Can Bed Bugs Crawl on Plastic Garbage Bags

I'm sure you've not been wondering where the hell I disappeared to over the past month, as I don't post oftentimes enough to accept a readership. However, there is a very long story behind information technology that I volition get into now.

First a visual assistance:

Take a good look at it, people, considering you're going to be hearing a lot more nigh it before it gets better. It's called a bed bug, and if you lot think the Republican invasion of New York was newsworthy, wait until you find out about the other invasion that'due south going on all over the city in epidemic proportions. Pull up a chair (what are y'all doing surfing the internet continuing?) and mind my tale.

It started in tardily June. I awoke, not to the usual cooing of pigeons on the fire escape or rumbling of the garbage truck hurling concluding night's taco wrappers deep into its bowels, but to the incessant itch of not one, just four welts on my human foot. Hmmm, must have been a mosquito. Though the windows are closed. How curious.

Next day, same shit. Somewhere in the recesses of my brain are two words, "bed bugs". I don't know why. I must accept overheard them on some Fox News promo during the Simpsons. I have no idea what they mean, just I have a sneaking suspicion I should expect them up.

I looked them upwardly .
If I accept them, I am totally fucked.

They are similar incommunicable to become rid of. They are paper sparse and live in the tiny cracks and crevices of your dwelling, especially on or virtually your bed. They live in baseboards, picture frames, and, of grade, box springs and mattresses. They tin too lay eggs in your dress if your clothes are, say, lying in a hamper. It doesn't matter how smashing or muddy you are. You become them from someone else who has them. Either past sitting on their furniture, or past having your suitcase next to theirs on an aeroplane, or by sitting on a picture palace seat that has them. They feed, of course, on your blood, only they can live upwards to a year without eating, so at that place's no going away for the summertime to starve them out.

Apparently the reason I'd never heard of anyone having bed bugs earlier is considering they were wiped out in this country around WWII thanks to the widespread utilise of DDT to kill mosquitoes. With the banning of DDT use in recent years, along with the increase in international travel, (bed bugs have continued to exist a problem in other countries all these years, apparently), bed bugs are on the rise. And in New York City, their numbers have reached epidemic proportions.

Then what practise you do? First, you launder everything you lot own in hot water, or have it dry out- cleaned. This is supposed to kill the eggs. I live in a fourth flooring walk upward. The laundromat is three-i/2 blocks away. It is July. This is not fun.

Go along washing everything you use, especially bedding, as often as necessary to keep bugs out of your bed (Daily? Every other day?) I begin washing my bedding every other day. I'm still getting bit.

I call the landlord who agrees to pay for his exterminator to come downwardly and spray the whole place. I phone call the exterminator who tells me to wash everything I own in hot h2o and strip the bed so he can spray it. I tell him I did wash everything I ain.

"Did you wrap information technology in plastic before you brought information technology dorsum from the laundromat and keep it there?"

Shit. I have to launder everything I own all over over again. I think I'm starting to lose weight from all this transmission labor. I've spent about $200 in laundry and dry cleaning and near $100 in articulate plastic numberless for my clothes in a bridge of about 2 weeks.

I wash everything I own and keep it in plastic bags. I strip the bed. The exterminator comes and sprays. He tells us we take to wait 15 days to spray again considering that is how long it takes for the eggs that are already laid to hatch. The poison apparently doesn't impale the eggs. Nosotros volition continue to go flake, he says. But if a problems runs across this stuff, information technology will die instantly.

"So, I'1000 supposed to sleep on a bed sprayed with it?"
"It's fine. Put a plastic cover on it, if you want."

The day after he sprays, I come habitation and proceed to put a plastic embrace on the mattress and box jump. As I flip the box spring over, I see my outset 1. It's alive and well.

Two weeks later, we're still getting fleck. The exterminator comes back and this time we have EVERYTHING out of every article of furniture considering they really like wood and pretty much all my furniture is wood. Nosotros put everything in plastic bags that isn't furniture. My business firm looks like a crazy person lives there. From lack of sleep, I'm starting to feel like a crazy person.

We make the exterminator examine every inch of the identify. He says he doesn't see any bugs.

"We're probably almost there", he says.

"Actually? You lot recollect we'll get rid of them?" I ask.

"Listen," he says. "If you lived in a house, maybe, but this is New York Metropolis. They could take come from a neighbor. They could go to your neighbor's and hang out until the coast is clear and come up dorsum. Insects have been hither long before you or I and they'll exist here long after."

Thanks for the science lesson, asshole. That'southward not what I asked yous.
No 1 can seem to tell me how to get rid of these bugs for good.

He sprays everywhere. Even our books, our luggage.

"They love zippers," he says.

The adjacent night, I go to sleep, hopeful. The next morning, my roommate and I both wake upwardly with bites.

Meanwhile, my partner at work is starting to get a piffling paranoid, though she doesn't let on just yet.

