My First Exorcism

The Beginning

It took a while for me to realize that my first apartment was cursed with bed bugs. The infestation was slow, and the signs weren’t as obvious. The curse brought its own difficulties, and not all my things could be saved.

I had been living there for about two months without seeing any bed bugs. Mid-September, I was casually watching TV when I felt something crawling on me. I was able to pick up a tiny bug and isolate it in a cup. I had no idea what it was and let the issue go.

Over the winter months, I noticed strange signs around the apartment. First, while I was cleaning, I found a few of the bugs on the floor. I even found a few in the bathtub, which was strange, since the tub surface was too smooth for insects to climb. There was only a vent in the wall that they could crawl from.

I looked up the bugs online and stupidly convinced myself that these were harmless carpenter beetles. I got confused by the fact that I saw them during the day and infrequently. Part of me just didn’t want to deal with the issue.

There were signs in the laundry. On the bedding, I noticed spots of blood. I found this strange, but attributed it to getting droplets of blood from small cuts on the hands. When doing laundry, I found a dead bug on the mattress cover after it had been in the dryer as well. I also noticed the occasional dead bug on the bed sheets, but didn’t really connect it.

I also noticed bugs were attracted to wet wash cloths in the laundry. I attributed that to being attracted to moisture, because the winter months are dry.

So I had a cursed apartment for months, but was in denial about the situation and convinced myself otherwise. Next came my defining moment, and a bit of panic.

The End of Denial and the Start of Action

The horrible realization that my apartment was cursed came in February. I had woken up in the early morning, and it was dark all around. In my groggy moments of sleep, I thought I felt something crawl near my shoulder. I swept the area, and with this action I was able to grab something that crunched in my fingers.

When I turned on the light, my fingers were dripping with my own blood and the insect culprit. I measured it, checked online and had an epiphany of doom: the apartment had bed bugs. I had to take action immediately.

Due to a variety of factors, I had to move out. One of the biggest problems with a bed bug curse is that if it happens in one apartment, the other apartments have to be treated as well. Our bed bug curse had come from another apartment. The other problem was that the building was big, and it would cost the management a lot to have the building fully treated. Chances of re-infestation are high as well.

Preparations for moving out and back in with the parents were tiring. It takes a single fertilized female bed bug to start an infestation. Bed bugs are tricky demons who can survive more than a hundred days without a food source. I could not take a risk with bed bugs.

The easiest items to pack are dishes and pots and pans. These got immediately packed up and placed in the non-contaminated moving van. My papers, documents and books got put into sealed bins and were placed in my car.

The more difficult items were clothes, furniture and the bed components.

Cleansing Clothing

To reduce the amount of clothing that needed to be moved, I sorted carefully through my clothes. I had to treat even the items that had been hanging in the closet, because I had found dead bed bugs in a bin beneath the items. As I mentioned before, you do not want to take chances.

So I sorted things into three piles: donations, easy to wash and hard to wash. The donations were clothes that were worn out, faded, bleached or I was only keeping because they were gifts. The easy to wash items were clothes I could immediately wash in hot water and high drying temperatures. The last pile was the tricky stuff that needed to be dry-cleaned.

The problem is that dry cleaning is costly, and potentially contaminated clothes can cause a pest problem at the cleaners. I sealed these in a secure bag to deal with later. So I donated a pile of shoes and clothes. I washed all I could at the laundromat in one go. These clothes got sealed in a bag and were immediately sent to the new dwelling.

For the delicate clothes, I ended up using cold treatment. This involved me emptying the freezer at home and cleaning it. I placed a small quantity of clothing bags in the freezer and left them. Then I put in the next set of clothes and shoes. This was time-consuming, but it saved my clothes and shoes.

The difficult items to deal with were furniture pieces.

Bedding and Furniture

I couldn’t save my bed from the bed bugs. When the bed and its components were inspected, the curse was too far along. The bed bugs had infested different areas of the wooden frame. They were also nestled into the bottom of the mattress. When I looked at it, it made me wonder how I had been sleeping in a cursed bed for months.

The bed had to be left behind, and the pillows as well. You can’t really wash pillows in a washing machine. The material becomes waterlogged, and it’s like you’re trying to wash a brick in there. You’re likely to damage the machine. These bed components were left behind, and I had to go mattress shopping.

For the furniture, we packed up what we needed and placed it in the back yard of the new dwelling. Then we called a pest control company to put a tent over the items and spray them. After the treatment, all the items had to be cleansed and finally set up inside.

During moving, I wore a simple set of clothes and placed them in the dryer immediately after use. This reduced the possibility of travelling bed bugs.

The whole thing took a little over a month to finish. Afterwards, you have to deal with the psychological effects a bed bug curse brings. I was hyper-vigilant for bugs, and there is a lingering scare that not all of them are dead. Even just thinking of them makes me feel itchy.

My experience has led me to try to help others who have been afflicted with a bed bug curse. My case was mild, but there are different degrees of a bed bug curse.

Helpful Tips

• Before moving into a new apartment, check if it is listed on the Bed Bug Registry (no longer updated).
• When viewing the apartment, specifically ask the management if there is a bed bug problem.
• Take protective measures for your bed. Place bed bug interceptors on the bed legs. Keep your bed away from furniture and the walls.
• Know what these pests look like. If you spot a bug, capture it and put a sample away as evidence.
• Place dirty clothes in a bin that doesn’t allow bed bugs to crawl up into it.
• Don’t pick up furniture or mattresses from the side of the road.
• Inform the management as soon as you see a bed bug. This will help prevent a larger infestation if the issue is dealt with right away.

Be mindful that it’s too easy for a bed bug curse to start. It can begin anywhere in the apartment building. The bed protection measures will help keep you from being eaten at night.