I emailed Joel 'HM' Goodwin this rather long story of what has happened to me and my girlfriend over the last month or so and thought I'd share it here. It's about bugs and stuff. You've been warned!
It all started with Hailey getting a bite on her arm about five weeks ago and we weren't sure what it was so decided to keep an eye on it. A couple of weeks later she started getting more all over her body. She checked the bed linen and noticed that there were tiny brown-black spots which we later found out could be bedbug faeces (blood). She then found a tiny bug on her work trousers that she said looked like a bedbug nymph. That Monday evening while Hailey was at work I ransacked the room vacuum cleaning every nook and cranny I could find; I dismantled the bed, inspected every seam and fold on the mattress, emptied all the drawers, Hailey washed and tumble dried a load of clothes and bedding earlier that day. I'd not found a thing. Just as I thought I'd done I decided to crawl around the bed checking up close and noticed below the headboard there was a single white oval egg. It actually made me jump because I was hoping not to find a thing and moments later I squished it. I should have taken a picture. It wasn't until after 2am that me and Hailey got to bed that night.
The biggest peeve was that our carpets were about to be fitted throughout the rest of the house (which has been carpet-less for over a year now), so we had to postpone that. Great timing bedbugs.
Over the course of that week the two of us poured over websites for advice and guidance while keeping an eye out. Hailey's bites got worse and we didn't know what to do, I on the otherhand didn't have a mark on me. We knew that some people weren't as sensitive to bedbug bites as others so thought nothing of it. Hailey was incredibly itchy and it's only when she got additional bites at work that we started to think 'perhaps it's not bedbugs?', but what about the bug on her trousers and the egg I found? Hailey went to the doctors and was diagnosed with hives, an allergic reaction to something, god knows what. She showed me pictures online and I didn't think it looked much like what she had and in fact, symptoms were thought to only last a couple of days maximum – Hailey had been covered in bites/spots for over two weeks now. She was given some anti-histamines and steroidal cream which didn't work and only made her feel drowsy and groggy. Even a trip to her parents down south didn't seem to clear up her skin. She went to the docs again and this time she was diagnosed with Pityriasis Rosea and after a quick look online it seemed to match up with what she had. A spot otherwise known as a 'herald patch' appears a week or two before the rest of the outbreak begins (which explains the first 'bite' we saw) and it can take up to 6 months to clear up. It's a non-contagious viral skin infection. She spends these days covered in Calamine lotion, still itching and pointing out new spots when they appear.
So we thought we were in the clear and had our carpets fitted. However, Hailey phoned me up at work the other day to say she'd seen another smaller version of the same bug near to where her trousers were last time. This time she took a photo (below). It looked like a bedbug.
After looking long and hard at it I noticed that it looked longer, had a more pronounced head and had an obvious neck (or thorax). It also didn't look translucent like a bedbug nymph. I started looking into bugs that were commonly mistaken for bedbugs and found the humble booklouse; longer, a more pronounced head and a neck. We had ourbug. It even tallied up with the fact that both bugs had been found near her books. But what about that egg on the back of the bed below the head board? Well it turns out booklice lay white oval eggs individually close to where they feed whereas bedbugs lay up to 6 at a time (per day), which is really fucking scary.
Here's a picture comparison of a bedbug nymph and a booklouse.
Hopefully that's the end of the story but even though I've not been bitten or had any sort of rash, I've been itching like a bastard reading about and looking at all this stuff. Seriously, bedbugs could be the worst type of critter infestation you can get. They can survive for over a year without a bloodmeal and again, they reproduce spectacularly fast and are bloody good (har har) at hiding during the day. They can also survive sub-zero temperatures and are becoming more and more immune to pesticides. They're not for me.
Oh geez, what a nightmare. Poor Hailey.
I've heard that the world is suffering a huge bedbug epidemic. Just thinking about them makes me shiver.
That said, Gregg, you and Hailey might want to look into bamboo sheets - apparently they're quite anti-bacterial and kill all manner of buggy creatures. Plus they're really soft.
I'm impressed you haven't just burned the place down. That's what I want to do after I see a spider.
I hope Hailey feels better, and you continue to be immune!
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
Poor Hailey!
Now I'm all itchy. *shiver*
Every time I go to New York, I'm absolutely petrified I'll bring back bedbugs. When my friends saw me crawling about our hotel room with a flashlight, they thought I was crazy until I told them what I was doing. We've been back for 3 weeks and I'm still on the lookout for them. Luckily (?) I don't have a headboard, my box spring sits on a metal frame and there's no carpeting in the majority of the house (including my bedroom).
Bring back DDT so we can romp in its killing fog.
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I think they're immune to DDT now. Seriously they're tough little fucks and I've heard New York and cities in general have them really bad. Some of the infestations I've seen on Google images are just traumatising.
If Hailey hadn't contracted the skin virus there wouldn't have been any dramas, it was just that it set us off on the bedbug paranoia run because her lesions looked like bites. It was like a giant icky cloud of inconvenience had been lifted when we realised that our neighbours were just booklice. And honestly, after thinking you had bedbugs, other creepy crawlies just seem insignificant.
@Steerpike: Couldn't burn the place down because we'd spent the last year and half doing it up! ;-D
We had a lot of bedbug warnings last summer in Toronto; never got them myself thankfully. If it ever comes to the point where I have to fend off bedbugs with spiders I'm just going to kill myself.
You both have my sympathy, Gregg.
[Image Can Not Be Found] * shiver * [Image Can Not Be Found]
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
I'm with xtal on that one.
Hell, I refused to do a side-quest in DA2 because it involved a freakin' infestation of spiders!! Screw that NPC and his stupid mine. I don't give a rat's ass if I'm part owner, if the place is infested set it on fire, seal it up and don't ever darken my doorstep again!
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