Saturday, August 25, 2012

Isolation Phase. Iterative and Incremental. Part 2

Tools are what you need to do more with less, at least in the long run.
 
 
Get ready all your gadgets? If not, please flash back to Part 1 before continue reading this.
 
 
 
A quick review here about the assumptions made. Our context here is only dealing with only THE BED BUGS infested bed room, say your master bed room and none of other bed rooms are occupied by human.
 
Now,
 
Before you start to tear your bed room apart, you need to clean up the clutters in the room first.
 
* Get ready insectide sprays.
You will want to spray directly on THE BED BUGS anytime you saw them
 
 
Clean up the Clutters
 
Begin with your clothes laying around on the floor or hanging in the closet. Put them into plastic bags that you bought, tied them up and transport them to your designated spaces/washing machines to perform heat treatment. Once you piled them all at the same place, you can start your heat treatment.
Boiling water is the best.
 
* DON'T reuse the plastic bags above, throw them far away or burn them up. This is because you wouldn't want any bed bugs nymphs, eggs or anything nasty possibly coming out from them.
 
Anything else you want to move out from this room must be sterilized completely in-and-out using the alcohol (more than 70% concentration) you bought. The sprayer is of good use here.
 
 
Initiate First Demarcation
 
Let's pretend that your room is a square.
 
 
 
You need to form a trap zone around this square, specifically to kill THE BED BUGS crossing over.
 
Use the Dust Applicator to apply a thin layer of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth around your room, including window edges and wall joints.
 
Also, spray some DE into power outlets or around it, behind hanging wall pictures, teared wallpapers, surrounding your closet, dressing tables, side tables and around your bed.
 
Don't forget to spray some DE around the wall/door edges of other rooms too. This is to kill any of THE BED BUGS attempts to flee to these places.
 
One golden rule when you apply DE. It gotta be a very thin layer else THE BED BUGS would not crawl over it which also means their exoskeleton or so wouldn't be damaged by the DE. Use Dust Applicator if possible. If not, use a powder puffer you can get from any hypermarket.
 
The whole objective of this step is to reduce the survivalship of  run-on-rampant THE BED BUGS when you start to shatter their "nests", e.g. boxspring/mattress.
 
Later on, you will need to repeat this step in Initiate Second Demarcation for another objective.
 
 
 That's it. The next phase would be the Killing Phase.
 
 
Until then, enjoy the following:
 
 
 
 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Isolation Phase. Iterative and Incremental. Part 1



You gotta completed the Scan Phase first. Go and read my previous posts about the Scan Phase before continue with this Isolation Phase.




The whole idea of this Isolation Phase is to prevent THE BED BUGS from spreading further and thus making your infestation elimination efforts harder, much harder.

I will put a simple assumption here that you only got one bed room infested by THE BED BUGS and other bed rooms are vacant with no living occupants.



Firstly, you have to remember that the only major food source of THE BED BUGS is HUMAN BLOOD which means they will cluster around the food source, which also means if the food source moved, THE BED BUGS will probably moved too. This is bad since you are making THE BED BUGS a moving target which you gotta be crazy try to eliminate all of THE BED BUGS, unless probably you can get the president approval to NUKE the damned area.

So, DO NOT attempt to move out from your usual sleeping zone during this war period, UNLESS you have medical condition or strong justification. Well, the bottomline is you can sleep at other houses/hotels for a day or two until you managed to get your hands on the needed KILLING/ISOLATION tools.




Ok, this list is what I suggest you to get:

  • Pillow/Mattress Encasement
    • Check your mattress size!
    • Buy a good one such as Protect-A-Bed distributed by KingKoil if it in Malaysia
  • Boxspring Encasement
    • Check your boxspring size!
    • No need to buy this if your boxspring/divan comes with wheel.
    • I think it's hard to find the right encasement in Malaysia. No idea about the price.
  • Steam Cleaner
    • Karcher Steam Cleaner is a good choice
    • Can get it from Ace Hardware Shop in Malaysia
    • Not cheap.
  • Large Plastic Bags
    • Any large trash plastic bags would do
  • Few bottles of Insecticide Sprays
    • In Malaysia, you can get the common brands such as Ridsect, ShieldTox and so.
  • 500mg of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth a.k.a DE
    • If you are from Malaysia, I can help in supplying this
  • DE Applicator a.k.a Dust Applicator or Powder Puffer.
  • 500ml Isopropyl Alcohol (At least 70%) a.k.a rubbing alcohol
    • If you are from Malaysia/Klang Valley, I can help in supplying this
  • Sprayer bottle
    • Can get from any pharmacy/hypermarkets/online sites
  • Few meters of wide size double sided tape. 30mm width would do
    • Not easy to find this. You can try order from online sites
    • .
  • Washing machine/Bath tub/Buckets to do heat treatments
    • Use your washing machine if got heating feature (at least 45d celcius)
  • Kettle to boil water
    • No need if your washing machine got heating feature (at least 45d celcius)
    • Else you will boil few ten liters of hot water to treat your clothes/fabrics

The most expensive of all will be the Steam Cleaner and Pillow/Mattress Encasement. I actually spent nearly MYR1,700.00 (approx. USD 500) for items in the list.




