Please help me, Lemmy.
I was staying at a friend’s for a month waiting for an affordable room to be available, only to move in and after a week see a bedbug.
It’s a single room, for poor people, with a shared kitchen.
I am poor, work remotely, and my financial situation is bad. I thought this could improve things.
I moved in a week ago, but didn’t move all my stuff in because it’s in boxes in my friend’s garage right now.
I have moved in with 2 outfits, 2 jackets, a work computer, some computer accessories, and have purchased 1 matress and pillow and bed sheet set at target.
The manager of the property beforehand said there haven’t been bed bugs for years, but one of the door has like a block over the bottom with powder in the doorway past the block to kill bugs as like a sort of trap. The manager said prior to my moving in this is just fear from 3 years ago. The units are very affordable and I had to be on a waitlist to get a unit.
I am not sure what to do. The place is mostly quiet and I could work here. I don’t love the area because although it’s low income rent, it’s in a high cost area with many food places nearby charging very high tourist amounts, like any burrito or sandwich is $13 at least. Rent is very low, however.
I could leave now before moving other stuff in, put my stuff in bags except for my work computer when getting back to my friends, and look for a different slightly more expensive place. I can’t stay with my friend long-term because her apartment is next to a distribution center with trucks pulling in and out all night and I wake up easily due to PTSD and always being on alert, even when sleeping. She sleeps through anything. I also don’t like ear-plugs and can’t sleep with them in. When I was staying there I was chronically tired.
Suggestions from Lemmy? How bad are bed bugs? It was only 1 but I squished it. Pest control coincidentally came that day and identified it is a bed bug.
Also, I have not paid rent for this month and it’s due by tomorrow. I could actually leave immediately, today even, and just not pay the rent. My credit is bad already and the money would be useful if it’s a mistake to stay. It’s sleazy to leave wirhout paying for this month, but I am poor and may not have the luxury of paying for a place that could result in a chronic bed bug infestation. I would also lose my deposit.
I also don’t know where it came from. I can’t be totally sure it didn’t come from my friend’s place although I stayed there 5 weeks and saw nothing bad. I also had purchased a new outfit from a store with vintage recycled clothes, like an upscale GoodWill store, but that was 2 weeks ago and there were no bites. It may not be from the new place, but I don’t think I was bitten before the move in. Strangely, I don’t even know if the bedbug I squished bit me. The pest control person said the city has many infestations and could have come from public transportation.
My friend lives 6 hours away by bus and I don’t know as many people there. It’s also a cheaper area and I could move there. I could actually just get a ticket and leave today if everything else is irrational.
I am very tired and don’t know what to think. The time at my friends impacted my mental health and I’m not sure I am seeing it rationally.
I believe you need to gas the place three times to fully eradicate them.
In a reply to OP I mentioned having grown up in an area that was essentially a bedbug hotspot. Gassed 3 times if you’re lucky.
If you’re willing to just cut everything and GTFO, can stick a few sets of clothes in a bag and into the freezer for preferably 48hrs+, shoes too. While you wait, contact the city, inform them you are in an infested house. Bag everything up and most cities have a dedicated disposal team.
When you’ve sorted all the stuff and put it where disposal can get it take your sealed bag of freezer clothes directly out of the house to somewhere with no carpet, vinyl flooring or concrete, and no furniture nearby. Place the freezer bag away from all walls, stand well away from it and strip everything. All of what you take of goes into a different bag to be disposed of. If you have someone you’re comfortable being naked around do this with a buddy, check eachother for bedbugs, get dressed. Bring the infested bag to the disposal pile. That bag. Does. Not. Touch. Your. Clothes. Sleeves rolled up, bag at arms length. Get it on the pile but don’t get close.
Bounce. Spend the next 6 months being paranoid. Or years.
If there’s something sentimental you can double or triple bag it and wait a couple years.
If it’s freezable, put it in. Even a “vacuum pack” bag unless it’s sealed perfectly, like both ends are heat sealed, can let the fuckers out. Freeze anything you want to keep for as long as possible. Minimum 48 hrs. Everything else gets gassed repeatedly, or disposed of. Kill it with fire if you can do so without being arrested or accidentally killing someone.
There are hear treatments available. Multiple times are necessary, and likely more than gas, but it’s less of a hassle.