“Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite”
— Some fool
Yes my friends, I had (probably still have) bed bugs in my apartment. It has been hell. HELL. When I came back from my graduation in Toronto, I started noticing these weird bite marks all over my body. They felt and looked like mosquito bites but they were abundant and in clusters of three. I was like “dafuq is this???”. Of course, I googled the symptoms and quickly realized that the cause of these bite marks were definitely a bed bug infestation. My roommate was in denial tried to stay positive at first because she hadn’t been bit yet and we hadn’t spotted any on the couch mattresses. I was certain from the beginning that it was bedbugs! Of course, a day or two after I had made my correct diagnosis, she started getting bite marks and she spotted one while folding a bedsheet. She was convinced We were soooo depressed!
I was really worried about two things: a) that I had brought them from toronto and b) that we were going to have to pay for the elimination of the bugs. It’s apparently very expensive. However, after talking to the superintendent, we learned that there had been an infestation in an apartment below us. So we figured the bugs had most likely come from there. Phew. I called my mother back in Toronto anyways and advised her to at least spray some raid in the house, just in case. The super also told us the landlord would take care of hiring an exterminator. Double Phew.
My roommate decided to warn the neighbour about a possible infestation with something along the lines of:
“yo we have bedbugs, so you might want to check your mattress to see if you have them too”.
To which the asshole replied something like:
“yeahh I definitely have them, I have had them for a while now”
In shock, unable to understand how someone might be OK with living with bed bugs crawling on them and biting them every night, my roommate asked:
“So I am guessing you have made plans to fumigate soon? They’re spraying our apartment tomorrow.”
And he said:
“No, not at the moment really. Actually The city recommends not spraying because they just move somewhere else. So now I’m just gonna get more bugs after you spray, ugh.”
He shut the door. My roommate might or might not have stood there in a catatonic state for like a minute, unable to process the information she has just received. We were both so disgusted by our neighbour! If you have never had bed bugs, let me assure you they are amongst the worst plague you can get in the city. They can survive without food (your blood) for a long time, they multiply super fast, they hide very well in sofas and mattresses, the bites hurt like hell, and they are very expensive to get rid of.
So as of now, the exterminator came and sprayed the house. We had to put all our clothes and linens in bags and wash them with hot water and dry them or freeze them — bed bugs die in extreme heat or extreme cold. I think there might have been some survivors so they are spraying again this week and hopefully this via crucis can end. As for my neighbour, the landlord is forcing him to do something about it, which is a huge relief. Did I mention they have like eight cats. #eew.
So this is one of the really bad things about new york city: getting bed bugs is very easy. So when/if you move here, do yourself a favour and make sure to buy a new mattress and new furniture. Do not pick anything up from the street. I have done this in the pass in Toronto and nothing has happened so far but I think bed bugs are a bigger problem in this city. I told some people about my problem and it is unfortunately a very common thing. Tell me about the real new york experience, right? #GlassHalfFull
**Trigger warning** Pictures of bed bugs below