This is topic Bedbugs at the movies in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-17-2010, 02:33 PM:
 
The Times Square AMC Empire 25 and AMC Magic Johnson multiplexes maybe infested with bedbugs. This was just reported in one of the local news sites.

bedbugs

Is your theatre ready for this?
 
Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 08-17-2010, 03:50 PM:
 
Heh, an AP reporter interviewed me about bedbugs last month.

They wanted to know what preventative steps we took, etc. I noted that: 1) We haven't had a problem, and 2) we wouldn't spray toxic chemicals around until we did.

This reminds me of when stadium seating and high-backed chairs really hit the big time, and people were surprised that head lice outbreaks could be traced to the seats. Duh. Leaning your head on a chair is no different than sharing a hat or comb. It wasn't a huge problem, but you'd think the world was coming to an end.

Bedbug can breather easy in Ohio
 
Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-17-2010, 10:58 PM:
 
You do not want anything to do with bedbugs. They are pure and simple evil! I've been fighting them off and on for a couple of years. I think they are gone for good and they pop up again.

They are extremely hard to kill with any chemical and unless you can clean up all of the eggs, they will just keep coming back. They love small cracks and the edges of chairs are places they love to hide. I have a desk chair ready to go out with the garbage tomorrow that was a nesting place for them. Anyone who thinks that one treatment will get rid of them is just fooling themselves.

They also can remain dormant for months at a time, so even if you are not near a nest, they can lay in wait for you.

If you can find them, a very effective non-poisonous topical spray is 40% alcohol, 40% water and 20% dish soap. This kills on contact, but it does not keep the eggs from hatching. Putting diatomaceous earth around is also very effective. Bombs are only effective if you get ones specifically labeled for bedbugs, which are available but hard to find. They also hate heat, so if they get into clothes, they can usually be killed by putting the clothes into a clothes dryer.

Fortunately, they don't seem to carry any diseases, but the bites can be very itchy and annoying.

Ours came in on a box my computer tables came in.

If people are getting bites at a theatre, it is very likely that a few will go home with the patron on their clothes.

One couple in NYC spent over $70,000 getting rid of them.
 
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 08-17-2010, 11:13 PM:
 
Okay, so people will worry about catching lice or bedbugs from movie theater seats but won't think twice about sitting in a seat on a Greyhound bus, an Amtrack train or an airliner?

You only sit in a movie for 2 hours but you could be stuck in the same seat on a bus or a plane or a train for as long as 10 or 12 hours.

Nobody knows when the last time that seat on a Greyhound bus was cleaned but you know an usher checks the theater for trash and cleans or quarantines any broken or dirty seats he finds.

Okay, there's no accounting for who sat in your movie seat before you but, damnation! Have you ever seen some of the characters that ride on Greyhound buses? Amtrack trains or airlines might be a little better but you might actually be taking your life into your own hands if you ever sat down on a seat in a subway car or a metro bus!

You take a risk in sitting in any one of these places but I would imagine that a movie theater is better than average in terms of cleanliness.

People just don't think.

So here's an idea! Why don't theaters sell hygenic paper antimacassars for concerned customers to put over the backs of the seats before they sit down? WTF? It would be a new revenue stream! [Wink] [Wink] [Wink]
 
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-18-2010, 01:53 AM:
 
A word about those feds who denied the use of the industrial spray (same guys, no doubt, who banned DDT which supposedly is the primary reason the resurgence of the critters) -- someone needs to visit that department with pants and shoes covered with bedbugs & just walk around the office, talk to each staff member in each of their offices and just let a goodly number of the bloodsuckers drop off.

I bet if THEIR office got infested, you would see that ban lifted faster than you can say ARSEHOLE REGULATORS. Let these guys go home and fined not only have dozens of maddening, itchy welts shown up all over their bodies by the time the walk thru their door, but a week later their homes would be inundated. Bet THAT will get them to rethink their ban on the only chemical that works.

Bedbugs are all over New York. A piece on either 60 Minutes last week or 20/20, can't recall which, said that North East is being over run and these things are more teneatious than roaches. Once you've got them, only the best pestides will kill them or that heat thing where they heat your home to 140 degrees, but you have to be able to part with $7000 for that particular remedy work. Or if you can find a gallon of DDT....and if you do, I'll buy some off you -- I want stock up and wait, well armed and anticipating my own inevitable battle to come!

They have already been found on the first floor of my apartment building & I am just waiting for them to migrate upward (I am on 6). I have already spoken to a rep at Johnson & Johnson hoping that hey might already be working on a barrier protectatant since they do make OFF! which is very effective against mosquitoes. I was thinking, if OFF can stop mosquitoes which are bloodsucker, maybe it will stop these things. Sadly, the answer was, they haven't done enough tests. I said, well, if you guys can come up with something that prevents bedbugs from biting, then you will be sitting on a gold mine and I want to buy some stock. They are working on it. Hope they come up with something fast.
 
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-18-2010, 03:16 AM:
 
I hate to say what I am about to because it may come across as racist. I certainly don't mean it that way.

