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 did get bitten last night, but slept with the window open again. It could be a mosquito bite, but it feels like a bed bug bite. I should probably leave.
The exterminator put out glue traps for the bed bugs and I don’t see anything in one. Another has tiny dots that look like lint and could be lint from my socks or pants, but may also not be.
Someone mentioned diatomous earth. Does that actually work? It seems like if it were just that easy, then bed bugs wouldn’t be such a big problem. It would be easy to spread all over the floor in this room since so little stuff is here.
There is a built in closet/cabinet in the apartment. Although it’s built into the unit, there is space behind the closet/cabinet and I can’t see at all what is there. There’s not an easy way to treat that area, it looks like.
This is really too bad. The rent is due today. I either pay it or leave and don’t pay it.
I already feel like I got ripped-off from the deposit. If I don’t pay the rent they will likely keep the deposit. This is a 1 year lease but since there’s a wait to get, they will fill the room immediately if I leave. I’ll just lose the deposit and the month’s rent if I pay that. It’s a lot to lose. I could also not pay today, violate the lease to see what tomorrow is like, and pay a late fee or penalty or leave prior to them initiating evictions. It seems unlikely they will persue legal action and I lose my deposit either way. It would buy me time if I am unsure. Possibly I am just in denial.
Yesterday I purchased new shoes, new socks, new pants, and new underwear. I put them in a plastic bag and tied it multiple times. I have two garbage bags also in a different plastic bag which I have food in. I briefly opened that bag when In tried to eat food, if it’s a bad idea to use those bags now I can get more at the local store.
I could also go to the bank and return the cashier’s check for this month’s rent that I havent given them yet to try to get that money back.
I am still unsure about the wisdom of giving up a tenancy like this. There are 60-70 units in here. It took me 6 months of waiting to get off of a wait list and about 2-3 months of paperwork to get this approved because it’s so affordable it’s considered partly subsidized. I can also just be in a cheaper area and work remotely there, but I don’t have a lot of job security, it could possibly be easier to work in this area if I lost my job. I have family who would probably help me slightly to prevent me from becoming homeless, so I am unlikely to become a long-term homeless person by leaving.
I could also do as the locals do, set up wood blocks in front of the door, sprinkle diamtomous clay all around, and get a bunk bed with bug traps underneath the legs and then put a desk underneath. The room is so small I was planning on doing that anyway.
But I also don’t want to be spreading bed bugs to other people and worrying about doing that. It seems like it would be an awful way to live, to have to worry about that. I know people in this area, but I will be worried about seeing them if I am having occasional bites.
I shouldn’t have slept with the window open. I did see a bug flying around when I first woke up, but also all the bugs I have seen flying since being around here were not mosquitos. It seems more likely than not a bed bug bite meaning there’s more than 1.
The bite I got last night is hurting now. I scratched it and ripped off some of the skin and now it hurts more.
Edit: looks like it’s two bites. I think I am going to just leave.