BED BUGS

Here's some advice I got ten days ago. I planned to publish it but didn't, because it doesn't cover all the things -- the fifty, the hundred things you'll have to do if you discovered bed bugs in your home or office.

<---- Professional Bed Bug Control Kit for Amateurs -- that's what you'd need. In the phone book, and Online, there are Websites with instructions about what to wash, clean, spray, and if you are overwhelmed by the job, there are lists of bed bug exterminators.

Bed Bugs have become a big business.

HERE'S THE ADVICE: "We have friends here in our community and one of their sons is an entomologist (insect expert), and he has been telling them that there is an epidemic of bed bugs now occurring in America. Recently I have heard on the news that several stores in NYC have had to close due to bed bug problems, as well as a complete mall in New Jersey. "He says that since much of our clothing, sheets, towels, etc. now comes from companies outside of America, (sad but true), even the most expensive stores sell foreign clothing from China, Indonesia, etc. The bed bugs are coming in on the clothing, as these countries do not consider them a problem. "He recommends that if you buy any new clothing, even underwear and socks, sheets, towels, etc. that you bring them into the house and put them in your clothes dryer for at least 20 minutes. The heat will kill them and their eggs. "DO NOT PURCHASE CLOTHES AND HANG THEM IN THE CLOSET FIRST. It does not matter what the price range is of the clothing, or if the outfit comes from the most expensive store known in the U.S. They still get shipments from these countries and the bugs can come in a box of scarves or anything else for that matter. That is the reason why so many stores, many of them clothing stores, have had to shut down in NYC and other places. All you need is to bring one item into the house that has bugs or eggs, and you will go crazy trying to get rid of them. He travels all over the country as an adviser to many of these stores, as prevention and after they have the problem." I read this to my husband, JC, who is in a Broadway show. Bed Bugs are in the hotels in the area. JC hangs his clothes in a theater dressing room. The costume department provides the cast with socks, shirts, underwear, as well as costumes. Bed Bugs have created a huge mess at Lincoln Center. Adult bedbugs are reddish-brown, flattened, oval, wingless and have microscopic hairs. When JC got home from the theater, we put everything he'd been wearing in the dryer, on HOT. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."