A few months ago, I felt an itch. I woke up one morning in May. My shirt had lifted while I slept, and I had three small bites on my back. I wondered why a mosquito had taken three bites out of me. A few days later, I had two more on my arm. Then my other arm began to itch. I didn’t quite understand why these mosquitoes were freaking out and biting me continuously.
One evening in May, the itching became very intense, and I woke up in the middle of the night. I sat up and rolled over to my lamp and turned it on. My arm was itchy. My back was itchy. My legs had some bites. Then I saw them – like a small fat army. The bed bugs were dispersing, and I didn’t know what to do. I began to kill them with a sock I had left on the floor. When I was done, both my mattress and the sock were covered in dark circles of blood and bed bugs remains. It was 3:30AM. That was the end of sleep for that night.
I rolled over and thought, “That should be most of them…” Should was the operative verb in that sentence. It wasn’t. I did my research online, and I found a wealth of bed bug stories. Each story was much like mine. I read about people being bitten on couches and on rugs. People had them in books and shoes and closets. I almost had a breakdown at that point. It wasn’t something I felt I could deal with alone, and it sounded expensive to clear them from my living area.
For the rest of May, I tried to sleep. I would lay down and close my eyes. The sheets would crawl around under my skin. It was all in my brain for the first half of the evening, and then around 3:30am, I would wake up, and pick up my sock and kill. For the first two weeks, I figured it would subside, but it only got worse and worse. The bed was made of wood – which is the best material for harvesting bed bugs. The websites would tell me that bed bugs hide anywhere and are known to crawl over targets and drop onto them. The very notion that they were that intelligent further disturbed me. I began to sleep with the light on. You can imagine how cranky I was at work during this month.
Since my job had recently instituted a 20% decrease in pay and looking for inexpensive beds was proving to be impossible, I decided to hold off on any immediate action. As June came around (yes, I waited until June to do something about this), I decided to give up and remove my bed. June 12 was a day spent completely cleaning and clearing everything in my room. I spent money on a Dyson to suck out these fuckers from the carpeting. I removed the bed frame, the box spring, the mattress and other large crap from my room – alone. I vacuumed and scrubbed to the point of complete exhaustion.
By the end of the day, the room was pristine and empty. My clothing was trapped in plastic containers away from any other materials that were not plastic and sealed. I washed them the following day in hot water and dried them for much to long – effectively ruining some articles, but it is worse to wear something with bed bugs on it. I bought a camping cot from Bed, Bath and Beyong along with a cover for the mattress and new pillows. I threw away all my bedding which included a Nautica comforter since I did not want to risk keeping one bed bug egg in my house. I fumigated the room and slept elsewhere that night. Three weeks later, I fumigated again. The fumes kill only those hatched and can miss the bed bug eggs. Fumigating again after 2-3 weeks, assures you kill the eggs that have hatched since the first fumigation. I really enjoy knowing that.
In the month of June, I spent about a thousand dollars to completely clear my room/apartment of bed bugs. To assure that, I sleep on a rolling metal cot, with my clothing kept in plastic containers without a comforter and one lone pillow. If I see another bed bug as long as I live here – I might have to cry.
JJRC
