Bed bug?

During the last year of my career (more than 10 years ago), one of my colleagues missed some meetings and I found out from him later about his trauma with bed bugs. Based on the timing of his symptoms developing, he’d picked them up in a hotel near Dulles Airport on one of his frequent business trips to the area…not realized that he had them until his home was contaminated too and he had terrible bed bug bites particularly on his face. He was overwhelmed by what happened; it had a significant impact on his life for about 6 months.

Even so, I didn’t change anything about the way I traveled. Something happened on my last trip to Dallas that is changing my strategy.

I was sitting on the small hotel-room couch in the evening and noticed a small bug crawling across my t-shirt. I crushed it and wiped it onto a paper towel; it left a bloody streak. My first assumption was flea or tick. Then I thought it might be an adult bed bug although at the time I thought it was too big to be a bed bug. I still went to check the seams of the mattress…and discovered that there was a mattress cover than looked very tightly woven. The bedding was the usual white and I didn’t see anything on the bed that looked suspicious. I looked at the crushed bug, but it was too mutilated for identification.

On the way home, I began to realize that I had to assume that it could have been an adult bedbug (and where there are adults…there are likely eggs and nymphs); my husband did some research while I drove home. When I got home:

• Almost everything stayed in the car.

• I took a shower/shampoo immediately and the clothes I took off were put into a plastic bag and put back in my car.

• I stayed mostly in the downstairs apartment area for 2 days/nights (laundering linens in hot water and dryer after the 1st night).

• After the 1st night, I put the pillows I’d used into my car and parked it in the driveway; the day was hot and sunny. The thermometer in the car indicated that the interior was above 130 degrees for 6 hours.

I still don’t know if I was exposed to bedbugs or not. I haven’t developed any symptoms of bites and it’s been 8 days. Sometimes it takes time for the symptoms to appear.

The experience has me making some changes to how I travel:

• Pack a small collection vial. If I see a small bug – I will put it in the vial rather than crushing it so I can ID it.

• Carry my luggage into the hotel rather than rolling it. Put it on a hard surface rather than carpeted for the duration.

• Put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag.

• Shower thoroughly when I first get home and put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag

• In the summer – leave fabric items (sealed plastic bags, hats, purse, shoes, etc.) in the car and park it outside after the trip; make sure the temperature is above 120 degrees for several hours.

• In the winter – put fabric items in the freezer (downstairs apartment) for several days

• Buy and install mattress covers that prevent bed bugs from accessing the mattress.

Some websites I found helpful:

https://www.thespruce.com/handle-bed-bug-infestation-laundry-2146304

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/bedbugs-infestation

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 18, 2023

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Are pumpkins a future superfood? – Maybe. The plants are high heat and drought tolerant….. and tolerate salinity. Nutritionally they have essential vitamins, minerals, and fats.

Do or dye: Synthetic colors in wastewater pose a threat to food chains worldwide - Dyes create several problems when they reach water systems, from stopping light reaching the microorganisms that are the bedrock of our food chains, preventing their reproduction and growth, to more direct consequences like the toxic effects on plants, soils, animals and humans. Remediation technologies for dye-containing wastewater, including chemical, biological, physical and emerging advanced membrane-based techniques.

Billions Of Snow Crabs Have Died in Alaska. Will Billions of People Be Next? – Starvation….but linked to marine heatwaves that affected snow crab metabolism.

Even treated wood prevents bacterial transmission by hand – Maybe we should be using wood more frequently for surfaces where keeping bacteria at bay is important (countertops, for example).

Staring at the Sun — close-up images from space rewrite solar science – Results from Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter…and the ground-based Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.

Higher levels of triglycerides linked to lower risk of dementia – A correlation…not necessarily a causal relationship.

Jupiter's volcanic moon Io looks stunning in new Juno probe photos – From an October 15th flyby.

The Rio Grande isn’t just a border – it’s a river in crisis – So many rivers are in trouble. The Rio Grande drought story is complicated by international treaty…and contentious relations at the border.

These Rare Daguerreotypes Are the Earliest Surviving Photos of Iran in the 1850s – It would be interesting to see what these same places look like today.

Why are bed bugs so difficult to deal with? – They are increasingly resistant to pesticides that previously were effective. Creating policies that require reporting and resident notification by landlords…and requiring the landlords to treat infestations within 30 days has been effective in New York. Infestations can be managed, but probably not eliminated.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 1, 2018

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Poor sleep triggers viral loneliness and social rejection: Lack of sleep generates social anxiety that infects those around us -- ScienceDaily – Yet another reason that getting enough sleep is important to us as individuals and society at large.

The Armchair Photography Guide to Canyonlands National Park – Island in The Sky | National Parks Traveler – So many of the pictures had snow! It would be good to go when it was not terrifically hot….so any time but summer and even better close to the beginning or end of winter (a little now…not enough to be hazardous).

Stunning Underwater Photos of Microscopic Plankton by Ryo Minemizu – Beautiful, small life.

In Eastern US, adult trees adapt and acclimate to local climate: Tree cores reveal flexibility, more work needed to understand mechanisms -- ScienceDaily – 14 species of trees were analyzed using tree cores from 1940-1980….shouldn’t we look at more recent tree cores too?

Bed Bugs: When Biodiversity Bites – Cool Green Science – Informative….maybe I should check for bedbugs more consistently when I travel. I shouldn’t keep relying on ‘luck’ to avoid a very bad experience.

A Record Year for Measles Cases in Europe | The Scientist Magazine® - When I was a child, the measles vaccines didn’t exist yet. It was awful. Everyone got sick with them and, for some, there were lasting consequences. I was fortunate and survived without lasting damage except for missing enough school that I never quite understood certain volumetric measurements because I completely missed when it was taught.

Which country has the most expensive education? - Are the comparisons really apples and apples…or are there some pears and oranges thrown in? It is about educations but there are a lot of variables beside cost. All countries and parents and teachers struggle with how to make education relevant to students for now and into the future.

Air Pollution Linked to Decline in Cognitive Performance – The study was done in China but I wondered if it was true in other areas of the world with high levels of air pollution (like India). The US could be vulnerable if we relax our clean air standards.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx begins asteroid operations campaign – We were in Florida in September 2016 for the launch…so I always notice the updates about its progress.

50% of Industrial Climate Change Emissions Tied to Fossil Fuel Companies – An interview with the two authors of a recently released report: Decarbonization Pathways for Mines.