Re: BED BUGS
David bin Lantern
After literally weeks of dithering over buying a) a bed of some kind,
b) a futon mattress and c) *this* futon, my $160 6"-thick all-cotton
futon arrived around noon today (via "free" FedEx), mere days after
resolving that quandary by "buy[ing] the damn thing already"; then
this afternoon I resolved another couple of purchasing problems by
ordering a 6-gauge zippered vinyl mattress protector (the cheapest I
could find at shopping.google.com) from a place called (I'm so very
glad they don't use this on their packaging) The Bedwetting Store --
and a 250-thread-count mattress pad from walmart.com because a vinyl
mattress protector might be hot and uncomfortable to sleep atop.
I made these later two purchases (the vinyl cover and the cotton pad)
not because I wet the bed (I'm very good at avoiding sleeping very
deeply or very well for very long) but because I'm horrified of the
idea of bed bugs infesting my new $160 6"-thick all-cotton futon
mattress that I'll be continuing to sleep on the floor on (cue "I
Think I'm Turning Japanese"). It's not the idea of bed bug *bites*
that bothers me (or I'd've gotten a very tall loft bed frame and set
the feet in bowls of petroleum jelly, which I might indeed eventually
do if I can ever afford that "off-the-floor" option), in fact I've
read that bed bugs seldom transmit diseases (and that a lot of people
don't realize they've been bitten till they check themselves -- or
have their Complicated Friends do it for them); rather my (admittedly
incomplete and dinky) precautions against bed bugs arise from my
crippling dread of being infested with (even more?) creepy parasites.
(The worms that lurk in my brain are quite enough, obviously.) Ritual
Purity is a very troublesome status to achieve. Besides which, on my
budget spending $160 for something to sleep on besides the landlord's
ugly old carpet is bad enough, but ever having to throw out or burn
the damn thing because it's crawling with bugs would really bother me.
If you think *this* is neurotic, backtrack up the References to the
first post in this thread where S D "Aardark" Rodrian claims that he
*loves* bed bugs because they're *tasty*.
Sheeshingly,
TheDavid
--
"Ne vestigium quidem ullum est reliquum nobis dignitatis."
.................................................................
(C) 2009 'TheDavid(TM)' | All Rights Reserved World-Wide Always
Keith F. Lynch
> I made these later two purchases (the vinyl cover and the cotton
> pad) not because I wet the bed (I'm very good at avoiding sleeping
> very deeply or very well for very long) but because I'm horrified of
> the idea of bed bugs infesting my new $160 6"-thick all-cotton futon
> mattress that I'll be continuing to sleep on the floor on (cue "I
> Think I'm Turning Japanese").
I doubt that will help. What will prevent bed bug infestations:
* Never rescue upholstered furniture or cloth goods from the trash.
* Make sure there are no holes in your apartment. Caulk the areas
where pipes enter. Block power outlets, telephone outlets, etc.,
that aren't in use.
* If you use a clothes dryer that's shared with others, e.g. in an
apartment laundry room or a laundromat, make sure you run it until
your clothes are all perfectly dry and toasty warm.
> ... rather my (admittedly incomplete and dinky) precautions against
> bed bugs arise from my crippling dread of being infested with (even
> more?) creepy parasites.
Bed bugs don't count as parasites, as they don't live in you or on you.
They live in our near your bed.
> ... but ever having to throw out or burn the damn thing because it's
> crawling with bugs would really bother me.
If that ever happens, put it in an almost airtight bag with some dry
ice, to suffocate all the bugs. Wait a couple weeks then do it again
to suffocate any that are newly hatched. But that may not help if any
bugs were living *near* instead of *in* the futon or mattress.
> If you think *this* is neurotic, backtrack up the References to the
> first post in this thread where S D "Aardark" Rodrian claims that he
> *loves* bed bugs because they're *tasty*.
I don't know how bed bugs taste, but I'm not too fond of the taste
of roaches. One time I got up in the middle of the night and poured
myself a cup of water, as I was thirsty. I did so in complete
darkness, as I know where everything is and don't need the lights on
except to read. I noticed that the water seemed unusually crunchy.
So I turned on the lights and saw an approximately infinite number of
Blatella germanica fleeing in all directions like greased quicksilver.