A former projectionist of mine had a girlfriend who was in charge of approving people in an apartment complex. She said apartments leased to Indians (not the Native American kind) would often have bedbugs after they left. Apparently the reason is that they like to sift through the trash looking for items that other people no longer want that they can use. According to her this is kind of a popular thing to do among them (I have no proof of this so she could just be pulling it out of her ass). Because of this, my projectionist wondered if the auditorium we constantly rent out for Indian showings might end up having bedbugs in the seats.

So I guess I should put this question out there: Do the theaters that may have an infestation ever rent out auditoriums for Bollywood, etc shows?
 
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-18-2010, 02:56 PM:
 
According to our exterminator (comes once a month) the most likely bugs to come in with patrons is fleas from their pets at home. He says he gets calls from hotels etc. about bedbugs but so far all the infestations he's seen have actually been fleas.
 
Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 08-18-2010, 03:46 PM:
 
Ewwww.
 
Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 08-18-2010, 04:55 PM:
 
I saw a thing on animal planet about a guy who had trained his beagle to sniff out bedbugs. I think Dogs 101 was the show. It was great to watch the dog working. He would come in, sniff out the exact locations, save the exterminator and owner lots of time, and move on. Using him probably would have saved that New York couple around $69,000.
 
Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 08-21-2010, 03:21 PM:
 
Joe I don't think you have to worry, that sounds like confusion between Indians and people in India who are so poor they have to pick stuff out the garbage. It's the special kids showings which would worry me, do you have them in the USA?

Wouldn't steam cleaning the seats work to get rid of bedbugs?
 
Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2010, 03:32 PM:
 
quote: Caleb Johnstone-Cowan
Wouldn't steam cleaning the seats work to get rid of bedbugs?
That doesn't neccesarily get to where they were hiding and having their nest.
 
Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-22-2010, 11:29 PM:
 
Don't oworry Joe, You are not racist. But that GF of your friend is a moron if she was generalizing based on a limited sample. It's not like the slumdogs of Bombay descended on the US shores looking to scavenge junk. The middle class Indians who do show up here are more squeamish about picking things from the trash.

It is possible that the immigrants tend to buy a lot of second hand stuff, and maybe mattresses were one of the items. Who knows.

I must be lucky. I have never had a bedbug bite and I have slept in my share of grungy motels. So it's tough for me to worry about the possibility of bed bugs in theaters. Maybe we can have a stimulus package hiring people to train dogs and take them around to sniff out bedbugs.

BTW, an interesting description on how bedbugs mate mate te.
 
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-23-2010, 02:45 AM:
 
quote:
hypodermic insemination, is the mating practice in some species of invertebrates in which the male pierces the female's abdomen with his penis
Now that's what I call one impressive pecker! [thumbsup]
 
Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 08-23-2010, 04:58 AM:
 
Bedbugs.
There are claims that a local hotel now has them.
Gotta love the media.
H1N1, Anthrax in the mail, Salmonella in the eggs...
 
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-23-2010, 06:10 PM:
 
quote: Chris Slycord
That doesn't neccesarily get to where they were hiding and having their nest.
Probably not unless you can heat everything reeeeally hot. You do kill them by heat or cold. Heat is a lot harder to do because so many materials are damaged by it and in a theatre auditorium with two story high ceilings, the heat would rise so you would have to use quite a lot of energy to get the heat down to the floor and hot enough to kill them (they were saying 140 degrees for hours).

The other approach would be to use cold. The way that is done is with Co2 under pressure, i.e., dry ice, so it can be sprayed as you see in the way Co2 fire extinguishers work. They would pray it all over the seats and rugs. If that cold hit them directly, they are almost instantaniously toast, albeit, inedible toast. I would imagine that not only would the freezing kill them, but the Co2 gas would displace the oxygen and that might be detrimental to their health as well, but that's just a guess.

Then there are the very powerful chemicals that are known to be very effective bed bug killers that one can get shipped from most countries overseas where they haven't been banned and you just have to stay smart enough to USE ONLY AS DIRECTED. Don't stray it on your children or pets or their food; don't spray it into paper bags and huff it; don't spray it in your face if you are pregnant or may become pregnant by either intercourse or hypodermic insemination.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-23-2010, 08:19 PM:
 
Must be a slow news week. This was front page in USA Today. I guess we need to invade somebody.
 
Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-25-2010, 10:33 AM:
 
Terminix posted a list of the top 15 most bedbug infested cities in the US.
Ohio receives the dubious distinction as the most bedbug [Eek!] infested state with four cities on the list.
 
Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 08-29-2010, 02:11 PM:
 
A local newspapewr is reporting them at the Eatontown NJ Mall theater.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201008261835/NEWS/100826082
 
Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-29-2010, 02:54 PM:
 
Fox News New York just reported that the UA Theatre Sheephead Bay 14 in Brooklyn has them too.
 
Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 08-29-2010, 04:15 PM:
 
The situation could be worse. What if customers were getting lice from the theater seat backs?
[Razz]
 




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