Bedbugs

I've been putting off writing this blog for a while, until I know they are gone. But as I haven't been bitten in a week and a half I feel fairly safe in the knowledge that they've gone.

Anyway, as you know New York is suffering a bed bug infestation right now. It's everywhere on the news, on adverts in the subway, everywhere you go. People are kinda crazy about it, and everyone seems to have a story about someone whose life was made miserable by these creepy crawlies.

The worst part is that you can get them from anywhere. The most common cause just seem to be brushing against people in the subway that have them on their clothing. There are people here that won't go to the cinema as some are known to be infested, you can't sit on the wooden seats on subway platforms, in case they are in there. It's crazy!

Well, I'm sorry to say that around 3 weeks ago I started itching. My arms had little bite marks on them, as did my legs. I should say here and now that these bites are not that itchy or that bad. I've had bites from dust mites in old mattresses that are far worse.

After a couple of days of itching I wrote an e-mail to my landlord saying that I suspect my flat may have them. I've no idea where they came from, but I think they are here.

I got an e-mail right back saying that he's sending a man round with a specially trained bed bug sniffing dog to check!

The guy came within an hour (and I went home to meet him)

Nice guy, cute dog.

Anyway, the dog found them, but only in my mattress and bedding, which was weird as these had all come direct from Ikea and arrived wrapped in plastic. Who knows, they may have been on some clothing I put on the bed and decided to leave and set up home in my mattress. Anyway, I was officially bedbug positive (as he put it)

So the next thing I had to do was tumble dry everything fabric I owned, from my shirts to my shower curtain as heat is the only guaranteed bedbug killer (without a licence) before a guy would come to spray the place with some nasty bedbug killing stuff.

I changed the mattress, and probably went a bit overboard getting rid of them.

Not only that but I decided to pour boiling water all over my chairs, as, while the dog didn't find anything in there, i wanted to make sure.

here are my chairs drying in my bathroom.

Artistic eh?

Luckily I don't have much stuff so it wasn't too hard to get everything packed up and put away.

Anyway, now I'm free and clear I thought I'd share all this. It was a little too painful (literally) at the time to write about it.