Males Can Sniff Out A Well Fed Female July 8, 2011
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Brain Power, Insects, Think About It.Tags: black widow spider, cannibal, female, male
8 comments
If they’re a male black widow spider, that is. Simply by taking a little saunter across the female’s web, a male black widow can sense if a female is hungry or not. Why does it matter? Because female black widow spiders have a rather freaky habit of eating the male after mating. It’s how they earned their dangerous name.
Now that's one massive female black widow spider. You would almost think she's been doing some seriously heavy weights at the gym. But nope, females are normally much bigger than males. Those males best watch out!
The Smell Of Safety
Males have developed this very useful technique, which tells them whether or not a female has recently eaten. But if a female is hungry, she would be more likely to cannibalize the male spider. They take a sniff of those silk strands and then decide if they want to proceed or scurry away. A new study discovered this interesting skill and published the findings in the journal Animal Behaviour. So, how do researchers actually go about testing something like this?
Feeding Time For The Ladies
First things first. The researchers fed a bunch of hungry female back widow spiders. Using a cricket neatly held between forceps, they rested it on the web and waited for the female to come over, wrap the cricket in silk and chow down. The females got one cricket each week. Yet, by the time the fourth week came around, they weren’t so hungry anymore and didn’t really want to eat the crickets.
I bet this female black widow spider is thinking: "Ah, the satisfaction from a good meal of crickets. I think I'll accept the advances of the male spider perched nearby. Since I'm well fed, I probably won't eat him after we're done."
Another bunch of female black widow spiders were starved for a few weeks. It apparently didn’t put their lives at risk, but they did get a bit smaller. Now, let’s find out what happened when a male was placed on the web of a well fed or a starved spider.
One Step, Two Step, Three Step…Four
Since the male spiders can pick up scents with their feet, they were able to figure out the difference from one female to another just by walking on the web. Normally, a male black widow spider has a special dance he does to court the female.
In this experiment, the males danced far more actively on the webs of well fed females. Smart dudes! If anything, dancing and mating would leave them ready to eat – not be eaten! Typically, they dance around for an hour or two, which sure shows their dedication to the purpose. They wave their legs and pluck and tap at the web in a unique way, so that unlike prey they show the female they are interested to mate rather than become dinner.
If Only I Had Such Powers
Now I have a strong sense of smell but definitely nothing like these male black widow spiders. It’s too bad because I’m really scared of spiders even though I know most are harmless. If I had my way, I’d be able to simply smell any spider from several meters away. That would give my timid self enough time to run!
No Fair! December 21, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Easy As Pie.Tags: dogs, science blog, toilet
2 comments
Despite the exclamation above, I’m not throwing a temper tantrum. But I do get frustrated when I read news stories about science and think “Woah, this is really complicated.” It’s one reason I started this blog. To learn about a few more reasons, you can see an interview I did for the Charlotte Observer here.
Speaking of unfair things, if you read my last post and wondered if Tiko ever got off the toilet, well the picture on the right should answer your question.
His furry derriere is still planted firmly on the porcelain potty. He says it’s actually rather comfortable and he even had the audacity to ask me to serve him some liver treats and install a television on the wall.
I’ve already decided that if I ever start another blog, it will be called Weird Dogs.
A Trip Down Your Toilet December 10, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Environment, Human Body, Tough Stuff.Tags: energy, gas, poo, renewable, waste
3 comments
Nope, I’m not giving a lesson on plumbing. But I am going to give you the scoop on a secret that starts inside your toilet, all thanks to the crew at Thames Water who are helping people stay warm this winter. What’s this secret? Well, when a toilet takes your daily (or whatever frequency..let’s not go there) offering, all that human gunk can get converted into renewable gas to heat your home.
In fact, my dog Tiko got so excited about this concept, he decided to contribute. Before we see what he got up to though, let’s first find out what’s happening in the bowels of your toilet and then follow it through the twists and turns of the pipes below.
A Good Kind Of Gas
Each time you perch on the toilet, you may soon take heart that you’re not the only one who’s a bit lighter – you’re taking a burden off the environment as well. Approximately 200 homeowners in an English town called Didcot are among the first in the UK to benefit from gas made from their own waste and supplied through the national grid to heat their houses. The future plan is to make this process available throughout the UK.
