New Household Dust Study

[CathyA]

There is no known pesticide that a hotel could use to fumigate for bedbugs. They just use perfumed cleaners due to smells.

DDT?

[jp1]

Actually SO's hotel uses heat to kill bed bugs. They take as much potentially infested stuff out of the room (sofa cushions, bedding, etc) to be cleaned, prop the mattress up so air can circulate all around it, and then use a massive propane heater for 24 hours. Once everything gets above a certain temperature the bugs die.

[19Sandy]

Yes, heat treatment is appropriate but that doesn't mean that place uses it. They might still use pesticides for bedbugs

By the way, bedbugs is indeed one word not two - it is one of the most frequently misspelled words in the English language.

I remember it because we don't write grass hopper (two words) because it is actually grasshopper.

However, a lot of exterminators use bed bugs (two words) - this is one of my pet peeves!

Anyone who travels risks bringing home bedbugs in their luggage. The critters can also be inside airplanes and such - yikes.

Kids can bring the insects home in backpacks too.

I wouldn't surprise me if some of those climb into library books.

You can't see the eggs or nymphs (clear bodies and very tiny).

Heat treatment are majorly expensive too.

One of my neighbors brought home bedbugs from a vacation and of course landlord evicted this person right away. Got a 3-day eviction notice.

Neighbor had to move out fast but sued because it was illegal.

Scary stuff!

[19Sandy]

Growing up, my family was subjected to massive toxic overload from volatile cleansers and lot of Avon products. I was sick all the time as a child and still have health issues as a result. Of course, no one considered that that stuff was dangerous in the olden days.