Dark Banquet

by Bill Schutt

  Of course, since the seventeenth century, the word bug has developed a number of additional meanings. The phrases “putting a bug in someone’s ear” or “having a bug up one’s butt” may very well have originated with the medicinal use of leeches (but I’m only speculating here). Used as a verb, bug can describe certain unwelcome attentions or the covert placement of surveillance equipment. It can also refer to the equipment itself or a computer or technical glitch. Drinking “bug juice” means chugging an inferior grade of alcoholic beverage (except in ancient Greece, where the term was taken literally and seems to have been the equivalent of huffing down a bean-and-bug-flavored Alka-Seltzer). In any event, bug juice could leave the drinker “bug eyed” or as “crazy as a bed bug” and in no way capable of driving certain formerly ubiquitous German autos. Finally (and thankfully), the phrase “snug as a bug in a rug” first appeared in an eighteenth-century farce, The Stratford Jubilee, whereas “Sleep tight, etc., etc.” has two possible origins. According to columnist Cecil Adams (the Straight Dope), “sleeping tight” may refer to a time when many mattresses were made of interwoven strands of rope attached to a rectangular wooden frame. To sleep well, these mattress ropes had to be pulled tight and reknotted (lest they sag like a hammock under the weight of the sleeper). The alternative explanation is that in this case tight refers to the word’s archaic use as an adverb meaning “soundly,” “properly,” or “well.”

  Why do bed bugs find living with humans so comfortable? And just as importantly, what are we doing that makes it so easy for them to thrive and spread from place to place?

  Let’s begin with some housing and transportation issues.

  Many ectoparasites (like the ticks, mites, and chiggers, which will be discussed elsewhere in this book) use an array of specialized appendages to cling or otherwise attach themselves to their hosts—sometimes for extended periods. Bed bugs and their relatives, however, spend a major portion of their lives hiding in close proximity to their hosts but not living on them.*107 Generally, bed bugs react negatively to light and actively seek out rough, dry surfaces that are at least partially darkened. They emerge from these harborages late at night (usually around 3 or 4 a.m.), climbing aboard their prey for short periods of time to feed.

  The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, generally feeds for five to ten minutes, often making three or four bites, roughly in a row (sometimes referred to as “breakfast, lunch, and dinner”) before returning to its harborage. After a feeding bout, bed bugs are ready to eat again within a week.

  By the time a victim notices the bites, the bed bugs are long gone, leaving behind a cluster of itchy, red blotches, bumps, or welts that can occur on any exposed skin surface (e.g., face, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, etc.). Reaction to the bites can vary since it depends on the victim’s immune response to proteins in the bed bugs’ saliva, but generally, the more bites, the greater the level of inflammation. Unfortunately, bed bug bites are often misdiagnosed by physicians as mosquito or flea bites or, more commonly, as scabies, an itchy skin condition caused by the microscopic mite Sarcoptes scabei.

  Since birds are parasitized by a wide variety of ectoparasites (including many species of bed bugs and their relatives), bird nests are often infested with tiny ectoparasites (like chiggers, lice, and ticks). Nests provide the miniature vampires with the perfect microhabitat for activities like breeding, hiding out, and waiting for the home delivery of their next meal.*108

  Similar to cimicids that prey on birds, those that feed on bat blood spend the majority of their lives killing time in places where their prey hang out—in this case, literally. Bat roosts generally vary by species but they’re commonly located in caves, mines, attics, abandoned buildings, and tree hollows. There, the bat bugs hide in cracks and crevices—quietly digesting their meals and presumably catching up on the latest bits of misinformation about their hosts.

  With this behavior in mind, it’s no surprise that bed bugs have made an easy transition from bird nests and bat caves to the vast heated structures created by humans and packed with potential hiding places of every conceivable shape and size.

  “Clutter is the bed bugs’ best friend,” said bed bug expert Gil Bloom, during his presentation. And so, in many human homes bed bugs have found paradise.*109

  Similarly, the actual dispersal of bed bug colonies (aka spread of the bed bug infestation) has developed a significant human element.

