A law student has sued one of downtown Cleveland’s chicer high-rises, contending that bedbugs drove him from two apartments — and flying gnats from a third.

In his lawsuit, Joshua Bobrowsky said the blood-sucking vermin in three Reserve Square apartments left him with painful welts and months of psychological and emotional distress. He seeks $142,000 in damages.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Bobrowsky, 26, of Pittsburgh, said in an interview Tuesday. “It was just a very horrible experience. Life isn’t enjoyable anymore when you think that everything you own is infested with parasites.”

A few questions:

1.  It is very easy to move bed bugs from one unit to another.  Could this account for Bobrowsky’s second apartment in the building having bed bugs?

2.  The “chicest” high rises in Cleveland charge $1650 for a 3-bedroom?  

(I just heard a rush of Manhattanites and their offspring running through the tunnel to New Jersey– they’re on their way, Cleveland!)

3.  Flying gnats?  Aren’t they a lot easier to get rid of than bed bugs?

Thanks to the Bedbugger who tipped me off to this one!

• Another 23-25 Temple St., Nashua, N.H. tenant sues landlord over bed bugs
• New eco-thriller starring Val Kilmer has bed bug connection
• Infested student apartment building at Wright State University, Dayton
• Bedbugs in the news today: Peterborough, England

ShareThis

Now WBAL TV in Baltimore reports that some of those students have encountered bed bugs in the Sheraton:

A room at the Sheraton Hotel North in Towson has been affected by bedbugs, displacing two of the students, school officials said. Some students staying at the Dulaney Valley Apartments were moved to the hotel after bedbugs were found at that location in both July and September.

Goucher College officials said the Sheraton will have the rooms examined and the hotel will take the necessary measures to rid the room of bedbugs.

While it is certainly possible that one can encounter bed bugs anywhere (including any hotel room), it is also true that bed bugs are easily carried from place to place. This chain of events raises the question of whether Goucher students were instructed to and assisted in making sure they did not move bed bugs with them to the Sheraton. This article describes ways in which Stanford University attempts to halt the spread of bed bugs when students are evacuated from dorm rooms due to these pests.

I want to stress that it is impossible to know from the article whether students brought bed bugs to the Sheraton, or whether they encountered bed bugs already at the hotel. But the potential of moving bed bugs is something colleges should consider when evacuating students under such circumstances. The students’ experience also highlights the need for people to learn to search a hotel room for bed bugs before settling in.

Although people often come on the Bedbugger forums asking how they can move without transporting bed bugs, it is not an easy process. Some people will have their possessions treated with sulfuryl fluoride (such as Vikane[TM]) or thermal processes, at great cost, in order to avoid moving bed bugs.

Bed bugs can crawl into a person’s luggage or other items, or even crawl into clothing and be moved from place to place. Bed bug evacuees must take precautions when fleeing to hotels or other locations, in order to avoid infesting them.

Our FAQs on travel offer suggestions on not moving bed bugs from place to place.

• Goucher College suffers bed bug infestation in student apartments
• Bed bugs at the University of Vermont
• Out of the fire and into the frying pan
• Tripadvisor: 8% of survey respondents encountered bed bugs at hotels

ShareThis

Want to move out of your bed bug-infested apartment and avoid the hassle of destroying and tossing out your infested furniture and other items, including a futon and a captain’s bed, and stuffed animals?

Want to expose lots of people and their neighbors, co-workers, relatives and friends to bed bugs?

Great!

Here’s what you do:

1. Place ad on Craigslist offering nearly all of your possessions for free.

I apologize if this is a duplicate. I thought I posted it but now I can’t find it, so I’m trying again

FREE STUFF!!!!!! I am moving Saturday morning, so everything needs to go ASAP. Please email me to arrange for pickup. This list is *NOT* inclusive. As I pack, more stuff is being added…

2. Include detailed list of items available and warnings that the items have been exposed to bed bugs in your infested home.

I have to start with the warning: the home these items come from have bedbugs. HOWEVER, many of these items were from rooms where I never saw any evidence of bugs or will be easily cleaned. I just don’t have the time to do it myself!

3. Wipe your hands clean and don’t think twice about the carnage which will most surely follow.

Yes, sure, you gave the warnings, so you’re ethically absolved of all responsibility. Have a nice day!

The truth is, everyday people take bed bug infested stuff off the curb which has warnings attached. People can be idiots.

So if you don’t destroy or debug your stuff, you are spreading bed bugs.

