Bed Bugs, Tennessee

Bed Bugs hit Nashville like a bad country song.

ERNESTO CORTAZAR- Let's take a walk, 'Insects and animals'

Fried Insects Galore

Everything tastes good fried, right? RIGHT?

Bed Bugs: A NYC Invasion

   A student project which covers the bed bug situation in NYC. The Starship Troopers footage at the beginning was probably used without authorization but it's a little overdramatic, don't you think?

Bed Bug Invasion Not Leaving Any Time Soon

This video tells me something I already know.

Road Star Inn Bed Bugs LOL

The quality sucks and the people in the room aren't the brightest bulbs but this video was apparently taken the morning after spending a night in a motel room with bed bugs.

Black People are Crazy as Bed Bugs

Ever see a video title that makes you think, "That's dead ass wrong" and then you click on the video, watch it, and then think to your self, "Ironic." Here's one of those videos. Enjoy.

Paris bitten by New York-style bed bug scare

   According to a Reuters article today, the Parisians are also contending with bed bugs just like New Yorkers were doing this past summer. Looks like the contagion is spreading outwards in a concentric circular-shaped wave.

From the article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE6AG00U20101117

Bed bugs, known in French as "punaises de lit", or "bed drawing pins", were a rarity in France just three years ago, far less prevalent in homes than mice or cockroaches and well under the radar of public health officials. No longer. An employee at the public health section of Paris' City Hall who asked not to be named said more than 600 places in the city have needed treating for bed bug infection so far this year -- a marked increase from 2009.

While the city is playing down the extent of the problem, rejecting the term "invasion", exterminators said bed bugs were spreading quickly throughout the French capital and had already appeared in other parts of the country. "Let's say it started in 2007," said Reynald Boudet, owner of the Aurouze extermination shop in Paris. "Back then we had ten requests per year. Now it's more like a hundred ... We are getting more and more orders for (extermination) products from all over the country."

Bed Bug Demolition

The following video is titled, "UGLY OLD BED BUG INFESTED BUILDING COMES DOWN !!! IMPLOSION !! BEDBUGS !" which is (probably) untrue but I like the video anyway. The idea of demolishing an ugly-ass building because of bed bugs sounds appealing to me. Of course, the blast would send the bed bugs *everywhere* but hey, Americans like big explosions, right?

Friday Night Apathy

   I have a date in about an hour. I don't want to go but she's special and I don't want to disappoint her again. She works in a law firm and they're burning the midnight oil. I'm supposed to pick her up at 10:45PM but I'm tired, grumpy, and killing time listening to jumpy Italo music. The music's high energy is not working to invigorate my spirits. The weather in New York's been nice ever since I got back from Vegas with temperatures in the mid to high 50s. That's one good thing but I'm tired. I want to go to bed but I have a date. I don't want to disappoint her again. Hah. I'm repeating myself now. Going outside for a walk. Until my next entry, look at this bed bug video. ZzzzZzzzZzzz.

The Waldorf-Astoria and Bed Bugs

   I wasn't in New York when the Waldorf-Bedbug story came out and I'm catching up on the news so bear with me. I have to give my point of view on the story.

   The hospitality industry is scared to death of bed bugs but not for the simple reasons that you might think. Sure, bed bugs can be disastrous for a hotel's reputation but think about another scenario for a minute. If an unscrupulous guest doesn't feel like paying his or her bill for the hotel stay, what's the best way to squirrel out of it?

   Scream that you've been bitten by bed bugs, that's how, and make sure you've got a vial of the little critters to boot just in case. Take it a step further. What if the unscrupulous guest wants to be paid for "damages" and wants compensation for pain and suffering? You go to the press and make a big stink about it because bed bugs are on the news every day and a story involving a renowned hotel makes a great headline. Once the brouhaha is brewing, the unscrupulous guest hopes that the hotel will make a settlement to shut the story down.

   Of course, I'm not claiming that this particular case that arose last week is part of a scam. It just smells like one but who knows. Maybe the Waldorf is hosting a teeming colony of bed bugs that are out for blood. In a story from the Daily News last week, here are two salient snippets:

Parent company Hilton Worldwide said outside specialists found no trace of bedbugs in either room the Drabickis' used and had received no previous complaints about those rooms.

Drabicki's lawyer, Alan Schnurman, said the Waldorf has a serious infestation and an obligation to keep bedbugs out of rooms.

   "Serious infestation?" Where are the other guests who have suffered from this "serious infestation" that has apparently taken over the Waldorf? If there is a bed bug plague at the hotel, there should be a lot more claims, suits, and news than this one story that has appeared thus far. You wouldn't happen to be an ambulance chaser would you, Alan Schnurman?

