| My advice piece on getting rid of bedbugs appears | | | | a wooden box where hundreds would attack at |
| in today's UK press. It was impossible to fit | | | | once, falling off the sides and dropping from the |
| everything in and I'm expecting a lively reader | | | | lid). Here in 21st century London, they slide |
| response. The bottom line is don't faff about with | | | | noiselessly into your bed at night on their |
| home sprays, toxic, organic, home-made or | | | | castor-like toes to feed on your blood, stinging |
| otherwise, but call in the experts immediately | | | | you awake. You can't even move into another |
| before the bugs breed and spread through your | | | | room to get back to sleep for fear of spreading |
| home and even into the fabric of your building and | | | | them. Like cockroaches, they have a tough, |
| into other homes. | | | | almost shell-like, exterior and are so adept at |
| Because bedbugs don't harbour or spread disease, | | | | hiding and survival you sometimes really feel like |
| they have been an under-researched species. But | | | | you're battling with a horrible, evil intelligence. Their |
| the mini-plagues now happening across the US are | | | | peak feeding time, for example, is just before |
| putting them right at the top of the environmental | | | | dawn when humans are in their deepest sleep. |
| health agenda. A whole sheaf of bedbug articles | | | | Thankfully our battle is now over but it wasn't |
| are currently appearing in the New York Times. | | | | straightforward. The insect poison from the |
| One reports that a community health survey in | | | | hardware store was useless even though it |
| 2009 showed that 1 in 15 New Yorkers had | | | | mentioned bedbugs on the packet. We called in |
| bedbugs in their homes: | | | | the local council pest controllers who told us the |
| "A number that is probably higher now... In recent | | | | store spray we'd been using was only effective |
| weeks, bedbugs snuggled into the seats at AMC's | | | | for a couple of hours. But then their spraying of |
| movie theater in Times Square, crept around a | | | | toxic chemical didn't work either so we had to call |
| Victoria's Secret store on Lexington Avenue and | | | | them back. They kicked us out for 3 hours and |
| the offices of Elle Magazine and hitchhiked into the | | | | sprayed a fine, poisonous mist throughout the flat. |
| Brooklyn district attorney's office." | | | | Still there were survivors, dealt with by powdering |
| Earlier this summer, branches of New York's | | | | the nest sites with Diatomaceous Earth (use with |
| Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister were hit and | | | | caution, don't inhale, follow safety instructions). We |
| had to be temporarily closed. Bedbug sniffer dogs | | | | were, I suppose, lucky in that the nesting sites in |
| are in demand, especially in hotels who have a | | | | the wooden bed frame were visible. Some |
| nightmare needle-in-haystack problem with every | | | | infestations are in the building itself, spreading |
| infestation. | | | | from apartment to apartment, sliding up through |
| Bedbugs have been around for ever of course - | | | | gaps in the skirting boards. If we hadn't eliminated |
| the first recorded bedbug incident in the UK | | | | them, the council would have had powers to |
| appeared in 1583. So why this resurgence now? | | | | enter our neighbours' properties, confirming, the |
| What's going on? Is the extreme idea held by | | | | New York Times' suggestion that the social cost |
| some, that terrorism by explosion has been | | | | is rising as well. |
| replaced by terrorism by stealth, so far-fetched? | | | | I didn't hesitate in allowing the chemicals to be |
| Well, yes. Hopefully. It's more down to the | | | | sprayed in my home, though I did ask what they |
| successful lobbying of people with viewpoints like | | | | were. They came from a company called Killgerm, |
| mine who are passionate about getting the toxic | | | | and are so powerful they're only supplies to |
| chemicals out of our bodies, our homes and the | | | | registered users. Fortunately, the recent US |
| wider environment. The widespread use of DDT | | | | Environmental Health journal report on the links |
| to clear up bomb sites after World War II virtually | | | | between cancer and certain types of cleaning |
| eradicated bedbugs from Europe. But now the | | | | product recorded that the use of mothballs, |
| banning of widespread use of the most dangerous | | | | pesticides and insect repellents in the home had |
| chemicals, along with the increase of foreign | | | | little impact. So, whilst I am all for economical, |
| travel, has brought the bugs back into our homes. | | | | non-toxic ways of cleaning and stain removal, this |
| Bedbug infestation is now on the rise in the UK. | | | | is a classic case of what I've always believed in - |
| We've had them in our flat in central London. As | | | | use non-toxic on a day-to-day basis but when |
| anybody who has been through it will agree, it | | | | needs be REACH FOR THE CHEMICALS! And, in |
| was hell! It came as no surprise to learn that | | | | the case of bedbugs, call in the experts with their |
| bedbugs were one of the many instruments of | | | | powerful poisons right away. |
| torture used in Stalin's Gulags (think being placed in | | | | |