Damn, that’s not evil, that’s your Brilliant Twin.
By the end of the Cleanup Purge, grandma was getting ruthless. “Mom, this looks valua…” “Pitch it out! It’s a family heirloom, but it’s just taking up space!”
(paraphrased)
An apartment in my building had to be treated for bedbugs a few years ago. All residents, including pets and houseplants, had to be removed, as well as things like candles and perishable food, and then the service pumped, through the windows, air heated to about 150 degrees for a period of hours.
I haven’t smelled anything of the kind, although it may just be because it’s early. I’ll try to get a better photo of the bugger (it was after sunset when I found it, so obviously lighting wasn’t ideal).
Check any folds in the material of your mattress and box spring. That’s where you’ll find nests, including little dark poop flecks and spent exoskeletons that the nymphs shed as they grow.
I have checked in areas like that! Nothing so far.
Pest control people stopped by today. They told management that I do not have bedbugs. I don’t know how they determined this, but absent any other sightings, I’m planning to take them at their word. (And if they’re wrong, at least I have a paper trail showing it’s not my fault!)
Still gonna do my laundry, tho’!
A thought I just had: it’s in my best interest to start using the couch again right away, rather than avoid it out of “bad memories,” right? So I can find out sooner rather than later if there are more bugs in it somewhere? Better that than let them migrate to my bedroom, right?
Bumping this because I hadn’t seen any sign of a bug or bedbugs since that one I saw, and so I relaxed.
Then I came back to my childhood home.
After a couple of weeks in Japan, I’m staying with my family for a week. In the past three days, I’ve caught two more of that same bloody (literally and figuratively) bug here on the couch I’ve been sleeping on that’s used regularly.
I foolishly did not check the beds in the hotels in Japan. I’ve had an unusually angry red bite or set of bites on my leg. But I still can’t tell if the damned thing is a bedbug; its thorax seems more oval than round, and there are so many bugs of every type here that I can’t be positive. I’ve done a preliminary search of the sofa, but no signs yet.
Of course, this had to happen when I’m moving into a new place in the next month. I’m going back home on Sunday. I’m not sure what my best moves are at this point, if there are any I should take.
And number three not too long ago. Ultimately, it’s my parents’ decision, but it still taints my return home late Sunday. Fairly sure they’re not fleas; they crawl rather than jump, and don’t look like fleas to me. (Then again, the bugs I’ve found have never been as round as the ones on Google Images either.)
Hm, we only got back from the big family trip last Saturday. I wonder if that means any bugs were established before I ever came…
Fleas are tiny, and jump. Bedbugs are large and crawl. If you can see the critter, there shouldn’t be any confusion between those two.
Don’t bring the bedbugs to your home! Wash all your clothes and dry them with heat. (Check Google for how much heat, but i think a regular drier works.) Seal the clean clothes so bedbugs can’t get into them. Shower and change to fresh clothes immediately before leaving. I dunno what to do about luggage, but don’t just bring it into your house.
My main problem is that I really don’t have anywhere outside my apartment to change clothes and store things. Hm. May have to take risk or two.