You are very welcome.
Myself, so far I’ve been clear of bedbug encounters since their “comeback tour” began, including stays at 5 places in/around NY in the last year (Ramada New Yorker, The Edison, Marriott Marquis, La Quinta Manhattan, Jersey City Courtyard).
I’ve become skeptical about any report on some plague being made worse by either the use or the non-use of pesticide since unfortunately that has been turned into some sort of ideological football. However it IS true that people stopped using standard forms of prevention for many pests when their presence dropped precipitously (usually by the application of simple standards of hygiene and preventive care rather than any magic spray), because they thought it was “eradicated”. Too bad “controlled” does not mean “extinct”; eventually the life-form will adapt to the new environment, as if saying “if we no longer have filthy tenements and musty flophouses, then we’ll figure how to live in airy lofts and plush hotels, as long as there’s noone actively trying to kill us”. (Also let’s not fool ourselves, there’s some who can afford a 4-star in Manhattan who are themselves quite nasty in their persons and gear.)
That, and also many would be disappointed and probably mildly queasy at how sloppy and perfunctory is room and linens cleanup even in some supposedly “fine” hotels. ( You know those cards ever more hotels began posting in the last decade, telling you that to “save” resources, water, energy, the planet, whatever, your towels and linens now will NOT be changed unless you demanded it? You realize that what they’re really saving, is saving themselves the time, effort and expense of washing stuff?) As mentioned, in daytime the bugs scurry out of sight; even if you do a change of bedlinens, that only means swapping out the sheets, cases and blankets – it still can leave untouched things like the shams around the bottom of the bed and the mattress-pad, which nowadays is often encased with the mattress in a wraparound piece; and of course the bottom of the pile of the carpet (it merely gets a quick vaccuuming, not a steaming, every day). Gives them plenty of places to hide.
Not at all applicable to bedbugs. Bedbugs do not feed on refuse, they feed on blood. The dirtiest, nastiest abode known to mankind will not attract bedbugs without warm bodies in it to feed on. Nor does personal hygiene have anything to do with it. Bedbugs will feed on the most ill kempt members of the human race as happily as they will feed on your freshly scrubbed ass.
This is precisely the type of attitude that causes people to feel shame and embarrassment that prevents them from seeking professional assistance and from warning their neighbors when they encounter an infestation.
Your reference to “magic spray” is ridiculous. Pesticides are anything but a magic spray. They are useful and effective chemical compounds, but not universally so. DDT was the de facto pesticide used to treat bedbug infestations in the 20th century and was successful in effectively eradicating them from the US before it was banned in 1972.
How about fighting some ignorance here instead of perpetuating it?
How about fighting the ignorance by providing the missing information or correcting the error, without burdening the education with vituperation and ridicule?
I thank you anyway for correcting my misapprehension about the way bedbugs spread.
How about not talking out of your ass about shit you’re ignorant of? How about laying off words that nobody on the planet uses in conversation?
I called you out on perpetuating a HARMFUL myth. You were not spreading benign mistruths about the 11 herbs and spices that are used by KFC. You were perpetuating a myth that has a real and demonstrable effect of inaction due to shame. Most importantly, you were wrong. If you thought my admonition was over the line, you should probably grow the fuck up.
Get over your bruised ego and stop talking about things in a factual manner when you don’t know the facts. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of. Spreading uninformed bullshit is.
And enough with the snark. This is the Straight Dope. The usual recourse here for those who object to others’ use of “words nobody on the planet uses in conversation” is to reach for your Funk & Wagnalls and look it up. Or, in some cases, your OED.