Bed Bugs: Pests from Hell

Until recently, I lived in an apartment building on the near south side of Racine.  I had a ground floor unit.  I lived there for 7 years.

About 2-1/2 years ago, a young woman and her toddler son moved into the apartment above mine.   She was a very nice person, always concerned about the noise her son made while running around in their apartment.  And I always told her I didn’t mind it.

The rear entrance to the building went right by the laundry room.  As I was leaving one day, I saw my upstairs neighbor and her son there.  She was near tears.  “Bed bugs,” she said, “My apartment has bed bugs.”  She showed me her son’s back.  He was all bit to hell.  She told everyone who went by.  She moved out within days and the rumor was that she left all of her furniture behind and successfully sued the owner for its cost.  I don’t know.

Shortly thereafter, a pest control company brought equipment into the building.  They had portable furnaces, fans, cables, and computer controls for heat treatment of the bed bugs.  Heat treatment is considered the most up-to-date method.  The area to be treated has to be brought up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and held there for four hours.  The heat first attracts the bed bugs, and then kills them.  It kills all four stages of the bed bug lifecycle. 

They treated the apartment above me, and one next to me.  The guy in the one next to me had seen bed bugs that I didn’t know about.  The exterminators left and I didn’t hear anything about bedbugs for awhile.

Early last year, I started to hear more and more about bed bugs.  A pest control company was coming twice a month.  It was obvious that some apartments were being treated with insecticide, but I didn’t know how many or which ones.

Over the course of the spring and summer, two construction debris dumpsters were brought onto the parking lot for the disposal of infested furniture.  Still, nothing was said by management.

In April, I spotted my first bed bug; in bed, of course.  I would come to see many, many more.  I would come to hate them for what they did to my life and the lives of millions more.  Bed bugs live on the blood of warm blooded animals.  They’re little vampires.

I don’t react to bed bug bites.  I’m told either 30% or 40% of people don’t.  (Information from two different exterminators.)  I didn’t show physical signs of their bites, but my sheets became pockmarked with little blood stains where they bit me.  They also became stained with bed bug shit.  Bed bugs crap all over the place, tiny little spots of poop.  I never even considered insects pooping until bed bugs infested my apartment.

My apartment went on the list and an exterminator came twice a month to spray.  The man sprayed the bed and surrounding area very thoroughly, but no place else unless you told him you had seen bed bugs there.  It was idiotic.  95% of the apartment was not treated.  I was once state certified as a pesticide applicator for turf and ornamentals (lawns, shrubs, gardens).  I never dealt with bed bugs, but I dealt with other insects.  I knew what they were doing wasn’t going to work. 

In June, I was hospitalized with kidney failure.  A pesticide application was done to my apartment while I was in the hospital.  I distinctly remember it, because when I returned to my apartment, the infestation appeared three times worse.  It didn’t make sense, and still doesn’t, but I couldn’t even sleep on the bed anymore.  I slept on the floor, but the bed bugs get wise to your new location and go after you there.  I was sleeping fully clothed ever since the bed bugs first appeared.  I was trying to limit skin exposure.

In September, an exterminator arrived who knew what he was doing.  On the appointed day, he went around to the apartments.  When he got to mine, he told me he couldn’t spray my closets and other areas because they hadn’t been properly prepared.  Other tenants had been forewarned of what to do.  I hadn’t.  I complained, loudly.  In response, I was handed a notice of non-renewal of my lease.

Legal stranger and BLB helped me toss a ton of junk from my closets.  The next time the exterminator arrived, my apartment was prepared for the application.  They were now treating the entire apartments.  We had to leave our apartments for two hours after they sprayed.

Around this time, I noticed that my cat, Charlie, had some bumps on his ears that would appear, heal, and then new ones would appear.  The pads of his paws were also cracked and bleeding.  I finally deduced that Charlie was getting bit on the ears by bed bugs.  Unlike mosquitoes, bed bugs have to hit a vein.  They normally don’t bite animals because the fur is too dense.  But if you look at a cat’s ear through light, you see tiny little veins.  The damn things were biting up my buddy. 