So why all the fuss to find new sources of energy? Well, the UK has a goal for 2020 to have 15 percent of the energy it produces come from renewable sources. Producing gas in this way is a strong step toward that goal. Oh, and if you’re worried your house will be smelly, fear not! The gas is odorless and your house will remain toasty.
From Flush To Finish
From the time you flush your toilet to the time your house gets heat, it’s around 23 days. Let’s take it step-by-step, based on the procedure and image below that Thames Water has generously shared.
Waste has a bit of a path to travel before making your home warm. But it's worth the trip because it brings the UK closer to its energy goals.
- All the muck from toilets and stuff like sinks and dishwashers gets channeled to the Didcot works. Let me tell you, with 13.8 million customers, it’s a lot of waste!
- Waste gets separated into sludge and water inside settlement tanks
- Water is put through cleaning processes and then back to the environment it goes via a local watercourse
- Sludge goes a different route. It gets heated in massive containers called digesters. All the heat gets anaerobic digestion going, which is where bacteria breaks down biodegradable material. Now, we’re left with biomethane – also called biogas
- The gas gets collected and goes into a gas cleaning machine
- After the biomethane gets cleaned and smells more like normal gas, it goes to the national gas grid
- From here, it’s just like any other gas in the grid. Off it goes to heat up your home and fuel other things like your stove
Tiko Turds
Once Tiko heard about the capabilities of poo, he did what all good and respectable dogs do – he went to relieve himself. But instead of trotting to the door for me to let him outside, he wanted to do his part to help heat up the house. The cheeky mutt raced into the bathroom and plonked himself down on the toilet.
When Tiko found out that human waste from toilets was being used as a renewable source of energy to heat homes, he decided to help out. Now, where's the air freshener?
I appreciate that he’s determined to help the environment but I tried to explain that nobody wants to sit on a toilet seat covered in his fur. He responded by barking at me to close the door because he wanted some privacy.
On second thought, I should be grateful I have such an environmentally conscious dog, even if he is a modest one.
Get Smarter The Dirty Way October 5, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Brain Power, Human Body, Psychology and Behavior, Tough Stuff.Tags: bacteria, dirt, intelligence, learning, smarter
2 comments
Sometimes, intelligence can happen in the dirtiest of places. A new study suggests that exposure to certain kinds of bacteria outside could help improve learning.
Researchers at The Sage Colleges in New York studied Mycobacterium vaccae, which earlier studies showed might have antidepressant properties. In this new study, it seems that M. vaccae could help increase learning behavior. Their work was presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.
To learn how the research began, let’s ask some mice.
What Do Mice Say About It?
Why mice? It’s one way to initially test out an idea. If all goes well, then we might see how it affects humans. But to find out what happens when mice get up close and personal to bacteria, we have to take a step back and check out an experiment some other researchers did years ago.
Let’s Start With Dead Bacteria
In an earlier experiment, mice were injected with heat-killed bacteria. It got neurons in their brains growing, which then led to more serotonin – a brain messenger – being released. Serotonin is a member of a chemical crew called neurotransmitters that have all sorts of neat roles.
Can bacteria help learning? Some curious researchers decided to find out.
Time To Try Living Stuff
Since one of serotonin’s roles is to contribute to learning, a different group of researchers wondered if live bacteria could improve learning in mice. They fed the mice some live bacteria and then got the mice to navigate a maze. Another bunch of mice didn’t get the bacteria and still had to do the maze. This way, researchers could compare the two results. So who won?
Fast, Wee Critters
The mice who got live bacteria navigated the maze twice as fast as those who got none. Another cool thing was that those bacteria-guzzling mice showed less anxiety. Imagine if you had to do a maze? You might be nervous too! Researchers think the bacteria helped the mice get less worked up about finding their way out, plus helped them figure it out quicker too.
But do these benefits last? Unfortunately, nope. Three weeks later, researchers tested the mice again, but didn’t give them bacteria. This time, the mice couldn’t do it any faster. We can’t say for sure that this will help humans. But the results tell us that M. vaccae might play a role in learning and anxiety in mammals.
Getting More Out Of Playtime
It could be that when kids spend time outdoors – like during lunchtime – exposure to the bacteria may have some pretty smart benefits. If not, at least you can have fun kicking up some dirt. At my age, I’d probably be considered daft if I do that but maybe the bacteria will balance it all out? Somehow though, I think if my dog Tiko was perched nearby, he’d loudly bark “no.”