  According to Bloom, there are two ways that bed bugs can be introduced into a home: actively and passively. In active introduction, bed bugs migrate from one place to another under their own power. Since bed bugs don’t have functional wings, active dispersal of the colony depends on walking (or running) to a new home.

  Migration from one room to another is easy enough to visualize but what about between apartments or floors? As Bloom tells it, bed bugs can easily relocate within a building via pipes, phone wires, or cables.

  Humans can often pick up an assist in these active introductions and here’s how. Let’s say your neighbor upstairs has figured out that his apartment is infested with bed bugs. He decides to ditch his bug-filled bedding curbside and proceeds to wrestle his mattress out into the hallway. Some of the bed bugs might fall off as he tips the mattress on its side, while others are jostled off as the bugged bed is dragged down the hall or thumps its way down the stairs (think of that scene in King Kong with the sailors clinging for their lives to a giant log as Kong tries to shake them off ). Rather than falling to their deaths, though, the displaced vampires hit the ground running, heading for the first crevice they can find. In all likelihood, this means scooting under doors and into new apartments. Once they get themselves settled (think about how those aggregational pheromones work), females will start pumping out five or so eggs a day (several hundred in a lifetime) and a new colony can form almost as fast as you can say, “Honey, check out this red spot on my arm.”

  The role of your neighbor in this scenario leads us to the second method by which bed bugs can infest a residence. Passive introduction pretty much covers any transport method that doesn’t employ the bed bugs’ own locomotor abilities. In cimicids that do not feed on humans, this generally occurs when bugs are delivered via airmail to new locals by unsuspecting bats or birds. In Cimex lectularius, passive introduction relies primarily on humans—their products and their wonderful efficiency at moving from one place to another. As we’ll see, this ability to exploit our habits as well as the things we use on a daily basis has become one of the major factors in the current spread of bed bug populations.

  Let’s say your neighbor has succeeded in humping that mattress down five flights of stairs (and potentially spreading the bed bugs to five new floors) before dumping the thing curbside. If a college student or someone in the market for cheap bedding picks it up, the bed bug infestation will start spreading as soon as the new owner lugs the mattress into his or her apartment. It may even spread to her neighbor’s apartments as the mattress gets dragged up a new set of stairs and down yet another hallway.

  But what if that scenario never takes place? What if people are smart enough not to pick up someone else’s old bed? Perhaps the curbside mattress has been labeled by its former owner as being infested with bed bugs. In that case nobody in his or her right mind would touch it, right? Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case—and not by a long shot. All too often, discarded mattresses and box springs are quickly snagged by companies that specialize in collecting and “reconditioning” these old mattresses before offering them for resale. According to several sources (who wish to remain unnamed), these secondhand mattress companies send around trucks manned by sharp-eyed crews. Their job is to pick up any box springs or mattresses they encounter—even those that are clearly marked by their former owners as harboring bed bugs. Supposedly, these bedding items are then “sanitized” before being “rebuilt.” But according to one New York City exterminator, unless “sanitizing” means baking at 150°F for forty-five minutes, or treatment in a fumigation
chamber, the bed bugs present in the mattress and their eggs are not killed.

  Fortunately, in some states like New York, there are laws to regulate the sale of reconditioned mattresses. Unfortunately, the lack of enforcement guidelines means that nobody is out there checking to see what these secondhand vendors are doing. Rather than being effectively sanitized, it’s far more likely that used mattresses get a quick disinfectant spritz and a new cover—right over the old one.*110 So, in addition to bed bugs (which can be hidden throughout the mattress), the old mattress might be contaminated with urine, saliva, and just about anything else your imagination can dredge up. After a quick turn-around, the refurbished bedding is sold to a generally clueless public (many of whom probably think they’re getting a new mattress, perhaps with a bit of old hardware within).†111 In instances where the recycled and resold bedding is already infested with bed bugs, the results are predictable.

