LDS Freedom Forum

A bit of information that you might like to know about. We have friends here in our community and one of their sons is an entomologist (insect expert), and has been telling them that there is an epidemic of bed bugs now occuring in America. Recently I have heard on the news that several sotres in NYC have had to close due to bed bug problems, as well as a complete mall in New Jersey.

He says that since much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc. now comes from companies outside of America, (sad but true), even the most expensive stores sell foreign clothing from China, Indonesia, etc. The bed bugs are coming in on the clothing as these countries do not consider them a problem. He recommends that if you buy any new clothing, even underware and socks, sheets, towels, etc. that you bring them into the house and put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes. The heat will kill them and their eggs. DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN THE CLOSET FIRST. It does not matter what the price range is of the clothing, or if the outfit comes from the most expensive store known in the U.S. They still get shipments from these countries and the bugs can come in a box of scarves or anything else for that matter. That is the reason why so many stores, many of them clothing stores have had to shut down in NYC and other places. All you need is to bring one item into the house that has bugs or eggs and you will go to hell and back trying to get rid of them. He travels all over the country as an advisor to many of these stores, as prevention and after they have the problem.

Much of our clothing comes from foreign countries? How about 95% is imported!

The only thing the US is #1 in exporting anymore is waste paper and pornography. This is all thanks to Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama.

Mullenite, does your friend's son know how well diatemaceous earth works againts these bed bugs? The people who sell it are saying it works against bed bugs. And what do bed bugs do any way? Do they bite, carry disease?...anyone know about these little critters?

Bed bugs....STAY AWAY!

I did come across a Bed Bug problem on my mission in Alberta. Apparently a lady in our apartment complex returned from a trip from overseas somewhere. Obviously she brought back some bed bugs. After a month, they had spread throughout the entire floor of a 15 floor complex. The companionship before me had to leave their apartment for a couple of days while that entire floor got fumigated. Apparently this doesn't always kill the little creatures either. About a month later when I was in the area, the lady had moved out and the Bed Bugs were back. They were also in the other companionship's apartment 3 floors above.

What I remember learning about these insects: They only need to suck on blood 2 or 3 times in order to have full growth. We kept on in a little plastic baggy. It survived weeks and actually grew. I think they can live up to a year like that. Freezing doesn't kill them. If you DO freeze them, they must be frozen for a couple of weeks before they die. Otherwise they thaw out and keep on chugging. You can tape your bedframe to keep them from crawling up the bed. This doesn't always stop them. They will crawl up to the cieling and drop while you're deep asleep at 4 AM. You can find their little nests and eggs on the corners of your beds and scrape them out. Oh yeah, make sure you completely rip apart your bed fabric because they will also survive INSIDE you bed in the deepest corner where you never really look. They go from one apartment to the next in ANYTHING. Shoes, pillow cases, clothing, Anything. They will crawl along the pipes going between apartments. 4 different companionships were affected by bed bugs within just weeks because of transfers and overnight exchanges.

You CAN do what we did. Our contract with that complex was up for the year so we went to a new place. We systematically put all our clothing into garbage bags, threw our beds into the trash, had the mission pay for new beds and paid for all our clothes to be washed at a laundry mat, all our suits to be cleaned at the dry cleaners. We then systematically moved into the new apartment while inspecting the furniture as to make sure they didn't come along. Because this was over the winter, we put all our books into garbage bags and kept them on the balcony to be frozen over a couple of weeks to kill off any of those. We did find bed bugs INSIDE the pages of our books.

They don't care about your food. They only care about your blood. They need very little of it to survive and repopulate. They have exploded that past several years because of the increase in international travel. BE AWARE. Whenever in a hotel and you ever find these, LEAVE immediately! Dont risk it. Inspect everything you have and sleep in your vehicle or on the ground if you have to! PLEASE. It is VERY costly to replace furniture and clothing. I have heard of people getting rid of houses because of a bed bug problem. Become informed and understand these little critters. Be prepared. It will save you many $$$ and time. It cost the Lord many $$$ to take care of the problem for at least two companionships that moved out of that complex. Yes, he's go the money, but we also took days away from our serving God to move, and clean all our clothing. I personally never saw any bites on myself but two other missionaries had their arms dotted in bites.

Does anyone have a picture on some of these guys and what to look for?

Our mission in Des Moines is currently dealing with this problem. Missionaries have to be vigilent about taking these things with them where ever they go. Our mission pres had them in his house and found them soon after they (the bugs) arrived. They came on two sisters whose apartment had been infested. While Sister Pres told the sisters to NOT go back to their apartment, they did. While they were told NOT to bring their bags into the mission home, they did. Pres had to heat the house to 140 degrees to kill everything. They got dogs in there to sniff out and find the buggers and only then, when the dogs didn't find anything, did the bug people leave. It is a mess and it was VERY costly.

The diatamateous earth works great, but here again you have to be vigilent. I am attaching a website for it....

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/get-rid-of-bed-bugs.php

Hello guys,

Studies and reports recommended that bloodsucker invasion has been expanding quickly in the United States since 2004. Researchers recommended that the explanation behind this resurgence of bloodsuckers is the less utilization of pesticides and the universal migration where remote individuals convey kissing bugs with them into the nation. The primary motivation behind this audit is to consider the reasons for the quick kissing bugs' pervasion and its impact on human well-being.

My dermatologist told me that he sees a case of scabies at least once a week, which he believed to be an alarming increase. He told me the reason for this was clothing coming into the USA from foreign countries. Americans buy a great deal of cheaply made overseas clothing from countries where sanitation and personal hygiene are not high priorities. Also, he brought to my attention that people looking for clothes often go from store to store trying them on, before deciding on an outfit, shirt, etc, potentially spreading scabies eggs even further. Every piece of clothing you buy has probably been tried on by a half dozen people before you got to it.

