On October 30 I discovered the two people I took a chance on when deciding to rent them my house left more than excessive dirt and a destroyed carpet behind in their wake…. they left me a lovely parting gift.

Bedbugs.

I know what you’re thinking, and I couldn’t believe it either. Bedbugs are something you worry about in hostels and divey hotels, not in your home, not in your sanctuary from the outside world.

I honestly got lucky to discover them as early as I did, and the only reason I found out was because one was just a little too eager to get to the buffet table (me) than it should have been. I was going to bed, and what looked like a piece of lint was on my red flannel sheets. I was planning on vacuuming the house the next day so I just tried to brush it off to the floor and go to bed. I missed, and it started to run away. I went to grab it, thinking it was an ant or something, and it squished in my fingers making them all red.

My brain quickly says “bed + bug + red? …blood? = awwww f#$k me!” and I go to the internet to type in a word I never really wanted to research. After finding a few sites that described where to look I headed back in to my room and found them on all 4 corners of the bed. over the next couple of days I’d find them all around my room (closet, behind baseboards, on the back of the nightstand) as I continued to frantically call exterminators to come deal with this problem. Sleeping really wasn’t happening for me, but when I would close my eyes for 20 or 30 minutes at a time I wasn’t doing it in my bedroom. all told I think I found / killed / captured something in the area of 30 bedbugs during those first few days.

I got an exterminator to come in on November 2nd (Monday – 2 days after discovery) and after showing him where I found stuff he proceeds to spray down my house with liquid and powdery chemical insect death. Over the next 2 weeks I found evidence of more bugs (dead) and 1 semi-live one further up towards the front of the house than I wanted to find them. I’m telling myself this was an anomaly, he fell off something I took to the washer, or off me prior to discovery. The best thing about the semi-live one I found was it wasn’t a full adult, so I didn’t have to worry about it laying eggs anywhere. I only had to worry that it wasn’t alone in outlasting the residual effects of the chemicals.

I just had the exterminator back in today for treatment #2 for two reasons. The first was the semi-live one I found 14 days after treatment #1, and the second was waking up with a definite bite on my arm last Wednesday morning. I’m fairly sure this was the only one since my first treatment, but because they swell like a mosquito bite and then fade fairly quickly (for me anyway, apparently others manifest their reactions in different ways) I can’t be certain.

That ‘s the true hell of getting infested with these things – you can never be sure they’re gone. They are amazingly resilient (they can go for months without feeding, some papers say upwards of a year and still be alive), disgustingly prolific at reproducing (1 female, 3 eggs a day for the almost 1 year lifespan as long as it is feeding and has been inseminated), and if they don’t like the feel of things outside their hiding spots, they can just go dormant until things (temperature, a nearby host, etc) are more to their liking. They are tiny in their early life stages (1mm for egg and 1st life stage, and only about 5mm as an adult) and relatively colorless which makes early detection very difficult, and elimination even more so.

However, I am not going to lose hope. I have done everything I can to reclaim my home, and for the next 60 days I will remain vigilant for any signs of these little bastards still being around. Apparently 60 days with no bites, no bugs should be a good sign they are gone.

Today is day one. The first day of reclaiming my life from these blood sucking little parasites.

They will not win. They can not win. I won’t let them.