  Here’s another serious, bedding-related problem that helps explain the current bed bug resurgence. Let’s say you’ve done your homework and found a bedding store with a stellar reputation. You pick out a mattress and box spring and set up a delivery date. So far so good—but here’s where things start to unravel. Typically, in addition to delivering your new mattress, the company will haul away your old one—and even though your old backbreaker might be completely bug-free, there’s a real possibility that some of the mattresses these guys pick up during their workday are going to be infested with bed bugs. These contaminated mattresses are going to be placed onto the same truck as your new mattress—perhaps they’ll even be leaning against each other. And what about the interior of the delivery truck (dry, dark, and full of cracks and crevices) or even the deliverymen? Are you going to check their cuffs for tiny specks of bed bug feces? Some of these guys might have something to say about that (and the ones who don’t could be even more of a problem).*112

  So the next time you purchase a new bed, you just might be getting more than only a new mattress and box spring delivered to your home (especially if you happen to be one of the day’s last deliveries).

  Alarmed by the spread of mattress-related bed bug transmission, New York City councilwoman Gail Brewer introduced new legislation in September 2006 that would ban the sale of all reconditioned mattresses. Introductory Bill Number 57 (or Intro. 57 for short) also required that new and used mattresses be transported separately. Unfortunately, while this law would be a move in the right direction, it wouldn’t come close to stopping the bed bug problem.

  “They sort of forgot to include box springs,” said Andy Linares, the owner of Bug Off Pest Control in northern Manhattan.

  “What about couches, futons, and nightstands?” I asked.

  “Whoops,” Andy said, smiling.

  And that was a problem. How many thrift-conscious city dwellers have snagged a piece of furniture or other household items from a secondhand store or off the curb? Bed bug harborages aren’t limited to mattresses and box springs, and it is unlikely that a change in the city’s administrative code would have much of an effect on bed bug populations, if any. The bottom line is that people should forget about bringing anything into their homes that they’ve picked up curbside. They should also be very careful about what they purchase from secondhand stores, flea markets, or obtain from furniture rental outfits.

  According to Lou Sorkin, “They can hide just about anywhere. Clock radios, TV remotes, telephones, picture frames, lamps, headboards—basically any type of furniture.” Books and wall hangings are also popular aggregation destinations as are the spaces behind the switch plates covering electrical outlets.

  The bed bugs’ ability to adapt to our methods of transportation is another reason for the recent resurgence in these creatures. Remember that in the days before civilization, the spread of bed bugs was limited by the range of their bird or bat hosts (and the bug’s ability to hold on and not look down). Before the twentieth century the majority of people lived and died without traveling much and the resulting spread of bed bugs was gradual. But once humans began traveling, bed bugs followed them. Nowadays bed bugs are rapidly dispersed, sometimes over enormous distances, by the potentially millions of people who routinely travel in cars, buses, trains (subways), and planes.

  Dr. Tamson Yeh, an entomologist at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, had her own hypothesis as to how bed bugs were getting around big cities like New York.

  “Taxis,” she told me during a visit to her office in Riverhead, Long Island. “People put their bags or suitcases down next to the curb and bed bugs can climb right on—or climb right off.”

  “Jeez,” I chimed in, “and just think about how many people are traveling all over the world and then tossing their suitcases into the trunks of cabs when they get home.”

  “It’s the perfect environment,” Tammy said. “Dark, dry, plenty of places to hide…”

  “And how often do cabbies sanitize their trunks?”

  “Exactly.”

  Once limited to movement from cave to cave or nest to nest, as bed bugs became associated with humans, it was no stretch for them to migrate from room to room or apartment to apartment. Now, however, Cimex infestations are spreading across cities, between states, and even to different countries. So right up there among the multiple reasons for the twenty-first-century resurgence in bed bugs, cheap, fast, long distance transportation is near the top of the list.

