Hardknock: the Warmobbers, now available on Amazon Kindle!

Hello all, I recently completed my first novel and it is currently available for download on Amazon Kindle. Presently, members of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited can download it for free, and only $4.99 for everyone else. The e-book will work on any e-book reader such as Nook, Kubo, Sony and of course all of the Kindle readers.

This book represents almost a decade of work for me, as I wanted my first novel to be thoroughly researched, yet compelling for the reader. I feel as though this book hit those marks and succeeded as an engaging military-espionage thriller. Please click through this hyperlink to order Hardknock: the Warmobbers at your next convenience. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the unique story, exotic locales and action-packed scenes. You might even learn a thing or two along the journey.


 Here is the book's front cover and liner notes:

Here is an excerpt from the book:

What you need to know if you have bedbugs and receive public housing assistance

How to use CimeXa desiccant powder to eradicate bedbugs for under $20

Nobody wants to talk about bedbugs. Ironically, there is still a deeply ingrained social stigma surrounding bedbug infestations despite the fact that bedbugs couldn't care less about the cleanliness of people’s homes, Many people still wrongly associate having bedbugs with general squalor and an overall lack of cleanliness. Perhaps it’s due to the bugs’ small size, reddish-brown color, and their relatively close resemblance to cockroaches. Whatever the reason for the stigma, it's totally wrong.

Nothing could be further from the concerns of a bedbug than how tidy you keep your home. Unlike cockroaches, which are able to feed on a wide variety of substances in order to obtain sustenance, bedbugs are blood-obligate insects. Put simply, bedbugs require blood from their hosts in order to survive. They cannot eat anything else.  In fact, bedbugs need a blood meal in order to graduate through each of their five, progressively larger, nymphal stages.  

The bedbug’s dependence on blood from its hosts means that they can thrive in even an immaculately cleaned hospital surgery room; just as long as there is a human somewhere nearby to feed on. The truth of the matter is that bedbug infestations have been discovered and treated in many of the world’s best five-star hotels, including the famed Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Perhaps not surprisingly, people who travel frequently are actually much more likely to encounter bedbugs than the vast majority of the general population. Despite this reality, many people who suffer from bedbugs are still too embarrassed to seek help.

A 4 ounce bottle of CimeXa sells for a little over $16 on Amazon.com
Photo: Property of Joel Z. Williams (free to use with proper attribution)

Fortunately for them, there now exists a safe, non-toxic and relatively inexpensive way for embarrassed bedbug victims to reliably eradicate most bedbug infestations without letting anyone know they have bedbugs. A company based in North Kansas City Missouri called Rockwell Labs. Ltd. is now offering a powdered desiccant called CimeXa which is revolutionary in both its design and overall ease of use in killing bedbugs.

CimeXa dust is really nothing more than very fine amorphous silica gel (ASG) which has been treated with an electrostatic charge. Without getting too technical, the fine powder works against any crawling insect by adhering to the bug’s waxy outer coating, called a cuticle. This process works much like the shock you get when you go to retrieve your clothes from the laundry dryer. The electrostatically charged CimeXa will seek to cling to any passing insect just like your socks will seek to cling to your freshly laundered shirts.

Photo: 5th stage nymphal cimex lectularius  Courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

People who study bugs are called entomologists. These scientists often refer to insects based on their physical attributes. In the scientific world, entomologists use the term “true bug” to refer to any insect with an exoskeleton, six legs, and a segmented body. Another hallmark of "true bugs" is that they also must undergo several stages of transformations in order to get from an egg, to a nymph, and finally to an adult. Bedbugs are members of this group.  One thing that all “true bugs” also have in common is the presence of an oily, razor-thin cuticle on outsides of their bodies which works to keep moisture inside the insect’s outer shell or exoskeleton. This is important to know because amorphous silica gels such as CimeXa are exceptionally good at adsorbing oils. Once coated with the CimeXa, bedbugs quickly lose their waxy outer coating and began to dehydrate. Soon afterwards, their bodies are no longer able to retain moisture and they literally begin to dry from the inside out. Laboratory and field testing of CimeXa has proven that the desiccant powder CimeXa can reliably kill most bedbugs who come into contact with it within 24 to 48 hours!

Photo: Beads of Silica Gel under magnification. Courtesy of: Henningklevjer.