Back at the ranch, we decide, fuck this poison shit, we're going natural. There'south a spray I've seen on the internet. It's made of natural enzymes that break downwardly the problems'due south exoskeleton on contact. I order the biggest jug. Information technology arrives on a Friday afternoon—broken and spilled out all over the box. Like the canteen, I am gutted. I look inside, there'due south still about a 10th of the bottle left. I pour information technology into the gratis spray bottle and guard it with my life.

This spray is so condom, yous tin can wash your sheets and clothes in it. You can even bathe in it. It kills bed bugs, lice, and mites. It sounds perfect. My roommate and I wash everything in it that solar day. I read on the cyberspace that if you lot put the legs of your bed in glasses of water, the bugs can't climb up. I do that and get to bed. I wake upwards bite gratuitous. My roommate does not. This goes on for a week. Me, no bites. Her, lots of bites.

Finally, my partner at piece of work, who knows about everything, breaks down.

"I'1000 terrified yous're going to give them to me," she says. Our work calls for us to sit in each other'due south offices all twenty-four hours.

"I don't blame you," I say. "I can't promise you lot I won't requite them to you lot."

"I think you should motility," she says.

"I've considered that," I say, "Just it would mean leaving everything backside. Otherwise, I'd about probable have them with me."

"My beau," (who'due south very well off), "will lend you whatsoever money you demand to move," she says.

"What?!" I'chiliad humiliated. Not only exercise I feel similar a leper, at present they've gone and thrown my fiscal situation into it, likewise.

"Well, we're building the new apartment and if we brought those things into it," she doesn't have to finish. I sympathise her concern. Information technology just feels cold and draconian.

I go home feeling dejected. The incredible force per unit area I put on myself to endeavor and keep this situation under control and not spread it to my friends is taking its toll on me. I have been losing sleep due to my anxiety over getting chip coupled with the need to wake up most 6:30 every morning to wash my bedding. I'k ready to throw in the towel. I bring upwards the possibility of moving to my roommate who is far poorer than I am. She becomes hysterical, crying. She can't afford information technology and she refuses to leave all her things behind. I now feel caught between both of their needs. I've hardly had time to consider my own.

I call my dad who helps me realize that I can't allow anyone else pressure me into a determination. I have to practice what is correct for me. I dissect my anger at being pressured into moving from my knowledge that moving would be the best thing to do.

I'm almost one hundred per cent decided when a bed bug runs across the Tv table while my roommate and I are watching. The lights are on. The TV is blaring. This is the start time we've seen one be so ballsy. Information technology isn't the last. V minutes later on, another ane runs across the TV tabular array disarming my roommate to motion, too.

I call the landlord. He agrees to let u.s.a. out of the lease and give us each a glowing recommendation to whatsoever potential new landlords. He will refund our eolith and almost of August's rent. He also agrees to dispose of our stuff for u.s. since nosotros don't desire to put it out on the sidewalk.

The next day, I get out and wait for a new apartment. My roommate and I have decided to go our separate means, partially considering she refuses to get rid of a few things. For fearfulness of conveying eggs to my potential new flat, I go to Old Navy kickoff and pick out some new wearing apparel without trying them on. I am headed to my gym to shower and put the new clothes on, when a banker returns my telephone call. He's right around the corner and has an apartment to evidence me. I decide information technology volition exist safe not to shower, but simply to change clothes. I become into a nearby Whole Foods and ask for the bathroom. The lady says she must escort me to the bathroom. It'southward their policy. She looks at me upwardly and downwardly since I don't have any groceries, just takes me to the back anyway. She waits exterior the door as I modify into my new Old Navy jeans and t-shirt. The jeans are way likewise tight, but I have no pick. Fortunately, the shirt is baggy. I stuff my sometime wearing apparel in the trash. This will be the offset of many that will get in the trash in the coming weeks. I feel like a homeless person or a refugee. I walk out of the bathroom and catch the lady doing a double have as she realizes my dress are different. She must think I'thousand homeless.

The half-dozen apartments the banker shows me are all shit holes. The foundations are literally slanted. The floors are soggy (?). There are huge leak bubbling in the ceilings. They rent for $1800-$2000 a month. More double what I was paying when I had a roommate, simply I am afraid to have a roommate at present. I need to cut downward on all the bed bug variables I tin can.

The day turns out to be one of the hottest of the year. The tight jeans and inexpensive t-shirt I purchased allow for no breathing. I get to my role at the terminate of the day with chafing on my thighs. I phone call my mother and cry for the first time most the whole situation. I bawl like a baby.

I decide to spend the night in a hotel because I can't face the bed bugs. Not tonight. The cheapest room I tin detect that yet feels "safe" is $200 before taxes. That dark I experience awkward as I check in conveying nothing simply the plastic purse from Quondam Navy and one from Popeye's. Comfort food.

The hotel is completely expressionless and there'southward no one else for the front desk staff to focus on but me.

