humanityinahandbag:

cylinanightshade:

ceridwen-aurora:

sophies-sideshow:

humanityinahandbag:

If you go to libraries and if you shop at Thriftbooks (both of which I recommend) then you may already know this fact. But if you don’t, let me enlighten you;

These places are breeding grounds for BED BUGS.

No this is not me telling you to stop. No this is not me calling that places dirty or gross. This is just the consequence of book sharing. Because these books trade hands and houses in a wonderful and perfect system of intellectual freedom. And I think that’s beautiful. But when a book trades houses that many times it’s prone to pick up something. That something is usually bed bugs.

Due to their natural structuring, books are ideal homes. And once a book returns to the library or the warehouse, these bedbugs wiggle out and find more places to burrow and breed.

And here’s another fun fact. Unlike ants, bed bugs are not social insects. They don’t like each other. So if you think you can just put down a single trap and catch them all, you’re wrong. They don’t work like that. If you poison one, it won’t go home and do a secret handshake with a hundred other of its friends. It’ll just die. If you kill one, you’ve only killed one.

Why am I telling you this? To scare you? To ward you away? Of course not. I’m just here to make sure you’re aware AND to introduce you to something that could save you a shit ton of grief.

The moment you bring the book home or take it out of its packaging, PUT THAT FUCKER INTO THE FREEZER.

NO. THAT’S NOT A JOKE. MOVE THE LEAN CUISINE OUT OF THE WAY AND POP THAT SUCKER INTO THE FREEZER!!!

Extreme cold and extreme heat kills bed bugs. And since we’re not Trump and holding book burnings is generally looked down upon, we do the next best thing. Freeze it. No, it won’t damage the book. A few days in there will only leave it cold and bug free. But if you’re worried, pop it into a large Ziplock before you do.

Read safe and stay bug free, my bookish friends! 📚📚📖

Holy shit that’s good advice

Take it from a survivor…. Bed bugs are a world of grief you want no part of.

If you want to be absolutely sure, you can even bake them in a low temp oven first before freezing them. (This can mess up the binding of some books though. The glue starts to melt.)

Also, from someone who spent HOURS AND HOURS covering each book with PLASTIC, this method will literally make any librarian HATE YOU. We spend hours covering each book. The plastic is very very thin and even a long time in the sun can fuck it up. It crinkles and unsticks and melts easily. And replacing it is near impossible. You’ll fuse the two together and make the job really difficult for us. If you find a bed bug, freeze the book, and then TELL THE LIBRARY RIGHT AWAY. WE HAVE THINGS. AND IF WE DOING, WE CAN CALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE!!! It’s easier to shut down a building and spray some shit than it is to replace all the books people might throw into their oven. Plus, it’s a fire hazard. And that glue, when heated, can be TOXIC. Don’t put your personal health at risk. And don’t make libraries hate you. Don’t. Please. From a former library worker who still has muscle memories of covering books.

DON’T.