The Crazy Buggers!!

This is a weird post outlining my weird encounter with the weird 'n'th kind - the BED BUGS!! Affectionately called as 'mootta poochi' and 'mootta' by Tamizhians and Malayalis, these little bugs can make the strongest being on the earth to whimper.

USA is very famous for its Bed Bug infestation. Where ever you go, you will find them unless and until you are careful enough to take good precautions to keep them at bay. Checking a hotel room for infestation or washing and drying all the garments in extra hot water after a trip are the basic measures to prevent an infestation. Though it might be awkward, avoiding the people who already has an infestation will help too (meaning, better not let them into your house). But what will happen if you do get bed bugs? Well, I found that out first hand a couple of months ago.

Even though bed bugs used to make a grand appearance every summer in Buffalo, NY., I was lucky enough to steer clear of it. I always washed my clothes in extra hot water and was literally extra careful. But my luck ran out when I moved to California in search of employment. Since cheap housing was scarce in Bay Area, I moved into the very first house I saw. The deal was $ 550 / month with all the utilities and internet included - cheap when compared to the Rentals in Bay area and I got my own room. The house was near Lawrence Expressway in Monroe (in Santa Clara) near to public transport and shops that sell Indian food. It was perfect, or atleast that is what I thought. Until I learnt about the infestation.

It all started one day, when I started to itch like hell and upon examining the itching spots, there were lumps of three (a classic bed bug bite-breakfast, lunch and dinner). When I reported my finding to the Land lady (who was staying with me in the same house), her answer was like I got the bugs to her house and her house was clean till then. Then I realized I am being bitten only when I am in the living room and not my room. Funny that she practically lived in the Living room. And one fine day, I found bite marks on me when I woke up and realized the dreaded bugs have reached my room as well (later I found out that someone *wink wink* was snooping around my room when I was out of town for a couple of days). So I started browsing on the bugs and read on how to find them; what to look for and the like.

From Google. The black spots are the fecal matter of the bugs.

The first clue that I had bugs were the bite marks I started getting. Then on close inspection, I found small blood stains at the foot of my bed where I had squished the bugs (in my sleep) that had just finished its meal (my blood!!). So armed with my C++ book, I started inspecting the bed cover and started finding the fecal trail of the bugs. When I lifted the cover off, I found over 10 colonies of bugs (more than 100 bugs). I started squished each and every bug with my book. I removed the mattress, inspected on the underneath and killed all the bugs I could see and placed a frantic call to the Land Lady who was not in the house at the moment. She was more interested in other people not knowing that there were bugs in the house than getting rid of it.

I had a peaceful sleep that night as I had killed the bugs in my room (except the eggs and may be the little ones) and had washed my bed sheets in hot water and dried it in the highest heat setting. The lady came the next day and indirectly mentioned that the bugs were only in my room. So, I made her sit down and started hunting in the furniture in the Living room. And I found a colony with in minutes and what happened next was the most worst thing. She made me clean the whole living room (3 full couches that were in the luxurious elaborate Indian design with lots of seams and closed spaces) while she sat in the room doing her own things. She could have atleast helped me a bit given the fact that I never use the Living room and always kept to my room. But no, she did not. After all this happened, she threw me out of the house saying that she is going on an emergency trip into India with out even a 2 weeks notice. And that proved to be the best thing that happened to me. I found an another place in Bay area which became a loving stress free (and bug free) environment. I did make sure that I washed and dried everything and packed them in plastic bags before I moved into the new house.

So here are the tips and tricks on how to handle a small infestation:

1. Basic way of identification is the bite marks that always appear in groups of 3.
2. When you start seeing these bites (that itch a lot), it is time to start hunting. You might also see some blood marks as you might have rolled over in sleep and would have accidentally squished the bug that had just finished its meal.
3. A lot of website recommend waking up at around 5 AM and hunting them down with a flash light. But this is ineffective unless you have a very big infestation. Also, these bugs are fast runners and they will escape in no time.
4. You will have better chances of finding and killing them if you hunt them during the day, when they will be fast asleep. In this way, when you find them, you will be able to kill them before they realize the hunting and run away.
5. The bugs are usually colorless or light brown to yellowish color if they have not drunk blood yet. After a meal, they will be dark red to light red in color.
6. Since they are flat, they can hide almost anywhere. They are usually found very close to the places where the humans are, like, mattress, couch, chairs, etc. But as the colony grows, they migrate to all the places in the house.
7. They follow the smell of blood and carbon-di-oxide. As we exhale carbon-di-aoxide, they can easily zero in on us. For example, if you have bugs in your bed and you start to sleep in the couch, they will follow you to couch too.
8. Try to wear full sleeve tops, full pants and socks when you sleep so as to limit the areas they bite. When I did this, I got the bites in my neck and chin. So resort to this measure only after you have hunted down the first round of bugs.
9. Always look into the cracks in the furnitures, plump cushions, the seams for the bugs. They will usually be in clusters. There will be fecal stains around the colonies. Usually there will be one colony that is bigger than the rest and I read online that the colony belongs to the queen bug. Make sure you kill that colony completely.
10. If you dont want to squish them, try IsoPropyl Alcohol 90%. You can find this in any drug store like Walgreens and is a lot cheaper than other bed bug killers out there. Mix the IsoPropyl alcohol  with water in 6:1 ratio. Spray it on the bugs and they should die right away. Be careful as the Alcohol mix will harm the varnished surfaces.
11. Other problem with IsoPropyl alcohol is that it is highly flammable and people have burned down their houses when trying to get rid of the bugs. Never use it in your car and park the car in the Sun with the doors and windows closed. Also, never wash the clothes that you have soaked with alcohol immediately.
12. To stop the bugs hanging on to your clothes, put them in a plastic bag and spray the clothes with IsoPropyl alcohol+Water mix and tie the bag up tightly.
13. Store your clothes in plastic bags as the bugs have difficulties in climbing up the surface of the plastic covers.
14. Always wash your clothes in the hottest water you can and dry them in the highest heat setting possible.
15. To completely get rid of the infestation, you need to hunt for the bugs every 5-7 days as you would have missed the eggs and really small bugs, the first time you hunted.

If I come across any more ways to get rid of an infestation, I will update my entry.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention about the lady who threw me out. She wanted to get a higher rent for her place and wanted me to leave as she already made an agreement on rent with me and also I understood that the bugs were already there and I did not bring them. Two months after she through me out, she is now asking me to come back with a condition that I should pay more rent than I used to pay before. I am not crazy to do that as she also has conditions like I should not cook everyday nor bath everyday so as to save on utilities.

Thus I got rid of the crazy buggers (both the insect and the human) and set foot in a heavenly abode, the new house...

P.S: Do look into comments for more useful tips from the readers..