FOR RENT: Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds. No broker’s fee. Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs . . . or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad—until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.
Bed bugs are thriving across the globe--from North and South America, to Africa, Asia and Europe. For some time, bed bugs were naively seen as a problem unique to developing countries, but their love of high thread content sheets has set them up in five-star residences in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe as well. Bed Bugs were first noticed in society by Americans in the early 1700 s. Many believe sailboats returning from Europe unknowingly carried the bugs as cargo, as sailors complained of being attacked as they slept in their cabins. With the introduction of DDT in the 1950s, bed bugs nearly disappeared. But when DDT was banned in the 1970 s, a wave of super bed bugs rejoiced. Now, up to 25% of residents in some cities have reported problems with the pests, bordering on epidemic levels. In fact, history has never seen such widespread and intense bed bug infestations. Our propensity for travel has left bed bugs with enviable frequent flyer status too. Following the Sydney Olympics, for example, and the thousands of visitors to Australia, it was estimated that the bed bug occupancy rate in Sydney hotels was 95%. In "Sleep Tight, "Brooke Borel introduces readers to the biology of these amazingly adaptive insects which can travel over 100 foot distances at night--and the myriad ways in which humans respond to them. She travels to meet with scientists who are rearing bed bug colonies on their own blood-- to the BedBug University, to swank apartments on the upper East Side of Manhattan. She explores the history of bed bugs, and their near extinction, charting how current infestations are in direct response to human chemical use. She also introduces us to the economics of bed bug infestations, and the industry that has arisen to combat that. This is the first history and natural history of bed bugs, and it leaves few exoskeletons unturned."
From tenements to alleyways to latrines, twentieth-century American cities created spaces where pests flourished and people struggled for healthy living conditions. In Pests in the City, Dawn Day Biehler argues that the urban ecologies that supported pests were shaped not only by the physical features of cities but also by social inequalities, housing policies, and ideas about domestic space. Community activists and social reformers strived to control pests in cities such as Washington, DC, Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Milwaukee, but such efforts fell short when authorities blamed families and neighborhood culture for infestations rather than attacking racial segregation or urban disinvestment. Pest-control campaigns tended to target public or private spaces, but pests and pesticides moved readily across the porous boundaries between homes and neighborhoods. This story of flies, bedbugs, cockroaches, and rats reveals that such creatures thrived on lax code enforcement and the marginalization of the poor, immigrants, and people of color. As Biehler shows, urban pests have remained a persistent problem at the intersection of public health, politics, and environmental justice, even amid promises of modernity and sustainability in American cities. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9PFxLY7K4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw
Explains how to prevent bedbugs, identify them, and exterminate them, in a book that includes tips for travelers, advice on buying secondhand goods, and provides environmentally friendly methods and solutions.
The first comprehensive scholarly treatment of bed bugs since 1966 This book updates and expands on existing material on bed bugs with an emphasis on the worldwide resurgence of both the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius L., and the tropical bed bug, Cimex hemipterus (F.). It incorporates extensive new data from a wide range of basic and applied research, as well as the recently observed medical, legal, and regulatory impacts of bed bugs. Advances in the Biology and Management of Modern Bed Bugs offers new information on the basic science and advice on using applied management strategies and bed bug bioassay techniques. It also presents cutting-edge information on the major impacts that bed bugs have had on the medical, legal, housing and hotel industries across the world, as well as their impacts on public health. Advances in the Biology and Management of Modern Bed Bugs offers chapters that cover the history of bed bugs; their global resurgence; their impact on society; their basic biology; how to manage them; the future of these pests; and more. Provides up-to-date information for the professional pest manager on bed bug biology and management Features contributions from 60 highly experienced and widely recognized experts, with 48 unique chapters A one-stop-source that includes historic, technical, and practical information Serves as a reference book for academic researchers and students alike Advances in the Biology and Management of Modern Bed Bugs is an essential reference for anyone who is impacted by bed bugs or engaged in managing bed bugs, be it in an academic, basic or applied scientific setting, or in a public outreach, or pest management role, worldwide.
From the subway tunnels of Boston to the rain-swept streets of Quebec City to the deepest snow-filled forests of Hilton, Maine, no one in these chilling stories by horror master Rick Hautala is safe from the darkness or the dangerous things that lurk in the shadows. Waiting for us. Reaching for us … Over the years, Rick Hautala's stories and novels have terrified and captivated millions of readers around the world. Bedbugs is a career-spanning collection of stories that whisks you away on a guided tour of the darkest reaches of the human maind and soul—a tour that could only be conducted by someone with Rick Hautala's ability to make your blood run cold. Stories in this collection are: The Back of My Hands Schoolhouse The Voodoo Queen Surprise Tunnels … from a Stone Crying Wolf The Sources of the Nile Silver Rings Colt .24 Bird in the House Cousins’ Curse Speedbump Rubies and Pearls A Little Bit of Divine Justice Karen’s Eyes Master Tape Breakfast at Earl’s Closing the Doors Worst Fears Winter Queen Late Summer Shadows Hitman Perfect Witness Piss Eyes Served Cold
Get ready for bed with the Jitterbugs in this delightful pop-up bedtime book! (There's even a mini pop-up book inside!) Good night, sleep tight, These pop-up bugs will never bite
A new selection of Isaac Babel's 26 most vital and beautiful stories, in acclaimed translations by Boris Dralyuk Isaac Babel honed one of the most distinctive styles in all Russian literature. Brashly conversational one moment, dreamily lyrical the next, his stories exult in the richness of everyday speech and sensual pleasure only to be shaken by brutal jolts of violence. These stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and lowlives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. Selected and translated by the prize-winning Boris Dralyuk, this collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.
Through dynamic infographics, charts, up-close photos and strong reading level control, this title explores the lives of bedbugs, the creepy parasites that might be living near you.