The extremely fast kill rate of CimeXa, coupled with its relatively low-toxicity makes it an ideal pest-control method for non-professionals to use inside their homes. Presently, there are about 300 insecticides which have been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency for use against bedbugs. There are only about seven of those which are authorized for use within the home. Many of those insecticides are also restricted for application only by licensed pest-control operators because of their exceptionally high levels of harmful toxins. At the time of print CimeXa powder is considered to have an acute lethal dose rate, LD_{50 ,} that is comparable to table salt. This means that CimeXa has very little toxicity to mammals. In fact, CimeXa is one of the few products designed primarily to kill bedbugs which is also EPA certified for use in children’s daycares.

All of the same information, just in a video format

The kill rate of CimeXa sets it apart from other bedbug pest control methods. Simply put, the desiccant powder dries out and kills the bedbugs so fast that they don’t have time to reproduce. This differs from many highly toxic pesticides which often take weeks before their toxic properties begin to degrade bedbug populations. A typical treatment regimen using liquid pyrethroids may require a pest control operator to come out to your home and spray weekly for 3 to 4 weeks in a row in order to thoroughly eradicate a bedbug infestation.

If left undisturbed, CimeXa can act as an effective barrier against bedbugs for up to 10 years.

Another great attribute about CimeXa is its ability to persist over many years. If left undisturbed, the CimeXa powder that you apply to your box spring mattress and other bedbug hotspots can remain effective against killing bedbugs for up to 10 years. This is an incredibly useful attribute because it means that the CimeXa is essentially “standing guard” over you and your family members even long after your immediate bedbug problem has ceased to exist. Not to mention the spiders and other crawling insects who may come in contact with the CimeXa dust. It's like having an invisible barbed-wire fence around your bed while you sleep.

Photo: Bellows dust applicator. Hand-operated, spring-loaded. Purchased March 2015 from Amazon.com for $11.90
Photo copyright: Joel Z. Williams (free to use with proper attribution)

Application of CimeXa is a breeze. This author recommends that first time “do-it-yourself” bedbug victims also purchase a hand-operated, spring-loaded powder applicator at the same time they purchase the CimeXa powder. These useful devices can be found in the garden section of just about any home improvement store or hardware retailer for less than $15. The applicator allows even the most inexperienced DIY bedbug victim to apply the CimeXa powder to all of the nooks, crannies and other crevices where bedbugs like to hide throughout the home.

For those bedbug victims with limited funds, CimeXa powder can also be applied by using a standard- sized artist’s paintbrush or even a ladies cosmetics applicator brush in a pinch.

A standard-sized artist's brush will work as a functional applicator. Approx. $4.00 on Amazon.com

Please help me to spread the word about CimeXa and how this revolutionary product can help low- income families avoid the scourge of bedbugs. As the Director of Products for Peaceful Operations, I have been helping people with limited means fight against bedbugs for over five years. During that time I have spent countless hours creating YouTube videos, calling and emailing victims, and even personally making home visits in my ongoing battle against cimex lectularius.  

Click here to learn how to apply CimeXa powder in your home

I've never seen anything kill bedbugs as fast and and as cheaply as this. I truly believe in CimeXa's effectiveness against bedbugs. I need your help to convince the manufacturer of CimeXa, Rockwell Labs, Ltd., to authorize me to pitch their products online. Please send a tweet to them @RockwellLabs to let them know that you learned about their product from me. Hopefully, with enough of your generous support Rockwell Labs will give me some of their product to give away to viewers. That way I can be more effective at putting the word out about their game changing product.

In parting, not everyone has the financial means to purchase CimeXa. If you have the means to purchase CimeXa for someone less fortunate then please contact me and I will put you in touch with a needy family. Or you can donate a few dollars through the PayPal link on this page. 

Thank you. my name is Joel Z. Williams, you will recognize me by my white hat...but you will know me by my virtuous deeds.  joelzwilliams@gmail.com

University of Pennsylvania study suggests bedbugs can transmit Chagas disease

Disclaimer: At this time there have been no proven cases of bedbugs transmitting Chagas

Researchers have known about Chagas disease for over a century, but a recent study may have identified a new carrier of the deadly disease which poses a unique risk for humans. Chagas is a parasitic disease which attacks major organs and is responsible for approximately 50,000 deaths each year, mostly in Mexico, South and Central America. Now, a report published Nov. 17, 2014 in the American Journal ofTropical Medicine and Hygiene indicates that the disease, which is also known as American Sleeping Sickness, may potentially have a new form of transmission via bedbugs (Cimex Lectularius).