You’re spreading the itchiness and discomfort of bed bug bites, the cost of pest control and replacing possessions, the many hours of sleep, and hours and hours of work. You’ll likely cause others to have to move too, at great expense of time and money.

Don’t kid yourself that the warnings you gave will prevent others from suffering. If you have bed bugs in your home, people could pick them up and take them home just by coming over to get something of yours, let alone taking it in their car or into their home.

Thanks to Aly of A Little Aly-tude for the find, for warning her public, (and for the shout out!)

If ad has been removed, see screenshot here.

• Another Craigslist bed bug story
• killing bed bugs with commodity fumigation: coming soon to your town, we hope?
• FAQ: dry cleaners and bed bugs
• Frankfort, Kentucky Public Housing Authority plays the “bed bug blame game”

ShareThis

Student Aaryn Secker finally moved out after battling bed bugs in Solin Hall for months:

Secker notified Howard Zinman, Services Coordinator for Solin Hall, after discovering tiny red bites all over her body in September. Residence Services was initially responsive to her concerns, replacing her mattress and couch, paying for dry cleaning, and spraying her room with chemicals to kill the bugs.

But despite the intensive cleaning, Secker said that the bedbugs returned.

“They kept coming back. McGill [Residence Services] replaced my bed about twice. By the end of it they ended up taking out my bed and my fridge,” she said.

When the problem persisted, Secker moved out for good and sought rent compensation from the Student Housing Office for the entire academic year.

McGill’s refusal to reimburse Secker for rent or to terminate her lease has caused Secker to threaten bringing her case to the Régie du Logement, Quebec’s housing office.

Zinman refused to comment on Secker’s case, citing confidentiality reasons. He said the process of treating bedbug infestations has not changed since last year’s incidents in MORE Houses and New Residence, where bedbugs were found in several rooms.

It is not easy to treat for bed bugs, let alone in student housing. But replacing a bed twice does not seem like the most well-considered protocol, since beds can be treated, and moving infested furniture is tricky.

Perhaps McGill and their pest control operator should talk to Stanford and their pest control operator (who we believe is Crane Pest, San Francisco). Stanford has had its share of bed bugs, but the reports of their responses so far have been the best we have heard of on college campuses. And let’s face it, there will be bed bugs on college campuses, you can’t stop that from happening, though you can try to implement policies to help prevent it. And you can educate students and staff about the problem.

What matters most, though, is the response when bed bugs are discovered.

• Comment dites-vous le bed bugs en français?
• Ryerson University: a study in unenthusiastic bed bug control practices
• Bed bugs at the University of Vermont
• University of Central Missouri (and other Missouri colleges) vs. bed bugs

ShareThis

And what’s wrong with their latest pad, in Hamilton Heights? That’s right: bed bugs.

The great chicken-and-egg question for today:

Was the new apartment infested? Or was the moving truck infested?

(Bonus points if you know those are not the only possibilities. My personal bugaboos? Returnable-if-unused moving boxes, and moving blankets, which never get washed. Shudder.)

• Bed bug unfriendly mattress re-sellers: recommendations?
• Manhattan Mattress Mystery
• Tales of bed bug woe: Allergicgirl’s questions
• New York vs. Bed Bugs on Hamilton County’s bed bug plan

ShareThis

AT’s latest bed bug story, however, is a little different. In an AT Good Question, Anne asks, What Can I Do If They Lied About Bedbugs?

I just signed a 1yr lease for a new apartment. Prior to signing, I asked the management company whether there had been any roach, mice, or bedbug infestations. I was most particularly concerned about bedbugs. Management said no, and I believed them. However, after signing the lease, I returned to the apartment to take some measurements and met some of the prior tenants…

Oh, no, no! We know where this is going and we can see between the fingers covering our eyes that it’s not going to be pretty:

They said that one of the four roommates did indeed have bedbugs and that the management company sent an exterminator three times!

OK, first thought, one of the four roommates had bed bugs? That is an interesting, and perhaps revealing, way of putting it. If one of the four roommates had bed bugs, the other three roommates had them too. Even if they were not allergic to the bites, or were not bitten, or the bed bugs did not actually spread to their rooms (I think I just strained my optimism muscle), an apartment with bed bugs presents what you might call a situation for all who live there, a situation often freighted with stress and anxiety, sleeplessness, an overwhelming amount of work, and all-around aggravation. Laundry, cleaning, decluttering, bed bug treatments, all of these simply cannot be a matter solely for the one person in the apartment who is being bitten. I hope this is what occurred in this apartment: everyone worked together in one effort even if the roommates simply can’t bring themselves to say that they, too, had bed bugs. The alternative scenario is not very encouraging, and would not bode well for poor Anne, since any hope of the bed bugs being gone from this apartment starts with the image of a cohesive, supportive set of roommates bent on eradicating the bugs tormenting one of them.

