Global De-Worming

Don’t do anything rash… just sleep on it! Unless sleeping on it can make you a little rash. Bed bugs?! Oy! Prior to 2000, only 25% of America’s pest control companies had encountered bed bug issues. In the last couple of years, that number has risen to 95%. A panic attack? Just reacting to heightened awareness? Or more critters? Cities like Denver and Cincinnati vied with each other for the most infested U.S. city. According to PestWorld.org, this much more a city issue that one faced by folks out in the country: “52 percent of pest management companies report treating bed bug infestations in rural areas compared to 71 percent in urban and 80 percent in suburban areas.”  

And they (clinical name: cimex lectularius) are tougher to exterminate than cockroaches, ant and even termites. Twenty percent of us had this issue or know someone who has. It is a huge problem. In all 50 states (and all over the planet!), pretty much evenly distributed everywhere, an issue not just in hotels but in movie theaters, retail stores, public transportation, medical facilities… and of course, your own home, particularly in apartment buildings. These little blood suckers didn’t even go to law school… but I guess you could get them there as well.

According to the National Pest Management Association (in association with the University of Kentucky):

•  Bed bugs can lay one to five eggs in a day and more than 500 in a lifetime.
•  Bed bugs can survive for several months without eating.
• Bed bugs can withstand a wide range of temperatures, from nearly freezing to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Bed bugs draw blood for about five minutes before retreating to digest.
• Bed bugs hatchlings are so small they can pass through a stitch-hole in a mattress.
• Bed bugs can ingest seven times their own weight in blood, which would be the equivalent of an average-sized male drinking 120 gallons of liquid.
• Bed bugs are found in all 50 U.S. states.

Human beings… good eatin’ if you are a bed bug! Wash your clothes when returning from a trip. The water temperature should be above 120 degrees. Vacuum those suitcases. Check your belongings carefully. And very importantly, look before you sleep. A truly infested mattress may need to be discarded. If you see the critters or their eggs, rubbing alcohol directly applied kills them instantly. Then call a professional exterminator!

But wait, there’s one more way to de-infest. Let ‘em bite you and die for the privilege. Ewww! There is a new medical solution on the horizon, a little pill that has helped millions in third world nations deal with intestinal and other worms that have made their way into the body. Oh, did I mention your local hound/pet may be a routine user of the drug? You’ll love the medical term for this: xenointoxication. It is derived from an ancient Greek term for poisoning the guest!

“And it’s not as if the drug is rare and dangerous. It’s already in thousands of American households: ivermectin, the active ingredient in the beef-flavored Heartgard Chewables that kill heartworm in dogs… (For humans, the brand name is Stromectol, and it is available by prescription only, usually for travelers who pick up worms overseas, or toddlers who get them from playing in sandboxes used by dogs.)… Ivermectin is also very safe. Millions of doses have been given to African children to kill the worms that cause river blindness. Many Papua New Guineans get double doses to kill scabies. One early study of the drug found that up to 10 times the normal dose was safe… Ivermectin attacks a type of ‘gated chloride channel’ in the nerves of insects that does not exist in mammals.” New York Times, December 31^st. Brings out your inner dog! Since all men are dogs – according to some sources – this is a natural for us people-types.

But don’t go rushing to Fido’s medicine chest just yet. Dr. Johnathan M. Sheele of Eastern Virginia Medical School has been conducting this study, but so far, he’s only tested this on four volunteers and the med is in no way approved by the FDA (or anyone else who matters) for this purpose. “Dr. Sheele speculated that ivermectin might be best used in combination with current measures like pesticides, desiccant powders, mattress covers, heat treatment, steaming and vacuuming. While it might not work alone, it could give exterminators a head start.

“Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr., a parasitologist at the Carter Center in Atlanta who has spent years running programs in Africa and Asia that give out ivermectin donated by Merck to fight river blindness, said he was ‘excited to see how this plays out.’ Americans might be initially squeamish about deworming pills, he said, but the country does have ‘a lot of worried rich people who don’t like bug bites.’” NY Times. So I guess we have to rewrite that nightly admonition: “Sleep tight and let the bed bugs bite.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and I’m thinking that this all could result in that particularly nasty crime: mattress-cide!