I was not pleased.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
Deirdre Sholto Douglas
Jay-sus Christ, where do you people live?! I've never
seen a bedbug, roach (or louse for that matter) in my
life except in pictures or at the Entomology exhibit at
the museum.
Deirdre
________________
The only acceptable substitute for intelligence is silence.
Steve Daniels
compelled Deirdre Sholto Douglas <finch.e...@sbcglobal.net>,
to say:
I've seen them in Southern California, and I gather in Florida
they are like the state bird or something. Maybe they do not do
well in cold places like Chicago and Scotland.
--
Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will
have to ram it down their throats.
- Howard Aiken
Jesper Lauridsen
>
> Jay-sus Christ, where do you people live?! I've never
> seen a bedbug, roach (or louse for that matter) in my
> life except in pictures or at the Entomology exhibit at
> the museum.
But you're probably one of those weirdoes who cleans, changes sheets
and does the laundry.
Deirdre Sholto Douglas
Guilty as charged.
No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
vermin is on the other side of the line.
Bob O`Bob
> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
> vermin is on the other side of the line.
Well, then ...
how does one erect a tent over a newsgroup,
so that we can step back and gas it?
Bob
--
Steve Thompson
Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
very little effort. Maybe your gated community down there in the US
is scrubbed of insects, but I assure you they can be found in sane
parts of the world with startling regularity.
Regards,
Steve
--
Stupid SF Idea #5873: Intergalactic war.
Steve Thompson
> Deirdre Sholto Douglas wrote:
>
> >No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
> >far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
> >vermin is on the other side of the line.
>
>
> how does one erect a tent over a newsgroup,
> so that we can step back and gas it?
Well, since you asked, and since I might know something about the
problem at hand, I'll say that the process is not necessarily all that
difficult. First we have to survey the problem to discover its
dimensions. Then we must assay the available remedies. With that
information we may then consider the costs. If we then find that the
costs are acceptable and that current technology is up to the task, we
can go about marshalling the necessary materials and allocating
personnel according to whatever schedule is dictated by the solution
we have selected. On the appointed date we rope-off the newsgroup to
restrict access as appropriate and fumigate (and possibly nuking the
tough spots). At the all clear, we move the furniture back in and
commence to enjoy our clean newsgroup.
Seth
Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
>the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
>very little effort.
But they're not labelled.
Seth
Seth
Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>Well, since you asked, and since I might know something about the
>problem at hand, I'll say that the process is not necessarily all that
>difficult. First we have to survey the problem to discover its
>dimensions. Then we must assay the available remedies. With that
>information we may then consider the costs. If we then find that the
>costs are acceptable and that current technology is up to the task, we
>can go about marshalling the necessary materials and allocating
>personnel according to whatever schedule is dictated by the solution
>we have selected.
An answer containing less PHB-speak might be useful.
If you can handle that.
Seth
David bin Lantern
Aren't you the stevet who thought we were all in on the Plot?
D.
P.S. Dierdre wasn't.
David bin Lantern
> Jay-sus Christ, where do you people live?! I've never
> seen a bedbug, roach (or louse for that matter) in my
> life except in pictures or at the Entomology exhibit at
> the museum.
Cockroaches are common in apartment buildings and almost impossible to
get rid of once any resident imports them from somewhere, and they say
bedbugs were brought back from overseas by tourists and were spread by
people staying in hotels & motels; bugs generally have been rebounding
since DDT since those ecologo-fascists went nuts. Poison everything, I
say. Let only the strong survive! (By the way, hawks are now common in
central KY; didn't used to be.)
Incidentally, have you checked for termites? And do you realize you
most likely have icky mites living in your pillows and eyelashes?
You'd better fumigate your house and swim in a pool full of Raid(R)!
And yes, I clean and do laundry, but I don't know if the person who
had the apartment before me did. I've seen one roach and no biting
bugs (except mosquitos) since I moved in August 1st; mostly I see
moths, flies, midges and gnats, whatever gets in when the doors are
opened, like when I need to get in myself.
D.
Steve Thompson
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>
> Aren't you the stevet who thought we were all in on the Plot?
Do I know you?
> D.
>
> P.S. Dierdre wasn't.
Wasn't what? Peeving?
