The good the bad and the ugly

The good:
My landlady contacted me. She has been in touch with the condo manager and turns out the folks over in friendly number 5 are also members of the condo board. They should be looking in to a solution to the problem, and if it turns out that spraying needs to be done it may be done to the entire building, which will prevent the bugs from just moving from the main infested unit to the units next door (like mine). If this is the case, and every unit needs to be sprayed, then it may be paid for by the condo association, included as part of the fees my landlady pays every month.

The bad: I found no dead bugs today. Nothing in the DE, nothing on the tape. This may mean that the bugs weren't feeding at all last night, or it may mean I was right that their point of entry was via the wall outlets which I blasted with the DE, so any bodies might be in there. Also, further reading today revealed that the tape, while it may discourage them because they don't like to walk on the sticky surface, may not actually stop them if they are really determined they will walk right across it. Let's hope they'll just go bite someone else instead of going through the bother.

The ugly: It's topless picture time!
These pictures show why I am sure it is a bedbug problem. Bed bug bites, while they can occur singly, often occur in sets of 2 or three, because the bug feed for a moment, takes a few steps, then feeds some more, following the blood vessel under the skin.

Bites on my left collar bone. A set of 2.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites4.jpg


Just below the right collar bone, another set of 2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites2.jpg


Right tricep sport two sets of 3 bites. This is the most typical bedbug patter, rows of three.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites3.jpg


Left arm, near the armpit another set of 3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites5.jpg


A set of three on my left arm located on the bicep and inside elbow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites7.jpg


The bites on my neck form the points of a inverted triangle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites8.jpg


A single bite on my left wrist.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/monikajay/blogpictures/bites6.jpg

There are also bites on the back of my neck I wasn't able to photograph, and a few single bites on my stomach and breast that I didn't bother to photograph.

No new bites yet today, but I suspect my reaction to them may be delayed. It can, I have read, take a few days for the bite marks to actually appear. The bites that occur in the clusters are the itchiest, reddest, and largest probably due to the concentration of the venom in this area.

In other news:

Technically it's the same news, but whatever. I tidied up my over zealous DE distribution today. The stuff instantly clogged my new vacuum cleaner's filters so I will have to gradually tidy because I need to wait 24 hours for the filters to dry after rinsing them. I used a brush and dustpan to gather up alot of excess though.

My next plan of action is to wash all soft items. I will then select a week's worth of clothing, bag it, and keep it in my room. After wearing it, dirty clothing will go into another sealed bag to be washed on the weekend. All other clothing will be washed, folded, bagged, labled, sealed, and stored until the bedbug problem in the complex is solved. Should it not be solved, I will be moving out and hopefully, with items washed and bagged, I won't be bringing any bugs with me when I do.