![]() ![]() Edward Champion over at the blog Reluctant Habits has gone back to the sources that the Times reporter Catherine St. ![]() ![]() Unless of course, the acclaimed NYT Home & Garden section was exaggerating things a bit. #Bedbugs library books full#The public library, generally considered the last refuge for civilization, where all are welcome, where the emphasis is on the genteel checking in and checking out of things, a temple for elevated thoughts, free computer usage, and story hours, now turned out to be just another hot zone full of hairy, bloodsucking monsters ready to hop a ride home in your copy of The Casual Vacancy. When the New York Times ran a story on December 5 th about bedbugs traveling into homes via library books, readers got pretty worked up about it (MobyLives covered the early reactions here). Where there is a “bedbug infestation in libraries” New York Ttimes article, there shall also be a bedbug hysteria rebuttal article, and other universal laws … “Bedbugs in libraries” story backlash, or why to listen to entomologists It’s just that I would rather not have known."Bedbugs in libraries" story backlash, or why to listen to entomologists » MobyLives It’s not that librarians aren’t doing their utmost. One can also, I believe, read the article knowing that ANY reports of bedbugs in libraries, even any mention of countermeasures against the same, is way, way, too many, and that no piece of breathless squeam-mongering is in fact alarmist ENOUGH. After all, our bedbug problem is severe enough that it warrants stylish flash outbreak-mapping time lapse animation. At least in New York City, the heightened paranoia is second nature by now. After all, even a cursory search of the internet shows that similar alarmist articles appear frequently, and date back to 2007 or earlier. One can, I believe, read the piece fully aware that in gathering such scant reports of bedbug activity across years and a continent, it is striving pretty mightily to gin up a trend topic. It would be tempting to call all of this more than sufficient if every reader did not know, in their heart of hearts, that the only true solution is to band together as a nation, redirect all national resources, develop whatever technologies necessary, in short, to do whatever it takes to strap any afflicted library and its surrounding town or major metropolitan center onto a rocket - probably a pretty big one - aimed at the sun. Librarians are taking even more incredible measures, including buying special boxes to, effectively, bake their books. Others vacuum the crevices of couches, and some furniture is being reupholstered with vinyl or leatherette to make it less hospitable to insects. Some employees treat suspect books with heat before re-shelving them, to kill bedbugs, which are about the size of an apple seed when fully grown. Ibraries are training circulation staff members to look for carcasses and live insects. Later, she heat-treated all of the furniture in public areas, in addition to removing the infested chairs. ![]() The problem is by no means endemic, and libraries seem to be taking it all in stride.įorty-eight hours after a patron complained of being bitten by a bedbug in a lounge chair at a library in Wichita, Kan., Cynthia Berner Harris, the library’s director, brought in a bedbug-sniffing dog to pinpoint problem areas. Rather, it seems that some libraries have indeed had bedbugs. In spite of the frantically murmured prayers that sussurated in quiet rooms from coast to fearful coast, the piece was not a firm reassurance that no libraries have ever had or will ever have bedbugs. Wednesday the Home and Garden section of the New York Times ran a piece about the spread of bedbugs in furniture and books at public libraries. Unless you are reading this in a library, in which case you may want to stand very much up. #Bedbugs library books skin#How often have you compulsively brushed at imaginary tickles on your skin today? Only a few times? None? Let’s see if we can remedy that. You may want to sit down. You should probably stop reading this right now. ![]()
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