“Good-night, sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite!”
I heard that phrase a lot growing up, but I didn’t know bed bugs existed until one summer living in an apartment in Boston. As an economically challenged college student, my friend decided to save money and bought a mattress on Craiglist for $80. To his sad surprise, he woke up every day with tons of bites on his body. At first, we thought they were mosquito bites. Then, one day, he decided to catch them using duct tape and dry nitrogen nice. The ice drew them out, and the duct tape trapped them. There, in front of our eyes was a bunch of gigantic bed bugs…
So what’s the point of this story? The point is that for us who are slightly more privileged, we can discard the mattress and buy a new one. However, for people in Vietnam, this is not usually the case.
Recently, there has been a rise in incidences of bed bugs in Ha Noi, Vietnam. When the city attempted to eradicate malaria by spraying chemicals in the 1970-1980s, they were successful in eliminating the bugs. Yet, with the rising tourism in the country, it seems the bugs have also returned to the country.
Bed bugs in Vietnam are described to be about 4-5mm in length and possess a flat yellow body. They live in beds, mattresses, sofas, linens. Their life cycle can range anywhere from 6 weeks to a few months, during which they can lay hundreds of eggs. They often suck blood from their victims for several minutes, and are known to cause itchy rashes on their victims.
According to Army Anti-pandemic Hygiene Institute’s Nguyen Quang Thai, bed bugs have not been shown to be able to carry or spread diseases to people, but the hygienic crazed scientist in me questions if this will truly remain fact.
There have been a few chemicals approved to be used for the treatment of bed bugs and killings the eggs before they hatch. It saddens me to know that people would have been to sleeping on mattresses doused with chemicals….yet, taken into consideration the economic status of many of the citizens, there is really no other option.
Hi Isabella.
I’m Nguyen Quang Thai, who is working in military institute of hygiene epidemiology in your text. I am studying about bed bugs. So I wonder the chemicals can treat them. I don’t know it. And according you, your friend used “dry nitrogen nice” to drew them out, but I thing it is dry carbon dioxide. Because the bed bugs were attracted by heat and carbon dioxide release from victims.
Thank you so much
Best regard,
Thai