I moved into an apartment on the LES in NYC, thrilled that I would be saving money and able to quit my high-paying, soul-breaking job soon. The first night I was there, I got a bite on my neck. The third night I was there, I got three bites on my hand. The fifth night, I was up until 3am and actually SAW a bedbug crawling across my files on its way towards me.

Since then, my roommate and I have easily spent $2500 on exterminations, laundering and sealing off our belongings in our 3-room closet of an apartment. All this, in addition to the one-time extermination our landlord was willing to give us. And he claims no one else in the building is being bitten, yet others have posted on the registry that they have been dealing with the problem for SIX YEARS before they finally threw everything out and moved. (Incidentally, one victim lived above us and shared a wall with my bedroom.)

Despite all of our efforts, our own out-of-pocket exterminations, and forced bag-living for the next 18 months, there is no guarantee that we’re safe for even two months! Pesticides last for only a month or two; and if the infestiation is in the walls and floors of the neighboring apartments, it’s only a matter of time.

The landlords refuse to exterminate properly. Neighbors don’t seem to care that there’s an infestation and don’t believe that they are also victims, and the problem persists and spreads throughout the city at a horrifying rate.

I have been completely traumatized, financially and emotionally. I cannot invite friends or family into my apartment. I cannot stay in hotels – even 4-star ones – because of my fear that I will pick one up there. I cannot visit friends’ homes because I’m scared of bringing the bugs with me (”What if something survived the extermination?!”). I cannot sleep at night without tucking my entire body under the covers, exposing only my head. I wake every hour and flip on the light in a panic that the air blowing across my skin was a bed bug.

When I was in Africa, surrounded by cockroaches, lizards, and other creatures, I felt safer and slept sounder than I have since I moved to the LES. I can only dream of a day when I’ll sleep so soundly again.

Rather than seeing the spread of bed bug news as all hype, in “Bedbug infestations in the news: a picture of an emerging public health problem in the United States,” A. L. Anderson and K. Leffler suggest that,

Newspaper articles often herald the onset of a new health issue for the public, and they can be used for epidemiological tracking of increasing populations of irritating and potentially serious vectoring pests. This news coverage model is useful in validating the typical spread of a new contagious entity, or in predicting the waves of public reaction to the spread of a new pest or health problem.

The article can be obtained from: J Environ Health. 2008 May;70(9):24-7, 52-3.

You can read the full abstract here.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/shoptoit/2008/04/tuesday_tips_picking_a_pest_ki.html

Last item about that trailblazing contrarian, Mr. Segal. Check out thebarely controlled response of Pest Management Professional editorial director Frank Andorka.

LOL.

She says, in the article,

While it’s hard to be sure where the bed bugs came from, in a single-family house, they have to be brought in. A traveling husband could certainly have brought them home.

My husband had developed some itchy rash, too, after several stops on the presidential campaign trail and a quick trip to Panama for work. But he was back on the road and his rash was clearing up.

For me, things got worse the more time I spent time in bed.

We have heard two previous stories of bed bugs on the campaign trail, one from Mary Chaney (presumably about past campaigns) and one from Joe Biden’s staffers during their stop in Iowa this year.

I wonder how many campaigners and staffers encountered bed bugs this year on the campaign trail, and how many will inadvertently take them home.