Steve Thompson
> In article <a81ee04...@myofb.org>,
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>
> >problem at hand, I'll say that the process is not necessarily all that
> >difficult. First we have to survey the problem to discover its
> >dimensions. Then we must assay the available remedies. With that
> >information we may then consider the costs. If we then find that the
> >costs are acceptable and that current technology is up to the task, we
> >can go about marshalling the necessary materials and allocating
> >personnel according to whatever schedule is dictated by the solution
> >we have selected.
>
I utterly fail to see what you are objecting to in the above
paragraph. I suppose I could rewrite it in a slighly different tone,
perhaps changing the wording to make it flow better, but any
improvement to that end would be slight.
> If you can handle that.
I don't think there's much to "handle" in relation to your complaint,
but if you want to fish for trouser-trout in my pants you'll have to
get some better bait.
Steve Thompson
> In article <2bd270f...@myofb.org>,
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>
> >Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
> >the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
> >very little effort.
>
True. But if I were interested in bugs from the perspective of an
entomologist I would alread own at least one text on the subject,
making a museum display superfluous. I know that tourists and their
inevitable children might benefit from seeing creatures they would
otherwise never encounter in their cubicles or homes, but that does
not necessarily mean that a museum is the place for it.
The problem could be that museums today rarely have a specific focus.
Most museums seem to feel they need to display some of the entire
range of the animal kingdom as well as the entirety of historical
human anthropology, all in a building scarcely larger than a subway
station. Specialty museums, where a particular subject can be treated
in some detail are rare, and hence a display of pinned butterflys or
an ant-farm cannot do justice to the subject at all.
I do not mean to criticise museums for attempting to do their job,
just noting the fact that superficial treatment to give the public a
taste of everything has a cost. Locally, we have the Royal Ontario
Museum, and I am more than happy to vist it from time-to-time and
view their acquisitions and features. I don't go to the ROM to see
bugs for the same reason I don't go there to see antique cars and
trucks.
David bin Lantern
[...]
> Locally, we have the Royal Ontario Museum, and I am more than
> happy to vist it from time-to-time and view their acquisitions
> and features. I don't go to the ROM to see bugs for the same
> reason I don't go there to see antique cars and trucks.
What do you go there for, hmm? Do you tap your toes in the lav?
Pointlessly,
D.
P.S. What "medication(s)" do they have _you_ on now? Risperdal makes
me too sedated to feel up to going anywhere to do anything; I'm sure
that's why they push it.
David bin Lantern
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>
>>Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
>>the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
>>very little effort.
>
> But they're not labelled.
Nor are they deep-fried.
I found out a couple years ago after visiting an "Oriental" grocery
store than fried crickets taste like, well, fried crickets. And at $3
a can it's cheaper to catch my own by leaving a jar of Night Train on
the porch overnight; the "wine" itself can be strained and reused for
months.
D.
David bin Lantern
Steve Thompson
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
> [...]
>
> > Locally, we have the Royal Ontario Museum, and I am more than
> > happy to vist it from time-to-time and view their acquisitions
> > and features. I don't go to the ROM to see bugs for the same
> > reason I don't go there to see antique cars and trucks.
>
> What do you go there for, hmm? Do you tap your toes in the lav?
I go to the museum to see what they have on display. I go in to
toilets to wash, pee, or shit out waste. I come to Usenet to be
trolled and abused while my character is assasinated when people think
I'm not looking. Occasionally there are redeeming moments, but this
is not one of them.
> Pointlessly,
> D.
>
> P.S. What "medication(s)" do they have _you_ on now? Risperdal makes
> me too sedated to feel up to going anywhere to do anything; I'm sure
> that's why they push it.
I dunno what medications they have me on, but whatever it is must
cause savage barbarity among some of the general population. In
others it causes an inability to use standard English for the purpose
of civil discourse.
brady r
> >> Jay-sus Christ, where do you people live?! I've never
> >> seen a bedbug, roach (or louse for that matter) in my
> >> life except in pictures or at the Entomology exhibit at
> >> the museum.
>
> > But you're probably one of those weirdoes who cleans, changes sheets
> > and does the laundry.
>
> Guilty as charged.
>
> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
> vermin is on the other side of the line.
Groundhogs excepted, one assumes.
Slothyraptor
brady r
Take off and nuke them from orbit. It's the only
way to be sure.