All of that speculation aside, however, I am not forgetting that they did tell Anne about the bed bugs! Yes, indeed, and well done! Therefore, I am prepared to believe that these roommates are good bed bug citizens trying to do the right thing, which brings me to the second troubling thought, did they actually get rid of the bed bugs, or are they moving because of them? Well, we can’t possibly know. So, what should Anne do?

I am very angry at the management company and feel foolish for taking their word. I am going to insist that they exterminate the apartment again before I move in but dont know what they will say.

Is there anything else I can do at this point?

Consulting a lawyer as a first step to terminate the lease is one possibility, perhaps the wisest. Bravely taking your chances is another. Yes, insisting on a professional inspection, perhaps even a bed bug dog inspection, would be advisable. We’re told that treating an apartment for bed bugs, successfully, involves sleeping in it, in order to draw out the bugs. I’m not sure that I could have any confidence in a pre-moving treatment plan for an empty apartment. In our heart of hearts, if Anne were our dearest friend, what would we tell her? I know what I would tell her! And you, bedbuggers? What would you say?

Still, in a major U.S. city, and perhaps elsewhere, what are the chances of moving into a building with a previous infestation history? Should the infestation history matter? In what way? If, or when, most buildings in an urban area have experienced infestations, would it not be better to ask What is your pest control policy? in addition to Have you had bed bugs here?

I’d be interested to hear perspectives from lawyers, PCOs and renters who have encountered or are worried about encountering Anne’s difficulties. The leasing, enforceable, obligations of landlords… do they include disclosure of bed bug infestations? Should they?

Finally, you don’t have to be in the middle of an apartment search to think about bed bugs. You can start a conversation about bed bug prevention and eradication protocols with your landlord and neighbors now, before you ever have a problem. Learn the basics and ask the tough questions.

If you are apartment hunting in New York City, you can look up violations at your prospective address at the HPD website here. Check the bed bug registries for your new building and new neighborhood here and here. You should also read Bedbugger’s landlords, tenants, and legal issues FAQs. And, yes, visit AT for inspiration; we hope you make yourself a lovely, bed bug-free home.

• The ethics of bed bugs: the lies landlords and roommates tell
• Shameful landlord AIMCO: biggest landlord in USA refuses to deal with bed bugs
• another Lawsuit: student bitten in Fordham’s satellite dorms @ The New Yorker Hotel
• Bed bugs & tenant organizing: don’t take this lying down

ShareThis

Bedbug City Poll

How did you deal with bedbugs at your home?

I moved out. 30.8%
I called an exterminator. 23.1%
I bought chemicals and applied on my own 19.2%
I discarded the mattress and most of the clothes. 11.5%
I do nothing. 7.7%
My landlord took care of the infestation. 7.7%

Total votes: 26

I realize the poll is pretty basic and unscientific, but it is still interesting. I don’t think “I moved out” and “I called an exterminator” should be exclusive answers. If you’re treating your bed bugs (and yes, if renting in most localities, the landlord must pay) when you move, as Windycitymike did, you have a much better shot. I know that isn’t always possible.

However, I have a hunch that the poll reflects the truth to some degree, and many people are fleeing bed bug apartments without treatment. In a lot of cases, I suspect people are probably getting the ball rolling, by reporting bed bugs and requesting treatment, but they’re not seeing results fast enough, or at all. So they’re fleeing with minimal treatment, which many landlords would welcome as an opportunity to not do anything further, because “no one is going to care.”

I am not saying those folks should necessarily stay in those apartments, especially if the landlord doesn’t get the whole bed bug vibe, or hires a crappy PCO.

On the other hand, as we’ve discussed elsewhere, it’s really hard to move without bed bugs. If you can get your landlord to treat them, then it’s worth fighting and living in a bed bug free home. Your next apt. may already be infested, or, more likely, you may take the bugs with you and they will set up home there. It is possible to get out bug free, and people here have done it, at great personal expense.

If many or most people are moving rather than dealing with bed bugs, then we are going to see bed bugs spreading at an even more alarming rate.