An old lady talks about bed bugs

J-Sonoma's back in New York but he's not back at work yet. We think he'll be back tomorrow. In the following video, an old lady sits near a bright window and talks about bed bugs. Enjoy.

Hundreds of Bed Bugs Biting a Man's Arm

J-Sonoma's back from vacation tomorrow. Til' then, check out the swarms of bed bugs in these jars.

Bed Bug Guide

J-Sonoma is on vacation. Until he returns, us temps are going to be half-assing it on his pages. Enjoy this bed bug guide. J-S makes a point about not having bed bugs but trust me, ~80% of New Yorkers don't have bed bugs so he ain't special.

National Geographic and Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs - Cryonite Treatment for Office - Part 1

   This has to be one of the dumbest bed bug treatments I've seen on Youtube yet. You can tell that the guy spraying the "Cryonite" is unhappy to be there and he's going through the routine like he's probably done a thousand times. I can read his mind and this is what I'm reading, "I'm bored. I'm spraying haphazardly. When's lunch. I'm bored. Jackass 3D was great. My job sucks. Bed Bugs are great. I'm bored." The end result of all that spraying? I bet 80% of the bed bugs in that office are still alive and are sneering, "SUCKERS!"

Single dad driven off the job by bedbugs

   The scourge of bed bugs has no end. No end. Even single dads (potential DAP) are affected:

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/884719--single-dad-driven-off-the-job-by-bedbugs
   The guys at work noticed that Mel was scratching. They asked him what was up. He said he had bedbugs. Here is a fresh hell:

Mel works with a dozen other men; a city job, to do with waste-water pumping. So, how did Mel’s mates react to the news about the bed bugs?

“At first they didn’t treat me bad. They’d say they felt sorry for me.” Their sympathy didn’t last.

“Pretty soon they didn’t want me around. To be honest, I don’t blame them.”

Mel had been doing his best. He was taking precautions. He was shaking out his clothes before he went to work. Not good enough, I guess.

“Eventually, they didn’t want to work with me. The acting super told me to take two weeks off — the guys were complaining.”

Mel’s blood pressure shot through the roof, as it would have done anyway: no sleep; constant worry; fear and frustration. But if you think it’s bad when you’ve got bugs and you can’t get rid of them, it’s worse when you’re treated like a leper at work.

Bed Bugs: Enemies of the Democratic Process

Date Night

   It's 8:07PM here in New York as I start this post. I was supposed to have completed this entry earlier today but it's been busy at the company over the past couple of months. I have a date tonight and I have 2 hours to kill before I meet her. She's a night owl too and she's still at her law firm. Nah, she's not a lawyer but a legal secretary. We're going to Bouley which is downtown. I'm not going to drive so my plans are as follows:

1) Take a cab to her office building
2) Wait until 10PM and hope that she's done by then
3) Walk to Bouley since her office is only about 3 blocks away
4) Actually, it's freezing outside so we might take a cab
5) Eat and wince at the bill
6) Take our complimentary lemon bread when we leave
7) Go to the motel I've mentioned before on this blog
8) Inspect the carpet, mattress, and blinds for bed bugs
9) Sleep. Well, sleep as in "go to bed" which is what I tell my little nieces and nephews.
10) Tomorrow morning, I'll watch her do the walk of shame down the street

   I've known this girl for about 3 months so I figure I'll give it another month before I allow her into my apartment. By then, I'll know she's not a bed bug carrier - can't be too careful these days.

Dirty Ass People at the United Nations?

From the Canadian Press:

UN not giving diplomatic immunity to wingless, bloodsucking emissaries known as bed bugs

By Anita Snow (CP)

   There are a few emissaries at U.N. headquarters that won't be able to count on diplomatic immunity: bedbugs. Bed bug sniffing dogs twice this month found evidence of the insects in furniture in two U.N. buildings, and the furniture was moved to unoccupied areas of the complex to be fumigated, Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said Wednesday.

   At the U.N., no staff or other occupants of the complex overlooking the East River have reported bites, Nesirky said. He also said that the bed-bug sniffing dogs are unable to distinguish between insects that are alive or dead.

   Nesirky said that a bed bug infestation reported last fall at the Albano building, a midtown Manhattan building on East 46th St. where the U.N. is housing some offices during a major renovation, was cleared up by a several rounds of fumigation. An insect discovered at the site after fumigation in May was deemed not to be a bed bug but a clover mite, which is not harmful to furniture or humans, he said.

   "We continue to follow the expert advice of our exterminator specialist making further tests with the bed-bug sniffing dog to more fully assess and manage the problem," Nesirky said.

What I, J-Sonoma, learned from this article:
1) Bed bug sniffing dogs can't tell the difference between live and dead bugs
2) There's an insect called a "clover mite"
3) The U.N. is not immune from the scourge of dirty ass people and the bed bugs they harbor