PSA: Check your library books for bed bugs!
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Anonymous
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OMG. I love the library!!! Is there some preventive measure we can take. Like can we just put the books in a plastic bag for 24 hour or something (I have a feeling bed bugs are harder to kill than that).
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Anonymous
Agreed, and maybe in retrospect I should have. I'm busy, as are we all, and don't have time to traipse around trying to find someone who can identify them. Hopefully FCPL will take it seriously, even if they don't publicize it. And I suspect this is not the first time they've faced an infested book. Whether they're bed bugs or not (and sorry if I created hysteria if in fact they're not bed bugs) I would think people would want to avoid bringing any books with insect infestations of any kind into their home. So hopefully this will raise awareness. And to the PP who asked about what to do to prevent bringing bed bugs in on library books -- putting them in a ziplock won't work, because they can live an extremely long time without feeding. Heat or extreme cold can kill them, but I am reading that both are potentially harmful to the books. One of the previous posters mentioned a pac-tite or something like that, which is a box you can get for $300 that you can put things like luggage in and heat them in a controlled way. |
Anonymous
No, 24 hours is not nearly enough. The only even remotely semi-practical thing to do would be to heat them in a PacTite machine for a few hours. Ideally, libraries would develop heat treatment options for returned books before releasing them back into circulation, which would lower the risk of bedbug transmission back to whatever it is for any public place, but I just don't see that happening, somehow. |
Anonymous
| Yes-- I brought up the PacTite before, too. I hear they're not without mechanical problems or risk of fire, but I'm starting to think such things might be good investments. |
Anonymous
| Oh-- extreme cold is actually quite GOOD for books, but moisture and rapid temperature change is not. In any case, home freezers aren't cold enough, and freezing treatments take a long time to be effective. |
Anonymous
How cold and for how long? Are we talking deep freezer? International Falls in February? I don't (that I'm aware of) have bed bugs or bookworms (my beautiful books! Nooooo!), but I want to know! |
Anonymous
| I put library books in the freezer for 1-2 weeks before I read them, for this exact reason. If you have a clothes dryer that has a shelf (so books won't tumble around) you could also do that (high heat, 30-40 mins). |
Anonymous
| Yeah, my child owns a LOT of books. So I decided, she is not allowed to bring home school library books. When my child told the teacher this, the teacher thought I was CRAZY. But I decided I don't care; the teacher is not the one who would have treat my home if we get an infestation. And BTW PP, a simple freezer may not be enough to kill them. http://bedbugger.com/2007/08/04/faq-leaving-stuff-out-to-freeze-walk-in-freezers-etc-how-cold-and-how-long/ |
Anonymous
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UGH! Thanks for the warning OP.
I'm not normally a germaphobe but the idea of getting bed bugs from a library book really grosses me out! Do you PPs think bed bugs/bugs in general will be less likely in the winter? DS had a decent amount of books for now - maybe I'll wait on a trip to the library until it gets really cold and then just leave the books out on the porch overnight. 
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Anonymous
| GROSS its cause the library books can be borrowed by people that don't have enough money to get bed bug treatments. |
Anonymous
| Just LOOK at the books before you cozy up with them. Bedbugs are obvious. So are the little guys, and they're not really a problem. |
Anonymous
Sadly, bedbugs aren't seasonal and this area really doesn't have cold enough outdoor temperatures to kill hardy insects with brief exposures. Exposure time needs to be balanced with temperature. I don't know exactly how cold it needs to be for how long to kill bedbugs, though I bet you could find some research on that if you looked. Overnight is usually too little to have much effect, and even a couple of weeks may not be enough-- it's all about how long it takes for eggs to hatch and even whether eggs can go dormant but still hang on in cold temperatures. |
Anonymous
Bedbugs are not obvious. They're really good at squeezing into crevices, their immature stages are tiny and may not have much color, and their eggs (laid in barely accessible crevices) are actually quite hard to spot. Also, books can have hundreds of pages. How carefully will you inspect each one?!! |
Anonymous
Or by people who don't know they have bedbugs yet--- or by assholes who think bedbugs are no big deal--- or by people who are trying treatments but aren't very educated about what is effective and what isn't. |
Anonymous
I'm intrigued by the dryer idea and bet it would indeed kill bugs, but isn't that a fire risk? I believe studies have shown that home freezers don't reach low enough temperatures to kill all life stages of bedbugs. |