Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite!

Posted by Mike Richard on April 10, 2007
Filed under: Health, United States

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(I easily spent seventeen or eighteen seconds crafting the title of this post. Seriously.)

As if returning home from an around-the-world trip isn’t disheartening and culturally shocking enough, you’re then forced to deal with the lack of six-legged critters - bedbugs in particular - with which to share your bed. Have no fear, insect lover: the San Francisco Chronicle reports that those sexy, blood sucking vermin are back in full swing here in the U.S.!

Nearly eradicated in the United States 50 years ago, resistant strains of “super” bedbugs are infesting mattresses at an alarming rate. In what’s being touted as the biggest mystery in entomology, all 50 states are reporting outbreaks of the blood-sucking nocturnal critters.

I read whispers of bedbug infestation stories in guidebooks. But to be honest, this isn’t an issue that I’ve seen widely discussed on travel forums and blogs. I’m not sure if that’s because the existence of bedbugs isn’t widespread. Or that their existence is widespread, but the issue of dealing with them is a non-factor.

To my well-traveled readership, what have your nocturnal experiences been with creatures of the multi-legged variety?

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Vagabondish editor Mike Richard lives in Rhode Island - a small patch of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats and speaking in the third person.



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Comments

ianmack
April 10th, 2007 - 5:41 pm

in a phnom pehn hostel my girlfriend and i spent the night. she woke up in the morning with hundreds of tiny bites on her legs…literally. i somehow escaped unscathed without a single bite. still not sure how that could have happened…i figure my blood just wasn’t as tasty.


Mike
April 11th, 2007 - 10:32 am

That sounds like fun. Is there anyway to repel these little buggers? Do they make bedbug repellent, similar to mosquito repellent?

Or perhaps I just need to make sure my blood isn’t attractive to them? What’s your secret - diluting your bloodstream with alcohol?


ianmack
April 11th, 2007 - 12:00 pm

gotta be the alcohol ;-)