Unexpected guests when renting Airbnb - Yikes!

[mvan1]

 

https://www.cnet.com/features/bed-bugs-are-giving-airbnb-users-headaches-and-itchy-bites/

[SolaceSoul]

I remember a few years ago when The Waldorf Astoria and other swanky five-star hotels in New York City had a bed bug infestation problem. 

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bedbugs-reported-nyc-swankiest-hotels-article-1.2524895?outputType=amp

 

[mvan1]

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-bed-bugs-vary-genetically-depending-neighborhood-article-1.2517959

 

[Riobard]

I read the article and got very indignant.

Not only is Airbnb HQ remiss in developing a soliution for a growing bedbug problem but they are allowing double booking with the very prolific and bloodsucking Cimidae clan. And, pray tell, what are they doing about dengue, Zika, YF, CHIKV, Lyme's, and Charlotte's Web syndrome.

Some people ... why I oughta' ... exterminate. And Airbnb is doing exactly what they should, being empathic and recommending solutions at owners' expense. 

Bedbugs are brought in by people and only exist where there are people or suitable mammals. Conventional cleaning does nothing. They can go months in hiding and escape the mops and vacuums, feeding mostly just before dawn and then scattering into the baseboards.

I had to arrange my very elderly parents' ping-pong Norwegian scabies de-infestation after one of them picked them up in Physio, and a sick and blind friend's terrible bedbug problem, likely brought in my homecare aids servicing a poor and vulnerable population where the problem is widespread.

No conniption fit made to landlords or housing authorities. 

While de-infestation is being arranged there are some simple strategies to prevent them marching up to the sleeping buffet that is you. 

[Riobard]

The short-stay platforms should stop putting out the welcome mat to just anybod ...

[caeron]

 

Bed bugs are generally annoying, but not harmful. They exist all over the place. It sucks, but seriously, get over it.

[mvan1]

3 hours ago, caeron said:

 

Bed bugs are generally annoying, but not harmful. - FALSE

They exist all over the place - FALSE 

It sucks, but seriously, get over it.

I don't know where you got your information but your assertion about bedbugs not being harmful is false.  

According to the below cited scientific research (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine), bed bugs are a health hazard and can transmit a deadly disease.   

Date:

November 17, 2014

Source:

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Summary:

Bed bugs, like the triatomines, can transmit Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease, one of the most prevalent and deadly diseases in the Americas, research has confirmed.

 

You wrote "get over it!" 

I hope you "get over it" if you happen to fall prey to an illness caused by bedbugs.  

Read the below article and you will be better informed.  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141117174328.htm

Edited August 18, 2019 by mvan1

[caeron]

 

Sure Chicken Little, the sky is falling.

Mosquitos can kill you. Shockingly, most of us who have been bitten are fine, and they are hugely more dangerous than bed bugs. 

In the list of threats to your life, this one doesn't make the top 10,000. Probably comes right after death from an infected hangnail.

I get bug phobias, but freaking out about bed bugs isn't a rational fear.

[mvan1]

22 minutes ago, caeron said:

 

Sure Chicken Little, the sky is falling.

Mosquitos can kill you. Shockingly, most of us who have been bitten are fine, and they are hugely more dangerous than bed bugs. 

In the list of threats to your life, this one doesn't make the top 10,000. Probably comes right after death from an infected hangnail.

I get bug phobias, but freaking out about bed bugs isn't a rational fear.

Based on your absurd response, you think that you know more than the researchers at one of the finest medical schools in the world - University of Pennsylvania.  

You over ruled that research report with some gibberish that has nothing to do with the issue or subject of this thread.  

Because you were proven wrong, you next went off on a tangent to discuss mosquito bites and an infected hangnail.    

The best advice for you is to try to understand the wisdom of the below quote from Einstein.  

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by mvan1

[Riobard]

Bed bugs as a species are capable of carrying 40+ human pathogens but seem to not easily pass them back to humans. It has been thought HepB would be a likely candidate, but not yet borne out. For Chagas disease the larger kissing bug, its faeces, is the culprit accountable for millions of human infections.

However, a second more recent animal-model medical entomology study in New Mexico does corroborate the theoretical potential, as per the Penn findings, for the Chagas pathogen to be transmitted by bedbug faeces. Note, though, the researchers deliberately infected the bedbugs by feeding them the pathogen. The pathogen was then detected in their waste. 

Bedbugs in the natural setting would need to be first infected by feeding on an infected (eg, human) host. They do not infect one another, so it could be quite isolated. They would also need to mimic the characteristic habit of kissing bugs, immediately shitting where they eat so that it mixes into the feeding site wound. 

Since kissing bugs are the true risk factor and the source of human-to-bedbug potential followed by theoretical reverse transmission, it seems that insect control should prioritize kissing bugs, so named because they gravitate to the face. 