Whale Poo Is Good For You September 12, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Brain Power, Environment, Ocean, Tough Stuff.Tags: CO2, feces, global warming, poo, whales
10 comments
In fact, it’s good for all living things. Australian researchers recently found that whale poo is battling one of the planet’s toughest battles ever – climate change. The poor whales previously had a horrid reputation. Since they breathe out a common greenhouse gas known as carbon dioxide (CO2), they were disliked for contributing to global warming. Estimates are that they breathe out 200,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Eep! It isn’t surprising people had a bad opinion of them!
But there’s way more to the story than this one fact. Let’s start with the basics and see how something so gross can actually be good for us all. Major science geeks can read the full study results in the Fish and Fisheries journal.
Benefits Of Whale Poo
A young sperm whale gracefully swims in the Southern Ocean. A trip up to the surface might mean a poopy feeding for the hungry phytoplankton, helping to fight global warming. Image credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In the Southern Ocean, we’ve got an estimated 12,000 sperm whales. They hunt down fish and squid for food. Once digested, out comes all that poo. Why should we care about whale feces? Well, it contains loads of iron. All of those whales poop out approximately 50 tonnes of iron each year.
What’s so special about the iron? It’s a fabulously delicious food for phytoplankton, which are marine plants that exist up near the surface of the ocean. These helpful plants like to take in CO2 from the atmosphere through a process called photosynthesis.
Better still is that the whales pop out their poop (even I chuckled as I wrote that) in a liquid form that’s close to the surface of the ocean, making it easier for the phytoplankton to access. After, the whale dives down into the ocean, presumably feeling a little – or a lot – lighter!
Let’s Do The Math
First, we have to see how much CO2 gets sucked up by the plants, which is all thanks to the whale poo. It’s 400,000 tonnes. Now that’s twice as much as the 200,000 tonnes they breathe out through respiration each year. The 200,000 tonnes is equivalent to emissions from 40,000 cars!
I got in touch with Steve Nicol of the Australian Antarctic Division to find out how the study all started. He explained:
Our research was actually looking at baleen (krill eating) whales and the iron that they release. The research was stimulated by some ideas raised by Victor Smetacek and we had the samples and the expertise here in Hobart to do the measurements necessary to test these ideas.
When I asked Steve what we can do to help, his answer was a simple one. Simple but not necessarily easy to attain, especially given the attraction of whale hunting in many places around the world. According to Steve:
Many populations of great whales are recovering fairly fast – some at about the maximum rate possible. The best assistance we can give them is to avoid killing them – either accidentally or deliberately.
Don’t Judge Too Soon
I think an important lesson here is that we can’t judge too quickly and instead, should always look at the big picture. When we first hear about all the CO2 the whales are putting out there, it’s easy to think badly of these massive sea creatures. But with the Southern Ocean normally being a poor source of iron, the whales are making sure those phytoplankton are happily fed. This way, the phytoplankton can do their job of taking out the nasty CO2.
Now, if only human poo had such fantastic capabilities.
Bartholomew Says Hello June 22, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Brain Power, Deep Sea, Easy As Pie, Environment, Evolution, Ocean.Tags: blobfish, extinction, fish
6 comments
If this blobfish could talk, I think it would ask for us humans to give it some space. Maybe then it would have reason to smile. Credit: Greenpeace
Okay well, I made up the name Bartholomew and this interesting creature can’t really speak. But if it could, I imagine it might say something like “Please leave me alone!” So, just what is this odd, slimy thing and why would it want us to stay away?
Meet A Blobfish
With the formal name of Psychrolutes marcidus, the blobfish is definitely not the world’s prettiest fish. It is, however, on the verge of extinction according to researchers at the University of York in England. For blobfish, home is 800 meters into the ocean, just off the southeastern coast of Australia.
But unfortunately, excessive fishing with nets along the bottom of the ocean has jeopardized the well-being of the blobfish. It starts with overfishing at less deep and murky depths. After reducing populations up there, not much is left.
To compensate, we do something called bottom trawling, which takes us even deeper into the ocean. Here, we are fishing along the sea floor. It’s bad news for Bartholomew and all the other blobfish down there. No wonder poor Bartholomew looks so sad.
These blobfish may look like your grumpy Great Aunt Martha but they're probably unhappy for another reason. Overfishing is threatening their livelihood. Credit: NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
A Day In The Life Of Bartholomew
Just humour me here and let’s keep the name. So what’s life like for Bartholomew? You won’t see it for yourself because Bartholomew lives deep in the ocean, far away from our eyes.
