SUNNY CAL JOURNAL - Grandpa Gunned Down Nasty Bedbugs

(07/11/2026)

By Bob Weaver Your grandpa or grandma might recall a few stories about being bitten by bedbugs in years gone by. More recently the nasty night-feeding bloodsuckers have been creeping into motels-hotels and houses, likely to be killed by the Orkin man. Bedbugs pierce the skin with two hollow tubes. One tube injects saliva, which contains anticoagulants and anesthetics, while the other tube withdraws the blood. After a five minute meal, the bug returns to a cozy hiding place, mattresses, bed-covers or couches. The victim begins to feel the bites and detecting welts after the attack, resulting in scratching, scratching, and more scratching. Bedbugs can live up to a year without a meal. My grandpa John Ira McCoy, who died in 1950, said they got so bad in in the 1930s in Calhoun, they put the feet of bed posts in pans of water to drown the critters, although some managed to walk across the ceiling and drop down on sleepers. One night the infestation was so bad, that grandpa, after being bitten several times, got up in the middle of the night and shot at the critters with a shotgun. There was no report on the death count.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001