  According to pest-control expert Andy Linares, “Sometimes outbreaks can be traced to overseas travel since it’s pretty easy to pick up bed bugs from cruise ships, resorts, hotel rooms, or hostels.”

  “My cousin’s kid just got back from a hosteling trip through Australia,” I said.

  Andy shook his head. “The media is full of reports of people bringing back bed bugs after spending big bucks at top-notch hotels or spectacular resorts. And hostels? That’s scary.”

  The bug man went on to explain how basically any place that has a high resident turnover rate (e.g., shelters, dorms, hostels, hotels, and apartment buildings) pretty much fits the bill as a potential source for passive introduction.

  “So where are the trendy bed bugs heading nowadays?” I asked.

  “Eastern Europe is a hotbed of bed bug activity,” he said. “And England has a huge problem.”

  Apparently, a suitcase or backpack, opened or even set down in an infested room can serve as a sort of bed bug version of the Trojan horse. And on a related note, by placing your clothes into a hotel dresser drawer in an infested room, you can also easily pick up some unwelcome traveling companions.

  To minimize the risk, Andy recommended that travelers examine their rooms before bringing in their luggage and other belongings. Although this might sound a bit extreme, he stressed the following preventive measures as the least you should do: Start your search at the corner of the bed nearest to the clock alarm. Carefully lift up the sheet and the mattress cover and examine the mattress, especially around buttons or along the raised seam. Using a flashlight if necessary, look for fecal stains (tiny, dark-colored raised bumps) or for the bed bugs themselves (flattened apple seeds with legs). Then lift the corner of the mattress and look at that section of the box spring. Use your flashlight again to examine the space between the headboard and the wall. If you’re still suspicious, look under pillows and inside pillowcases. Bed bugs can live in the clock alarm, the nightstand, or even the bedside lamp. If you find any bed bugs or even any fecal stains (which appear as pinhead-sized raised dots, usually dark brown in color), leave immediately and insist on another room. Of course, you should repeat your inspection in the new room and be prepared to “bail” on the hotel, if need be. Finally, while traveling, keep luggage elevated off the floor and check it carefully for unwanted hitchhikers. Hard plastic suitcases are more resistant to bed bugs than fabric suitcases with their multiple nooks, creases, and folds. In any event, once home, you should thoroughly vacuum your luggage and store it in sealed, black plastic bags—but not in your bedroom.

  This il
lustrates another distressing point. Even if you don’t bring bed bugs into your home, it’s quite possible that someone else might. Plumbers, electricians, visiting nurses, and house cleaners can become involved in passive introduction. And when guests arrive at our homes, how many of us throw their coats and handbags onto our beds?

  Bed bugs are turning up in hospitals, doctor’s offices, health clubs, and movie theaters. They can be transmitted to your clothing if you sit on infested furniture or happen to brush up against someone wearing bed bug–laden clothes.

  Along similar lines, Gil Bloom suggested in his talk that people should be a bit cautious when a friend asks to stay at your apartment for a few days “for unspecified reasons.” I guess the implication here is that your jokey reply, “You’re not having your place treated for bed bugs, are you?” should not elicit a coughing fit, nervous laughter, or sudden and profuse sweating.

  “Bed bugs can break up relationships and friendships,” Andy Linares told me. “And even people who don’t have them can get screwed up.”

  “How’s that?” I wondered.

  Andy explained that many people mistake specks of dirt or lint for bed bugs.

  “I tell them to stay calm and not to freak out. Use a magnifying glass. Lint doesn’t have six legs, and it doesn’t crawl around by itself.”

  I nodded. I’d have to remember that one.

  “Sometimes they think they’ve been bitten by bed bugs, but it’s not a bite at all. In those cases, I’ll ask them if there’s a construction site nearby,” Andy said.

  “Why’s that?”

  “A lot of people have allergic reactions to concrete dust. If that shit gets on your skin it will definitely make you itch.”