Sunday, July 20, 2008

Bedbug Nightmare

This is the crap we had to deal with last week after discovering a bedbug in our apartment (once again). We had to have every item of of clothing and fabric in our apartment laundered or drycleaned, vacuum virtually every possession we own and then pack everything in plastic bags so that the exterminator could come in and douse everything with chemicals. It was as grueling as having to move, but much more aggravating because it was certainly not by choice. Coincidentally, around this time last year, I also found a bed bug. I informed the so-called "resident manager" who only asked me if I’d been travelling but basically shrugged it off. I hired a pest control company which charged me a large sum to come and spread chemicals in my apartment three times. I threw out a bunch of my possessions, including a semi-antique couch that I purchased on Ebay because I thought that maybe it could be the source, and had to dry clean almost every article of clothing that I own. A huge expense and ordeal as you can imagine. A few weeks after that nightmare, I found out from one of the other employees of this venerable, luxury building that another apartment on my floor had had a major infestation. I only ever found two bedbugs back then and the pest control company confirmed when they were done that there appeared to be no infestation in my apartment – the logical conclusion being that they came from outside the apartment. Now, almost a year later, I’ve found another one! There is no reason I should have bedbugs – I haven’t been travelling or staying in hotels, I’ve brought no new or old furniture into my apartment and I vacuum religiously because I have terrible allergies. This time, I wrote an angry e-mail to the management company, and they at least got an exterminator in here; he came and sprayed everything last week and we're now in the process of unpacking and putting everything back. He'll have to come back and spray again in a couple of weeks but we won't have to repackage everything for the second treatment. I've sent my drycleaning receipts to the management company asking for reimbursement and also asked what they've done to ensure this never happens again. They have not responded. As far as I know, they have not inspected any other apartments on this or adjoining floors or even bothered to alert people so that they can be vigilant. I've at least alerted my neighbors on my floor and actually stuck underneath their doors copies of the correspondence between myself and the management company, including the management company's feeble attempts to cover their asses at my expenses (such as by suggesting that I was taking my sweet time preparing the apartment for extermination, even though the exterminator told me right in front of the "resident manager" that he was booked for a week). Anyway, this is a video of the preparations we made for the exterminator to come in, which is admittedly goofy, but now, that (hopefully) the worst is over, I can talk about it . . . and let the healing begin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bedbugs really suck as they take all kinds of time and money to get rid of. Been there and done that (thousands of dollars later)...

A little tip that might come in handy as I am sure you are not thrilled with having all of those chemicals around, expecially if you are sensitive to them. You may wan tot look at some of the chemical free apllications that you can do yoruself in conjunction with the treatment the PCO is doing. I choose the ones from www.kleen-free.com and they seem to work well as a contact spray.

Good luck...you may want to leave a bottle or two at the door of the neighbouring apartments too!

Hang in there, you will get rid of them....especially this time if they are chemical resistent and you add something to your arsenal.

Anonymous said...

what a freaking nightmare. so sorry you had to go through that- I can't believe it happened to you of all people- you're one of the cleanest people I know! Really good to hear your voice though, baby girl :-) hugs jlh