Hotel bedbugs face severe food shortage

[LeftInTX]

?w=700&ssl=1

Hotel occupancy rates have dropped by 50% to 80% around the country. Many hotels have shut down completely during the pandemic. This is bad news not only for hoteliers but for bedbugs, which depend on a human blood to stay alive. According to the travel website Your Mileage May Vary, young bedbugs start to die off if they don't eat in 20 days. Older bedbugs can survive between 2 to 3 months, and in some cases up to six months. If hotels stay closed longer than six months it will be the most expensive bedbug eradication procedure in history.

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/23/hotel-bedbugs-face-severe-food.html

[cwydro]

1. Don't think I'll click on the link.

Done a lot of traveling. Never met a bedbug.

[LeftInTX]

2. That's the entire article...

[Brother Buzz]

3. Damn, I was convinced this was going to be Andy Borowitz

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I have likewise never met a bedbug.

Lucky me.

But this is a very good thing.

[mr_lebowski]

5. Meeting 1 of them isn't any big deal ... very good chance you have before and didn't know it ...

Having hundreds of those fuckers all over your house however is another matter entirely, in a decidedly unpleasant sense.

I seriously would rather have mice.

Not RATS, but mice? Yeah I'd take mice over bedbugs.

I'd take roaches over bedbugs in a heartbeat too. Maybe not in the same numbers, but ...

[diva77]

6. Will you be purchasing these items at a flea market?

[murielm99]

7. Mice can be dealt with easily.

Get a cat, or a few traps. It is not pleasant, but it can be done. It is not costly. Fumigation for bedbugs is costly.

[LeftInTX]

8. It cost us $10,000 in 2019 to get rid of rats

We had to redo the insulation and seal any access points. Houses shift and access points open up, so it needs to be redone every few years.

We've lived here for 25 years and it's a constant struggle.

Rats for the most part stay in attics and garages, so a cat won't work. We haven't had much luck with traps.

[murielm99]

9. I live in the country,

in an old farmhouse. We had our foundation sealed a few years ago. That cut down, but did not eliminate, mice. We had new windows installed, new insulation and siding. We had two mice. I think they were already inside.

We have never had rats. They may indeed show up here, since there is less human activity these days.

[Bucky]

10. It's hypocritical to appreciate this development but then lament endangered species

It's no better, morally speaking, than the hitlerian approach to those poor innocent coronavirus critters.

I'm starting a GoFundMe to help our little bed bug friends.

[Demovictory9]

11. lol