That peculiar body serves a purpose, letting Bartholomew sort of float above the sea floor. Instead of using a bunch of energy to move, Bartholomew keeps movement easy and light.
How big is this body? A blobfish usually grows to approximately 12 inches (30 centimeters). In fact, I just picked up a comic book I will soon be reviewing here on the blog, and it’s about the same length as a blobfish.
A Floating Feeder
And boy oh boy, feeding is an interesting activity for the blobfish. While you or I take an active role in eating – we open our mouths and put food inside – the blobfish does it another way. When Bartholomew feeds, it means just drifting along, swallowing food particles that float in its mouth.
Ugliness Comes In Many Forms
Bartholomew is yet another example of the consequences from overfishing. Without adequate regulations around deep sea trawling, our ‘hello’ to Bartholomew may soon be a ‘goodbye’ instead. While his appearance may be ugly, some might say that the actions of humans are far uglier.
Too Young And Too Much June 19, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Alcohol and Illegal Drugs, Brain Power, Human Body, Nutrition and Health, Think About It.Tags: alcohol, binge drinking, brain, teens
5 comments
One drink. Two drinks. Three drinks….seven drinks. Does this sound like you each weekend? It isn’t news that teens can be binge drinkers. Even the wicked hangover the next day isn’t necessarily enough to stop teens – or adults – from going wild on booze. But a new study suggests that binge drinking has some effects on teens that we won’t necessarily see in adults. To understand what researchers discovered, we have to delve into the brain. The monkey brain, that is.
Binge drinkers consume lots of alcohol in a short period of time with the aim of getting drunk. Does this sound like you or someone you know?
Lasting Brain Damage
To find out what binge drinking does to the brain, a group of researchers led by Chitra Mandyam of the Scripps Research Institute in California looked at how the drinking affected normal nerve cell development in the hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for long-term memory. They used monkeys, an animal with brain development that is very similar to humans. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers gave four adolescent monkeys alcoholic drinks for an hour each day over nearly a year. A couple of months later, the animals were put down so that researchers could compare their brains to monkeys that had not been given alcohol. So, what did they learn?
The binge drinking monkeys had 50 to 90 percent fewer stem cells in their hippocampus compared to the other monkeys. This could leave monkeys struggling with memory and spatial skills, plus loads of other important functions in the brain.
You’re Not Alone
Just how common is binge drinking? In a European study last year, Britain came in as one of the worst offenders. More than half of teens had been binge drinking in the last month. For the United States, around 11 million teens drink and approximately 7 million are binge drinkers. According to MADD, Canadian statistics are very similar.
Getting Support
Binge drinking is harmful at any age and can hurt adults too. But this study suggests that its effects in teens can be especially dangerous because of teens’ brains being quite vulnerable during these years. Fortunately, there are ways to get confidential help, whether it’s through a doctor, substance abuse centre or even a counsellor at school. If you feel like your drinking is a problem or you’re worried about someone you know, talk to a trusted adult.
Humans Bite Harder Than Vampires April 21, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Book Reviews, Brain Power, Forensic Science, Human Body, Think About It.Tags: forensics, history, vampires
2 comments
Tiko is wide-eyed with fright! What is scaring him? Could it be a vampire?
When National Geographic asked me to review their new book called Vampire Forensics, I had to ask myself if I had the guts to do it! As a self-proclaimed scaredy-cat, I wasn’t sure if learning about the origins of vampires would be something my timid self could take. Worse still was what happened when I attempted to grab Tiko for comfort. Once he heard me say “vampire,” he raced into the wardrobe and refused to emerge.
Like many people, I’m fascinated by popular vampire culture, from entertaining television shows to famous books such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The question that remains is – where did it all start and how did it become what it is today? And maybe the second question I had when I started reading Vampire Forensics was whether this book was a bite I could handle. Let’s find out!
Disease, Death And Burial
Researched and edited by Mark Jenkins, Vampire Forensics traces the history of vampire culture. Early on in the book, Jenkins writes about a mysterious, 16th century skull discovered in Venice that was thought to be the remains of a female vampire. The skull was buried with a brick jammed in its mouth, which people thought would stop the vampire from rising up to feed on others. In other areas of the book, diseases such as the plague or tuberculosis are linked to vampire myths, mostly due to signs of the disease such as paleness and the fact victims would waste away. Jenkins also goes on to merge ideas about burial and death with vampire culture.