And specifically for New Yorkers, if you are going to ditch your infested apartment, because your landlord really is botching it, or the PCO is lousy, you really should make sure you reported the bugs to 311 before you moved. That way, at least the city has a violation of bed bugs listed for the apartment, and someone will at least be checking in to see if they’re gone.

Everyone in North America should post their infested addresses at Bed Bug City and the Bed Bug Registry. Both–because otherwise we have two 1/2 complete registries.

• 25 Grant Street in Denver, Colorado: bed bugs for two years
• Cincinnati: awareness spreading, funds needed to fight bed bugs
• Amanda at Apartmenttherapy.com, part 5
• FAQ: Do I have to tell my landlord / co-op board / condo association / residents of attached house next door?

ShareThis

This, however, was another story, the known universe. The blogger’s friend had bed bugs:

She changed apartments since the last time I saw her, too. The previous one having been infested with bedbugs. “They were everywhere. Falling down from the ceiling, even. I started having these phantom bug attacks even when I went outside.

When the exterminator came to fumigate, he told her, “Listen: don’t tell your landlord I told you this, but this isn’t the first time I’ve fumigated this place. There’s a real problem here. Between you and me, I think you should move.”

The next day (she) checked craigslist, found a listing and jumped ship immediately.

I was touched by the PCO’s advice to this sufferer. I wonder how often this happens. I know PCOs can’t normally do this without losing the landlords as customers, but I wish they would.

Oh, and the blogger’s friend moved by clever means: she moved during a cold spell and left everything outside in freezing weather en route. I guess your chances for that have passed, New Yorkers, for 2007. Now you’ll need to wait for a week of 104 degree heat and leave that aluminum U-Haul truck baking for a week. In a very sunny spot. And hope it reaches 140 F for more than four hours, and kills them. (Note: we do not recommend this method. Environmental temperatures are not likely to solve your bed bug problem.)

I’m waiting for the drive-in-and-park frozen meat locker we can rent for a week while moving. Any investors for that idea?

• More from Edmonton bed bug evictions case
• Comedian moves into NJ Ikea store
• Toronto tenants camping outside to avoid bed bugs: update
• FAQ: Leaving stuff out to freeze, walk-in freezers, etc: how cold and how long?

ShareThis

We have some success stories: WindyCityMike’s and ABigFatWasteofTime’s. They took extremely different routes: Mike moved while treatment appeared to be successful. See here and here.  ABigFatWasteofTime fled with nothing, zilch, nada–and even bought new clothes to wear that day on her way to her new pad. So, keeping in mind that we really need a FAQ on this issue, what advice can we give?

Please keep the comments on topic, though others’ questions and stories about moving / not moving are very relevant here!

Here’s Jane’s question:

HOW DO YOU MOVE AND LEAVE THE BEDBUGS BEHIND?

February 6, 2007

Hello,

Before I get into my stuff, I want to give encouragement to everyone out there who is suffering from infestations. If you read on, you’ll realize that I ain’t seen nothing yet, (literally and figuratively), but I have gone through severe anxiety and other emotional malaise related to bed bugs. I sincerely sympathize with all of you. We need to remember that we can beat these little f’ers, and we shouldn’t forget to enjoy life as we battle them. Life is too important to let these bugs ruin it for us. Stay positive!

I live in an apartment building in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that has recently had (and continues to have?) a bed bug infestation. My roommate and I have yet to see a bug or any hard evidence of bugs, and our apartment has been treated twice by a professional pest control company. All other apartments in our building have been treated at least once. But I have been suffering from some kind of minor skin condition that could be bed bug bites since December 18, 2006. My roommate is not suffering any similar skin condition.

A friend of mine has been kind enough to allow me to move into her house. I will be moving there at the end of February.

So there’s my back story. I am thrilled this community exists and I would dearly appreciate advice on one big bed bug topic:

How can you prevent bringing bed bugs with you when you move?

The last thing I want to do is bring bed bugs to my friend’s house!

My plan so far is this:
1. Throw out whatever I can part with (mattress, old clothes, etc.)
2. Give all my furniture and my vacuum to my roommate (he’s planning to stay).
3. For the things I can’t part with (photo albums, paper records and keepsakes, favourite books and DVDs, etc.), I plan to buy large hopefully airtight Tupperware containers and put everything in these containers. As an additional precaution I’m going to search for commercial saran/cling wrap (I worked with this stuff on a summer job once) to wrap around the lids on the containers. These containers will be kept in either my friend’s unheated garage or my mom’s unheated shed. I hope our winter stays harsh for awhile!
4. Freshly wash and bag up all clothes and linen I plan to keep and store these as well for an indefinite time.
5. Enter my friend’s house freshly showered from the gym, wearing all brand new clothes (including shoes, jacket, and backpack). Bring only brand new clothes and hardly anything else into my friend’s house.

