This past week and a half has been very stressful.
To start it off, I had a 20% Geography test, a 20% Psych essay, a 10% Stats assignment and a 5% Anthro assignment all due within one week. I like to call this “the week from hell”. I don’t need to explain to you how awful that is.
Me at the end of this awful week
But apparently, that wasn’t enough stress in my life. The week prior to this, I was waking up every morning with little brown specks on my sheets. At first, I thought that I’d accidentally scratched myself in my sleep or it was food that somehow got into my bed. They were the most plausible reasons, and so I thought nothing of it.
I woke up the following morning with a couple of itchy bites. “Okay, that’s a bit weird,” I thought. It’s the middle of winter, so it can’t be mosquito season. I’m a bit of a clean freak, so it couldn’t have been something that loves a dirty environment. I gave the bites a good itch and then continued with my day.
The morning after that, I was covered in itchy bites; they were everywhere except my face (thank goodness!). Not only this, but my sheets looked like someone had left crumbs of chocolate on them. They were disgusting. I talked to my mates about it, asking if they had any itchy bites or strange markings on their sheets. Nope. Just me. I then made a joke about how my parents always said “don’t let the bed bugs bite!”. Then it hit me.
I used my good ol’ friend Google to search up what small brown spots on bedsheets mean, and the first thing that popped up was something along the lines of “Symptoms of Bed Bug Infestation”. Awesome. Just what I needed before a stressful week ahead of me.
Safe to say, I slept on top of my duvet that night.
I woke up early the next morning because boy oh boy, I had a lot to do. According to the internet, I had to strip my bed and throw whatever I could in the washing machine and dryer. I vacuumed my mattress and bed base to pick up any nasty critters, and also my room. I then had to iron my sheets, which took me an hour and a half. I spent the entire day in the laundry; I felt like a 1950’s housewife.
Less than 5 hours of sleep = feeling comfy in a weird position
I then got in contact with management about what to do. They confirmed that they would get in contact with pest control and it should be sorted within a couple of days.
Meanwhile, I decided that I was not going to be sleeping in my bed until the bed bugs had been dealt with, yet management hadn’t offered me any other options, so I took it upon myself to sort something out. Luckily, one of my mates had an air mattress she was willing to lend me, and another let me stay in their room until it had all been sorted. I must say, sleeping on an air mattress really makes you appreciate what you have.
Fast forward to Wednesday of last week. I had been told by my RA that my room would be getting fumigated at some point, so I went to talk to management again to get more details. Turns out that when you have bed bugs and you want to have your room fumigated, you have to remove absolutely everything if you don’t want to risk any damages.
It was like moving out. Clothes, books, photos, EVERYTHING had to go. My room was as bare as it was when I first moved into Whitaker. I was able to put everything into a storage room and was then offered a spare room.
Want to fly away from my bed bug problem
My room got fumigated the next day; I had to stay out of it for 6 hours, and am not allowed to vacuum it for 5 days (something to do with the life cycle of the eggs?). I have been slowly unpacking all of my gear over the past couple of days, but I’m still sleeping in the spare room. Not for any legit reason, I’m just lazy 🙂
ANYWAY, that whole drama is over and done with (touch wood!). It should be much smoother sailing from here on out!
Until next time – Emily