I debated for weeks as to whether or not to write this post. Ultimately I decided to go forward with sharing our story, mostly because it will help to explain our former state of mind when we tell people back home how difficult our transition to the UAE was in our first 6 months here.
Some time back in mid-March, I noticed some tiny blood spots on Connor's bed sheets. It was around the same time that he was getting nosebleeds again from his previous nose injury, so I assumed he was having slight nosebleeds during the night. When I took off his sheets to replace them, I also noticed what appeared to be black ink stains in certain areas. I figured Connor was doing his homework on his bed and let his pen leak somehow. After I washed and folded his sheets to put them away, I realized that the blood and ink spots were all over the surface of the sheets -- top, middle, bottom, sides. Jeff and I joked about what a crazy sleeper Connor was, and I even mentioned to my mom and Jeff that we needed to visit the plastic surgeon again regarding Connor's nose, because it shouldn't be bleeding like that. I put a new set of sheets on his bed and didn't think about it again.
Around 2-3 weeks later, I was preparing Connor's bedroom for Collin and Kevin's visit. I stripped Connor's bed again and took everything to the laundry room. It was a different sheet set this time, and when it was piled in the laundry room, something on top of the sheets caught my eye. At first glance, I saw more ink marks heavily concentrated in one corner. On top of the ink marks was a little black bug, alive and moving around slowly. It was at that moment that EVERYTHING CLICKED in my head. These stains on the sheets weren't nosebleeds or black ink marks. These were bed bugs. A real life, cringe worthy, awful infestation of bed bugs!
I began having a bit of a panic attack, completely grossed out and horrified at the situation. I ran upstairs to inspect the mattress and mattress cover, and sure enough, I found more evidence and more bugs.
Let me just say, I'm completely mortified (and experiencing some slight PTSD) by sharing these pictures, but like I said, this will explain why our spring was so difficult. And who knows, maybe this could even help someone to understand the signs. I sure wish I would've known these things before it happened to us.
As I was going through Connor's room, shuddering at the sight and thought of what I'd discovered, Jeff began calling pest control companies in the area to request treatment. We had someone come for an inspection later in the day, and they confirmed the bedbug infestation. They informed us that the best method of treatment was extreme heat, which would kill all bugs and their eggs. They would have to take apart the bedrooms, remove heat-sensitive items, and bring in heaters to heat the rooms to 140-150 degrees Fahrenheit!
Through this ordeal, I learned way more about bedbugs than I EVER wanted to know. Their appearance, life cycle, behavior patterns, etc. Most parents have dealt with head lice at some point with their kids, and bed bugs aren't all that different. They are known as the ultimate hitchhikers -- they can travel via any means like furniture, suitcases, clothing. Once you have them, they are extremely difficult to get rid of. A combination of heat and chemicals, as well as constant monitoring in affected areas, seems to be the best treatment.
Jeff and I tend to be a little paranoid about this stuff. We were so mortified and grossed out by the situation that we went a little overboard on the treatment. We took apart our entire villa of furniture and had everything treated, even our downstairs furniture, despite not having any signs of a problem there.
It took days and days to take everything apart, apply the heat treatments, send our linens off for professional cleaning, do about 547 loads of laundry (on the HOT setting), and then finally put everything back together. We did this process on two separate occasions, to make CERTAIN that we were rid of the infestation. The pest control guys became our new besties.
Even just typing this post and sharing all of these photos gives me the creeps all over again. Such an unclean and unsettled feeling!
The biggest question throughout this entire ordeal was, "How did this happen?" The problem-solver in me just went crazy trying to figure out how we developed this infestation. The timing of the infestation was consistent with the arrival of our belongings from overseas. We checked with our moving company as well as our landlord, thinking our belongings could have been infested from the international move or maybe the bedbugs were already in the villa. There was also the possibility of picking up a bedbug from the many hotels we stayed in before we moved here. In the end, the truth is that it's nearly impossible to figure out where the problem originated. We simply have to stay vigilant going forward.
From what I've been reading in the news, bed bug infestations are on the rise around the world. If nothing else, I hope that sharing this update could help someone else identify when they might have a problem. I'll never look at bed sheets (or hotel rooms, suitcases, used furniture, etc.) the same way again!!
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