Property Tales
The thing is, people can't believe it's happening to them. But there's an epidemic. Lice are everywhere. You can be rich or poor, dirty or clean. It doesn't matter. They don't discriminate. So, if you wake up in the morning with a bite and it itches, you've probably got them. My advice: call an exterminator immediately. The faster you get rid of them, the more likely you are to be protected from them in the future. The extermination's a terrible mess, and very expensive. But if you get them right away, they're gone. And, if you don't get them right away, they multiply very quickly. So don't wait.
Nicky C., a lady of means, lives in a West Side luxury condo. She adores her immaculate, always tidy retreat. Recently, her life's been disrupted-by bedbugs.
"I thought the bites I was getting on my legs were just hives. But then I remembered I'd been helping my friend-another West Side lady of means-put her apartment back together after she'd been fumigated-for a fourth time-for bedbugs. I'd borrowed some books from her. So I thought: hummmmm, maybe there were some bedbug eggs in those books. But I didn't see any bugs in my apartment, so I didn't do anything about it," says Nicky. "Then I went on vacation. When I returned home, my son, who'd been apartment sitting for me, said 'Look what I found'-and showed me a bug he'd captured under a glass. I called exterminators. They said, 'Yep, that's a bed- bug-full of blood.'"
The exterminator informed Nicky that NY has a serious bedbug epidemic, and 95 percent of the calls he receives are for bedbug infestations.
You can introduce them into your home on your shoe soles, overcoats, in paper bags or books-which was apparently what happened to Nicky.
After the exterminator identified the bug-under-glass as a member of the insect family Cimicidae, the exterminator assessed Nicky's apartment (cost: $113) to determine the extent of infestation. He found one bedbug, hiding in a light switch near Nicky's bed.
"Apparently they hide anywhere near your bed-in the seams of your mattress, or behind pictures or in the frames, and in the cracks in the floor or in clothing, upholstery or raw wood. Always near your bed, because they're bloodsuckers, like ticks. They hibernate by day. At night, attracted by the carbon dioxide you breath out while you sleep, they come and getcha," Nicky says.
Bedbug basics: About one-fifth of an inch long. Oval-shaped flat bodies. Rusty red or mahogany in color. Hard to see-except when they're engorged with blood. Bedbugs take up to six times their weight in blood, and go without feeding for 80-140 days. Females lay 200-500 eggs. The cycle from egg to adult takes five weeks to four months, depending on temperature. Adults live for about 10 months. There can be three to four bedbug generations per year.
Based on the exterminator's assessment, Nicky had one room of her apartment-her bedroom-fumigated (cost: $230).
"It was a judgment call. Having the whole apartment done would have been extremely expensive. But cost wasn't the only deciding factor. The process is really difficult-because when you're fumigated, everything has to come out. All clothing, or I should say everything made of cloth has to be laundered or cleaned. Then, after you spend several hundred dollars at the Laundromat and dry cleaners, you have to put everything away again," she says. "It's like moving. No, worse. Because when you return home after they've sprayed everything, your place looks like the Hells Angels moved you. It's total chaos. And it stinks of insecticide."
The process took several days. Nicky slept at a friend's house.
She hopes all the bedbugs are dead and gone.
"It's my own fault," she says. "How foolish was I to borrow books from someone with bedbugs? Ironically, before I knew about them, I sent one of the books to my brother-in-law in California. I called and said, 'Stuart, get rid of that book.' But he likes it. So, he's putting it in the freezer. I sure hope that works."