A visit to a veterinarian confirmed this, though the cause of his pad problems was less obvious.  The vet said maybe Charlie needed more omega fatty acids in his diet to soften his pads.  She sold me a supplement that Charlie won’t eat.  I was thinking that maybe all the chemicals sprayed on the carpeting and furniture in my apartment were affecting his pads.  I’m 210 pounds and Charlie is 12.5.  The poison must be much more effective on him.  And he walked through it all day long, and licked his paws.

Bed bugs made me feel like a leper or typhoid Mary.  A buddy who visits me regularly came by shortly after I realized I had bed bugs.  I told him he probably shouldn’t come in.  He said just for a few minutes.  He stood in one place and talked with me for about ten minutes.  Then he left.  When he returned home, he felt something on his neck.  It was a bed bug.  Luckily, he felt it outside, before he entered his house.  He stripped and found two more.  After that, we would visit in the building’s lobby, seated far apart.  Twice while doing that, he pointed out bed bugs on me.

I would check myself for bed bugs before going out in public.  Once, while waiting for my doctor in an examination room, I saw a bed bug come crawling up my knee.  I squished it.  It was sickening.  They give off a pungent odor when squished and I loathe it.  When they haven’t fed, they have a very, very low profile.  A friend and I joked you could hit one with a hammer and it would just keep going.  That allows them to squeeze into the tightest places.  After feeding, they pop like a blood blister when squished.

I came to learn a lot about bed bugs, stuff I never wanted to learn in the first place.  The internet is full of conflicting information about them.  Their resurgence is so overwhelming that everyone and their uncle posts about them.  Studies of them done by universities will have opposite results.  I know that they can get flat enough to enter between the pages of a book.  If a host isn’t near, they can go dormant and not feed for a year or more.  People looked at my books and said I would have to toss them.  Puh-leez.

Bed bugs can go dormant, but they don’t when there’s a fat old man and his cat around to feed on.  They don’t want to crawl into a book and sleep.  They want to feed and then return to the closest possible nest (usually in the bed).  Yes, they can get into everything.  But, again, follow the warm blood.  When legal stranger, BLB and I tossed out all that stuff from my closets, I didn’t see one bed bug, dead or alive.  There’s no percentage for a bed bug buried in a closet.  He/she isn’t going to eat in there or in a book or anyplace else that isn’t close to a human.

As the date approached for my move, I grew more and more apprehensive about the bed bugs.  I was hoping that they would be eradicated before I moved.  No such luck.  I spoke with the exterminator a number of times.  He indicated that leaving behind my bed and upholstered items would be the best protection against bringing the bed bugs with me.  I think the carpeting was also infested.

As it turns out, the reason the heat treatment didn’t work previously was because the apartment where the original infestation took place wasn’t treated.  Management didn’t know about it.  Nobody did. The tenant had bed bugs and told no one.  He lived next door to the apartment above me, above the guy who saw bed bugs.  Eventually, 32 out of 51 units were infested.  It was taking months and months of chemical applications to knock them back.

My apartment was treated days before I moved.  I piled up Charlie’s cat tree, a loveseat, and other furniture in a corner of the main room, away from the moving boxes.  I had to leave those behind.  In my bedroom, the mattress and box spring stayed, as did an entertainment center cabinet that was in the room.  I took my dresser with me.

Some of the JT Irregulars came to my place on moving day and moved me to my new apartment.  It was incredible and it was very loving of them.  I didn’t have to do too much other than direct them.  I was and I am very grateful.  Another of my concerns was endangering my friends with bed bug exposure during the move.  Nobody saw any bed bugs.

A few days after I moved in, my friend who stopped by regularly at the old place came to visit.  The apartment was still filled with boxes from the move.  He asked about bed bugs and I told him that I think I avoided bringing any with me.  “Like that one?” he asked as he pointed at a bed bug crawling along the living room floor.

I was mortified.  I was dumbfounded.  I was upset.  The very last thing I wanted to do was bring bed bugs to my new apartment.  Apparently, I did.  Maybe a TV I was given by another tenant as we moved had bed bugs.  (That would be ironic as I don’t watch TV.)  Maybe not.  There’s no way to know for sure. 