It used to be in the old Ellis Island days that a physical exam was required before entrance into the USA. Any kind of skin condition could get you sent back to your country of origen on the next boat out. Nowadays anyone can jump over the USA border no matter what or storm a european country as a refugee. I can't believe this is safe.

Bed bugs are a hoax.

I have an ozone machine. It produces massive amounts of ozone. It turns O2, the oxygen we breath, into O3 which in high concentrations kills anything and everything. To debug a closed room turn it on high for a couple of hours. When one wants to turn off the machine one needs to hold their breath, turn off the machine and crack a window open, leave the room and close the door. To debug a whole house one might need more than one ozone machine and be willing to leave the house for a couple of days and leave it air out for a couple of hours after returning. A few breaths will not kill a person but a single breath will damage the lungs. However, that damage 100% heals in a few days.

RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH before getting an ozone machine to make sure you know what you're doing. An ozone machine will even get rid of mice and squirrels in the attic. If you have fish it will kill them also, so be carefull.

Michael Sherwin wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2020, 9:32 am I have an ozone machine. It produces massive amounts of ozone. It turns O2, the oxygen we breath, into O3 which in high concentrations kills anything and everything. To debug a closed room turn it on high for a couple of hours. When one wants to turn off the machine one needs to hold their breath, turn off the machine and crack a window open, leave the room and close the door. To debug a whole house one might need more than one ozone machine and be willing to leave the house for a couple of days and leave it air out for a couple of hours after returning. A few breaths will not kill a person but a single breath will damage the lungs. However, that damage 100% heals in a few days.

RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH before getting an ozone machine to make sure you know what you're doing. An ozone machine will even get rid of mice and squirrels in the attic. If you have fish it will kill them also, so be carefull.

They are cheap enough. I looked on eBay and there was a lot of choices. On eBay they are called air purifiers. Seems like an easy enough way to get rid of unwanted critters. What I wonder is if you breathe the air it makes and it kills you, why are people using these to clean their air? I must have missed something. Or do you clean your air while on vacation and turn it off when you get home?

Fred wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2020, 4:33 pm

Michael Sherwin wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2020, 9:32 am I have an ozone machine. It produces massive amounts of ozone. It turns O2, the oxygen we breath, into O3 which in high concentrations kills anything and everything. To debug a closed room turn it on high for a couple of hours. When one wants to turn off the machine one needs to hold their breath, turn off the machine and crack a window open, leave the room and close the door. To debug a whole house one might need more than one ozone machine and be willing to leave the house for a couple of days and leave it air out for a couple of hours after returning. A few breaths will not kill a person but a single breath will damage the lungs. However, that damage 100% heals in a few days.

RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH before getting an ozone machine to make sure you know what you're doing. An ozone machine will even get rid of mice and squirrels in the attic. If you have fish it will kill them also, so be carefull.

They are cheap enough. I looked on eBay and there was a lot of choices. On eBay they are called air purifiers. Seems like an easy enough way to get rid of unwanted critters. What I wonder is if you breathe the air it makes and it kills you, why are people using these to clean their air? I must have missed something. Or do you clean your air while on vacation and turn it off when you get home?

On very low settings they can be used as air purifiers and as odor removers and you can be in the house at the same time. If one wants it to kill and drive out pest then compare outputs of various models and buy the one with the highest output.

When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts of ozone can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and, throat irritation. It may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma as well as compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections.

Some studies show that ozone concentrations produced by ozone generators can exceed health standards even when one follows manufacturer’s instructions.

I tried all the useless and expensive products in the stores and finally found the cheapest and most effective solution. I used diatamaces earth, the white powder. The idea is for the bugs to walk over it and get cut up, It works great and is harmless to humans, just lay the powder where ever they live and when they come out they will walk in it. I actually mix 1tsp in my glass of water and drink it for health reasons. You shouldn't make a big cloud of smoke with it and breath it, its not good for your lungs.

BeHealthy94 wrote: ↑November 23rd, 2020, 8:53 pm I tried all the useless and expensive products in the stores and finally found the cheapest and most effective solution. I used diatamaces earth, the white powder. The idea is for the bugs to walk over it and get cut up, It works great and is harmless to humans, just lay the powder where ever they live and when they come out they will walk in it. I actually mix 1tsp in my glass of water and drink it for health reasons. You shouldn't make a big cloud of smoke with it and breath it, its not good for your lungs.

Tried this for two months when we got them 6 or 7 years ago. Could not get rid of them completely. Had to call exterminators. They knew what they were doing and got them.

Heat and or cold kills them.

Occasionally one of the big hotels in Vegas gets bedbugs in a guest room. There is a specific protocol they follow.

Housekeeping notices the bedbugs and reports it. Immediately house keeping, environmental services and engineering departments jump into action.

All linens are stripped and bagged for special cleaning. The mattress is removed for treatment by placing the mattress into a special oven, and cooked for an hour at 160 degrees.

The whole room is vacuumed with a HEPA vac. The headboard removed from the wall, and the temperature of the room is raised to 140 degrees for two days.

The rooms on either side and above and below the affected room are vacated (guests moved elsewhere in the hotel) while this is going on.

After two days of high heat, the room is allowed to cool, and environmental comes in and tests for any living bedbugs.

Once it’s cleared, it’s put back together and put back into service.


Freezing will also kill the bedbugs, and occasionally mattresses are treated by putting into a truck mounted freezer. But the guest room is always heated to 140 degrees, because freezing the room would affect the plumbing running thru the adjacent demising walls and cause more problems.

Anyway, chemically treating for bedbugs is a fail.
Use heat, or cold and a HEPA vac to get rid of the remains.