Can you pick a bedbug out of a lineup? | Hacker News Reader

Can you pick a bedbug out of a lineup?

nytimes.com

26 pointsbookofjoe49 comments

When you've lived and single-handedly fought an infestation, you never forget what a bedbug looks like. It's mentally exhausting, because they're EVERYWHERE.

I remember sticking one on my wall as a battle trophy.

I found bedbugs to be more mentally exhausting than anything. I have never felt more sure that I might have a mental breakdown than when I had bedbugs. They are almost impossible to find, they invade your personal space only when you are asleep, and they are very difficult to get rid of. It made me feel unsafe in my own apartment.

True psychological warfare. Having to go to sleep knowing you will wake up with bites that came from insects crawling on you is very unsettling.

Exactly, and getting woken up from tickling every hour, so sleep deprivation probably doesn't help with the mental breakdown. And freaking out every time you see or think that you see a tiny thing moving towards you.

and they are perfectly evolved too. they multiple quickly, know the difference between an awake warm body and a sleeping one, can travel vast (to bedbug) distances in a night, can live anywhere in your house/room, bite several times in a row and numb the area they just bit to effect their escape. they're tiny, transparent when hungry and they're everywhere. if you think you've killed them all, think again, the next generation survived your pest-control guy and are hatching right now.

just burn the house down with all your clothes and possessions inside, including the ones you're wearing: it will be less stressful to rebuild your life over.

... in fact, even after the purge you might want to shave all bodily hair off and be scrubbed down decontamination-style.

Also they've been known to live for up to a year without feeding.

I had bed bugs in a room I had in the UK as a student. The previous occupants were from Mexico. They were so unheard of at the time that I had to bring live specimens with me to the city hall to prove the infestation because they couldn't find the usual signs. Even the blood on the wall where I squashed one of them wasn't enough to convince them (the bugs become quite "stupid" after feeding and do things like aimlessly climb the wall). So yeah, I'll never forget what they look like either.

Same here. I can never forget how bedbug looks like. Even years later sometime I get nightmares.

Does anyone know of there's truth to the Rachel Carson/DDT-ban side of the bedbug story? It goes like this: DDT is extremely effective against bedbugs. Just smear a little around your bed and the bed is protected for decades. People did this and that's why we all grew up hearing but not understanding "don't let the bedbugs bite". But we were going nuts with DDT, spraying it into trees up and down every road, killing birds and causing other problems. Rather than a measured response like stopping widespread spraying, we banned DDT outright. Now we have bedbugs.

It just sounds like bedbugs are so horrible that some dabs of DDT might be appropriate. Is that way off base?

At the time of the ban, insects were becoming resistant to DDT anyway, so it's unlikely that it would still be effective today if it had remained in use.

Permethrin is actually a more appropriate pesticide for bedbugs but unfortunately they are mostly resistant in the US at least. I have found literally 'baking' a room to 120F + for 30+ mins is the most effective way to eradicate bedbugs. Amazon search (360 propane heater), and don't die of CO poisoning or burn your place down. For a more tempered approach, you can try setting up 'safe zones' with boundaries of double-sided sticky tape, smeared vaseline, or diatomaceous earth. (you can kinda tell they've co-evolved with us ey!).

>Permethrin is actually a more appropriate pesticide for bedbugs but unfortunately they are mostly resistant in the US at least.

So you're saying it's ideal, except that it doesn't work? That would seem to be the opposite of "appropriate."

> you can try setting up 'safe zones' with boundaries of double-sided sticky tape

I hope you're careful enough to draw a three-dimensional boundary, because bedbugs crawl up the wall to drop themselves off the ceiling into the bed.

I haven't had a problem with bedbugs but bought a powerful ozone generator a few years ago. It seems to help with dust mites, oder and generally sanitize. It's run a couple of times a month while at work. My understanding is these can kill bedbugs if you get the concentration up high enough. Be careful, especially in an apartment. Ozone can be hazardous. It degraded back into breathable oxygen pretty quickly but you don't want to stay in the room with it or have it bleed over to the neighbors and damage their lungs or anything.

https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Commerical-Industrial-Air-Deo...

Interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566141

Diatomaceous earth is great stuff for nuking arthropods from orbit. Carpet bomb and then vacuum it up later.

Just wear a particle mask when handling it; it's safe to eat but not to inhale.

Why are bedbugs so horrible? They're irritating and hard to deal with, but they are not very dangerous. Certainly not to the point where you'd destroy the environment to protect against them. DDT isn't even the only way to deal with them.

Not everyone has a mild reaction to bedbug, when it give you 10cm diameter marks that stay for months, and itch like hell it really threaten your sanity. DDT used sparsely won't threaten the environment.

> Congratulations! Few people have as much acumen at spotting bedbugs as you. Have you been hanging around with entomologists or a bedbug-sniffing dog?

No, I've just traveled SE Asia for months. You learn to inspect your mattress when arriving. If they've not yet reached the crevices in the mattress, you can at least pray that they're not everywhere else in the room.

It was early in the morning and I thought the title said to pick out the ladybug and i still got it right.

There's a fine line between positive and false positive.

Bedbug is nothing compared to this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatominae They can be few cm long, will suck blood from your lips and excrete nasty odour when squashed. Oh and they spread Chagas disease too.