Brady R
brady r
wrote:
> Deirdre Sholto Douglas <finch.enter...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> > Jay-sus Christ, where do you people live?! I've never
> > seen a bedbug, roach (or louse for that matter) in my
> > life except in pictures or at the Entomology exhibit at
> > the museum.
>
> Cockroaches are common in apartment buildings and almost impossible to
> get rid of once any resident imports them from somewhere, and they say
> bedbugs were brought back from overseas by tourists and were spread by
> people staying in hotels & motels; bugs generally have been rebounding
> since DDT since those ecologo-fascists went nuts. Poison everything, I
> say. Let only the strong survive! (By the way, hawks are now common in
> central KY; didn't used to be.)
>
> Incidentally, have you checked for termites? And do you realize you
> most likely have icky mites living in your pillows and eyelashes?
> You'd better fumigate your house and swim in a pool full of Raid(R)!
Looked at in the right light, follicle mites -- which we all
have -- can be kind of cute.
Which is no doubt why Jay Hosler chose them for his
delightful "Sandwalk Adventures", in which Charles
Darwin explains his newfangled theory thingie to
a family of mites living in his eyelashes. Highly
recommended.
Brady R
Deirdre Sholto Douglas
>> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
>> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
>> vermin is on the other side of the line.
>
> Groundhogs excepted, one assumes.
Groundhogs aren't vermin and even if they were, they
don't reside _inside_ the house.
Anyway, I've not had one under the stoop since the bees
moved in there, since I haven't had a bible thumper atop
the stoop for equally long, I'm not inclined to evict my
apian friends.
brady r
<finch.enter...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> brady r wrote:
> > On Sep 24, 1:53 pm, Deirdre Sholto Douglas
> > <finch.enter...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
> >> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
> >> vermin is on the other side of the line.
>
> > Groundhogs excepted, one assumes.
>
> Groundhogs aren't vermin and even if they were, they
> don't reside _inside_ the house.
>
> Anyway, I've not had one under the stoop since the bees
> moved in there, since I haven't had a bible thumper atop
> the stoop for equally long, I'm not inclined to evict my
> apian friends.
Ah, an update to the classic post. Thank you.
Slothyraptor
David bin Lantern
>> On Sep 24, 1:53 pm, Deirdre Sholto Douglas
>> <finch.enter...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>>> No fleas, ticks or rats either...there's a limit as to how
>>> far "back to nature" I'm going to go and residing with
>>> vermin is on the other side of the line.
>>
>> Groundhogs excepted, one assumes.
>
> Groundhogs aren't vermin and even if they were, they
> don't reside _inside_ the house.
Ground hogs are a natural reservoir for bubonic plaugue, which is
usually spread by fleas. Fleas have ways of getting inside: we just
found fleas on an old ferret who hasn't been outside in a year and has
had flea treatments since then. Maybe the dog got them from the grass,
like maybe the local fleas have become resistant to this expensive
anti-flea stuff we've been using since the other expensive anti-flea
stuff the vet sold us quit working, or maybe the fleas "hitchhiked" on
our sneakers, or something.
I'm sure you already knew this, you just didn't think about it as you
typed, because groundhogs are cute furry critters. I know, we had one
in our yard back in Louisville. I'd bring him good vegetables to eat.
But I worried about his fleas, every outdoor critter has zillions.
> Anyway, I've not had one under the stoop since the bees
> moved in there,
Are you anaphylactically shockable? I'm probably not but I don't want
to test it. I was a test subject a couple of studies, dental studies:
one that tested whether ibuprofen was effective again the pain of
having wisdom teeth cut out (in my case it wasn't, severely, but I
didn't follow up on the published results) and one that tested whether
fish oil helps the body fight off gum disease (I don't know that it
made any difference, it could be that I followed their instructions to
floss more and brush better, and I haven't found that published study
either). I participated in those because in the first one I needed my
wisdom teeth cut out anyway (and they promised me a GOOD painkiller if
the ibupropen didn't work), and for the second study, the fish oil
one, I didn't see how fish oil could give me any pain and anyway they
paid me just enough to buy some decent beer. But bee sting hurt even
if you're not allergic to the vemon, and I dislike any kind of pain.
> since I haven't had a bible thumper atop the stoop for equally long,
> I'm not inclined to evict my apian friends.
