Arrrrgh!!!!!

This is a rant so if you are not in the mood for one, please move along. I woke up one morning to find a few tiny, red bites on my arm. They itched a lot, because I had been scratching in my sleep but they did not look too bad so I ignored it.

The next day I woke up with two more bites and asked someone at work what they thought.

Spider bites!

Ant bites!

Mosquito bites!

Cooties!

These were some of the responses I got from my coworkers, along with a few laughs.

I went home and inspected my screens over the windows and found that one screen had a hole and one screen was not set flush to the window. Now since I open my windows every day to let in fresh air, air dry my laundry and save money on electricity, I figured mosquitoes were coming in through the hole and the slit.

I called the apartment complex and they got someone to come in the next day to put in a new screen and tamp down the other screen that was loose.

I sprayed the room with bug spray and left for the day. I sprayed myself and the bed with OFF and went to bed that night and hoped for a peaceful night and bite-free morning.

Woke up the next morning with 14 bites on my arms.

Giant, red, itchy bites!!!!!

I wore long sleeves to work that day and asked about it. One coworker suggested bedbugs, so I called the apartment complex who called Orkin, who sent someone over to examine the apartment.

The complex called me back and said the guy found no sign of bedbugs so it must have been something else.

Fast forward to one week later, I wake up with more bite marks every day, this time along my leg and back. I start to research and find that the nasty bedbugs HIDE under the seams of your mattress. Now I change my sheets every weekend and I have been washing my sheets in hot water EVERY time.

I peeked under the edge of the mattress and found a bedbug. I was totally grossed out so I went to get gloves and came back to look again. Mr. Bug decided to bring a friend along to surprise me because now I see TWO bugs.

I recoiled in shock, screamed and ran to get a sandwich bag. I picked up the two bugs and put them in the bag and went back to look for more…which I did not find.

Disgusting.

I went back online to see the ways you can get bedbugs and found out the following:

From hotels….I have not been in a hotel in a looooooong time.

From garage sales…..I have not picked up anything from a garage sale in a few years, and certainly never a mattress.

From guests…… I have not had people over in a loooooong time. I have stayed over at friends but they did not have the bugs.

From clothing………I do all my laundry in HOT water and do not leave the clothes lying around.

From animals………..Dinero does not go outside (lazy, fat cat!!!!) and I do not have other animals around.

From neighbors……hmmmmm, interesting. Let’s just say I have some ‘not too scrupulous’ neighbors in the building.

So I call the apartment complex AGAIN and tell the operator (this is on a Saturday and the staff is off) that I found bugs and I need the exterminators to come in.

I also found out that many people have the bugs but because they are not allergic to the bites they never know it. There was one case where the bugs would bite a couple but only the wife was allergic so the husband never showed any bite marks.

I am allergic so that is why I have all these hideous bumps on my skin.

You do not get bedbugs from having a dirty place….so don’t go judging me and saying my apartment is dirty. I keep a clean, uncluttered place and the only thing the exterminators (later) said is that it came from one of the other four apartments in the building and travelled through the walls.

You should not do the following if you live in an apartment and find the bugs:

Attempt treatment……I had already sprayed the bed with Lysol and bug spray by the time I knew that I had the bugs.

Throw things out…I was about to throw out the mattress but this would only spread the bugs around.

Panic….too late on that one.

Vacuum….if you have a bagless vacuum. Ouch on that one.

Sleep in a different room….as this will spread the bugs around.

Move things around….ditto as above.

I did what I could do….which was to get mattress encasements with plastic lining and zippers. I also taped over the zippers because the bugs sometimes come out of the tiny hole around the zipper.

I slept with great trepidation on the bed but woke up without any new bites. I guess the encasements do work (paid almost $60 for two of them!).

I washed all the bed linens with ammonia in HOT water and prayed for the exterminators to come.

On Monday they sent someone over….but he did not come with any chemicals.

Why not?

Because the first inspector did not find anything….so they did not believe me.

Great.

Well this time I left work and went home while they were there and showed them the bag with the bugs in it.

Ok lady NOW we believe you.

Grrrrrrr.

They said they would have to come back on Wednesday to get it taken care of and I needed to get Dinero out of the apartment.

Fine….I will see you guys on Wednesday then.

Tuesday morning I am getting ready to jump in the shower (in my skivvies at this point) when I hear a banging on the door. WTF? It is 7 in the morning!!!!

I go to the door and there are the Orkin guys.

Huh?

Did I enter the twilight zone and skipped Tuesday? Um, no. They got an opening on Tuesday and told the office to call me to let me know.

Now I am rushing to get ready to go to work…but I have to get Dinero out of the apartment so the fumes do not get to him and I am NOT prepared for this.

I am about to lose my mind…I tell them I am not ready and they say they can wait until I get dressed.

Slam!!!! (there goes the door in Orkin’s face)

I shower and stuff…..grab Dinero and shove him in the carrier box (which he hates) and call my boss to let them know I will be late since I have to hunt for a vet.

The secretary says I can bring him to work and leave him in the back…..sigh of relief!

I go back upstairs to get his litter box, food, water, bed, brush and leash and take my little sweetie off to work….while giving the Orkin dudes the evil eye!

It is not their fault BUT it is a BIG inconvenience as they said they would not have an opening for another week.

So now they are in the apartment and I have no idea what is going on. Will update you guys and gals on what happened when I got home after work.