Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs

"Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite." How many of us baby boomers heard that every night as we went to bed. I know it was a favorite saying of my mother. I didn’t really believe in bedbugs. I thought my mother was making them up.

As I matured, I learned that bedbugs were once the scourge of the very rich and very poor. These evil little bugs didn’t discriminate. They made everyone’s life miserable; every night was a bite fest. They infested homes and particularly liked living in people’s beds. Who wouldn’t? For centuries these little creatures made everyone’s sleep a nightmare.

Finally, upper and middle class people learned how to get rid of the creatures. Bedbugs became the pest of the lower classes who lived in tenements and flop houses. Then DDT and other horrific pesticides eradicated the menace. There were no more bedbugs. Unfortunately, there must have been a few somewhere hiding because history is now repeating itself. Bedbugs are...

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