2008 Woodie Awards
Don't let the bedbugs bite
Jim Hanrahan '09
Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: World
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That monster in your closet never really made an appearance, and whatever was under your bed through the majority of grammar school never did either. Bedbugs, however, have made their debut-actually ,a return-in a number of places in the past months.
While Providence College's Student Health Center claims there have been no reported cases of the bugs on campus, these tiny pests are infiltrating bed frames and mattresses from Florida to Iowa while causing confusion and angst for many Americans, including students.
A woman in Jacksonville, Fla., and her family were continually waking up with rashes and welts covering their arms and legs, causing constant itching. They soon realized that the problem was coming from within their home, in the form of tiny, quarter inch bugs that had inhabited their sleeping quarters.
Several dermatologists examined the woman and her daughters but failed to come up with a diagnosis. The mother then caught some of the pests and brought them to a friend, who was a retired entomologist, for examination. He concluded that these were, in fact bedbugs.
These resilient little creatures tend to be a brownish color, becoming reddish brown and swollen when they have been feeding on human blood. Female bed bugs usually lay around eight eggs at a time. One can produce upwards of 200-500 eggs that hatch within four to 12 days. They feed primarily on human blood, according to the University of Florida.
When a person is bitten, he or she is also injected with a fluid that prevents blood from coagulating, causing redness and irritation. Bedbugs are not known, however, to carry any sort of disease.
They prefer cluttered, unkempt areas (such as a college dorm), but do need a carrier with which they can arrive at a given location. Bedbugs are extraordinary travelers. This is partly due to the fact they can go weeks, months even, without feeding.
They are becoming commonplace in used mattresses and bed frames, as was the case with the family in Jacksonville, where the source was a rented bunk bed set.
While Providence College's Student Health Center claims there have been no reported cases of the bugs on campus, these tiny pests are infiltrating bed frames and mattresses from Florida to Iowa while causing confusion and angst for many Americans, including students.
A woman in Jacksonville, Fla., and her family were continually waking up with rashes and welts covering their arms and legs, causing constant itching. They soon realized that the problem was coming from within their home, in the form of tiny, quarter inch bugs that had inhabited their sleeping quarters.
Several dermatologists examined the woman and her daughters but failed to come up with a diagnosis. The mother then caught some of the pests and brought them to a friend, who was a retired entomologist, for examination. He concluded that these were, in fact bedbugs.
These resilient little creatures tend to be a brownish color, becoming reddish brown and swollen when they have been feeding on human blood. Female bed bugs usually lay around eight eggs at a time. One can produce upwards of 200-500 eggs that hatch within four to 12 days. They feed primarily on human blood, according to the University of Florida.
When a person is bitten, he or she is also injected with a fluid that prevents blood from coagulating, causing redness and irritation. Bedbugs are not known, however, to carry any sort of disease.
They prefer cluttered, unkempt areas (such as a college dorm), but do need a carrier with which they can arrive at a given location. Bedbugs are extraordinary travelers. This is partly due to the fact they can go weeks, months even, without feeding.
They are becoming commonplace in used mattresses and bed frames, as was the case with the family in Jacksonville, where the source was a rented bunk bed set.