The study is a result of a joint project between the University of Pennsylvania and a major medical school in Peru, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. The study looked at the possibility of Chagas disease being acquired by bedbugs through contact with mice. Prior to the study, researchers had believed that Chagas was only transmittable through the fecal matter of its primary vector, commonly referred to as the “Kissing Bug”. This new research proves that just like the kissing bug, bedbugs can also transmit the protozoan parasite through its feces. Trypanosoma cruzi, or T. cruzi as it is more frequently called, is the parasite which actually causes Chagas disease.

6 life stages of Triatomine-"Kissing Bug"
Photo courtesy of  Thierry Heger

About Chagas disease

Chagas disease gets its name from its discoverer, Dr. Carlos Chagas, who first discovered the disease back in 1909. Chagas was a Brazilian scientist, clinician and researcher with a field of practice primarily focused on improving sanitary conditions and studying bacteria. For most of his life Dr. Chagas worked at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1909, the Oswaldo Cruz Institute sent Dr. Chagas to investigate an outbreak of malaria which was hampering the construction of a new railroad through a remote area of Brazil covered with thick forests and jungles. Dr. Chagas arrived at a small city called Lassance near the São Francisco River in the Amazon and began searching for the cause of what was responsible for killing those railroad workers.

Dr. Carlos Chagas at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute Rio de Janerio, Brazil

Over a period of two years Dr. Chagas observed the lifestyles and living habits of local people. Many people were living in ramshackle tin roofed hovels or in temporary camps which used canvas tents set up next to the railroad tracks as primary shelters. He soon discovered a bug which he suspected had something to do with what was causing sleeping sickness among the locals and railroad workers.

Locals had many names for the bug. They called it the “Assassin Bug” or “the Barber”, primarily because the bug had a habit of feeding on the faces of its hosts, usually at night. Today, most people refer to that insect either as the “Kissing Bug” or Triatomine. Dr. Chagas eventually discovered the link between the bug and its victims by examining the bug’s feces and the blood of a sick three-year-old girl.

Dr. Michael Z. Levy of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, credits Dr. Chaga’s intuition about suspecting the kissing bug as a possible vector, noting that over 100 years ago Chagas located the parasite in the bug long before actually seeing a single case of the disease. Eventually, Dr. Chagas saw a flagellate protozoa under his microscope in samples of the girl’s blood which were identical to ones found in the feces of the kissing bug. He named the parasite after his mentor Oswaldo Cruz, hence the modern name for the parasite; Trypanosoma cruzi.

T.Cruzi Protozoa
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A deadly protozoa

Dr. Chagas believed that armadillos were the natural “reservoir” for the parasite. He suspected that kissing bugs were primarily feeding on their armadillo hosts while also occasionally biting humans and thus transmitting T. cruzi. Today, we know that kissing bugs feed on a wide variety of mammals including opossums, raccoons, wood rats, mice, dogs and etc.

According to the Chagas Disease Foundation, the T.cruzi parasite affects about 20 million people in Mexico, Central and South America. The Foundation says that the disease is especially prone to affect younger people and those living in rural or semi-rural areas. Those factors make it exceptionally deadly amongst people living in impoverished areas.

Transmission of the parasite

Debris of temporary immigrant camp near the Arizona-Mexico border
Perfect breeding ground for the Kissing Bug
Photo courtesy: of Lance Altherr

The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that approximately 8 Million people have Chagas disease throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America. The CDC also estimates that as many as 300,000 cases of Chagas could be in the U.S. today. According to the CDC, many people who have been infected with Chagas are unaware that they are carrying it until it becomes life-threatening. It is not uncommon for people to actually have Chagas for many years with little or no symptoms until heart and digestive muscle damage eventually gets noticed.

Where Kissing Bugs have been spotted in the U.S.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Because of its ability to remain hidden in its hosts for many years, Chagas is especially worrying for people receiving blood transfusions or organ donations from infected donors. Chagas can also be transmitted from mother to child through birth or via breast-feeding.