It's things like this that keep me reading your posts. Minimal wit is
better than none.
> The only acceptable substitute for intelligence is silence.
I've been reading "minimalist" fiction and trying to teach myself the
style. I think the idea is to write artlessly like a real person
talks. A real person who might be a typical American in a red state,
as most really real people are. I don't think I can cut it, I keep
reaching for a semicolon, which most really real people must think is
some kind of disease they don't want. Unlike "sugar diabetes" Granny
just takes her shots for. Shots don't scare really real peole, they
grind the Vicodin up really powdery and suck it up a Kools filter.
D.
Seth
Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 05:40:36PM +0000, Seth wrote:
>> In article <2bd270f...@myofb.org>,
>> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
>>
>> >Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
>> >the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
>> >very little effort.
>>
>> But they're not labelled.
>
>True. But if I were interested in bugs from the perspective of an
>entomologist I would alread own at least one text on the subject,
>making a museum display superfluous.
At that level of interest, probably (but even then, viewing the real
thing can provide benefits that textbook photos don't).
> I know that tourists and their
>inevitable children might benefit from seeing creatures they would
>otherwise never encounter in their cubicles or homes, but that does
>not necessarily mean that a museum is the place for it.
You think a zoo would be better?
ObPeeve: Delta changing my seat (from 6C (aisle) to 8E (middle))
without asking or even telling me.
ObBonusPeeve: The very attractive MOTAS in 6B.
Seth
Seth
>ObPeeve: Delta changing my seat (from 6C (aisle) to 8E (middle))
>without asking or even telling me.
>
>ObBonusPeeve: The very attractive MOTAS in 6B.
Ob!Peeve: They gave me $25 when I complained.
Seth
Keith F. Lynch
>> PHB-speak
> What's that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointy-Haired_Boss
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
Steve Thompson
> In article <f4f7957...@myofb.org>,
> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
> >On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 05:40:36PM +0000, Seth wrote:
> >> In article <2bd270f...@myofb.org>,
> >> Steve Thompson <steve...@yahoo.on.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >> >Why the hell were you looking at bugs in a museum? I can go out on
> >> >the street or to the park and find an infinite variety of bugs with
> >> >very little effort.
> >>
> >> But they're not labelled.
> >
> >True. But if I were interested in bugs from the perspective of an
> >entomologist I would alread own at least one text on the subject,
> >making a museum display superfluous.
>
> thing can provide benefits that textbook photos don't).
Can you put musem bugs under a microscope? No. Can you perform
behavioral experiments on museum bugs? No. Can you breed museum
bugs according to arbitrary selection criterion? No. Case closed.
Admittedly at textbook does not include the factilities for much of
the above, but at least you'll have the information available to
embark on some non-trivial course of study if you have one. A museum
is probably only going to be good enough to encourage you to get a
textbook. If you don't, all you've done is look at some dead
organisims and perhaps gushed at all the pretty colours and markings.
> > I know that tourists and their
> >inevitable children might benefit from seeing creatures they would
> >otherwise never encounter in their cubicles or homes, but that does
> >not necessarily mean that a museum is the place for it.
>
> You think a zoo would be better?
It occurs to me that a zoo with a hands-on approach might be
worthwhile, even if most of the patrons never go much beyond
*SPLAT*,
"hey look honey, this one's all yellow on the inside."
> ObPeeve: Delta changing my seat (from 6C (aisle) to 8E (middle))
> without asking or even telling me.
Are there contractual obligations that require them to regard their
ticket sales as if carved in stone upon issue? I suspect it is
unlikely.
> ObBonusPeeve: The very attractive MOTAS in 6B.
Perhaps the airline is getting data back from the DHS and therefore
knew you would make a pest of yourself if seated beside a hottie.
Regards,
Steve
--
This year's turkey is going to make at least two-weeks worth of turkey samwiches.
Steve Thompson
> In article <hbki3h$1fv$5...@reader1.panix.com>, Seth <se...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> >without asking or even telling me.
> >
>
How do they arrive at those figures? Last time I flew to Hannover I
had the most amazing discussion with a tall German saleswoman
returning from abroad. Had I been seated elsewhere as you describe
and subsequently complained, I would have demanded at least $30.00
USD.