As a child, I remember my mom tucking me in at night and telling me not to let the bed bugs bite. It was just a saying to me at the time. I didn’t even realize that bed bugs were a real problem for people until years later. And even after I realized that bed bugs were a type of epidemic, I never dwelt on it much. That is until I moved into my Cambridge apartment with Ashlyn.
I still remember how it started. Ashlyn started complaining that she was being bitten by mosquitoes. I figured it wasn’t a big deal until I started noticing red welts on my arms and legs, and occasionally my face. I was not an outdoors kind of girl, and I didn’t feel like if the bites were from a mosquito they would just pop up as if over night. I told Ashlyn that I didn’t think we were being bitten by mosquitoes. She admitted that she had a sinking suspicion that we were the victims of a bed bug infested apartment. I was horrified.
After extensive research and Google image searches, our fears were confirmed. We were in fact suffering from bed bug bites. And the little critters would not relent. Every morning we would wake up with a few new bites anywhere and everywhere on our bodies. It was like living in a nightmare. We told the management at our building and they promised to send the exterminator. All we had to do was wash our clothes. And bedding. And curtains. And place settings. Basically we had to wash everything that was washable. We then had to stuff all of it in trash bags, and wait for the exterminator to come. That night we spent most of our time in the laundry room. It was exhausting.
By the time we were done it was around 3:00 a.m. We had to take all ten of our laundry bags back up to our apartment. Getting them from the laundry room to the elevator was a task in and of itself. Once in the elevator we just collapsed on the ground – a ground that was padded by our newly washed bed sheets and clothes. We didn’t know how to face our bed bug infested home. So we decided to ride the elevator for a while. We rode up and down the elevator for two hours, just talking, and simultaneously laughing and crying about our ridiculous situation.
Maybe this wasn’t the best situation to have been in, but it sure was a bonding experience. And I’ll tell you one thing. I will never take the phrase “don’t let the bed bugs bite” lightly ever again.
Life in New England 