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Video: Bedbugs Are Like Vampires, But Way Less Sexy
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 5, 2011
Modified Jun 5, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 5, 2011
Modified Jun 5, 2011
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Yes, because summer is just about here, it's time to worry about the predicted Bedbug Reckoning of 2011. So, thank you, CBS Sunday Morning, a once cozy and quaint refuge from talking heads, for airing a disgusting feature on bedbugs, complete with video of bedbugs scurrying on pillows and mattresses—including a female bedbug and wee little bedbugs. Where's the barf bag?
Cornell University entomologist Jody Gangloff-Kaufman warns, "The adult females are the ones you really have to look out for... They're visible," plus they are just waiting to hatch hundreds of eggs. She also says, "In the worst cases of bedbugs that have gone unchecked, there are probably hundreds of thousands in a home," and "The little vampires consume what's known as a blood meal. They anesthetize you when they bite, so you don't even feel it, 'til you wake up."
Gangloff-Kaufman also runs down what many know already: Look for bites and then look for bloodstains, "Bloodstains like magic marker spots on the sheets are a good indication of bedbugs feeding." CBS Sunday Morning also tagged along with an exterminator in Manhattan: Sam Soto works for First Rate Solutions, which used to be called First Rate Exterminators; he explained, "If it wasn't for bedbugs, we'd still be known as First Rate Exterminators. The word 'exterminators' has a stigma attached to it. When we walk into a building, people see the word 'exterminators,' they get upset." He also drives an unmarked car.
Pray for bedbug-detection via farts to be the way of the future—and maybe for DDT come back—because Gangloff-Kaufman says, "It's conceivable that at some point, everyone that you know will have dealt with them in one way or another, 'cause we haven't really stopped them or slowed them yet." Yeah, we can put a man on the moon, but bedbugs are literally owning our asses.
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blood meal
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insects
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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