Mosquitoes' Last Stand

   Bed Bugs are killing it in New York but today, it's the mosquitoes who are killing it in our office. Temperatures have been drifting in and out of the 70s this week and it's breezy so the mosquitoes must be getting ready for their big die-off as the summer ends and cold creeps into the city. Before they all die-off however, they're invading our office building today and I already have six bites on my legs.

   Yeah, it was dumb to wear shorts today but I had a workout session at 1PM today at the gym. Jen caught one of the mosquitoes which she's keeping in a little plastic cup. She's Buddhist and doesn't believe in killing anything but I told her that if she traps the mosquito, it's going to die over the weekend when no one's at the offices and it'll die a lonely death. She thought about it for a few minutes but didn't let it go. I think she's going to bring it home or release it but I asked her to take it outside if she was going to let it go. We don't need any more mosquitoes.

Bed Bugs hitchhike on sidewalk furniture

   When I lived in Jamaica Plain while attending Boston University, I never encountered bed bugs. My roommate was a Poindexter so he was clean and most of the dormitory kids were clean-shaven. I remember a girl who was scruffy but as far as I know, she was never a bed bug vector. In today's Boston.com, there's an article about bed bugs and I've provided the link and a snippet below:

City aims to take a bite out of bedbug problem
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/allston-brighton/2010/09/city_aims_to_take_a_bite_out_o.html
To bedbugs, Allston-Brighton feels like home, sweet home.


Around Labor Day each summer in this high-turnover neighborhood, streets, sidewalks and dumpsters fill with abandoned used furniture – couches, coffee tables, mattresses. Resourceful students and other neighbors move quickly to pluck the curbside freebies and put them in their own apartment or home.

This form of recycling is one of the most common ways bedbugs spread.

Click the link to read the full article

Bed Bugs EVERYWHERE

They're not just in the major cities where a lot of dirty ass people congregate, they're in small burgs and hamlets as well. From today's The Times News of Alamance County in North Carolina:

Bedbugs are on the prowl in county
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/county-36732-bedbugs-invading.html
   More and more bloodsucking bedbugs are invading bedrooms across Alamance County this year as exterminators work to kill the pesky unwelcomed guests.


The county’s bedbug problem matches a state and nationwide trend that shows more bedbugs are on the move. Triangle Pest Control CEO Donnie Shelton said the little pests aren’t making a comeback just in peoples’ homes. They are easily transported in luggage, and clothing and can flourish in apartments and hotel rooms.

Mosquito Bite vs Bed Bug Bite

   Over the Labor Day weekend, I was staying at a friend's place in the Hamptons for my last bit of vacation before work resumes next week. Like everywhere else, mosquitoes are out in force during the summer and I was bitten a few times despite the screens that were on all of the windows. On Saturday night while I was sleeping, I began feeling itchy and since the bed bug hysteria is consuming New York City, I immediately thought bed bugs had invaded the Hamptons.

   I went to the bathroom and inspected my shoulder which was itching and took a photograph of the bite. It looked puffy and swollen which is indicative of a mosquito bite so I was relieved. The photo on the lower left is of a mosquito bite. If you want to see what bed bug bites look like, check out the bites on the upper photo - the bed bugs went to town on that guy's arm and bit in a straight line like a regiment of soldiers.

   So, if you ever need to check if your bite is of a mosquito or a bed bug, compare it to the photos I've included here for verification.

Times takes on Bed Bug Adverts

From Sunday's New York Times:

A Pitched Battle Over Bedbugs in Online Search Advertising
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/media/06websearch.html?src=busln
By TANZINA VEGA - Published: September 5, 2010

   As people across the nation try to eradicate bedbugs from the crevices of their homes, a battle is being waged online among pest control companies over whose ad will be the first one most people see as they race to the Internet to learn about these insidious pests.
   In the battlefield of search advertising, finding success is not easy. “The competition is fierce,” said Bill Carlson, 44, whose Web site, Bed-Bug.net, sells do-it-yourself products to kill bedbugs.