A typical transmission of T.cruzi involving a kissing bug and human usually begins at night. Kissing bugs generally hide in crevices in the walls or roof of a structure by day and then climb onto their host at nighttime while they are sleeping. The kissing bug will then feed on its host, usually near the eye, lip or nose. As the insect fills its body with blood from its host, the increased fluid pressure pushes excrement from its abdomen. A sleeping person who has been bitten may inadvertently scratch the feces into the wound site or onto their mouth. A common indication of a kissing bug bite is known as the Romaña sign. This is expressed as a general puffy swelling around the eye caused by scratching or rubbing the kissing bug’s feces into the eye.

 

Romana Sign - Chagas- T.cruzi
Photo courtesy: Falcultad de Medicina UNAM

What this research means for victims of bedbugs

Arguably, the most important finding in this study centers around the research regarding the transmission of T.cruzi between mice and bedbugs. That is because one of the researchers from the team in Peru, who is also a veterinarian, said that mice actively hunt bedbugs. Another Peruvian researcher, a biologist, mentioned that T.cruzi grew exceptionally well in the guts of the bedbugs they studied for their experiments. That combination poses a very real chance that that bedbugs infected with T.cruzi can eventually find human hosts.

Hypothetical T.cruzi transmission to humans
Property of Products for Peaceful Operations

Understanding the legal concept of habitability and how it relates to this research

Throughout America most state courts handle disputes between tenants and landlords using contract law. Those courts will often use a lease agreement between a landlord and tenant as the standard contract on which they will base most of their decisions. The lease agreement usually forms the contract which memorializes an exchange of money from the tenant to the landlord in consideration for the use of a habitable dwelling for a prescribed period of time.

The key word here is habitable. In American contract legal theory each contract must contain the element of “consideration” or it is not enforceable. In other words, a landlord cannot receive money for a dwelling which has no commercial value. Traditionally, rental properties are considered uninhabitable when there are substantial defects within the dwelling which render the property unsafe, or otherwise adversely affect the health of the occupants.

Some examples of habitability issues could be an apartment with no running water, no heat during the winter, large holes in the ceiling or roof and etc. Basically, any defect which would convince a reasonable person to avoid paying any money for the privilege of occupancy. Courts will typically void any contract between a landlord and tenant whenever the dwelling is determined to be uninhabitable. In the eyes of the court, such a dwelling has no commercial value and thus, there can be no “consideration” in the formation of that contract. A landlord would be ordered to return the tenant’s money and any other fees associated with that property.

Traditionally, American courts have not recognized bedbugs as a habitability issue. Many courts allow landlords broad discretion when it comes to enforcing pest-control clauses which have been inserted into lease agreements. Unfortunately, most tenants do not understand that they can be harmed by signing a lease agreement which contains provisions which exclude the landlord for pest-control liability.

This new bedbug research could potentially change traditional notions regarding habitability. That is because bedbugs have now been proven to be a potential vector of a deadly disease. A court must now decide whether the presence of bedbugs represents a potential danger to the health or safety of a prospective tenant.

Sadly, the American legal system is rigged against low-income tenants. In larger cities rental properties are often owned by large consortiums or corporations with considerable legal power. It is not uncommon for a group of wealthy property and real estate business owners to join together and purchase multiple- dwelling rental properties.

Those property owners often contribute substantial donations to the election campaigns of local judges. Those judges are therefore often reluctant to enforce policies which might be more favorable towards tenants. Although those judges will not openly deny most valid habitability claims, they will not grant tenants the advantage in most bedbug cases. Unless there has been clear, documented proof of misrepresentation by the property owner, most tenants will not prevail in lawsuits involving bedbug claims.

Conclusion:

The Big Homie Joel Z. Williams
Director: Products for Peaceful Operations

Personally, I feel that it is very unlikely that bedbugs will transmit Chagas to humans. That being said, if it ever does happen you can bet that some poor tenant made ill or killed as a result of Chagas disease will be in large part because a landlord was simply too cheap to treat a bedbug infested apartment. My hope is that public outcry will eventually become so strident that courts will have no choice but to recognize the presence of bedbugs within a dwelling as something which adversely affects the health and safety of its occupants. Until that time, please use the Williams method to apply CimeXa desiccant powder, make passive monitoring pitfalls, create Co2 bedbug traps and practice mattress and furniture encasement using contractor’s plastic sheeting. Learn how to do that here:

UPenn study says Chagas disease can be transmitted by bedbugs

Amazon

Secret Sentry, the untold story of the National Security Agency

 Author: Matthew M. Aid, Bloomsbury press 2009

I just finished reading a seminal work on the National Security Agency written by Matthew M. Aid. It should be noted that perennial anti-hawk commentator Seymour M. Hersh went so far as to say about the book, “by far the best book ever written on the national security agency, it’s outside operations and internal struggles”.

