Bedbugs can survive a year or more without feeding. About as big as flattened apple seeds, they squeeze into tiny cracks in walls or in the joints of bed frames during the day; they crawl out at night, attracted by a sleeper’s exhaled carbon dioxide and body warmth. At the turn of the 20th century, an estimated 75 percent of homes in the U.K. contained bedbugs. Bizarre prescriptions for remedies have circulated down the years, including a recipe for “cat juice” in a pest-control guide from 1725. The formula called for suffocating and skinning a cat, roasting it on a spit, mixing the drippings with egg yolk and oil, and smearing the concoction into crevices around the bed....
February 10, 2024
Bedbugs and cat juice.
From "The ‘Unthinkable’ New Reality About Bedbugs/Another, much stronger species is headed north" (The Atlantic):
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Diatomaceous earth. Speaking from a friend's knowledge, of course.
"The formula called for suffocating and skinning a cat..."
Too imprecise for a formula. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
Sleepers' exhaled carbon dioxide may be the bigger risk.
In this context, cat juice seems to be a variety of mayonnaise. As a remedy for bedbug infestations, it might work if combined with an equal part of cyanoacrylate. The imponderable here is cat suffocation. Why that means of offing Mister Whiskers? Cat hangings were popular in the 13th century, and very good-sized town had its own cat hangman with all the requisite skills honed to a fine edge. What was so special about suffocation?
Undocumented migrants. An alien invasion. A subliminal message?
Are these new bedbugs carriers of Covid?
Bring back DDT. I live in constant fear (total exaggeration, of course) of the damn things. I have a dozen vacation rentals, and sooner or later someone will bring them into my properties. The only hope is the catch them early before they spread, and then heat the whole place up over 120F for a couple of days. I've been lucky so far. No bedbugs, and no dead bodies. Eventually, everyone finds both.
Did it work?
You can't swing a dad cat without seeing a bedbug story these days...
Bedbugs had made a comeback over the last 10 or so years. I would read the trade journals in my industry and bedbugs were becoming a problem again. And mainly in the major cities at that time. Or at least, that's where it was being reported. And not just in awful hotels. I once stayed in a very nice downtown Chicago hotel. I was already aware of the issue spreading across the country so I had gotten used to checking for the telltale signs in and around the bedding. I would literally pull back the bedding and check things before settling in the room. In this one room, high above downtown Chicago, my bed had the marks of an infestation. It was very late when I had checked in, so I simply asked for another room, on another floor, at the other end of the hotel. I checked out the next day, moved to another hotel, and never stayed in that first place again. Not their fault. It's brought in by a guest, or a family, or multiples.
I know the industry started taking proactive steps, but...there's only so much you can do. Especially when you open your borders to the entire world and tell everyone to come as they are. Bring your disease, your bugs, your bad habits and your good. We're open for business.
And a new strain of bedbugs is now with us. I'm not shocked.
Good neighbors would use one another's cats to reduce the emotional stress.
"Hi John. Hey, do me a favor, would you?"
"Sure, Fred, What do you need?"
"Well, bug seasons coming up and we'd appreciate it if you folks used Inky, not Fluffy, okay? Little Susie is very attached to Fluffy. Inky's more of an outdoor cat."
"I understand. If I can catch him. He's kinda skittish. Fluffy comes right up and rubs against my legs."
"Do the best you can."
"I will, Fred. And it don't make no never mind to me which cat you use. I don't really like cats. The missus hasn't said anything, so just grab the nearest one as far as I'm concerned."
"Okay. I'll see you later."
"Yup. Later."
The bugs are down, but the mice are back.
Heat: 120°F. The apartment buildings around me strip the apartment of all fabrics and use portable heaters with fans. Any fabric they want to keep they either wash in very hot water and/or high dryer temps, or simply seal the fabric in big black plastic garbage bags and leave them outside in the hot sun. Carpeting is steam cleaned or ripped out and tossed, usually the latter.
The breeder from whom I bought my lab eight years ago today has another business. His labs have an extraordinary sense of smell and he’s trained them to sniff out bedbugs. His labs can find in 1/2 hour the bugs it would take a crew of men all day to locate. He services motels, college dorms, etc.
They don’t use dead cats, these days they use live dogs trained to sniff out bedbugs. After that, they spray.
I am against killing poor, innocent bedbugs in the homes of climate alarmists. CO2, you know!
Google says DDT is ineffective against many populations of bedbugs. I don't know if that is true or just eco-nonsense. Pyrethrins, which are like lemonade v. Everclear in comparison to DDT, are supposedly effective. Go figure.
Meanwhile Back In The Jungle...
https://www.westernjournal.com/ohio-sheriff-sounds-alarm-meeting-fbi-orders-every-cruiser-carry-ar-15-extra-ammo/
I blame Climate Change. And Trump, of course.
what your freaking sheets, dumb grimy brits.
