Category Archives: My Life

Bed bugs: False alarm?

A friend reminded me yesterday that I kind-of left things hanging on the bed bug front.  When I last wrote, we had found an unknown insect on our wall and were waiting for the exterminator to come take a look at our place.

We determined, and the exterminator confirmed, that the insect we found on our wall was, in fact, not a bed bug.  It looked like nothing quite so much as a large tick, although what a tick was doing hanging out on our dining room wall, I don’t know.

Anyhow, the exterminator came and did a fairly thorough visual inspection of our mattress and foundation, and a more cursory inspection of the rest of the apartment, and found nothing — no bed bugs or signs thereof.  As a precaution, he put dust mite covers (which apparently also keep bed bugs in or out) on both our mattress and foundation, and left two traps near the bed.

That was almost two weeks ago, and so far nothing in our traps (or in those in the downstairs apartment).  The exterminator also found no bugs or blood stains downstairs.  He did find what he claimed were bed bug molts, but no one else actually saw the evidence, and I have my suspicions.

We’re also had a few more conversations with our downstairs neighbors, and, unless there is something they are not telling us, it seems like the case for bed bugs is VERY circumstantial, with nothing more than a few bug bites that could have just as easily come from mosquitoes or spiders, and the exterminator’s claim of bed bug molts.

I’ve noticed several occasions recently where their bedroom window was open several inches without the screen in place, and mosquitoes have been alive and well here since early March, so mosquito bites seem quite plausible.  (Bats entering the apartment also seems quite plausible, but, hey, at least they’d eat the mosquitoes, right?)

If our neighbors took any trips or brought something suspicious into the building recently to make them suspect bed bugs, they have not shared that information with us, so from my point of view, it seems we may have had a false alarm.

On the other hand, bed bugs can be anywhere, as evidenced by my friend’s story of a library in a small town in Iowa, where her brother-in-law is a librarian, that treats all returned library books with some kind of UV treatment for bed bugs.

Anyway, the claim downstairs is enough to disturb our peace of mind, and we’re considering paying for a bed bug sniffing dog to check the place, though even that would probably not tell us anything with 100% certainty . . . .

Bed bugs!

As Matthew was making pancakes on what was a normal Sunday morning, things took a turn for the worse.  Around nine-o’clock, I got this call from our landlord:

“Hi, I just wanted to let you know that [the people downstairs] found bed bugs in their apartment.  An exterminator came out and treated it yesterday.”

It felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach.

First, bed bugs?!?!?!  BED BUGS???  Those which are very hard to get rid of, can go to ground and hide without a blood meal for months, only to resurface later, and are increasingly resistant to pesticides?  Those bed bugs?

And second, someone came in and chemically treated the first floor of the building I where I live, with my toddler, and you’re informing me AFTER the fact?  When it’s too late to pack a bag and spend the night elsewhere???

So, yeah, bed bugs.  I spent most of Sunday in a serious funk, researching bed bugs, trying to get Gabriel outside as much as possible, and airing out the apartment.

At that point, we had not noticed any obvious signs of bed bugs in our apartment (no bites or stains on the sheets or mattress), but I feared it was only a matter of time.  At the very least, I felt I would be constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Turns out I didn’t have to wait too long.  This morning, not ten minutes after I peeked at the bed bug info from NYC’s health department and noted with surprise that adult bed bugs are relatively large (about the side of an apple seed), Matthew spotted something on our wall.

He commented that he was going to try to catch it because it looked “unusual,” though probably “too  big to be a bed bug.”  Um, yeah, except for the whole being as big as an apple seed thing.

At the moment, Ms./Mr. Potential BedBug is hanging out in a container, and we’re waiting to hear from our landlord, who asked an exterminator to come take a peek at our little friend (and inspect our apartment in general, which they really should have done when they were here dealing with the downstairs apartment on Saturday).

So, yeah, fun times over here.  It’s not the end of the world, but, uck! I feel like I should walk through a decon unit every time I exit our apartment to avoid inadvertently sharing our little friends with the world (though the odds of them spreading this way are actually fairly slim) and perhaps walk around with a large scarlet “B” on my chest.

I’m not sure that we’ll be able to avoid treating with pesticides, since that is the most common method (and much cheaper, and perhaps more realistic for entire buildings(?), than heat treating).

No matter what happens at this point, I feel like I’ll never be convinced that they’re completely gone and aren’t waiting to resurface at some point in the future.  Le sigh.


Further reading:
Preventing and Getting Rid of Bed Bugs Safely, NYC Health Department
Bed Bugs: Integrated pest management in and around the home, University of California
Bed Bug FAQs, CDC

Thursday thoughts

Reading more bike blogs
As part of my goal to share more here about the biking side of things, I’ve decided to seek inspiration by reading more bikey blogs.  No doubt part of the reason my focus here has shifted to include lots of food-centric posts comes from the fact that I read many food-centric blogs.