I feel pretty good about my plan, but there are some grey areas. For example, I would like to treat the items I store with some sort of pesticide before I seal them up in the containers. But what could I use?

I would like to find something that won’t damage the items. It would be nice to use something other than Raid, the only pesticide I have found in stores that proclaims to kill bed bugs. A guy from the pest company who treated our building told me there is nothing on the market for consumers. He seems to be right as far as Edmonton is concerned. But maybe there is something I can buy off the Internet? Does anyone have any suggestions?

There are also several possessions of mine that I am not quite sure what to do with. If anyone can give me advice on these things, that would be awesome:

- My acoustic guitar, two electric bass guitars, and a bass speaker and amplifier. How likely is it that bed bugs would be in these? The music gear is all kept in the living room at the opposite end of the apartment as the bedrooms. The guitars are all in cases. I don’t want to put my guitars in cold storage because it’s not good for them. My mom will probably let me keep them in her basement, but the last thing I want to do is spread bed bugs to her. Advice?

- My houseplants. I have two houseplants that I don’t want to kill. One is in the living room. The other one hangs from the ceiling in my office nook, which is actually part of my bedroom. My office nook is about two feet away from one of my bed corners.

- My laptop computer and printer. Once again, these things are in my office, which isn’t too far from my bed, and the computer probably won’t respond too well to cold storage. Would bed bugs dare venture inside my computer? I have never found any information on this in my research. (I am using my friend’s computer when I move in.)

- My bird’s cage. I have read several times that pet birds can be bitten too. (By the way, I am 100% sure that my little zebra finch is not the source of the building infestation.) I think my bird’s cage is a low-risk area – his plastic cage is on top of a metal filing cabinet that is not kept flush against the wall. And I regularly clean his cage and use bleach when I clean it. But should I transfer him to a new cage when I move?

- Books and paper. I’m a student. I’m already keeping my textbooks in Ziploc bags (except when I’m using them of course). When I move I will probably keep them in the garage except when I need to use them. I will type up all my handwritten notes and just keep electronic files. Am I being a paranoid freak, or is this wise? Do bed bugs inhabit books and papers?

- My glasses and my hair. I feel a little silly to even mention this, but I’ve read a post on this very site from someone who speculated that they may have brought bed bugs when they moved in their hair. I thought I would add my glasses to the suspect list just to be thorough. Anyone have any comments on this?

- My car. We have had plenty of weather well below 0 degrees Celsius (the freezing point). Since our apartment first got treated in late November, the back of my car has housed garbage bags of clothes. I have read on the Internet that you need to freeze things for as long as two weeks to ensure the bugs die. Occasionally the temperature rises above 0, and I drive my car probably every three or four days. My car is a super-low risk environment for supporting bed bugs right? Or is it?

Please, if anyone has any advice regarding my huge paranoid list, you have no idea how much I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Jane

• Thanksgiving Bed Bug Float
• For friends and family of bedbuggers
• How to avoid bed bugs, according to Texas A&M’s student paper
• Possible travel solution for bed bugs?

ShareThis

Holidays are a bad time to be suffering from bed bugs. We could all use a little cheering up now and then, and many of us now more than ever. Here are the greatest hits of bed bug blogs: those who fought them and won. Remember, to get the full inspirational feeling, go to the oldest post in the blog on bed bugs, and work your way forward.

First, single-family home, light infestation: Bed Bug War: this fellow fought bed bugs in a single-family dwelling. I hesitate in sharing this as my one example of a single-family home dweller fighting bed bugs: I am not sure it’s representative. He did not hire an exterminator, just isolated the bed (see FAQs) and used Raid. But he did get rid of his problem. (Editor’s note: this was probably a light infestation and it was in a one-family home. I would not recommend that anyone try to fight bed bugs without an experienced PCO. If you’re in a multi-unit dwelling, you’re definitely going to need more than this. Even in a single home, remember, if your first attempts do not work, you can make the problem much harder to treat, and allowing the bed bugs to breed. You’ve been warned!)

