I told Lissa last night, she could give me a hug and walk up the stairs alone because I was too tired to do the stairs. She'd been such a good girl since she's been here that it's hardly been any work to take care of her, but, I was still tired..and old. Stairs are no friend of mine. She went to bed and we were still talking and I said, goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite. I expected her to take the hint, say, 'if they do, hit 'em with a shoe' and go to sleep. Instead she said, well, they DO bite me all the time. I flew up those stairs like a teenager on speed and ripped her comforter back. Where? WHERE?? She said, look at my leg. She had what was clearly a mosquito bite from where she'd been watering the garden (and everthing else in sight) with no bug spray on. I sat down on the bed and had to explain a few things to her. Geez. I will never say 'goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite' again. It's just gross when you really think about it and kids have no idea what you're talking about. If a bug is in your room, it's a bed bug. No matter if it's a fly or a mosquito or a gnat or what. It's a bed bug to them. I should know better than to say that old rhyme, it's weird anyhow.
11 comments:
I like how you said you ran up the stairs "like a teenager." You are the best.
Hahahaha - "on speed." O, those were the days! Hahahaha
LMAO! I emailed you again.
Thank you! Got it and sent you replies. x0
That old nugget kept me awake more times than I care to count when I was a kid. I had no idea what a bed bug was but I knew it had to be huge with big fangs. I thought they invented the whole "don't eat the snow it has snow bugs" thing so we wouldn't eat snow but they weren't, snow bugs are real so...I figured same with bed bugs but I had no idea what they looked like.
I got up in the middle of the night last week and remade my bed (my blankets migrate and I don't know why) and when I flipped the comforter back a spider started running away. Yuk.
The one that always got me was the nursery rhyme about The Plague:
---"Ring around the Rosie"--refers to a red mark, supposedly the first sign of the Plague.
---"A pocket full of posies"-- refers to sachets of herbs carried to ward off infection.
---"Ashes, ashes" -- a reference to the cremation of plague victims
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
---"We all fall down." -- The Plague was not selective in its victims; both rich and poor, young and old, succumbed.
I never knew that, Mary_Mary and have said that rhyme so many times. That gave me chills.
And, every night, both my husband and I say to B & Z "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". Every. Single. Night. If we don't, the kids will point out that we forgot and their "bedtime ritual" isn't complete. Now that bed bugs are EVERYWHERE (freaks me out to sleep in hotel beds although doesn't stop me), it doesn't sound so "nighty-night" anymore... my sister lives in NYC and the bed bugs... oh, the bed bugs infestations. Gross!!!!!!!!!!
Mary, isn't that something? Think about the old fairy tales, they're all scary.
My oldest daughter told me that in Cinderella, the stepsisters didn't just jam their foot into the glass slipper to make it fit...they chopped off part of their foot and jammed the bloody stumps into the shoe.
And supposedly Red Riding Hood was raped by the wolf before he ate her.
Bed bugs are way scarier than that junk.
Bed bugs are especially frightening to me as I own a motel. A case of them could be financially ruinous. I have been very fortunate that I haven't had them here.
People bring them from their homes and there is no way to for see who might bring them. They are not necessarily a result of poor housekeeping. The bugs could be brought in by a customer who went to a movie theater which was infested.
I have educated my maids on what to look for.
There is a website that ppl can log on to to report cases of bedbugs at an establishment they've stayed at. Disney World has even been reported, scary stuff.
Upon checking into a motel I immediately pull off the sheets and check mattresses and boxsprings for the actual bugs or black smears. A hair-dryer will get them moving if you blow it around the bed. Do not put suitcases on any furniture which is upholstered. I carry a spray bottle of alcohol which will kill them. Also if you suspect your clothes have been exposed, wash them in hot water and put them in a hot dryer for at least one hour.
Islandgirl,
Alcohol will kill them??? It's that easy? Have read so many reports that there is nothing much one can do. Oh how I hope you're right!
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