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.
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