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.
If you can, move. Wash all your belongings and directly put them in plastic bags.
I have had bedbugs (bought at second hand bed, yay) and while you probably won’t wake up from being eaten on, my partner gets intense stress from just the thought of having bedbugs again. The knowledge that these little fuckers live in your bed and will come out to eat you at night is really unpleasant.
If you have to stay at the place, be prepared that you will be eaten on until they are gone depending on the treatment.
If the infestation isn’t huge pest control will probably just sprinkle some silica powder around where they live (this is like glass making them cut themselves to bits when they walk out to feed) which means you will have to sleep in the bed and let them feed on you. If they don’t detect a body they just stay put, and they can stay put for a year and a half. If you sleep on a couch they will just walk over there instead, spreading the infestation.
Also they breed like hell so get pest control on that asap
Edit: oh and for god’s sake do not bring more stuff there until it’s gone.
Yep, it’s later and I am tired and I am already feeling that psychological fear. It actually sucks. I know it’s non-toxic. I am also itchy in places I know weren’t bitten, just this weird somatic reaction. :-( This would be awful to endure for a long period of time.
But also, the bed bug was in my bed last night and I didn’t feel bites. It may not like my blood?
Do they smell blood? Are they like sharks?
Not sure, but I think they might register heat and maybe CO² like mosquitoes do
If you can’t bring yourself to sleep in the bed, a nice warm ham should substitute nicely.
Do they eat ham? Ham doesn’t have blood. Sleep in the ham? I don’t get this.