Bedbugs!?!?...Unstoppable Woman? - Day 4

Bedbugs!?!?...Unstoppable Woman? - Day 4

"Don't let the bedbugs bite." When was the last time you heard that? My grandparents used to say it as a joke to my brother and me when we were little. Bedbugs were mythical things to us, something that people WAY BACK WHEN had to worry about. Yuck.

Imagine my surprise (and disgust) at reading on Yahoo! News: US grapples with bedbugs, misuse of pesticides. DOUBLE YUCK! Evidently, bedbug infestations are back in the United States, big time! Of course, my inquiring mind had to "google" this problem to find out more information. (Isn't it funny how just reading about itchy critters makes one's skin begin to itch?)

What a topic! I found, all posted today: EPA to Blame for Bedbug Problems? on SodaHead, Bed bugs infesting Toronto festival site on Hollywood Reporter, Bed Bugs Biting NE Kansas on WIBW, Bedbug Disclosure Bill Signed Into Law By Paterson in The Huffington Post, Seven Surfire Ways to Fight Bedbugs on CBS News, and MANY other reports. Yahoo! News was right! The US is in the midst of a bedbug infestation of epic proportions! I even found Ew! Bedbugs invade the Internet on msnbc.com. Yikes!!!

Not to (completely) make light of this problem (hey - I have kids and had a run-in with lice when they were younger) it seems to me that all this reporting is leaning a little towards mass hysteria...after all, there is even a Bed Bug Registry online where the public can post bedbug reports from across the US and all the reports are plotted on a map of the country. Come on! A Bed Bug Registry???

The Harvard School of Public Health cautions all of us that while bedbugs are a nuisance we don't need to panic. They don't spread disease and they can be dealt with. They have some great information online that anyone can read: Bedbugs.

Meanwhile, relax, go to bed, sleep well, and don't let the bedbugs bite.