Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Attack of the Bedbugs!

(Two titular punctuation marks in one day!)

Anyway, it's confirmed: we have bugs.


For several days now, my one-time co-author suspected something more serious than mosquitoes was biting her: large red welts surrounded her itchier-than-normal marks. She zeroed in on bedbugs as a theory, but I was suspicious: if so, why wasn't I getting bit?*

She finally found what she believed to be an actual bug sighting late Saturday, and called the landlady on Sunday. On Monday the landlady called the exterminators and relayed our situation.

The exterminator came today and sprayed everything in the apartment. They did find bedbugs, so we know definitively. But: now there is a thin layer of the chemical spray residue (allegedly safe for humans and pets) over everything. Floors. Tables, couches and chairs. My laptop, nightguard, and Steele. Even inside the closed drawers of our dressers. If I wasn't so lazy and technically incompetent, I'd take and transfer photos of the mess so you could see what we're living with.

Them bastards.

The worst part is that to kill off any remaining bugs or eggs or larvae, we have to leave this layer of chemical residue on all the surfaces in the apartment for FIVE DAYS. I can tolerate the odor all right (it kinda smells like a furniture factory, a pungent chemical scent), but I also don't stay here all day. So TM and the cat are going to Ohio for a few days to get away from it, leaving me home alone with a frozen pizza and the caking of dust everywhere.

It'll be a bit nutty around here for a few days. Bear with us, and please feel free to invite me over to your house for dinner or drinks or something ... I'll entertain all options that don't involve the stench of insecticide.



* -- The answer: I was getting bit, I just didn't have as many bites, and didn't react as violently as she did.

3 comments:

Scott Mortimer said...

Wow - that sucks! Bummer the problem couldn't have flared up in a couple weeks later... (You're welcome to come by tonight for pizza and beer!)

TinaMarie said...

Umm... I'm a "onetime co-author" now? The red welts are really fricken itchy... its no wonder I don't feel like blogging.

Don said...

You're more than welcome in the burbs! Amy and I would love to go see a movie while you watch the kids. Although the sent in our place is more a mixture of dog urine and dirty diapers.