Bedbugs - Maybe Gone? For Real This Time!

I started my latest outwit-the-bedbugs campaign back in January, this is June. In between, I’ve gone over to Kevin’s place every week that I could (that’s all but about three of them), and vacuumed the floor and washed down the walls around his bed (to clean up the bits of blood; i.e. bug poop). I've inspected the bed and surrounding area for signs of activity, killing all the bugs I could find. I made him wash his sheets and keep the area around the bed clear of stuff.

I wanted to make him do the work, but every time I talked to him about it, I could tell he wouldn’t do it. Maybe it was too complicated? Physically, he is no longer agile, and doesn’t bend well, and there isn’t a lot of space to move stuff around, so the cleaning is difficult. He also couldn't quite comprehend why I was doing what I was doing. He didn’t believe it would make any difference, and doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to do; things that don't make sense to him. (I hate to say this, but I really think he'd have let himself get put back on the street rather than do the weekly cleanings - brain injuries are weird...)

The first week I cleaned, I found a LOT of bugs. Ignoring his protestations, I made him get rid of all the cardboard boxes in the bedroom, along with all but the most vital of contents, which I thoroughly inspected and encased in plastic before setting aside. I was encouraged when, the following week, I found fewer bugs. The next, even fewer, until the last three weekly trips, when I found bug tracks, but no actual bugs in the traps or on his bed. Progress!

As time ground on, my fear of the bugs has lessened. It turns out they’re not like wood ticks or fleas. They don’t try to get to you as long as you’re awake and moving. They really just want to eat, then be left alone to digest their meal. And they don't want to travel far to eat - they prefer to live within a few feet of the restaurant. As I was cleaning and would find them, they'd never come at me. They’d either try to walk away, or sit there in one spot, hoping to be overlooked. (I did my best not to overlook any…) 

My peace of mind was helped along by the cooperation of the building manager. She gave me access to her private bathroom, so I could change clothes and towel down when I'd finished each day. After I changed, I put the clothes I'd been wearing into ziplock bags, so I was able to greatly reduce the risk of carrying hitchhikers home.

And, each week, when I was done cleaning, I’d stop down and talk to her. I'd report what I'd found, and see if she'd scheduled a new heat treatment yet. Each week, I was able to tell her I’d been able to lower the bug population with what I was doing, but also told her I would not be able to eliminate them without professional assistance. 

After the first month, when I kept coming back, she sorta listened to me, and scheduled in another chemical treatment. (I think I wore her down.) She’d hired a new bug treatment company at the start of the year, and it's a vast improvement - the new people actually try to track down and actually treat the bugs, as opposed to just spraying some goop around the middle of the room, the way the other company did. They went so far as to pull the baseboard off the walls so they could better treat behind them, once it was clear that was one of the places the bedbugs were nesting.

The chemical treatment helped, but I still found evidence of the infestation week after week. I'd go on over, clean the place up, report what I'd found, repeat. I gotta admit, I got tired of the routine long before she got tired of me stopping by every Tuesday morning with my weekly report. But, once it became clear I wasn't going to go away, she finally relented and got approval to get the company to do another heat treatment.

A couple of weeks ago, after the treatment, I gave the place one more cleaning, hoping that maybe, finally, I could close this chapter of my Kevin story. (It’s not one of my favorite chapters. It's too long, and is repetitive and tedious.) 

I went back this last week to find…. NO evidence of active bedbugs! No bugs in the traps around the legs of the bed. No new bug poop spots on the walls. No shed skins, no sign of eggs. First time ever.

This time, I’m going to give it a month before I go back. I really, really, really (that’s three reallys) hope, when I return, I will again find no evidence of bugs. If I do, I will continue to do what I’ve been doing. It’s working, and sooner or later, I am determined to win this war. I refuse to be bested by a bunch of shy bugs.