Bed Bugs and Rituals

Sleep Tight, Don’t let the bed bugs bite … cruel way to send kids off to bed. I didn’t give it much thought till I read terrifying reports in the news of bed bugs in New York hotels, then my friend's daughter came home with them twice after trips abroad. I remember feeling squeamish as the mom described the arduous task of eradicating them. I sit here writing and wondering if the itch I feel is a new one crawling up my side. 

I arrived in San Diego on Saturday, the guy told me he had a nice room for me. When he described it as a suite looking at water, incredulously, I asked if there was something I should know about it. He said that I needed to know it had a Murphy bed. Looking out, I could see the inviting turquoise hotel swimming pool out and just beyond, a suburb of house-size white yachts docked in view of the Coronado Bridge and to the Pacific. Looking in, the room included a kitchenette and dining room table on one side of the bed hung on the wall and a living room suite to the other. What I couldn’t see were the bugs. I found them twenty-four hours after my first night in the bed. I’ve learned it takes them 24 hours to bed down into your skin. Once they do, they itch. They leave a small welt that feels like it travels… it probably does. And, once they get in your head… I mean, once you think you have them, it doesn’t matter that they attacked your leg. They are everywhere. You feel them in your scalp, crawling in your ears, down your arms, in every crack and crevice. 

When I arrived home, I borrowed my friend’s PackTite, (www.packtite.com) a large canvas container with a shelf, that heats to a 140 degrees, hot enough to kill the bed bugs and filled it twice with clothes and the bag itself. 

Long story shortened… I got through it and learned valuable lessons. I wrote this as a “glimmer”… a writing exercise when it was all over in July 2011. Since then, with my 20 or so trips a year, I’ve used the Packtite twice and now employ military-precision procedures (ok, even I know those words are beyond hyperbole for me.) One lesson learned is that I got the bed bugs from a high-end hotel in San Diego... not a flea-bag hotel in... wherever. And, since then, I've learned that they will travel home with you just from luggage and overhead compartments on planes. They are wanderers.

Now, when I return from a trip, I (usually) come in through the garage, leave my bag right outside the laundry room, immediately strip down and toss all clothes and soft items directly into the washer, or dryer- if they are dry-clean-only. Hard items, like my computer and paper, I look for evidence of bugs and take them into the kitchen or directly to my desk, and I shower. Not long after the San Diego event, I put an offer on a condo and withdrew it when I realized there was no place I could strip down in privacy… a non-starter for that place. An attached garage is high on my criteria for living arrangements.

This brings me to today, when I woke up with my ankles itching. Coming in from Atlanta yesterday morning after only a couple hours of sleep and maybe one too many glasses of wine the night before, I violated my bed bug prevention procedures. I didn’t undress or change my clothes. I took my roller-bag briefcase/suit case directly to my bedroom. I didn’t shower. I had a quick bite with my neighbor and went to the doctor for a routine physical.

As I came to this morning, I used my left foot to scratch my right one. Alerts and alarms went off in my head. My ears itched and my scalp crawled. I jumped out of bed, stripped in the bathroom, showered and dressed then stripped the bed and stuffed bedclothes and everything soft from my bag in the washer or dryer. They are there now clomp, clomp clomping hopefully heating up and shaking the life out of any insects. In the meantime, I dug out the bed bug sprays and fumigated. I have company and will vacuum after the house is awake. I might give them coffee first.

I really don’t know if I brought home bugs and that’s what made my ankles itch. It might be the flu shot I got yesterday. When I wrote about the bugs four years ago, still holds true… Like an amputee who feels a lost limb, I have cell memory of the itching and want to scratch. Hopefully, the bed bugs are physically gone, I still itch when I think of them.

Bed bugs, a fact of life for travelers, have taught me more about the value of ritual than Oprah.