AGGHHH! I noticed within the last two weeks that I am itching like mad! Then I noticed it happens when I'm chilling on my couch! Then I noticed it happens when I'm lying in bed!

I thought maybe I had fleas in the house, but my cat has been treated with Frontline, so they wouldn't stick around just for me anymore.

So, I figure it is a bedbug of one kind or another. It is making me crazy. I'm really not a slob guys, I keep a very clean house and have no other pest problems. I'm trying to think of where they came from.

I stayed at a, well, "flea bag hotel" when I took the Kansas Bar. My ex-girlfriend came to visit and brought her dog, who was in and outside for a few days. I meet some, well, unsavory types in my line of work. So, it could be anything. I'm calling in the pros and washing everything. If you've ever had these things, I really think they can give you mental problems. The only thing worse than thinking there are bugs crawling all over you is knowing it for sure.

From what I heard about them burn your house.

You could try fumigating, that kills everything. Or maybe just a bug bomb.

Have you actually *seen* the bugs?

__________________
1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Nothing embarassing about it. There has been a substantial increase in the bedbug population in the US in the recent past. Some people attribute it to the banning of DDT I think.
We got them when I was doing a lot of travelling and staying in hotels.
They are VERY HARD to get rid off. I learned that in our case, once they got a good blood meal, they liked to travel up the walls to the high corners of the room in our cathedraled ceiling bedroom. Rigged up a long PVC pipe on a vacuum and nabbed the visible ones that way. We also hunted them down. Looked in every crack and crevice in the mattress and boxsprings and caulked every possible crack in the baseboards etc where they might be hiding. Then sprayed everything with an insectiside designed to kill them and shut the room up for a few days. It took a couple of times to wipe them out.
In our case, the clues were that the bites were mostly on our forearms where they lay outside the bed covers. The welts were pretty hard and red and itched like the devil.
I seem to recollect that you need to move quickly. They don't need to eat that often, but once they do, they reproduce rapidly. As I recall, they can go for something like six months without a meal. But, if they're biting you, that reproduction cycle is in the works.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Would that start duck season a little early?

Bedbugs are freaking hard to get rid of. Your best bet, if you can afford it, is to discard your bedding and mattress. The eggs are very persistent and the bugs will lay them in the springs, in the mattress, in the blanket, etc. They will even live inside your walls. Worse, the eggs are highly resistent to insecticides so even if you kill every adult, the eggs will produce new bloodsuckers in short order.

If you're in a rental unit, break the lease and move out. I'm serious, if you don't kill them before they massively reproduce, you'll have their eggs everywhere.

They're related to the kissing bug that transmits Chagas Disease. I don't know whether the bedbug is a vector, but anything that sucks blood while pumping saliva into the wound and then poops on the victim when he leaves has got to pose a potential problem.

MedMech has the #1 best advice. But it's expensive.

Many years ago there was this accomodating barmaid who gained deserved popularity by the notable lack of effort required to bed her.

Most of us guys were fishing in the same pool,so to speak and we all got a good case of those noisome parasites spread through intimate contact.

After we got rid of the crabs,and the barmaid,for that matter, we would all yell a true but somewhat demeaning call and response whenever we would see eachother:

"How do you catch crabs"?someone would yell "with Annette"we would reply.....

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Thats funny! I called the bug man that does the bar I work at and told him what was up. He told me I probably had fleas again. Apparently bed bugs are much larger than I thought, about the size of a fingernail, he said. I thought they were much smaller. I get bit on my ankles, which is like fleas. My cat seems pretty cool, though, but I treated him again anyway.

Also, he told me to look in certain places and if I see a rust colored ball-don't do anything else. I looked everywhere and don't see anything. I'm washing everything and treated my cat. I'll give it a few more days after that. He also said that bed bugs are definitely on the rise, he's been doing a lot of hotels. He also said its a very expensive prblem. God, how did people live here a century ago? I'd be livin' off whisky and sleeping outside I guess.

Whoa.. bedbugs are NOT that big....

__________________
'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

1/8" to 1/4"... ugh

http://medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/bedbugs.html
http://www.pestproducts.com/bedbug.htm
http://www.bugclinic.com/bedbug.htm

__________________
http://webwench.net/albums/new83-300...1700.thumb.jpg
1983 300D-T
348,000 miles

Yeah, I thought they were smaller than that but the bug man says when fully engorged with the good stuff they are as large as a fingernail, and that is when you will see them as they will scurry if they aren't burdened by my life blood.

God I hope I don't have them. I also worry about transmitting them to other people! We'll see what happens over the next few days...I checked out one of those sites earlier. I'm not squeemish, and I can handle fleas, etc., but "bed bugs" gross me out.

Several lengthy articles but packed-full of accurate, interesting, and disgusting information.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no4/brogdon.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/prevent.htm
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/pyrethroids4mosquitos.htm

This one has practical control measures for a variety of vectors, including bedbugs (which are not demonstrated to be a disease vector but have been implicated in Hepatitis transmission).

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/resources/vectorcontrol/en/

And for dessert...http://www.termapest.co.uk/id18.html

B

Just be glad you haven't picked up any botfly larvae

http://www.vexman.com/botfly.htm
http://arpa.allenpress.com/arpaonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1043%2F0003-9985(2001)125%3C0453:BIDH%3E2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.bright.net/~bryanvet/Cuterebra.htm

Aauuugh!
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb333/is_200210/ai_n5749923

__________________
http://webwench.net/albums/new83-300...1700.thumb.jpg
1983 300D-T
348,000 miles

why does it always happen that whenever you start reading about bugs, you automatically start scratching like they are on you at that very moment. hehe

As I was reading your guys posts I started scratchin my arms and legs, etc.

It's gotta be kinda' subliminal. Go up to someone and start talking to them. While you are talking to them, start scratching. After a while, they will start scratchin too.

__________________
Frank
84 500SEL EURO 101K ( JUST LIKE MY 1ST WIFE. GLAD TO GET RID OF HER! )
85 300D 310K (sold)
90 350SDL 184K sold
83 300D 118K (sold)
88 300E 153k (sold)
93 400E 105K (sold)