Well, today I had a glorious day with all 3 of my kids who tried to be very loving and make up for the crappy way they treated me the previous 3 days! All's well that ends well.
However, I had a long talk with my son, who has lived in New York City since 1998, about his friend who experienced what I am experiencing: a siege with bedbugs. She battled the bugs with pest controllers, spray and everything else for A YEAR and finally ended up leaving all her shit, everything she owned, in the apartment and going home to Ohio! Of course she was a young woman and had parents to go home to. I am an old person and I already experienced losing practically all my shit in 2007--I salvaged my books, my clothes, photo albums and a few paintings on the wall.
He and I had a long talk about the reality of this. The fact is, if one egg is left you have the potential to have thousands more of these bugs, which means if you move and take your shit with you you will be essentially bringing your bugs with you! You could be dragging your bed bugs around for the rest of your lifetime! This is absolutely sickening.
The reality is that, in essence, I am looking at having to walk away from everything single god damn thing I own! To say this is depressing is an understatement. I know it's just "stuff" but it's my stuff and it's all I got! I've downsized to 2 rooms and as A WRITER I more than cherish my 20-year book collection.
The pest control came and sprayed and it looked like the adults died. Now I have hatching a thousand little babies who are nipping and making me itch all the time. This morning I carted all my laundry in a rolling cart to the laundromat 6 blocks away. All my bedding. I washed it. I dried it. And here I am back at home seeing those little teeny black buggers everywhere. They lay eggs in everything--in the walls, in your clothes, in the floorboards, in the books,in every god damn thing you own! In addition, they can live for 8 months without food so if you go away and spray and when you come back they'll smell your blood and come alive again! There is no recourse to these hungry little critters. THEY WANT BLOOD. THEY ARE VAMPIRES. Maybe they ought to do a REALITY VAMPIRE SHOW ON THIS. "BUGGER YOU" they'll call it.
Ha ha. Very funny. I am not laughing.
I turn 61 January 20 and I am looking at losing every god damn thing I own.
I am depressed. I have no one to talk to about this so I guess I am talking about it online to strangers as I sit here and itch myself crazy. They are all over my clothes, my body, my bed, my books--you name it.
My New Year's Wish? A couple of friends, a couple of hands to help me cart all my clothes to the dry cleaner and put all my books outside for a night (they pest guy said the cold kills them) and then store everything in sealed plastic bags until I can move to another place. Anybody in Chicago game for this?
Then the next thing is to try and find a place in the same neighborhood because my kids live here and I love it here--I am 3 blx from my daughter and I walk her dog all the time and I am 3 blx from her salon. I don't have any other friends and family in this world!
I am really facing a crisis.
I know. It's only "stuff." But without anything I am really down to the bottom--the total bottom. My son told me it took his friend a year to recover from losing everything she owned and having to leave New York. She left all her clothes and everything else behind because bed bugs live inside of anything and if you don't know where the eggs are you can't take a chance of bring even one of those nasty eggs into your new space.
I guess this is really it.
Total annihilation.
I'm talking to the Pest guys again tomorrow, but I have a feeling my son's story is fairly accurate. He said they are almost impossible to get rid of. People routinely leave places and stuff behind because that's about the only solution.
Wow. I am overwhelmed. What a New Year's present.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
SVCinNYC
Brie aka Barbara K
STATHI STATHI
les stone
Deborah Méndez Wilson
Steven Rockford
Salon.com
Comments
because the anger at the bugs is being turned inward
on yourself. dont be so mad at the bugs.
they are people too.
DDT
one thing that *may* help the bug situation: try putting white vinegar in with your washing. White vinegar will kill most household bugs, so it'll probably kill bedbugs too.
Good luck, and I hope it gets better for you soon.
How discouraging. And if you got rid of all of them from your place, would they invade from next door, like cockroaches? I hope you find a solution...
This is terrifying almost beyond comprehension. I just did some research and it is very clear that the problem is simply terrifying.
I'm sure the last thing you want to think about is the exact same type of research you did so many times in all your different writing jobs. And you've probably already started doing this. But as is always the case when a problem is this big---there is a huge amout of information on this. How much of it is good is another story---but that it is huge is a place to start.
A very specific place to start is here:
http://chicagovsbedbugs.org/2009/01/13/aaoa-on-landlords-liability-and-bed-bugs/
A Chicago based organization devoted to helping people sticken with this.
A second step would be to make sure you are in firm pocession of the law ---listed on this page--stating the landlords responsibility for this.
A third step, just as one would approach a monumental disease, is to make the round of professionals. If one doesn't give you an answer that makes sense to you find another one.
The infectious nature of this would of course be a factor that you would want to get command of---in terms of knowledge. Because I am certain the last thing you want to do is infect someone else.
And not being a professional--neither you, me or anybody reading this here would really be able to understand the scope of the problem and how to fix it.
So use this as a place to start. And remember that you are not the first person who will beat this. That doesn't make the itching any better, but it also tells you you are not alone.
Take Care and please keep us informed as you move from the very understandable terror of this---to the knowledge that will allow you to get yourself out of it.
Because you will get out of it.
CarolinaBlue50 would love to be here today.
Take down pictures, fabrics anything like that - it will look like you are moving.
The on-going treatment, which seems to result in a decent sleep and life-style, is every morning put all the bed linen in plastic garbage bags, double rubber banded. Leave all clothes in see-through plastic bags, get rid of all wooden bureaus, spray the baseboards, the metal underparts of the bed, the mattress (all four sides, and top), the box spring, once a week. I use Raid MAX, House and Garden Bug Killer.Put and leave books in plastic bags. At the same time, wash all the related bed linen and fabrics, so it is all clean at the same time. Leave the window open a little bit and vacate the house for at least 3 hours. I've managed to contain the bugs to one room with this method. Remember, if you clean and then don't use a room, they are just hibernating, and will return if you do. Lot of work, I should have moved, but I would have had to leave my husband, who won't admit their presence!