Although I am a little more sanguine about the writing, I will say that I did learn quite a bit about the historical leadership of the NSA. I realize that most Americans could not care less about the list of generals who have run the NSA since its inception back in 1943 but I think it’s important to know how one of the most feared and hated federal agencies came into existence. Many would be surprised to know that the NSA as we know it today basically started after U. S. Army Brigadier General Carter Clarke ordered cryptologists to begin secretly cracking Soviet codes at a former girls’ preparatory school named Arlington Hall in Arlington, Virginia. 

Later, Clarke became convinced the Soviets were working on obtaining an atomic bomb. He kept a sharp ear tuned to the inner workings of the Soviet bomb program to prevent what he called, “an atomic Pearl Harbor”.

Still, beyond the rather stilted prose and long-winded dissertations, the book still manages to reveal many stunning revelations which I had not previously found in any of the equally well-researched words by James Bamford, author of “The Shadow Factory”, nor by the excellent documentary news program, “Frontline”. Here are some of those stunning revelations:

Matthew M. Aid
see his book discussion on C-SPAN here

• The so-called, “switchboard” in Yemen which acted as a relay station for many of Al Qaeda’s conversations had a phone number (011-967-1-200-578). Americans learned of this house in Yemen from an FBI interrogation of a bombing suspect in the East Africa attacks on U. S. embassies. The NSA tapped the phone line for years to keep tabs on Al Qaeda. The telephone intercepts remained ongoing until Yemeni police, acting on their own initiative, raided the home and arrested everyone inside effectively ending the NSA’s only window into Al Qaeda operations inside Afghanistan/Pakistan. I was half tempted to call the number myself just to see if anyone would answer, but fear of being placed on some secret NSA watchlist prevented that.

• U. S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith was largely responsible for the push to supply bogus information about the links between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Al Qaeda leadership. We now know that almost all of the material provided in the National Intelligence Estimate was either made up from whole cloth, or purposely distorted to give the U. S. a Casus Belli for war in Iraq. In fact the distinguished British defense corresponded and military historian Max Hastings has described the Iraqi WMD intelligence fiasco as, “the greatest failure of Western intelligence in modern times”.

• On Oct. 18, 2002 the NSA director at the time, General Michael V. Hayden, ordered a 29 person unit stationed at the NSA listening post in Fort Gordon Georgia to focus their attention solely on obtaining SIGINT on WMDs in Iraq.

