Mattress Retail and Consumers Shopping For Sleep Face Off in Poker Challenge

!±8± Mattress Retail and Consumers Shopping For Sleep Face Off in Poker Challenge

The mattress retail professionals are facing off against the underdog shop for sleep consumers in a high stakes poker game to finally decide whether the "new" or the "used" option is the best. The professionals with their "steely" game faces and their fast dealing will attempt to break the bank of the novice shoppers. The seasoned bargain hunters will also attempt to ply their strategy against the professionals. The "buy in" is so cheap that it's hard to get a seat at the table.

Everyone wants in, but many of the participants had arrived well before the consumers. The hitchhikers and the stowaways took their places in this challenge months and even years ago. The dealers are sharper than the fastest ever seen in Las Vegas. They will attract you to the game with their deceptive ads, their low table antes, and their innocent appearances. The odds makers, after examining years of historical statistics, are favoring the "new" option, by a 40 to 1 margin. The totality of a defeat to the consumer, once seated in a game like this, will probably not be calculated or realized until the "bite" begins to blossom.

The hitchhikers and the stowaways, barely noticeable when seated at the low ante table, come to the surface soon after the consumer takes his "winnings" home. The bite of his loss is painless at first. It looks like the innocent bite of a mosquito, a flea, or a spider. Soon the welts get bigger; they begin to itch like a mosquito bite. A quick survey of the house reveals no flying nuisances. A few nights later, the victim and his spouse are covered with small to medium size welts that look like an allergic reaction. Maybe, it's scabies. Sarcoptes scabiei, commonly known as the human itch mite, burrows under the skin and sometimes leads to bacterial Staphylococcus infections. They have a worldwide distribution and can be transmitted from one person to another until the patients are treated and the mites and their eggs have been destroyed. Products used to kill them in an infected patient are only available by prescription. No over the counter products will do the job. Decontaminating the breeding ground is an even tougher task. How can they be removed from the house? The CDC suggests:

Bedding, clothing, and towels used by infested persons or their household, sexual, and close contacts (as defined above) anytime during the three days before treatment should be decontaminated by washing in hot water and drying in a hot dryer, by dry-cleaning, or by sealing in a plastic bag for at least 72 hours. Scabies mites generally do not survive more than 2 to 3 days away from human skin.

The visit to the doctor finds no burrowing pests under the skin. He suggests a real close examination of the mattress recently placed in the bedroom. "You may have a bed bug problem," he says.

The rush to examine the "new" mattress reveals the culprit. There they are! The tiny hitchhikers and stowaways are reddish in color. Cimex lectularius are all over the tape edge at the foot of the mattress. They are visible to the naked eye and are approximately 1/5 inch long. They hide during the day, so they not easily noticed. Their "fecal spots, egg cases, and shed skins" can oftentimes be sighted at the seams. The life cycle details, published in a UC Davis article, now inspire a fear of household contamination, though it is probably too late to do anything about it.

Bed bugs can go without feeding for 80 to 140 days. Older stages of nymphs can survive longer without feeding than younger ones, and adults have survived without food for as long as 550 days. A bed bug can take six times its weight in blood, and feeding can take 3 to 10 minutes. Adults live about 10 months, and there can be up to 3 to 4 generations of bed bugs per year.

Further reading reveals that the most effective technique for eliminating bed bugs is to hire a professional heating service that can heat the room to very high temperatures. Heating the room for two hours at 140 degrees F, or three hours at 130 degrees F "will kill most bed bugs and eggs." Other techniques involve insecticides, boric acid, diatomaceous earth, fumed silica, etc. Most of them need to be combined with frequent monitoring, as they are not totally effective. Meticulous laundering of bedding, high temperature drying, and thorough vacuuming are all necessary.

The game had an attractive "buy in" but the high stakes have broken the bank of the consumer. He has thrown his "new" mattress set out of the house. He has hauled it to the dump. He has decontaminated the house. He has paid the doctor bill and has also purchased a better vacuum cleaner. The costs have proven that the game was not worth the gamble. The "bite" of the consumer's loss will sting for a very long time. NO, Gamblers Anonymous will not be necessary. All the victim needs now is a fresh start in the shop for sleep, and a good clean game with a slightly higher "buy in."

Consumers, be careful where you "buy in." Consider the stakes of the challenge, and the skills of your opponent. You may not be able to survive the bite.