Murder Bedbugs!
Clothes dryers on high heat can do the job.
White leftist elites like Barbra Streisand would prefer you suffer with bed bugs.
do it yourself bed bug control:
from the EPA
"Consider non-chemical methods of killing bed bugs. Some will be more useful than others depending on your situation. These and other methods can be helpful, but they might not get rid of the infestation entirely:
"Heat treatment: You can use a clothes dryer on high heat. You can also use black plastic bags in a hot, closed car in the sun, but success depends on your climate and other factors. Do-it-yourself heat treatments might not work. Professionals have access to more intensive and proven methods that can even treat whole houses with heat. Do not try to kill bed bugs by increasing your indoor temperature with a thermostat, propane space heater, or fireplace - this does not work and is dangerous.
Cold treatment may work, but can only be successful in the home environment if the freezer is set to 0o F. Many home refrigerator freezers are not cold enough to kill bed bugs. You must leave the items in a sealed bag in the freezer at 0o for three days. Always use a thermometer to check the temperature, since home freezers are not always set to 0o.
Steam cleaners (wet or dry) can get into cracks and fabrics to treat carpets, baseboards, bed frames, and other furniture. The steam temperature must be at least 130o F but should not have a forceful airflow, or it may cause bed bugs to scatter. Use a diffuser to prevent scattering."
DDT needs to be judiciously brought back and carefully applied.
We had an effective treatment for Bed Bugs, used for over 60 years, was Diazinon. The Obama EPA decided it was not to be used for various reasons, even though the greatest threat was to those who actually applied the substance. It was only available to licensed technician and is still used in Agriculture. The techs wore PPE to mitigate exposure. Rather than restrict spraying or adding to the formulation they banned it outright. This is a government made problem.
The fate of Snowball III.
If the point of all this evolution is to evolve the perfect organism shouldn't we consider bedbugs higher up on the evolutionary scale than featherless bipeds? Well, maybe not. We evolved with sufficient intelligence to invent DDT so maybe that gives us the evolutionary edge. I'm sure DDT will make a comeback when people like John Kerry and Greta get infestations. Human intelligence is good for some purposes....Not so with toenail fungi however. Toenail fungi are unkillable and their spores can travel to distant planets and live on them. Toenail fungi were the reason God created life on earth. We were created to be their gracious hosts.
We used to get old Lazy boys from garage sale sales. We had two over the years, they're really good to nurse in. But we left the last one with a friend who was expecting when we moved. Last year when I got pregnant again, I didn't want to risk bedbugs so we bought new. Expensive, but I'm unwilling to risk it in such a large household.
Retarded peasants from south America are riddled with disease and parasites. No surprise there. The ruling trash who support the invasion get off on the chaos and misery.
I had bedbugs, brought into my home by doing laundry at another's house. I tried everything and finally gave in to professional treatment. Took two visits but they were vanquished. Horrible creatures.
"... mixing the drippings with egg yolk and oil, and smearing the concoction into crevices around the bed.."
In other words, glue.
I stayed in a vacation rental which had bedbugs. After two visits from the pest control people, who basically did nothing, and my two trips to the doctor,I moved out. Horrible experience.
What, you have no tag for cats?
WASH the freaking sheets, dumb grimy brits.
I would wash in hot water and bleach.
I would dry until crispy. repeat. repeat.
Then I would place sheets in a bag and place bag in the sun on a 100 degree day.
then I would burn.
then I would go buy new sheets.
throw away mattress. yick.
Friend of mine had them. We ran all fabrics through hot wash and hot dry - warning label or not - and soaked all cracks in the rooms and furniture with alcohol. Worked.
If you think that washing your sheets is sufficient to get rid of, or prevent bedbugs, then you are sadly misinformed. You might get very lucky and find them before they ever leave the bed sheets, but the odds are not in your favor.
This entire comment is bullshit. Feel free to spray a fat soluble contact organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitor in your home. It goes great with lead paint and asbestos insulation.
Blogger Tina848 said...
We had an effective treatment for Bed Bugs, used for over 60 years, was Diazinon. The Obama EPA decided it was not to be used for various reasons, even though the greatest threat was to those who actually applied the substance. It was only available to licensed technician and is still used in Agriculture. The techs wore PPE to mitigate exposure. Rather than restrict spraying or adding to the formulation they banned it outright. This is a government made problem.
Sing a song of six-pence for your sake
And drink a bottle full of rye
Four and twenty bedbugs in a cake
And bake 'em all in a pie
They told me you were bit real bad
So what I suggest is move outta that pad
The bedbugs and the cat juice
That your poor old granddad
Had to smoke to get ‘im high
Finally! Another use for cats other than rodent control!
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