• On Dec. 3, 2001 a U.S. Army Grey Fox signals intelligence (SIGINT) team near Gardez, Afghanistan picked up walkie-talkie communications which indicated Al Qaeda, and indeed UBL, was hiding out in the Tora Bora mountain range. In what can only be described as a monumental tactical failure then U. S. CENTCOM commander General Tommy Franks ordered his subordinate Major General Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck to engage in Operation Anaconda to surround and trap the Al Qaeda command structure. Perhaps for political reasons, Franks and Hagenbeck did not enlist the help of a nearby elite 2, 300 man U. S. coalition Special Forces unit known as Task Force K-bar. Instead, the Army relied on a hastily assembled team of local militiamen and other Western alliance Afghans to do the important job of cornering and capturing Osama bin Laden. The result was that even though the CIA had paid the fighters hundreds of thousands of dollars, those fighters would not actively participate in killing other Muslims. In fact, many of the fighters referred to UBL as, “the Sheik” and grew excited like giddy schoolgirls whenever they came close enough to hear his voice over their handheld walkie-talkies. The result was a missed opportunity to decapitate Al Qaeda quickly and efficiently.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
•  NSA was virtually blind to activities conducted by the military apparatus of Saddam Hussein’s regime because Iraq had hired European contractors to install fiber optic communication lines to link their military units. Apparently, the NSA had no way of conducting SIGINT capable of penetrating that technology. In fact, some of the first airstrikes in the opening salvo of the Iraq war were to damage those fiber-optic nodes in the hopes that Iraqi leadership would begin using less secure communications. This made me wonder if this is one of the reasons why Google is currently experiencing so much difficulty and government push- back in rolling out its Google Fiber program which uses fiber-optic cable to conduct Internet and other communications at extremely high speeds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
• The American SIGINT community is now scrambling to find and keep qualified operators because of the military’s “Stop-Loss” policy. Stop-loss prevents military members with specialized skills from separating from military service during times of war or emergencies even after they’ve served their enlistment commitment. Many specialists fled the military because of stop-loss forced extended tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, others with Arabic, Pasto, Urdu, Dari language skills are purposely not enlisting because they know that a stint in the military can lead to multiple forced deployments working long hours for extended periods of time. The NSA was reduced to lowering its security clearance standards and scouring for recruits in the streets of Fremont, California which is known as the largest concentration of Afghan expatriates in the U.S.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
• the actual NSA building and support facilities in Fort Meade, Maryland sucks up so much electricity that they can hardly keep the computers inside running. This shortage of electricity often results in brownouts which leaves some portions of NSA computer facilities down for hours at a time. The NSA routinely racks up electrical bills from Baltimore Gas and Electric which averaged about $30 million in 2007.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
• The NSA director’s office is considered one of the best offices in all of the federal government. The spacious and well-appointed office is nicknamed, “the penthouse”. 

The Williams Method-Bedbug Co2 Trap for Free.

Hello, if you have bedbugs and you also have limited funds then this may be just what you need to get some sleep.WATCH THE COMPLETE VIDEO FOR FREE HERE: The Williams Method

The Williams Method- Bedbug Trap and Lure Construction

Items you will need:

·         2-Quart Pitcher- something to mix the yeast, sugar and water in. This can also be a 2-liter bottle with the top half cut off, or even a large pot or bowl in a pinch.

·         Stirring spoon- To mix up the yeast, sugar and water.

·         2-Liter bottle with its cap. To serve as the lure, choose a darker bottle as that will reduce the amount of sunlight getting to the inside of the bottle which will speed the fermentation.

·         Granulated sugar-Brown sugar is better.

·         Active dry yeast. Fleichmann’s is probably the most common, but Red Star, Redi-Rise or any generic dry yeast will also be suitable. You will find this in the baking section of the grocery store. I prefer the strip of three individually sealed ¼ ounce packets which sell for about $3.00. That’s because each ¼ ounce packet contains exactly 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast. Just enough for one 2-Liter Bottle. (There are 3 teaspoons in every tablespoon in case you only have a big spoon).

·         Flexible straws. Plastic tubing is better. I like clear vinyl tubing. ¼”x .170”. A 20 ft. roll cost me $3.00 on Amazon.

·         Smooth Bowl. or similar container to act as the pitfall. A shot-glass works best. If you have kids then select a plastic container so that it doesn’t shatter if someone accidentally kicks it when you place it under the bed.

·         Paper towel. Fabric or tape will also work for this as well to serve as the ramp for the bedbugs to climb up to the pitfall, also known as the ascension platform.

·         Tablespoon.

·         Measuring cup.

·         Funnel.

·         Scissors-something to create a hole in the lid of the 2-liter bottle. This can also be an Exacto knife, a hammer and a nail, even the sharp edge of a steak knife. Basically anything which will create a small hole in the center of the lid about the diameter of a toothpick.

·         Glue. This is used to seal the hole cut into the bottle when using flexible straws or vinyl tubing. This prevents the Co2 gas seepage. Silicone adhesive sealant (RTV) works best. You can find this at Walmart. A small dab of strawberry jam will also work in a pinch.

·         Baby powder, corn starch, diatomaceous earth.

·         Petroleum jelly. (Vaseline).

Co2 Generator Recipe for 2-liter bottle

STEP 1) The Proof:

BE CAREFUL WHEN MIXING THE PROOF. DON’T RUIN YOUR GENERATOR DUE TO THERMAL SHOCK!

Begin with “kick-starting” or proofing a small amount of yeast, sugar and water in a separate clean glass. For this let’s use the average-sized drinking glass which is about 12 ounces or the same amount as a can of soda.

