Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 137 posts

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#91

Post by meepmorp »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #62
sylware wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they mention _american_ bedbugs? airbnb being a really good propagation vector as you cannot have the same grade bug fighting than in a classic hotel. Basically, all big international tourist destinations are at "risk" of no severe bug control is done (airbnb...). What are we going to end up with? if hotel syndicates push mandatory severe bug control (aka expensive) in the regulation, that would make 99% of airbn…

In my experience, there is no way to get rid of bed bugs without using controlled insecticides, and the room has to be left empty for a week or two.

Heat - you close off the affected area and heat it to a bit over 50C for a few days. The bugs die through desiccation.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#92

Post by pnpnp »

littlestymaar wrote: post #81
lotsofpulp wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed it was cancer causing insecticides like DDT or something.

DDT ban is often cited, but it's an insufficient explanation: first of all there are still efficient insecticides available, and bedbugs infestations only reappeared many decades after DDT was banned. The most important causes is the massive increase in travel/tourism (airbnb is often pointed, but regular hotels are where it started) then come the increasing cost of labor (Baumol's costs disease) + higher safety stan…

For people downvoting this comment: why?

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#93

Post by kergonath »

thefounder wrote: post #85
Shaanie wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense? Bed bugs don't care whether you're tidy or not, they drink your blood and hide during the day. You can have an absolutely spotless home and flawless personal hygiene and still have bedbugs living in your floorboards.

In the sense that washing your clothes and bedding at high temperature plus washing all the spots where the bed bugs could hide should keep them at distance.

The issue is that “all the spots where they could hide” is absolutely any kind of crack or tiny hole. Floorboards were mentioned, and you cannot really take that away to clean it each week. Same thing for wooden beds: those have lots of spaces where a bug can go but not much else, short of dismantling the whole thing. They can also be in sofas, bedside tables, cabinets, chairs… And these places are not dirty, they are just available space. Fumigation is a way of getting rid of them because otherwise it is impossible to access the places where they hide during the day.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#94

Post by randomcarbloke »

kergonath wrote: post #10
baz00 wrote: post #7

I've just removed that AirBnB weekend in Paris from my things to do this year list :)

It’s not unique to Paris. It is a scourge in the UK as well, and an American friend told me that it was a problem in New York as well (I know, not a great source… I read NYT articles about that but they don’t immediately show up in my history).

I've never encountered bedbugs in London or known anyone plagued by them I've been here a decade or so.

I've never encountered them in NYC or Berlin either although I have spent comparatively little time there...anecdotally Paris is certainly an outlier.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#95

Post by theshrike79 »

sethammons wrote: post #37
developer93 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gonna go back to the days where the company owned your accommodation & you had a house as long as you had the job?

I'm hearing more and more about it. Company stores and company towns. Nope, nothing to learn from historically here at all.

It wasn't all bad.

In here The Company (a paper factory) guaranteed home loans for employees, a ton of people got dirt-cheap loans and paid off their homes in record time. My aunt still lives in one of those homes, they've been debt free since before the millennium.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#96

Post by Noumenon72 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #65
wincy wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had an in home care nurse who watched our disable infant daughter go on a trip to Abu Dhabi trip, and brought back bed bugs. The nursing company tried to act like this was our responsibility, and tried to act like it was our fault, as if we’d made bedbugs appear ex nihilo. Luckily a lifetime ago I was a licensed exterminator and got it sorted. Treating for bed bugs is not fun, though, and part of the reason I got…

Anyone can get bed bugs anytime from anywhere. There is no way to protect against it, outside of not leaving your bedbug free home. I can see the nursing company’s point of view, since it is akin to an act of God. What were they supposed to do? Ban their employees from traveling in their time off?

You can protect against it by leaving your belongings in the hotel bathtub where bedbugs can't get in, or putting possessions in the dryer when you get home from travel. I agree that you're just going to have to accept that nurses might have them; this will reduce the demand for nurses, the same way I won't buy furniture from Goodwill any more.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#97

Post by bob1029 »

This is why I don't mind the spiders so much.

They do a really good job of vacuuming up the smaller insects around my home. You can tell how well they're working by the density of crap in their webs. I go out of my way to not harm them if possible. I used to spray for everything but I think that just makes things worse in the long run.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#98

Post by lotsofpulp »

wholinator2 wrote: post #89
lotsofpulp wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels get bed bugs all the time. The cause is people traveling, allowing bed bugs to hitch a ride.

And most hotels have centralized departments for dealing with it, contacts with extermination agencies, and a single large building to treat, and a very very strong incentive to get it done immediately, lest they lose all business and be forced to shut down. I obviously don't know the specifics but I'd bet Hilton is a million times more effective at pest management than some 60 year old dude who put up his second hom…

FYI, Hilton does not own or operate 99% of hotels with their brand name on it. Quality of management will vary greatly, but I agree that the probability of hotel management fixing the issue quicker is higher than an Airbnb operator.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#99

Post by zdragnar »

sylware wrote: post #13
brohee wrote: post #6

Writing this article without mentioning AirBnB is quite the exercise in avoiding talking about root causes.

Did they mention _american_ bedbugs? airbnb being a really good propagation vector as you cannot have the same grade bug fighting than in a classic hotel. Basically, all big international tourist destinations are at "risk" of no severe bug control is done (airbnb...). What are we going to end up with? if hotel syndicates push mandatory severe bug control (aka expensive) in the regulation, that would make 99% of airbn…

Lol, one hotel near me gave a friend bedbugs, and another have my sister in law scabies. Both hotels were "nice", not the cut-rate budget variety.

I would take an Airbnb (with a superhost) over a hotel any day.

Re: Bedbug crisis sparks political row in Paris as insect ‘scourge’ continues

#100

Post by cf141q5325 »

bob1029 wrote: post #97

This is why I don't mind the spiders so much. They do a really good job of vacuuming up the smaller insects around my home. You can tell how well they're working by the density of crap in their webs. I go out of my way to not harm them if possible. I used to spray for everything but I think that just makes things worse in the long run.

In case anyone is afraid of spiders, confrontation therapy does wonders. Doesnt have to be drastic, letting one set up a net in a visible area already does wonders.
Post reply on HN