Ancient History of Bed Bugs
Bed bugs have more history than most think in fact, the bulk of people these days have only known bed bugs were more than a bed time nursey rhyme for 10-15 years. They have been messing with our sleep since the dawn of time.
In ancient history Bed bugs have been found fossilized, dating back further than 3,500 years, and have been found at archaeological sites. Back then they were used to cure common ailments. They were burned by the Romans and Greeks to make leeches release. Egyptians would drink bed bugs because they believed it to cure snake bites. Some of these remedies were published in Pliny’s Natural History in Rome 77 AD. Aristotle mentioned bed bugs in 400 BC. In the 18th Century Guettard recommended bed bugs to treat hysteria.
Bed bugs were a problem in 1700s American colonies so much that they made their beds out of sassafras wood with crevices so they could douse them with boiling water, sulfur and even arsenic. Ironically, the cracks would have just given them a great place to hide between feedings. They came over on the ships which were known for having bed bug infestations.
Other mentions in bed bug history include 11th century Germany and 13th century France. Bed bugs were rare in England until the Great Fire in 1666 where thay shipped in suplies to rebuid and got more than they bargained for with bed bug hitchhikers. As travel became easier this also had the consequence of spreading bed bugs that much more around the world. On trains and ships people would pull their beds away from the walls and place the bed legs in pans of oil to fend off the bed bugs. As cities became more crowded and struggled with poverty and sanitation, bed bugs took advantage of the poor and the rich. Blood is blood to a bed bug whether its a mansion or a shack.
In 1730 John Southall published a bed bug prevention manual in England suggesting simple beds to reduce harborage areas for bed bugs.
The early 1900s saw continued increase in bed bug infestations up to 33% of the population at a time but most had a problem at some point. It was a bad time for people and bed bugs
DDT and Bed Bugs
In the 50s DDT was introduced and did a great job at killing bed bugs until 1972 when it was banned. Up until about 15 years ago adults and even most pest control technicians, had never dealt with bed bugs and thought they were just a nursery rhyme. This ignorance of bed bugs is part of what allowed their current jump in numbers. It was thought that DDT had eliminated bed bugs in the America. The fact is that if you look at the numbers, bed bugs were beginning a decline before DDT was introduced and continued to decline at about the same rate after it was banned. So blaming the resurgence of bed bugs in the 2000s on banning DDT in the 70s just doesn’t make sense. The bed bug epidemics in the 1st half of the 20th century produced experts and entomologists gaining knowledge and improving methods of elimination other than DDT including the vacuum. The days of Bubba and a spray can hosing your house down were dying, leading to a more scientific and entomological approach.
Bed Bugs Now
As we all know, that is not the happy ending we all want. In the 90s bed bugs started showing up in hotels mainly in coastal cities frequented by international travelers. Hotel ownership has shifted to a demographic that, let’s say, have less of a concern for sanitation and quality. Becuase of how bed bugs spread it was inevitable that those infestations began to trickle down to apartments, single family homes, and now just about anywhere people are. To make matters worse, imigration and international travel have turned this fire into an inferno. If you are an illegal alien you are unlikely to report a bed bug infestation to the land lord. Everyone I meet these days has had or know someone who has had bed bugs. One report said that 25% of the population at any given time has an active infestation.
There are many methods to eliminate bed bugs but only a few that are effective. Heat, chemical, and biological are all viable methods, but not in every situation. That’s why you need a professional to guide you through it. They aren’t going to magically go away if you ignore them. Way too many people try this and end up spreading them to many other people. Don’t do that. Like the lady I saw sitting in a waiting room with bed bugs coming out of her hair bun. I guarantee she had spread this cancer to several homes that way. Get some help.
You wanna know what bugs me? Bed bugs! But I love to kill ’em.
(865) 455-8571
#whatbugsme
