Everyone either has their own bedbug story or knows of someone who has been affected by bedbugs, or even suffered from bedbug bites. In this case, there is probably only three degrees of separation. Either a personal incident happened to you, or you know of a friend or relative who was infested with bedbugs or whose parents were invaded by these blood suckers. Even those who were not personally affected by bedbugs have seen advertisements or heard on the news about incidents of bed bug infestations at hotels or universities.
Working at Bedbug.com, whenever I tell someone what I do for a living, they are not surprised in the least bit. While they find it to be an interesting job description, they have all heard about the bedbug epidemic sweeping across the nation. It makes complete sense that you would want to protect your bedding.
In fact, while researching bed bug stories, I realized I didn’t really have to go too far.
As a matter a fact, we just had new neighbors move in from Detroit. I went over to introduce myself. Crazy enough, the wife had just gotten off from a phone conversation with a client in Detroit who was being evicted by his landlord because he had a bedbug infestation in his apartment.
Her client bought second hand furniture in a thrift store and brought bedbugs into her home. She now knows it was a bad idea. But what she didn’t know was that she actually does not need to the throw away the mattress. Instead, she can encase it and keep it. The bad news is that the landlord wanted her to spend $1,500 on an exterminator and she does not have the money to do so. The husband, who is a medical practitioner, said that he has recently seen a lot of cases of people in Detroit coming in from multi-unit housing areas complaining of major itching and swelling of welts on their legs, hands, and body. Years ago, he would have never even thought it was a bedbug bite as they look very similar to mosquito bites. But now, it’s becoming very common to see these cases, and he is well aware of how quickly an infestation can come about if not taken care of properly.
My cousin just finished telling me about a remediation job he read about where the building management had to pay $100,000 to get rid of their infestation, because no one wanted to move into the building once they heard about the bedbugs. The current tenants were very mad and blamed it on certain neighbors, making relationships in the building very tense. The landlord brought in specially trained dogs and had a freezing technique applied to the building. A week later, I had a meeting with an advertising company and the owner said that his dad’s building just went through a similar experience in NY. After receiving various quotes for the job, they called an emergency board meeting to determine who to trust to get rid of the bedbug problem. He told me that that luxury building looked like a war zone for 2 weeks.
And just this morning, my ride to work told me that he was just recently reading a book, which discussed bedbugs in the 1950s, and how it ruined some people’s lives back then. He told me that he was recently listening to a podcast on the radio about the current rise of bedbugs and how it sounded eerily similar to the 1950’s bedbug battle.
A month ago, I visited a nursing home where they had bedbug issues 2 years ago. Fortunately, they have been bedbug free ever since they instituted a protocol to protect against them.
I heard of a young lady who had volunteered in a special needs home and then woke up with bedbug bites. Her new husband rented a beautiful vacation home in England last summer and laid down on the sofa for a rest, and woke up in the middle of the night screaming of excessive itching. His family couldn’t figure out what had happened to him.
One time, I interviewed someone for a position and she mentioned how her roommate went traveling and brought bedbugs home. The roommate went to the doctor after developing welts and finally found out what the problem was. The doctor instructed them to sleep with the lights on and call in a cleaning crew immediately. The exterminator gave them a whole list of things to do, which I was told was daunting and impossible to complete.
Just this week, I had a customer called up frantic, as she just had an infestation and wanted next day delivery. She had just completed an extermination job, and wanted to encase her new mattresses and box springs before her great aunt came to visit.
My niece had bedbugs in her bunkhouse at summer camp. A friend who deals in lice called me up to ask what she should do. After hearing her parent’s story she said, “…and I thought lice were bad.” Her parents just called in an exterminator, spent $700 and then another $300 for a follow up call and were still itching at night. I referred her to one of the reputable Bedbug.com authorized distributors and he came right out to deal with the case. The issue was that the mattresses were not encased, allowing new eggs to hatch. Re-infestations can happen almost instantaneously.
I had another friend who went to visit his parents with his family in Brooklyn, NY and their son got all bitten up. His parents went with the more expensive treatment methods to get rid of the bugs, namely freezing. However, his sister-in-law in Ohio had a similar problem last year and only wanted to use less expensive, organic means which were not as effective.
The problem is that bedbugs are not going away so quickly. We all have to take a proactive approach. When I listen to some of our customer stories about how quickly they have been infected and how their lives spiraled into turmoil overnight, I can hear the sense of urgency and frustration in their voices. Too many people who suffer from bed bug infestations are forces to stress about their infestation 20 hours a day, and can’t get anything else done.
The list of occurrences is endless. But there is a proactive resolution to these anecdotes, making me proud to say that I am working for Bedbug.com. Bedbug.com is one of the few companies out there that is supplying answers and solutions to people who have been crazed with this plague – and we are a making a difference.
Bed bugs seem to be taking over New York City, one store at a time. The East 57th Street, tourist favorite, Niketown store in NYC, has been the most recent brand name to become a victim of this bed bug army.
