Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.

Bed bugs appear to be feared more than vector insects and other household pests. The reasons for this exaggerated fear are not fully understood. One hypothesis is that the folk knowledge on recognising and controlling bed bugs decreased as bed bugs became rarer in the 1960s and led to irrational per...

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Autores principales:	Conrad Seidel, Klaus Reinhardt
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/fa0fd02ae28945a4ba1d3c4618cd9fe1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:fa0fd02ae28945a4ba1d3c4618cd9fe12021-11-18T08:02:57ZBugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0051083https://doaj.org/article/fa0fd02ae28945a4ba1d3c4618cd9fe12013-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/23300947/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Bed bugs appear to be feared more than vector insects and other household pests. The reasons for this exaggerated fear are not fully understood. One hypothesis is that the folk knowledge on recognising and controlling bed bugs decreased as bed bugs became rarer in the 1960s and led to irrational perceptions. Here, we examine people's ability to recognise a bed bug and their response what to do in case of an infestation. We found that 13% of a sample of 391 people in four large German cities recognised a bed bug; 15% of all respondents would call a pest controller in case of bed bug infestation. This results in the pessimistic estimate that 97% of all early-stage infestations could go untreated. We discuss additional scenarios. The effectiveness of efforts to educate people about the presence of bed bugs has never been tested, but our sample is useful to guide future studies. We found three sources of information were associated with increased recognition rates of bed bugs: a) previous contacts with bed bugs (60% recognition), b) knowledge from friends or relatives (25%) and school or education courses (15%). By contrast, people who heard of bed bugs from television, print media or the Internet showed reduced recognition rates. We propose that the former factors be tested for educational interventions. In Germany, the bed bug is an estranged creature to many people, a fact that seems to hinder rational approaches to their control.Conrad SeidelKlaus ReinhardtPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 1, p e51083 (2013)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Conrad Seidel Klaus Reinhardt Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
description	Bed bugs appear to be feared more than vector insects and other household pests. The reasons for this exaggerated fear are not fully understood. One hypothesis is that the folk knowledge on recognising and controlling bed bugs decreased as bed bugs became rarer in the 1960s and led to irrational perceptions. Here, we examine people's ability to recognise a bed bug and their response what to do in case of an infestation. We found that 13% of a sample of 391 people in four large German cities recognised a bed bug; 15% of all respondents would call a pest controller in case of bed bug infestation. This results in the pessimistic estimate that 97% of all early-stage infestations could go untreated. We discuss additional scenarios. The effectiveness of efforts to educate people about the presence of bed bugs has never been tested, but our sample is useful to guide future studies. We found three sources of information were associated with increased recognition rates of bed bugs: a) previous contacts with bed bugs (60% recognition), b) knowledge from friends or relatives (25%) and school or education courses (15%). By contrast, people who heard of bed bugs from television, print media or the Internet showed reduced recognition rates. We propose that the former factors be tested for educational interventions. In Germany, the bed bug is an estranged creature to many people, a fact that seems to hinder rational approaches to their control.
format	article
author	Conrad Seidel Klaus Reinhardt
author_facet	Conrad Seidel Klaus Reinhardt
author_sort	Conrad Seidel
title	Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
title_short	Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
title_full	Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
title_fullStr	Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
title_full_unstemmed	Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.
title_sort	bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. bed bugs in germany meet unprepared people.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2013
url	https://doaj.org/article/fa0fd02ae28945a4ba1d3c4618cd9fe1
work_keys_str_mv	AT conradseidel buggingforecastunknowndislikedoccasionallyintimatebedbugsingermanymeetunpreparedpeople AT klausreinhardt buggingforecastunknowndislikedoccasionallyintimatebedbugsingermanymeetunpreparedpeople
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Bugging forecast: unknown, disliked, occasionally intimate. Bed bugs in Germany meet unprepared people.

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