Miracle? You Decide!

This is another saga in the Great Bed Bug Battles. We have had progress. Steaming is doing a lot but not all, and the steam doesn't reach all the way through thick cushions. But the bites have dropped in frequency, along with gratuitous itching. Well, on Steve it's not gratuitous, with all those big bright red spots. But we don't react the same way, so why are we itching too?

At any rate, anything less than perfect is just not enough. Back to Google for more info.

Came across a NYT article, a  2019 update on one from a few years ago with more recent information on what really works. Two new pieces of information stood out. First, we need to paint raw wood and seal/block off favorite places where eggs and nymphs reside. Since both platform beds have lots of raw wood, primer is on the shopping list. Once we remove the no pest strips from there and Rich gets the steamer to work, his bed will be painted, and he can finally return to his own room. Then, mine. This way there is still a relatively pest free bed for everyone.

Second, and the one leading to the title choice for this post, is that sprinkling diatomaceous earth around where they likely crawl will puncture their bodies with all its sharp edges, relative to them, and they will bleed out. It's pretty harmless to us, but bugs think it's to die for. It won't be immediate, but if we can wait a few days, anything that's still getting to us won't grow enough to lay eggs, or if adult, die before laying them, and any nymphs still hatching out won't make it as far as us.

So, I ordered 5 pounds of the stuff. On eBay, of course. That crazy pandemic thing is keeping me from hunting for it through the stores.  Now that the holiday weekend is over and mail services have resumed, I checked in on the tracking of the package.

It said it had been delivered! On July 1st! Puzzled, I went out and searched around the choice to see where it could have possible been left that we missed it. Nowhere. Back to the computer to double check the order. All the tracking info was limited to the New York area. Usually those things take big jumps from major hubs to major hubs several states apart.

Taking another gander at the order details, I noticed it had been ordered on the 3rd. (I had to check because this crazy pandemic thing has been erasing my sense of passing time.) I'd thought it hadn't been that long ago, and now I had that confirmed. So I wrote the seller a little note.

"You show this delivered on July 1. I find this problematic because 1) we don't have it, and 2) it wasn't ordered it until the 3rd!!!!  Please either correct your records or sell me your time machine!"