"Where are y'all from?" the jovial bellhop asks.

The desk clerk is holding my ID. I tin't prevarication.

"Here," I mutter.

"Oh," the bellhop looks similar I just slapped his manus. I feel the need to explicate. I start to.

"I only couldn't stay in my…" I trail off with the sudden realization that they probably call up I'm similar Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy, fleeing in the middle of the night with nil simply a few spare things in a plastic bag.

That night I notice it hard not to call up of the fact that the number one way to pass bed bugs is through international travel. How many foreigners do you call up accept stayed in the average Manhattan hotel room? I manage to fall asleep and sleep the best slumber I've had in weeks. The defunction in the room are heavy and the room is so night that I don't even know information technology's 9am when I awake to the sound of my cell phone.

"I'm moving back to my parent's on Long Island," my roommate's phonation informs me. "I'll exist out of there tonight."

That's information technology. Information technology's just them and me. Alone in that godforsaken apartment.
I can't practise information technology. I determine I will never slumber in that location once again and I will never wear whatsoever of my old clothes once more. This is the beginning of my life as a bed bug refugee.

That day I go to piece of work similar everything is normal, merely I sneak out to spend the day flat hunting—to no avail. That night, I call two of my oldest friends who live in the urban center to see if I can crash with them. The hotels in the city are just too expensive to keep upwardly for more than one night. One of my friends tells me he'd be glad to put me up, only not at present. He'southward expecting weekend guests. (It's Thursday). He'll gladly put me upward Sun dark, just then, only for a day or so. His boyfriend has a borderline and needs quiet in the flat. My other erstwhile friend who knew nothing about the whole bed issues thing calls me back and says he is afraid to put me upwards. He doesn't know enough about the bugs and feels worried that I'll bring them to his habitation. I fight back the urge to cry or get angry with him. How can I blame him? He's absolutely right and I'd feel the same way. I tell him not to worry nigh it.

I stand on a street corner, holding my cell telephone, mentally going down the list of friends who don't have cats. (I am deathly allergic.) I can't believe I'chiliad actually without a place to sleep. I feel like a leper.

I know who to call. My proficient friend from work, Ben.

"Ben, I've decided never to sleep in my place again. I'll sympathise if you lot don't want to put me up, but I clinch you I've taken every precaution. All my apparel are new. I've thrown out my old bag."

"Sure. Merely exist careful," he says.

Ben, take I told you lot lately that I dear you?

The following calendar week gets meliorate. I buy pants that fit. The weather cools off. And I discover a kick donkey apartment in the neighborhood I've e'er wanted to alive in—the Due east Village. I also, (and this is for another postal service), managed to take a chore interview and get a new task during this whole drama. And so, I am able to move into a sizable flat in the East Hamlet thanks to the salary boost. The last twenty-four hours of my old job, Ben and I go see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan in concert in a minor league baseball park in Fishkill. On that aforementioned day, my quondam landlord sends some men with a dump truck to our old flat to dispose of all my earthly possessions. As the sunday sets over the concert, Willie sings "Living in the Promised Land" and I identify with the refugees in the vocal more than I could have ever imagined.

I program my new job start date far enough away so that I can go home to my parents in Texas for a week of much needed r and r, simultaneously alleviating Ben from his lifesaving duties. I return on the 21st of August to my new apartment, which is completely empty. Moving in consists of simply walking in the door with the (new) apparel on my back.

I offset my new job on the 23rd and spend the first calendar week going back and along betwixt work, the new apartment, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I have only three shirts to wear to work. Out of fear of carrying luggage on the plane from Texas, I bought only enough dress as I could fit in a modest duffle bag, which I kept on my lap. On the 29th, while liberals march through Chelsea with anti-Bush signs, I run from Rockaway Bedding to Jensen Lewis to find a platform bed fabricated of steel. I tell the saleslady at Rockaway that I am glad I found a steel bed.

"Bed bugs?" she asks. She knows.

It arrives tomorrow between eight and 12. In the concurrently, I am sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.

At the end of my start calendar week back, I brand one concluding trip to the quondam building to pick up the cable boxes I'd left in such a hurry. Information technology turns out the cable company will charge me $200 a box if I don't plough them in. I wear one of my parent's former t-shirts which I brought with me from Texas especially for this solar day. I article of clothing some new Addidas shorts, which I am sad to part with. I encounter the landlord there. He gives me the boxes. I turn in my keys. I go to the cable function in my t-shirt and shorts and turn in the boxes. I go to my gym, throw abroad my t-shirt and shorts, shower, and put on i of my piece of work outfits and go to work. I can't believe I never accept to set foot in that identify again.

The next day is my birthday. It feels more like a rebirth day.

"I'k starting over in a new apartment, with a new job, with nada," I tell my friend Margaret, an immigrant from cold-war Poland, herself.

"Like a infant," she smiles at me.

Yes. Similar a newborn babe.

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