(classical music)
- You've just woken up.
Something smells musty and sweet.
When you open your eyes,
your bed has a trail of
molted insect shells,
rust-colored stains,
and tiny smears of excrement.
Just saying this makes me itchy.
We thought these little
vampires were taken care of
after we bombed them with
DDT back in the 1950s.
But they're back!
DDT was outlawed in 1972,
so we can't just nuke them
from orbit to be sure.
The official name for
bedbugs is cimex lectularius.
And they're parasites that feed off of
their sleeping hosts' blood.
The largest they get is
only a quarter of an inch.
And they're flat,
so they're easy to miss.
They're brownish and wingless,
with six shiny legs.
And they use their
syringe-like mouth beaks
to pierce your skin and suck your blood.
Now, unlike Nosferatu,
these guys rarely wake
their victims while feeding,
and can even take three to ten minutes
to gorge on your blood.
While drinking,
they release their own
saliva into your broken skin,
which can eventually cause
an allergic reaction.
Luckily, they don't spread disease,
but the bites can swell and itch.
Still, they probably won't
actually drain you dry.
It takes 100,000 bedbugs feeding on you
at least once a week to make you anemic.
Let's also put one misconception to rest.
Bedbugs aren't a sign of poor hygiene.
Even immaculate mansions can get them.
It only takes one to ride on in
and infect your whole home.
Here's a short list of spots
where they can conceal themselves:
Sofa seams,
bed frame cracks,
torn wallpaper,
backpacks,
light switches,
televisions,
clocks,
phones,
rugs,
baseboards,
curtains,
clothing,
towels,
or even pillows.
Basically, anywhere dark and
protected is up for grabs.
One was to tell you've got them is from
the coriander-like odor they
release when they're alarmed.
The worst part is,
they can live up to a year without eating.
So even if you move
into a vacant residence,
they could still be there,
waiting.
So, then how do we kill them?
Like with any vampire,
you should hire a professional.
To successfully eradicate
them sometimes takes up to
four different treatments,
like dry ice sprays,
steam,
vacuuming,
fumigation
and insecticides.
Sustained exposure to temperatures
over 120 degrees fahrenheit
will also kill them,
which is why you'll need
to wash all your linens
and blast them inside a hot dryer.
And, remember what I
said about messy clutter?
Yeah, you've got to clean all of that up,
so that they won't have
any place to hide again.
Now that we've got the details down,
I want to hear your
grossest bedbug stories
or any other kind of
pests you've dealt with.
Tell your tale in the comments.
And for more on everything
from wasps to raccoons,
check out all of our
animal-related episodes
in one playlist,
over here,
or, it's here.
