Bedbugs

Day 47

Sprayings four and five have come and gone and we are still plagued by bugs. They haunt our furniture like guerillas, waiting for nightfall before conducting feeding raids that leave me squirming and sleep deprived. Our apartment, like our government, is plagued by insurgents.

My bedroom/office...

Day 34

I have moved from denial, to anger, to depression (I skipped bargaining), to acceptance, and then back to anger. The five stages of tragedy may not account adequately for my anger.

We are now past New York's official deadline to be rid of these creatures. Bedbugs...

Day 27

The score so far is 0-0. The bedbugs have not forced us out, but I am pretty sure they too are still here.

I have little faith that our second spraying has gone any better than the first. The exterminator who came in seemed stunned by...

The men also particularly loathed bedbugs, and sometimes, on long, tedious winter evenings the whole ward would be turned upside down in an effort to get rid of them. And although, apart from the unpleasant smell, everything in the ward was as clean as it could be on the surface,...

Day 7

What is shocking about bedbug veterans is the sense of inevitable defeat they have. I have now spoken with three people who had bedbugs at some point. The first said: "don't listen to anything but fumigation. There is no solution but to poison everything." The second: "I...

Day 1

Obviously we are embarrassed. There is no other appropriate attitude to have, though our embarrassment loses it's genuine quality through endless repetition. I declare our plight to anyone with a passing interest like an alcoholic seeking forgiveness.

"My roommates and I discovered bedbugs...