I panicked and my first instinct was to lie.  (That’s why I ride lying John so hard.  I know liars.  I’m one of the best.  And that’s a lie.)  I sprayed the baseboards with Raid Maxx Bed Bug Killer.  My plan was to pretend I knew nothing about the bed bugs.  I was afraid that management would throw me out if they knew about them.

Thankfully, my AA training kicked in.  My new apartment is in a larger building than the old one.  Most of the tenants are senior citizens.  As I thought about it, I realized that I couldn’t “infect” this building and spread bed bugs to more innocent victims.  That would’ve been horrible.  I hate bed bugs.  How could I do that to others? 

I talked to the building manager and told him about the bed bugs.  He was not happy, but he didn’t blow his top.  In fact, he ended up consoling me because I felt so bad about the bed bugs.  It was a nightmare come true.  I was the villain when I had absolutely no intention of being one.  The manager told me that they had bed bugs twice before (in different units).   They used a pest control company that utilizes the heat treatment method.

A couple of days later, a guy from the pest control company stopped by to inspect my apartment.  He said he was going to give management an estimate.  A couple of day after that, a representative from the company stopped by to explain to me what the extermination process was.  They heat treat one day.  Charlie and I had to be out of the apartment in the morning and couldn’t return until the evening.  One week after that, they do a chemical application.  Charlie and I had to be gone for only an hour.  Two weeks after that, they do a final chemical application.

For the heat treatment, I had to remove all of the meltables in my apartment.  I had candles and wax stuck in various boxes.  They also want all of your aerosol cans in a box so the technician makes sure nothing explodes.  All loose papers and materials have to be stowed because of the force of the fans they use.  At the same time, every drawer, cabinet, etc., is opened for the heat treatment.  Plants have to be removed in you want them to live.  140 degrees for four hours.  It takes awhile to build up to that temperature.  Everything has to be heated to the core to 140 degrees for four hours. 

The technician who arrived on the day of the heat treatment was nice.  He does the heat treatment alone.  The company representative who had explained the process to me said, “Watch him set up the equipment.  It’s interesting.”  He must’ve looked at my boxes of junk and figured that I’m a gear head.  Unfortunately, getting Charlie into the carrier was becoming more and more of a chore.  Once I had him in there, I didn’t want to wait around to watch.

Charlie and I spent from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM in my truck in the parking lot.  I had originally thought about taking him back to visit with a friend at the old apartment building.  His cat and Charlie are pals.  Then I thought, “No, dumbass.  There are bed bugs there.”  Charlie was a real trooper.  I reclined my seat and tried to snooze.  I turned on the engine for heat every so often.  I brought Charlie’s litter box along just in case.  That was on the passenger seat floor.  Charlie’s carrier was on the seat.  I opened up the carrier in case he had to go.  He explored around a little bit and then went back into the carrier. 

The apartment was incredibly hot when we returned.  All the windows were open, but the heat was still oppressive.  Charlie was freaked out.  I set up fans to blow in cold air.  It took a few hours to get everything to near normal.  I closed the windows.  Later that night, I woke up shivering in my bedroom.  The technician had turned the thermostat down so that the furnace wouldn’t fight the open windows.  I didn’t realize that.  The apartment was cold.  I set the thermostat and went back to sleep.

The chemical applications were no big deal.  There was no odor afterward, unlike the applications at the old place.  Charlie’s ears healed and there were no more bites.  His paw pads stopped cracking and bleeding, too, so I think it was the chemicals causing that.

My apartment has been officially declared bed bug free.  It still hasn’t sunk in.  I’ve spent so much time and energy dealing with these demon bugs that I can’t fully accept it yet.  I still sleep on the floor and Charlie has no cat tree.  Every time I have a twitch or an itch, I jump because I think it’s a bed bug.  They added stress and anxiety to my life for months.  They ruined my furniture.  They almost ruined my life.  I can smell them.  I keep waiting for the stink to arrive.