·         Add about 6 ounces of lukewarm water to the glass, or until half full. Lukewarm means that the temperature of the proofing water should be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 C), or about the temperature of an average human. Think about this as if you were preparing a bottle for a baby. The reason for extreme caution in this process is because most of the yeast you are able to find in the store is called active dry yeast. This yeast is dehydrated and often coated with a thick jacket of dead yeast cells which allow it to be stored for over a year at room temperature and nearly a decade when frozen. What you are doing in the proof process is gently rehydrating the dried, but still living, yeast cells so that you don’t have a massive die off of the active cells.

·         A cause of many CO2 generator failures is because people shock the yeast by using cold water which kills off many of the active cells. You need to be able to gradually, rehydrate the yeast without killing a lot of the active Saccharomyces cerevisiae fungi in the process.

·         Now add one tablespoon of sugar to the lukewarm water.

·         Next, add a full ¼ ounce packet of the active yeast to the drinking glass which now contains sugar and water. Stir the mix vigorously using a clean spoon. It is important to keep your proofing tools as sterile as possible.

·         Let that mixture proof for about 10-15 minutes. You will know it is proofing correctly if you begin to see it creating frothy bubbles similar to a head on a beer.

Step 2) The Lure:

·         While the proof is developing you can begin adding 2 cups of sugar to your 2-liter bottle. Brown sugar is best if you have it, yet regular white granulated sugar is sufficient.

·         Fill the bottle about ¾ full with lukewarm water.

·         Put the cap on the 2-liter bottle and shake the sugar/water mixture vigorously.

·         Remove the cap from the 2-liter bottle and create a hole in the center of the cap about the diameter of a fat toothpick (1/16” in.) which will allow the gas being generated inside of the lure to escape at a slow rate. An X-acto knife, steak knife or even a hammer and a nail will make short work of this. Please take care not to cut yourself.

·         Using a funnel, pour the contents of the now proofed yeast mix into the 2-liter bottle and replace the cap onto the bottle.

Step 3) Creating and attaching the ramp to the pitfall:

·         Use three strips of duct tape to connect the floor to the center of the lip of the bowl. The concept here is that you want to create a ramp so that the bedbugs will be able to climb up to the top of the bowl, after being attracted by the scent of Co2, and then fall into the pitfall. A good ramp can even be made out of a bandanna or similar strips of cloth. Make sure you create your ramp just right on the lip of the bowl so that the bedbugs will essentially “fall over a cliff” into the bowl, but not be able to use the ramp to get back out. This step is the primary reason why most of these traps fail. A poorly constructed ramp negates the effectiveness of even the most accurately assembled lure.

·         Apply a liberal coating of baby powder or corn starch to the interior wall of the bowl to make it extra slippery and prevent bedbugs from crawling out of the pitfall.

·         For added lethality you can also dab petroleum jelly in spots along the inside of your pitfall. The bedbugs will get “stuck” in place and exhaust themselves faster after they come into contact with the jelly.

Formulas for smaller lures:

For 1 liter or 32 ounce bottles:

Follow the same steps but reduce your proofing yeast amount to ½ of the package (1.25 teaspoons) of yeast, and ¾ cups of sugar in the lure. This assumes that your yeast package is one of the most commonly sold strips of three individually-wrapped packets containing ¼ ounce of yeast or 2 ½ teaspoons per each packet.

12-16 ounce bottles:

Follow the same steps as before but reduce your proofing yeast amount to 1/3 of the yeast package or (0.8 teaspoons). Use 1/4 cups of sugar or 4 tablespoons or 12 teaspoons in the lure bottle. This assumes that your yeast package is one of the most commonly sold strips of three individually-wrapped packets containing ¼ ounce of yeast or 2 ½ teaspoons per each packet.

Please be sure to post back to this site about your progress and any successes you want to brag about.

I will post congratulations to anyone capturing bedbugs and posting a pic of them in a ziploc bag.

Gold Medal= 100 bedbugs captured.

Silver Medal= 50 bedbugs captured.

Bronze Medal= 25 bedbugs captured.

Thank you for visiting my site. My name is Joel Z. Williams. People in my neighborhood call me the poor people's advocate. You will recognize me by my white hat, but you will know me by my virtuous ways.