If you think it's too much for you to spend, stop reading
and find an affordable pest control company.

But,

If  THE BED BUGS is perceived to be a likely repetitive problem and you have spent few thousand bucks on your precious pillow/mattress, you are actually making good economic sense doing this purchasing decision.

Or,

If THE BED BUGS is already an out-of-control matter that you think can't be solved by yourself. Call Professional.


Now,


Oh boy, this starts to sound interesting ya?


DO NOT move anything in the bed room until you completed the collection of the item in the list.

*Moving your mattress out to expose under the sun is a bad idea as it probably will drop  THE BED BUGS along the course of the movement and spread to other areas *

*Get ready to throw away your boxspring if it is too tough to reach some of its internal structure and if it is attached with wheels. *

<End of Part 1> Please enjoy the following.




VIDEO: BEDBUG ALERT - PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V


Well, not really got any THE BED BUGS in the MTV.

But you wish you could SMASH the fella as if he's a bug.

VIDEO: Taiwanese Animation: America’s ‘Giant’ Bedbug Problem


The video is in Mandarin Chinese language. Got English subtitle though.

In its latest CGI masterpiece, New Media Animation tackles America’s takeover by bedbugs. This is an accurate depiction of what is already happening in certain apartments in New York.


Mutanted THE BED BUGS In Action. How huge, How scary!

VIDEO: 500 to 1000 bed bugs


This is just a terrible bed bug problem. There is 500 to 1000 bed bugs in this one bedroom.

VIDEO: HUNDREDS OF BED BUGS



SEE HUNDREDS OF BED BUGS FEED ON RESEARCHER LOU SORKIN'S ARM.

VIDEO: Bite 500 times



Don't doze off just yet. Maybe they should be called bed blood bugs, an army of these can attack a person 500 times in one night!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Glass of Wine Before Bedtime Keeps the Bed Bugs Away


 Going to bed after having a few drinks may actually keep the bed bugs from biting you, according to a new study.


By Christine Hsu | June 01, 2012               

Going to bed after having a few drinks may actually keep the bed bugs from biting you, according to a new study.

The latest findings suggest that bed bugs much prefer the blood of a sober sleeper to that of a person who has had an alcoholic drink, according to PhD candidate Ralph Narain from the University of Nebraska, who presented his findings last week to the National Conference on Urban Entomology in Atlanta.
Researchers also added that when bed bugs cannot get a good feed, they also lay fewer eggs, meaning that glass of wine before bedtime could very well be equivalent to not only fewer bites but also fewer bugs.

Narain's experiment involved mixing different amounts of 200 proof ethanol into four samples of blood until he had blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.010, 0.025, 0.050 and 0.100. A BAC of 0.08 is the legal limit for driving in many states in the United States. He also had a control sample that contained no alcohol.

Afterwards, he randomly selected 20 adult bed bugs for each blood sample, weighed them, fed them the assigned blood samples, weighed them again and repeated this experiment six times.

The results indicate that beg bugs that were fed clean blood doubled their body mass. However, bugs that were fed the lowest amount of alcohol, 0.010 BAC, increased their mass by just 60 percent, a proportion of growth that gradually decreased for each increase in alcohol content.

Bed bugs that were fed the highest alcoholic sample at .100 BAC gained a measly 12.5 percent body mass.

In terms of reproduction, bed bugs in the control groups laid an average of 44 eggs after gorging themselves, whereas the bugs that fed the highest BAC laid an average of just 12 eggs.
Researchers could not determine whether the alcohol affected the behavior of the adults bugs of their offspring's development, but they plan on measuring both in future studies.

Narain also plans on studying the effect of other drugs or narcotics on the feeding and reproduction cycle of bed bugs.

"[Bed bugs] need a blood meal to grow and to molt and to reproduce," Narain told the website LifesLittleMysteries.com. "And one of their main hosts are humans, and we consume a lot of [alcohol]."

However, Narain said that he does not recommend people to drinking alcohol to control beg bugs, and he warned that while bed bugs do eat and reproduce less on an alcoholic diet, they still lay eggs, and 95 percent of the eggs do hatch.

Other experts say that it is still too early to toast the recent findings as a new method to fight infestations.

"I don't know what sort of implications it has ultimately, because unfortunately they still produce enough eggs to cause an infestation," another expert, Entomologist Dini Miller told the Huffington Post. "So while they feed less, still, we're not going to experience less of a problem. But it's very interesting to know."

"If the bed bugs are still producing, they can cause an infestation. Twelve hatchlings are an infestation right there, and they could increase to a major infestation in about two or four weeks time," exterminator Barry Pollack with Metro Bed Bug Dogs in New York told the Daily News.
Pollack warned that bed bug eggs hatch faster in warmer months.