Second, multi-unit dwelling, serious infestation: BBRUG. Start at the bottom to get the whole story. In a nutshell: she was fighting them by herself (no PCO) for 14 months, at which point the whole building was found to be infested and was treated. A year later they came back, but a month after that, she was bit for the last time. I think this tells us a few things: first, try to get your landlord to treat your whole building, or at least to check the whole building (an experienced-with-bedbugs PCO should do this). Second, do not simply treat yourself–get the landlord to have someone experienced come in. Even though BBRUG does not think they started with her, the fact that she was working on treating them in isolation probably did not help. Third, even when you see them come back, or are still being bitten after multiple treatments, and feel desperate, don’t give up. One thing a lot of these stories have in common is that even when they’re almost-almost-gone, you will be bitten. And then you won’t. Keep treating until you’re not, but don’t assume it will go on forever. Yay, BBRUG!

Like BBRUG, Caitlin of the BedBugBlog (founder of the Yahoo Bedbugger Group, from which we sprang) also had a serious situation in a multi-unit dwelling, and also did not move to solve her infestation. Again, the whole building had to be treated for there to be any success. And again, there were additional bites without the whole darn thing starting all over again. Start at the oldest posts, and note that she stops being bitten sometime around October 2005, over 14 months ago. Yay, Caitlin!

A Picture of Me’s Caryn also did not move. Read her Bed Bug Diary.

Finally, there are those in multi-unit dwellings who made the hard choice to leave for a new home. Please note that we know this does not always work. You can actually get rid of everything you own, move with what’s on your back, and nevertheless, somehow, end up with bed bugs in the new place. With that in mind, it’s worth studying what people did who managed to move without the suckas following them. I give you Windy City Mike (initial battles documented here, and how he handled his move is covered here and here).

A Big Fat Waste of Time offers a harrowing story, in which the hero felt she had to get rid of everything she owned and move in order to escape bed bugs. Though this would seem to represent what is many bed bug sufferers’ worst nightmare, the conclusion is spiritually uplifting, and this account made me feel like the worst case scenario would be okay, if that’s what it comes to. After moving to escape the bed bugs, ABFWoT tells us:

I start my new job on the 23rd and spend the first week going back and forth between work, the new apartment, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I have only three shirts to wear to work. Out of fear of carrying luggage on the plane from Texas, I bought only enough clothes as I could fit in a small duffle bag, which I kept on my lap. On the 29th, while liberals march through Chelsea with anti-Bush signs, I run from Rockaway Bedding to Jensen Lewis to find a platform bed made of steel. I tell the saleslady at Rockaway that I am glad I found a steel bed.

“Bed bugs?” she asks. She knows.

It arrives tomorrow between 8 and 12. In the meantime, I am sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.

At the end of my first week back, I make one final trip to the old building to pick up the cable boxes I’d left in such a hurry. It turns out the cable company will charge me $200 a box if I don’t turn them in. I wear one of my parent’s old t-shirts which I brought with me from Texas especially for this day. I wear some new Addidas shorts, which I am sad to part with. I meet the landlord there. He gives me the boxes. I turn in my keys. I go to the cable office in my t-shirt and shorts and turn in the boxes. I go to my gym, throw away my t-shirt and shorts, shower, and put on one of my work outfits and go to work. I can’t believe I never have to set foot in that place again.

The next day is my birthday. It feels more like a rebirth day.

“I’m starting over in a new apartment, with a new job, with nothing,” I tell my friend Margaret, an immigrant from cold-war Poland, herself.

“Like a baby,” she smiles at me.

Yes. Like a newborn baby.

Now some of my readers are going to say, but Nobugs, that’s not the worst-case scenario. (Again, you can move and not escape them.) But I think we can learn a thing or two about the degree to which ABFWoT went to move away from the bugs.

The point of this post is inspiration, and I hope these accounts provide you with some, as they do me. There are many other wonderful bed bug blogs out there; I’ve chosen these partly for their inspirational and educational value, as well as the fact that their bed bug posts were easy to find, which is not always the case, when bed bugs take over a personal blog. There are also blogs that mention ongoing bed bug struggles and I’ve left those out here. But in reviewing the blogosphere, I want to mention one more source of inspiration: a priceless story of bedbug romance, from Bugged Out.

If you successfully showed your bed bugs the door, please add your own success story below.

Still fighting bed bugs? Click here to read the latest “Tales of Bed Bug Woe,” and leave your story there instead.

• More bed bug stories from Cincinnati; also, pig spotted in sky over New York City
• Piecemeal inspections and treatment: no way to rid an apartment building of bed bugs
• Bedbugger readers: multiplying faster than bedbugs?
• Another bed bug trap in the works

ShareThis