Wednesday, January 05, 2011

The EPA bedbug controversy continues; my proposed solution

The feds are considering allowing use of an insecticide against bedbugs in some senior-citizen residential centers, but Gov. Ted Strickland said that's not enough. Strickland recently urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to allow the use of Propoxur in all houses, apartments, hotels and motels to kill bedbugs. In a Dec. 27 letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Perez Jackson, Strickland said that he understood that the agency has proposed limited, one-time treatments in some senior-citizen complexes. Strickland said the EPA's proposal would "inadequately treat one small extension of the problem rather than the root." He also said he is upset that the EPA did not tell anyone in April about the proposal to use Propoxur in senior residence centers...more

Gov. Strickland doesn't seem to understand enviro politics. All he needs to do is claim that Cimex lectularius emits greenhouse gases or otherwise contributes to global warming, and EPA will authorize an entire nuclear arsenal to contol the critters.

Even with a nuclear arsenal this will be a tough battle. You see bedbugs are blood suckers who attack when you are asleep or when you are least likely to expect it. In other words, bedbugs are the politicians of the bug world and are damn hard to eliminate.

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