While I expected a lot on forensics, this part of the book fell short. Instead, I read about all kinds of folklore that were scattered together without the structure a reader needs to make sense of it all. Where historical facts were relayed, these suggested a possible link to vampires, without the real forensic guts to strengthen the connection. It felt a bit like the writer was grasping at straws by choosing many random stories and trying to tie them in with vampire culture.
Poor Tiko is afraid of vampires. Perhaps if I read Vampire Forensics to him, he will learn they are not real. Now, I just have to figure out how to get him out of the wardrobe!
Still, there are heaps of fun tales and facts that kept the book interesting right to the end. I did shudder at some of the gory bits but in a sense, this is part of the appeal when it comes to vampires. People like to be afraid and they like the intrigue of the unknown.
Can You Handle It?
Who will like this book? Well, it’s not a book for my younger readers and even then, will probably only interest a select group of my teen readers. The graphic prose and macabre tales are gruesome at times. But for those who perhaps truly do fear vampires, this book brings that fear to a much less frightening reality. We learn how events that are most definitely of the human kind fueled the myths and fantasy that make up vampire culture today. While the book didn’t give much of a vampire bite, it left some strong human tooth marks. Ironically, I think readers may be left fearing humans far more than vampires.
How To Be An Assassin February 21, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Brain Power, Insects, Think About It.Tags: assassin bug, prey, spiders
7 comments
Credit: Video generously provided by Anne Wignall of Macquarie University.
Imagine you’re a hungry insect. To get your next meal, you need to be a true assassin, using stealthy tactics to capture your prey. Well if you were an assassin bug, then your plan might read like this:
1. Slowly approach your prey
2. Tap the web before each step
3. Bounce around a bit
4. Grab some web strings
5. POUNCE
It might sound like a strange plan but it works! The assassin bug does all these bizarre movements to trick the spider into thinking it has an insect caught in its web. Once the spider is sure that it has its next meal, it scurries over to the assassin bug. But too bad for the spider, it will now become a tasty meal for this sneaky insect. To find out more about this peculiar bug, I chatted with Anne Wignall of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who had some of her recent work published in the Journal of Ethology. Anne already knew that some bugs would hunt down spiders but she wanted to find out just how they did it! Anne explained to me:
When I heard that there was a bug that seemed to lure spiders toward them, I was instantly fascinated because it seems like such a crazy thing to do, when spiders are such dangerous predators themselves.
In fact, there is actually one more step in the assassin bug’s plan, which could come in at number six. Once the assassin bug grabs the spider, it sometimes will tap the spider with its antennae. Researchers think this might be a way to hypnotize the spider, making it harder to escape.
A World Of Assassins
The assassin bug in the video above is a species known as Stenolemus bituberus. But if you thought it was the only one, think again! Anne describes just how busy our world really is when you get outside:
There’s also lots and lots of other assassin bug species and insects that use stalking, deception, luring and other cool tactics to hunt other invertebrates, and we’re finding more all the time.
So this means there are way more bugs out there with incredible, assassin-like tactics to capture their prey. For example, Todd Blackledge of the University of Akron in Ohio has been investigating how wasps hunt spiders. He found that adult female wasps will capture spiders and sting them. Ouch! But that isn’t all. The wasp then lays an egg on the spider, which allows the wasp larva to eat the spider, helping it grow into an adult.
Your Garden: A Battleground For Bugs
Now that you’ve checked out the video above, you might actually be able to find one of these creepy crawlies in your garden. Anne suggests that if you live along the east coast of Australia, you should explore the trees and webs in your garden, where you might find an assassin bug battling it out with a spider. Just be glad that while those hungry bugs fight it out, you don’t have to go through anything quite so dramatic when you want to have lunch. In fact, make yourself a nice sandwich, grab your camera, then see what you can find in your backyard!
The Return Of Bed Bugs – Smarter Ones January 13, 2010
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Evolution, Insects, Tough Stuff.Tags: bed bugs, bites, DDT, infestation, pests
9 comments
Your mattress may be home to more than your pillow or favorite stuffed animal. It could be the home of bed bugs!
The title reads like a horror movie but for those who have battled it out with bed bugs, it makes a lot of sense. Others might think that ‘don’t let the bed bugs bite’ was just some bedtime line their parents used as a cute joke.