Have never heard of that one before. They look a lot like some variations of the brown marmorated stink bug that has become quite common in parts of the US. I wonder if they're closely related. Fortunately the stink bugs in the US don't suck blood, although one of them (either the male or female, I forget which) does excrete a nasty odor when squished.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug

Yes, Chagas disease is horrific and unfortunately incurable. But the bugs (we call them "vinchucas" in South America) are easy to avoid: just sleep in clean rooms with bare solid walls without crevices or places for it to hide. Vinchucas are mostly a problem in rural areas, not in urban centers (or hotels, for that matter). Also, they are fairly large bugs -- approximately the size of a cockroach -- so they're easy to spot.

Chagas disease is curable if it's caught early, but the early stages of the infection often don't show symptoms.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs340/en/

How am I going to sleep ever again?

They don't effect people who live in modern houses and they don't (typically) carry Chagas in the US.

It's not the Chagas that's scaring me, it's the idea of a spider-like insect sucking off blood from my lips. Can you imagine the feeling?

Although I guess Chagas would have more damaging consequences.

Not here in Vietnam, even modern houses in large cities have them, we call them "blood sucking stink bugs". They just lurk under the bed and wait until we are sleeping. https://i-giadinh.vnecdn.net/2013/06/20/bo-xit1-1371721027_5...

Just sleep in a clean room with solid walls/roof (like most urban rooms) and you'll be safe from kissing bugs.

This is a bit of a PSA but...

If you're worried you have bed bugs but you're unable to catch them, I strongly suggest going to see a doctor in order to confirm the bug bites are actually caused by bugs. It's possible you could be suffering from a variation of delusional parasitosis [0], causing you to heavily scratch your skin and making you think you're under assault by bugs or parasites. Mental health issues are an incredibly serious matter. Despite considering myself a rational person, I had some issues relating to this and was unable to find my way out of it until I saw a doctor. I'd never wish that kind of experience on even my worst of enemies.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis

Bedbugs are an argument for extending nuclear options to exterminators... just surround the building with some lead-backed trays filled with cobalt-60 or something and irradiate the entire building.

Honestly, why don't we do that? Seems easier on everything than huge amounts of airborne poison, and radiation will _certainly_ kill anything in high enough doses.

I've never seen a bedbug, but the first is an ant, the second probably some type of wasp, the third a louse, don't know the fourth, and the fifth is a tick. So that left only one choice.

Surely if you AirBNB your home you've got a good chance of getting bed bugs?

That's why you rent an apartment out and rub your hands like a good schemer. /s

Back in 2013, I was broke and job hunting in Vancouver, BC. I discovered a hostel that apparently hadn't updated its prices in 10+ years. There was a really good deal for weekly dormitory. So I committed to 2 weeks. Whoops!

I quickly discovered that bed bug bites are harder to ignore than mosquito bites. They're significantly itchier and can last a week or so.

I was spending most of my days in a cafe nearby with my laptop. I got to talking to one guy that was also a regular, he went through a few different used laptops and was setting up linux and playing with it. He turned out to be staying at homeless shelters. I momentarily felt envious, because he told me there no bed bugs at his shelter.

Fun story, my wife and I had bat bugs at an apartment several years ago - they look identical the naked eye and the panic that sets in when you see them is real! An entomologist or even just someone who knows what they're looking for with a microscope can accurately identify them separately from bed bugs by the tiny hairs on their thorax. Luckily bat bugs aren't NEARLY the pest that bed bugs are - they really only like to eat bat blood and typically only show up when there are bats around, finding their way haphazardly toward anything else when bats are unavailable for food.

This also means that I'm acutely aware that number 4 was the right answer.

When I had beg bugs I started having night terrors and anxiety during the day. It was horrible. I can always recognized their heart shaped bodies.

here is a comforting article I read about bedbugs when I had my own case: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/09/bed-bug...

    "Don't sit down on public transport."

I feel like I'm getting the occasional bedbug bite at home but haven't been able to spot any yet to prove it.

The bites are itchy but not like mosquito bites.

Bed bugs tend to bite multiple times, usually in a straight line. If they’re one off bites then it’s likely not bed bugs.

No. Number of bites is simply a function of population size. So a single bedbug might result in one or two bites every week or week and a half. A couple of bedbugs might result in a couple showing up every few days.

You're right that seeing a cluster or a line or 2-3 bites is a dead giveaway, but it doesn't mean that a single bite or infrequent bites is not an infestation.

A single bite with nothing else showing up at all is no cause for concern, but a mosquito bite showing up in the morning every week or two is definitely cause for concern if you aren't in mosquito season in your location.

They only bite in straight lines ones they’ve grown large enough. If they’re still small, then one-off bites are possible. A better tell is the bite location; they like warm, moist areas like around the waist and armpit area.

This is incorrect information. Bed bugs tend to bite center mass, neck, arms, and hands. You can confirm this with a google search.

It sounds like you are getting bit by something else, possibly fleas. Bed bugs do not bite “occasionally”. You’ll get dozens of bites, they last for weeks, and they are maddeningly more irritating than mosquito bites for longer periods of time. They also often take several hours to appear after waking.

That's interesting. You'd think there would be evolutionary pressure for them to be less irritating so people wouldn't respond to them as aggressively.

They are so difficult to get rid of that it doesn't really matter. Before the last century, I don't know if it was actually possible.

Just reading these comments I'm starting to notice multiple linear marks on my legs, arms, neck. I'm itching all over. This is horrible!

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