 

[mvan1]

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

Bed bugs as a species are capable of carrying 40+ human pathogens but seem to not easily pass them back to humans. It has been thought HepB would be a likely candidate, but not yet borne out. For Chagas disease the larger kissing bug, its faeces, is the culprit accountable for millions of human infections.

However, a second more recent animal-model medical entomology study in New Mexico does corroborate the theoretical potential, as per the Penn findings, for the Chagas pathogen to be transmitted by bedbug faeces. Note, though, the researchers deliberately infected the bedbugs by feeding them the pathogen. The pathogen was then detected in their waste. 

Bedbugs in the natural setting would need to be first infected by feeding on an infected (eg, human) host. They do not infect one another, so it could be quite isolated. They would also need to mimic the characteristic habit of kissing bugs, immediately shitting where they eat so that it mixes into the feeding site wound. 

Since kissing bugs are the true risk factor and the source of human-to-bedbug potential followed by theoretical reverse transmission, it seems that insect control should prioritize kissing bugs, so named because they gravitate to the face. 

 

The below quote is taken directly from the study linked from the University Pennsylvania medical school study that I linked in a previous post.  

"There have always been triatomine bugs and cases of Chagas disease in the U.S., but the kissing bugs we have here don't come into homes frequently like the more dangerous species in South and Central America do," Levy said. "I am much more concerned about the role of bed bugs. They are already here -- in our homes, in our beds and in high numbers. What we found has thrown a wrench in the way I think about transmission, and where Chagas disease could emerge next."

Considering that I placed this thread in the South America section of the forum, I wanted to alert those who visit and sleep in South and Central America to the fact that they are more at risk than those in most other countries for the cousin of the bedbug we commonly see in America.   

Thanks for your additional input about this matter.  

It it is clear that I don't have to post the Einstein cartoon quote for you.   

By the way, there is controversy whether Einstein really said or wrote that quote that applies to bull headed people who think they know everything about every subject (but they don't).    

Many sources attribute the quotation to Einstein while others sources say they cannot confirm that he said it.

Nonetheless, it is a great quotation in the right situation, whoever said it.

Edited August 18, 2019 by mvan1

[AdamSmith]

All this tra-la-la. There are available both pesticide sprays and UV-light wands that do a good job of murdering the bugs before you climb into a possibly suspect bed.

[Riobard]

This would be a timely point at which to interject a thought.

It is an inarguable point because it simply reflects a preference on my part, in case one ends up thinking it is worth trying to poke holes into. I comment also because it is a pattern rather than a one-time occurrence appropriate to just let slip. 

It works better for me when I am not informed that one approves of my post while referencing it in comparison to another's not approved of or liked, as if I am the good student while the other is dunce in the corner. It works better for me if one does not allude to my being spared a negative gif or image, as if you one is the authoritative adjudicator of the worth of contributions.

My preference need not be heeded. I don't pretend to have strong influence, but I would be remiss if not pointing out something the average person wishes. 

I do value the prolific initiation of interesting, thoughtful topics. I hope that level of appreciation overrides the risk of offense taken. 

[Riobard]

1 hour ago, AdamSmith said:

All this tra-la-la. There are available both pesticide sprays and UV-light wands that do a good job of murdering the bugs before you climb into a possibly suspect bed.

Uh-oh, Adam.

Not so simple, particularly kissing bugs that are as likely to fly as crawl, unlike bed bugs, and land on the human facial runway then progress near the gates of eyes, nose, and mouth for the bloody grub they then shit on. Pesticides banned there. 

A simple netted hood over head and fastened at shoulder level likely more effective. I always bring one to Brazil in case I see culprits in the bedroom because a second clade of dengue exposure from AE ''skeeter while sleeping could end up hemorrhagic. 

I think you MAY have just opened a minor shit-can of worms but the proverbial genie cannot be easily stuffed back into the pesticide bottle. LOL.

I would not be inclined to use either of your two suggestions for bedbug bed locale control because there are easier more effective methods. We had Public Health specialists come in for an in-service a while back when some vulnerable patients were at risk during an urban uptick that was not, BTW, classist.

I would also advise not to smash a bug caught in the act, or rub and scratch a bite site, smooshing the gut-sourced or faecal Chagas pathogen into the bloodstream where the wound is. Use an alcohol swab for light cleansing. Try to tolerate the itch or gently apply hydrocortisone cream to the site without vigorously rubbing it in. 

But here is the other type of rub ... if you precipitously require a transfusion in Latin America, the reliability of mandated Chagas-screening procedures for donated blood and the accuracy of diagnostic assays are not foolproof. The human prevalence is high.  

If you suspect a Chagas exposure while travelling, go to your closest InfectiousDiseases clinic for early pharmacological intervention upon returning home. Catching it early can eradicate its presence.