Bed bugs can make a living nightmare out of your bed if they infect your Utah home. Dirty laundry and used bed sheets mainly attract these little critters, and you will have to call on bed bugs experts in Salt Lake City to get rid of the pests. With all of the havoc that they can wreak in a home, have you ever wondered how they found their way into a popular nursery rhyme?
Rhyme from Childhood
You know the rhyme, “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” Your parents, older siblings, or cousins may have uttered the seemingly innocent rhyme to you, but the saying has actually been around for a long time. Although multiple origin theories exist, the rhyme definitely dates back before the use of DDT as an insecticide in the mid-20th century.
Tight Bed Ropes
One of the origin stories was from the 16th and 17th centuries when mattresses were filled with straw and feathers and the beds had ropes that held the mattresses up. When you tighten the ropes, which need to be done regularly, you keep the mattress above the ground to stay safe from bed bugs. This story may explain the last two sentences of the rhyme.
Historians Weigh In
Historians have disproven the accuracy of the story above, as well as other origin stories, because of a lack of proof of their truthfulness. The stories also fail to explain the earliest iterations of the rhyme in texts, which sometimes excluded these insects. Some appearances of the phrase also use “buggers” and “bugs” instead of “bed bugs.”
The actual origin of the rhyme remains unknown, but historians agree that the phrase is meant simply for fun and shock value. The actual bugs have a more sinister and more dangerous nature, however. It remains important then to do what you can to prevent their invasion of your home, and to call on pest control to eliminate them if they do get in your sheets or dirty laundry.