You do the Math
I can’t sleep. It happens. At 3:00 AM I am watching a show on my trusty iPad when suddenly, in the blue glow from my screen, I see movement on the bedspread. I jolt fully awake, grab a tissue and squish the critter. With some trepidation, I open the tissue to see what exactly has been stalking me. To my horror, I discover that it is a bedbug!
How did we get bedbugs?!? Ugh!
Naturally, I spend the rest of my sleepless night looking up how to deal with our bedbug problem.
The next day I call the exterminator to confirm my findings and have the house inspected in order to determine just how thorough this bedbug foothold situation is.
“Only two bedrooms are infested. Not bad,” says exterminator Dave. “We still need to treat the entire house though so they don’t just move to a new spot. But since they are only in two rooms, and only one is bad, I think one good treatment should take care of them.” Dave goes on to explain the terms of the bedbug contract: 6 months’ worth of free inspections, recurring treatments are included in the price if bedbugs reappear within 30 days of each treatment, and encasements for mattresses and pillows. All for the low-low competitive price of $2,000.
Excuse me, what? Breathe. I sign the agreement.
Exterminator Dave was wrong. We had to have the entire house treated 3 times. We had to wash every bit of fabric in the house three times. We discarded two suitcases, all of our backpacks, and all of our pillows.
“Where,” I asked Dave, “did these little bloodsuckers come from?”
Dave was not encouraging. He explained that bedbugs are hitchhikers. We could have brought them in from movie theatres, schools, sleepovers, library books, or hotels.
Hotels? I stayed in a really nice hotel recently. Could I have brought this menace into our home? Is this my fault? I called the hotel and asked about bedbugs. They were open about their extermination schedules; they encase all their mattresses and pillow; they steam the lobby furniture. I checked their online reviews. Only positivity and spotless cleaning. So our new unwelcome guests were probably not a result of that hotel visit.
Husband also stayed at a hotel recently. We considered that stay. He was traveling without me, so he went for a cheap hotel because he is not as picky as I am. It was only $153 dollars for his whole stay. He was pleased because he saved $300 compared to a hotel I would have chosen. When he came home, he put his suitcase under the bed instead of in the garage.
He did not check out the hotel’s online reviews before he went.
After talking with exterminator Dave, I checked. Every review said:
DO NOT STAY HERE! THEY HAVE ROACHES & BEDBUGS! THE ROOMS ARE FILTHY!
You do the math.
Exterminators: $2000
Laundromat: $200
New suitcases: $120
New backpacks: $250
Hotel savings: $300
One way or another, those little vampires will suck the life right out of you.
