bed bugs to find. Many pest control companies had primers about this invertebrate which looks something like a small, very flat, lentil shaped roach with a pointy head. Entomology departments of universities were also helpful as was an Australian government document. All sites agreed that bed bugs are rebounding after being controlled with the pesticide DDT. (My mother said that they just used a one-time fumigation “bomb” for their apartment back in the day.) I also learned that the initial clean-up we had done in the colonized bedroom had probably spread the surviving animals to other parts of the house because the pesticide we used repels them. Sure enough, a few days later I woke up on several mornings with really itchy bites that have lasted for more than a week. If only I had read further before acting!
My information search resolved into two questions: How did we get them (and not make the same mistake again), and how do we get rid of them now? The bed bugs probably came in on some luggage or a yard-sale stuffed animal, brought by someone who is not sensitive to the bed bug bite and didn’t know they were bringing them. Maybe the bed bugs were still babies, instars who were just a few millimeters of cream-colored exoskeleton looking for a blood meal so they could progress to the next level, that is, molt and move up a nymphal growth stage. The answer to the second question depends on knowing more than most people would like to know about the bed bug life-cycle, and the acceptance of pesticides, and a whole lot of laundering at 60°C. After all my reading I’m still not sure I’m using the correct entomological terms but I do have a plan of action. Because adult bed bugs can survive for 6-7 months without a blood meal, waiting for them to die was not an option.
Even the non-commercial internet sites agreed that it is very difficult to eradicate bed bugs from your home without using a knowledgeable pest control service. Some pest control companies I contacted promised to do the job in one day. Here’s where being able to understand the amazing adaptations of bed bugs to their environment was important. The bed bugs can squeeze through outlet and light switch plates into the space between walls, far away from the household spray we had applied. The eggs they lay in the walls and cracks will hatch after the initial pesticide has broken down and is no longer lethal, so a one-time spray is not likely to end the colony. We are using a combination of techniques to kill all the bed bugs in our house beginning with  a whole-house inspection and application of different pesticides on the beds, mattresses, furniture, baseboards, and inside the walls, by a pest control company. We are hot laundering or dry-cleaning all our fabrics and rugs, especially the bedding and things stored near beds, the drive-in fast food stop for bedbugs. Every day we change and wash our sheets to eliminate any eggs that may have been laid by a surviving adult. I just read about using a diatomaceous earth powder as a long-term protection against survivors or newly hatched or surviving bedbugs—apparently it cuts into their exoskeleton and they dry out and die—so it’s back to the internet to see if this method has any research behind it.
Before the pest control company treatment I had to take my box of Tenebrio (mealworm) beetles out of the house. Odd how depending on the setting, one insect is a valued educational tool and another is a dreaded invader that turns the house upside down. That’s the silver lining: accomplishing the long-delayed deep clean and de-cluttering.