"My business increases by 30% when the thermometer hits 80 degrees," he told the paper. "My biggest tips to people are to treat their luggage with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle when they travel and don’t bring in any used furniture."




Nerd: I seriously doubt any usefulness of drinking alcohol to reduce THE BED BUGS reproduction/growth rate at the current state of the art. Probably we could end up killing ourselves first by maintaining such a high BAC constantly over long period of time.

However, Alcohol does help in controlling the infestation as I will share in future posts.
LOL

Scan Phase

The latter that a bug is found in the software development life cycle
the more costly and risky it is.



Did you ever watch CSI series or similar? First and foremost of every investigation and criminal prosecution should start with an evidence collection stage. In this stage, you collect useful information to confirm that a crime did exist before expending more efforts to deploy your valuable investigator to follow up the opened case.




The truth holds for THE BED BUGS problem.

It is too costly to start any treatment course if it is not even THE BED BUGS problem.

Thus, the mandatory need for this Scan Phase.


  

Irrespective of venue, if you saw a bug that looks like the any of the following


Bingo. You have just confirmed THE BED BUGS crime.

If you have *no luck* seeing any of the creatures in the picture above, you should now get naked, literally. #Grin#

Well, you don't really have to get naked. The objective is just to physically *self*-investigate your body skins for any THE BED BUGS bites. There is no standard bite size, color or shape. Some even don't react to THE BED BUGS bites. Some will feel itchiness. Some will have allergic reaction.

That's why it is so easy to confuse THE BED BUGS problem and other problems like dust mites, mosquitos, scabies and other pest problems.

The following pictures are from WWW. I'm not inside any of them.






Don't stop Scan Phase yet. The more information you obtained the better for confirmation.

You should scan your sleeping place which you usually spent few hours on it.

For typical person, this would means a mattress and perhaps a bed frame.

However if you sleep on couch, scan it.

Specifically you are looking for the following evidences.


Actual crawling *bastards* on the mattress



THE BED BUGS feces aka poops/shits







THE BED BUGS f*cking rave party





Some information about your findings



If you are living in a home with few bed rooms occupied with other tenants. You must repeat the Scan phase in every room.

The reason being THE BED BUGS will be attracted by the release of heat/carbon dioxide/some chemical materials of human which means they will crawl from places to places.

The rule of thumb is in THE BED BUGS crime, generally 90% of the bugs will be within 5 meters of the bed which means that your cabinet, closet, clock, power outlet, teared wallpapers, dressing furniture could be occupied by them.

Once you finished your Scan phase, you now should have the knowledge of how serious, wide-spread, degree of infestation of THE BED BUGS problem you are facing. 

The next step is, I would spend my last breathing strength to emphasize: very critical to increase the chance of winning this war.


The Isolation.




Anyway, to reward yourself, please spend some time Scan the following. Courtesy of *ahem* WWW.







Coalition & Alliance



Blissed Ignorance is a Curse.

A bug crosses over your arm. You saw and smashed it. Life goes on and music keeps playing.



Ignoring the fact that some events could be an indication to a greater cause enables you to live in status-quo (financially, emotionally, physically, blah-blah) until it becomes serious and I mean darn serious. Well, the truth is it's alright at all to be ignorant if and only if you accept the risk of materialized possibility and perceive that the benefit of ignorance outweigh its cost.

Your decision your choice and no one to blame, ya?




NOW,

Instead of one tiny bug on your arm, you suddenly discover at one peaceful night, there is a squadron of bugs sucking out blood from your body. But hey no pain at all (they will inject some anaesthetic before the meal), you can choose to exercise your high level smashing skill to whack out all of them and do nothing until next more severe event occurs. It's totally fine, really. Since our system is based on *democracy* and probably most of us are in the pro-choice segment, I have no disagreement over your continued blissed ignorance.

BUT,



Since you have spent perhaps more than just a few minutes on my blog, tolerated with my uncanny and *definitely* nerdy way of writing entries, I believe we are at the same side about how to win this Homosapien-Cimexlectularius war.

Massacre. Allegro.



Life is like your travel luggage, you never know what it carries until some little creepy monsters haunting you day and night thereafter.

If you don't understand the above statement, you don't know yet the danger of exposing your travel luggage.


Life's sucks, man.




I never aware or made aware of such creatures until few months back when I finally need to face-off with THE BED BUGS, horror movie #1 on the billboard for that showing period. Too bad I don't have any friends who are major in entomology that I could consult without incurring astronomical consultation charges. So guess I just gotta put some efforts in Do-It-Yourself pest control.

Bed Bugs sucks, man.

Let me now tell you how this will work.
  • You will need time.
  • You will need money.
  • You will need energy.
  • You will need knowledge.

Translating this to the domain of project management, it means you will need to understand and balance the constraints of (Time, Cost, Resource, Scope).



I will try to make the process easier for you by blogging the IMHO essential information in this site.

However, at any given time, please put reasonable doubts about my information since this site is free and I'm not a professional pest control person, which also means if you follow some instructions here, please "Do it at your own risk". :D



You want this on your bed





Not this



Am I right?