I don’t have a list of favorites yet, but there are a few that I’ve read from time to time.  My reading time is limited, so I’d like to pick a handful to read regularly.  Simply Bike makes the list of a [semi]regular read, and S’s blogroll contains enough suggestions to keep me busy for quite some time.

In the fridge
As of this morning, we had no less than four types of milk in our fridge: organic soy, almond, a new local cow’s milk, and breast milk pumped during Sir’s recent sleepover at Baba’s (the last has since been consumed).

I don’t really drink milk anymore, but occasionally I crave something other than water to wash down fresh chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter brownies.  In those instance, unsweetened almond milk hits the spot.

This weekend . . .
I’ll be attending our regular veggie potluck on Friday night and looking at a couple of house on Saturday.  One house in particular could be very interesting, but there’s a big IF in the picture related to garden space.  Due to time constraints, distance, and various other logistics, I’ll probably be making both those trips by car — compromises.

Kitchen lockdown

Well, your comments on this post inspired me to continue engaging Gabriel in the kitchen.  I like the idea of one of these, but the price tag seriously curbs my enthusiasm.  While standing on a chair poses some dangers, I feel fairly confident as long as I’m standing right there with him . . .

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. . . with my leg on the chair to keep him from scooting it away from the counter — somewhat limits my productivity, but better than him fussing on the floor.

Unfortunately, he REALLY latched on to the “chair in the kitchen” idea, to the point that he would [attempt to] drag a chair into the kitchen EVERY time I set foot in the room, even if I was just going in for a minute to refill my water or quickly check on something in the oven.

It was cute for the first three times or so, but it got old really fast, especially when he greeted each and every announcement that “it wasn’t time to have the chair in the kitchen” with serious screamage.  Sigh.

In addition to the basic annoyance of his compulsion to be right there ALL the time, there was the additional safety concern that he would climb up onto the chair and access the counter top at a time that I hadn’t cleared it of dangers, like sharp knives, cheese graters, and/or breakables.

Enter a benefit of a galley kitchen.  While I love the idea of an open floor plan, with [a big, fancy] kitchen open to the dining room, living room, and/or great room, I’m currently enjoying the fact that our cozy kitchen is a completely separate room with a doorway — perfect for a basic wooden baby gate.

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I’m also thankful that my long legs allow me to easily step over the gate so I can enter and exit the kitchen freely (though stepping over it while carrying plates of hot food and breakable dishes IS a bit of a gamble).

While Sir is not thrilled about the development, he has more or less accepted it.  I’m a bit bummed to be actively excluding him from something that I want him to (eventually) be part of, but it’s an acceptable solution for now, for this stage.

Terrible twos?

Don’t let that sweet smile fool you . . .

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. . . this little guy’s been putting me through the wringer for the last five weeks.  We’re still some months away from the two year mark, but why be terrible for JUST a year, when instead you can be terrible for a year-and-a-HALF?

So, other than terrible, how is Sir these days?

Large and in charge, he’s right around the three foot mark, and he’d chunked up to the 81st percentile in weight at his 18-month visit.  He’s now over half my height and a quarter of my weight (good thing I’m hitting the weights at the gym!).

Given his height, we went ahead and switched his car seat to front facing, since the rear-facing height limit on the seat we have is 36 inches.

We’re also preparing to transition him to a real bed.  For over a year, the Pack ‘n Play served as his resting place (we never used it for “play”), but he’s more or less at the height and weight limits for the device.  He (knock on wood) hasn’t tried to climb out yet, so I’m delaying the transition a bit, hoping to smooth out some of our current sleep issues first (meanwhile, his new mattress is airing out in our basement, but more on that in another post).

He shows no signs of slowing on the growth front, continuing to eat vigorously and enthusiastically at meal and snack times, in addition to three short nursing sessions a day.

Three out of four of his two-year molars came in over the last few weeks, but as far as I can tell, that final tooth might be awhile yet.

He’s still not talking, and frustration with not being able to communicate what he wants may be part of the current behavior issue, though I think it’s more about frustration at not getting his way.

Speaking of not getting his way, my efforts to include him in the kitchen (more on that in a later post) worked a bit too well.  I thought I had a monster on my hands before, but that was nothing compared to the fact that now EVERY time I am in the kitchen, even if I’m only doing something that will take a few minutes, he must drag a chair in and be involved.  And if the answer is, “No, it’s not time for the chair to be in the kitchen,” much screamage ensues.

As it does many other times throughout the day when I thwart his very strong little will.  Sigh.

I know “this too shall pass,” but all-in-all, this phase is making working outside the home look VERY attractive again.