In fact, let’s see now who knew that bed bugs really existed. Try out the poll below (be honest!).
Bed Bug Basics
Bed bugs are small, reddish brown insects that feed on human blood, which engorges them and makes them bigger. They are from the insect family Cimicidae and common bed bugs are formally called Cimex lectularius. They tend to be most active at night, coming out of the cracks in walls or bed frames and other hiding places to get their bloody grub. They can travel in suitcases, so hotels are a hot spot for bed bugs as well as other places that see plenty of people coming and going. Cornell University has an ace fact sheet to give you the lowdown on bed bugs. You can also have some fun playing around on Pest World for Kids, a website created by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). But let’s get back to finding out why these wee pesky critters have returned and what makes them smarter today.
Gone But Not For Long
Here we have a bed bug hiding in a wood bed frame. The bed bug looks like it's having a Sunday snooze but I bet it's getting rest so it can hunt for fresh blood! Image credit: Thomas Oldani
Bed bugs were once nearly destroyed in our modern environment, where the use of chemicals such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane – otherwise more easily known as DDT – kept these beasties at bay. DDT is a pesticide that is either very useful or very toxic, depending on who you ask or what journal study you read. Ultimately though, it was banned.
The Good And Bad Of DDT
DDT was used to keep mosquitoes under control, mostly because they spread malaria. It was used to keep lice numbers down too. So what happened when it was banned? As somewhat of a side effect of its use, DDT had kept bed bug numbers down. After it was banned, a bunch of other chemicals were used to treat bed bug infestations. The bed bugs, however, got smart and developed resistance to some of these chemicals. That resulted in a big UH OH for society as bed bug infestations are now on a major rise! Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Korea’s Seoul National University decided that it would be important to find out more about resistant strains of bed bugs in New York. The work was published in the Journal of Entomology. Let’s see what they discovered, shall we?
When researchers got busy observing bed bugs in New York, they found these pests had mutations in their nerve cells. What does this mean? It means they are resistant to the chemicals used to kill them. Where the chemicals would previously have paralyzed and killed the bed bugs, the mutations mean that bed bugs are now outsmarting their opponents – us!
Let The Bed Bug Collecting Begin!
To get the scoop on bed bug resistance, researchers took a sample of easily controllable ones from Florida and compared these to ones from New York that were harder to deal with. So just how resistant were these little bugs?
Look at this partially engorged bed bug. It probably looks similar to the bed bugs in Milan after they feasted on my blood. Oh, and a fun fact of the day: the Italian word for bed bugs is cimice dei letti.
Researchers found that the bed bugs in New York had up to 264 times the resistance to the modern chemical used to kill bed bugs – deltamethrin. If we picture a nerve cell, it has these little sodium channels on the outer membrane bit. This is where the flurry of nerve impulses come to life. In the New York bed bugs, this nervous system mutation means they can keep feeding long after those Florida ones have been exterminated.
Grossaroo
When I was in grade 3, I made up the word ‘grossaroo’ to describe anything yucky. This word is fitting in the case of what happened to me recently when I was working at an agency in Milan. After a few nights at what seemed to be a nice corporate flat, I began to get loads of itchy, inflamed red bites. I awoke one night to find a flattened-looking bug moving across my otherwise clean, crisp white sheets.
I yelped and quickly squished it with my slipper, only to see it turn into a smattering of blood, which it just took from its recent feeding of my body! Just after, I saw another one. By morning, my bed looked like a crime scene with all those splats of blood and bugs. Eeek! Fortunately, I got moved to a new place and had everything washed. Hopefully, those Milan bed bugs weren’t too hard for the building owners to get rid of, unless they’re resistant beasts like those New York ones.
Bed Bug Warrior To The Rescue
So now you know (if you didn’t already!) that bed bugs do exist. Not only that, but they’re continually evolving to get smarter, doing so in ways that make it harder to get rid of them. For now, you can be smart by being extra cautious when traveling. Always check for signs of bed bugs around the mattress and furniture. Since not everyone shows bites from these little pests, prevention will remain the best line of defense. And while it’s not necessarily smart, it sure is fun when checking for bed bugs to yell “YOU’RE GOING DOWN!” If your parents ask what you’re doing, you can explain that you’re the self-appointed family warrior here to protect everyone from bed bugs.
Image credits: Unless otherwise specified, images courtesy of the National Pest Management Association.
