Bedbugs are spreading across America, invading hotels, businesses, and homes. What can you do if they come calling at your house? Dr. Russell Blaylock, editor of The Blaylock Wellness reports, tells us why bedbugs are a problem, offers some natural, toxin-free alternatives to pesticides, and gives advice on how to avoid ending up on the little pests’ menu.
“Bedbugs are extremely small, and are very difficult to see,” he said. The bugs inject an anesthetic, so you don’t know you’ve been bitten, and then they suck your blood. “Some people develop itching, and can even develop an anaphylaxis-type of allergic reaction and die. You usually have itching and a red spot, but half of victims don’t even know when they’ve been bitten.”
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There are two major factors in the spread of bedbugs. “One is widespread international travel, especially from countries that have not been able to control their infestations,” Blaylock said. The other is widespread pesticide resistance. “They’re ending up in hotels, cruise ships, restaurants — all sorts of places,” Blaylock said.
Some victims, such as hotels, choose to fight infestations with dangerous artificial pesticides. “Hotels are spraying mattresses and rooms with strong pesticides that recent studies connect with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,” he said. “Most of these artificial pesticides are neurotoxins, and quite a few are carcinogenic in very small concentrations.”
How do you know if you have an infestation?
1. Look for small blood smears on sheets and droppings from bedbugs that appear as tiny dark specks on bed linen.
2. A magnifying glass will reveal the tiny creatures in the crevices of mattresses. Adult bedbugs are flattened, chestnut-colored insects about one-quarter of an inch long.
How do you rid your home of bedbugs? Dr. Blaylock gives the following natural suggestions:
1. Vigorous vacuuming of the mattress, springs, and every single inch of the room.
2. Giving the mattress a thorough cleaning with a portable steamer will kill both bugs and their eggs.
3. Using a CedarCide fogger, a natural treatment based on cedar to kill both bugs and eggs.
4. Putting sheets in a dryer on high heat for 20 to 30 minutes will kill both bugs and eggs.
5. Avoiding bedbugs when you travel by rubbing neem oil into your skin. Keep from bringing them home by dusting your suitcases with diatomaceous earth, which is made from soil comprised of the fossils of single-celled algae. Their jagged edges will cut and kill insects, including bedbugs.
Although they are unwanted pests, bedbugs aren’t responsible for spreading deadly diseases. “Some 27 pathogens have been isolated from bedbugs, but none seem to transmit deadly pathogens, such as typhus, like we’ve seen in the distant past,” Blaylock said.
Want to know if bedbugs have been found in your area or an area you plan to visit? Click here.
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