Grandpa Powell told us about this ad in the news paper during the time before DDT. the ad said send 2 dollars and we well send you a bed bug killer with instructions guarantied to kill your bed bugs. People sent in their money and soon arrive in the mail to blocks of wood with this instruction, place bed bug on block A slam block B on block A.
We had cotton mattresses and mother would drag them out in the sun and let them stay all day. the cotton would expand and you had a comfortable bed.
You might not know that the DDT was not used on the beds to kill bed bugs the cotton was sprayed with DDT to kill the bow weavels and the cotton that went into mattresses still had the DDT on it. I can remember grandma taking a hair pin and fastening several wads of cotton to her screen doors and the flies would not come near the screen door, DDT again.
The other day sammy said I might have bed bug because I had this rash I told him I had already looked . He said how did you know how to look. I said Mama told me long ago.
3 comments:
The only way you'd have bedbugs is if you stayed in a place that had them. I'm almost scared to stay in motels these days because so many of them have bedbugs, even the fancy-schmancy ones. My mom had bedbugs in her house shortly after she got married and told me how horrible they were.
You can get them off clothes you buy and carry into the house. I was reading an article that said a lot of clothes imported here from China into even fine clothing stores were infested with them. That is why so many stores in New York City and Chicago are closed because of them. You can get them from sitting down in a chair where someone has them on their clothes, too. You should wash any new clothing and put in a hot dryer before you wear them or bring into your closet. Some woman here set her house on fire with a coleman stove trying to get rid of them. She heard if you get the temperature up to 95 degrees it will kill them. So, she goes out and gets the camping stove and lights it in the bedroom and burns her house up.
Loved the story.
Post a Comment