Bug Bomb

For a while, we weren’t sure what was going on that Geneva had bites on her arms.  She’s always been an extreme mosquito magnet, and it is spring, so it was not unreasonable to think she might be experiencing attacks that no one else suffered.  However, then Laurent began getting the bites, and we grew suspicious.  Then she found a tiny bug and captured it for examination under the microscope, and it was confirmed: Bed Bugs.  (I will refrain from posting a photo here, for the sake of the squeamish.  Of which I am one.)

Once we’d confirmed, we needed to deal with it immediately.  We scheduled an inspection by a trained professional, because there was no way we could do it on our own.  He came in on Saturday, and determined that the problem was limited to the girls’ bedroom and probably the laundry room.  We are so thankful for the tile floors that prevented their migration elsewhere!

Then began the excavation.  ALLLLL the clothing in both rooms (except the hanging items in the laundry room/family closet) had to be bagged up and removed from the house completely.  He said none of it could come back until it had been washed at the laundromat.  Out came the super-sized lawn trash bags, and we ended up filling about 12 of them (this includes, of course, bedding for three beds plus a couple of extra afghans — just so you don’t think we have THAT ridiculously many clothes.  Not that we don’t…).  This was on Saturday, remember, and had to be done asap because he was scheduled to come back and treat for the bugs at noon on Sunday.  I had never heard how they treat for bedbugs before, and it’s pretty cool.  They bring in super heaters, close up the affected area, and turn it into an oven for 5 hours to kill all the critters and their eggs.  They also spray the rest of the house around the baseboards for good measure.  In consideration of the use of the heaters, of course the A/C in the whole house must be turned off to allow the heat to work.  For that reason, we planned to be out of the house all afternoon.

So early Sunday we were off to our usual church routine — with the exception of Oma, who, because our white van is in Show Low being fixed, Paul had to take the van I normally drive her in and the kids to church in to pick up our Gonzales kids, and I had to drive the blue sedan with the four kids.  We’ve tried six in a sedan when the kids were smaller, and it was tight — now?  No way.  So instead of coming to church with us as usual, she went to visit Mater Misericordiae with Jeff (and consequently enjoyed a more leisurely morning as well!) — and then spend the rest of the day with him.    Since Oma was not there to wait with Jacob for the rehearsal hour before mass, Jacob came and sat in on our rehearsal, and then was able to find his dad once we went over to the cathedral for the start of mass.

After church, we did a speedy Costco Pizza lunch, then Paul took our kids straight home in Blue, while I drove the Gonzales kids home (that was three stops, so it took about 45 minutes), and by the time I got back, the bug man was there and he and Paul were in the thick of preparations.  My plan was to try to get some of the wash done right away, at least enough to get us clean clothes for Monday, and I didn’t have much time, because the girls had to be back at church by 4pm to rehearse the youth choir for the 5 o’clock mass.  So we hopped on it, and managed to get one giant load (equivalent of 6 loads) through the wash and dry and fold.  Paul showed up and said they had kicked him out of the house so they could do the spraying, and he couldn’t come back till 4pm, so we went and grabbed a snack at BK.  Then I had to take the girls to mass, and Paul took Jacob back home.  By the time we returned from mass about 6:30, everything was finished and the house was returning to a livable temperature.

While I was gone, Paul took some pics of the equipment.  Very impressive!

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We are now about to begin what I pray is our final day of laundromatting with the last 5 bags of clothes.  While it’s a pain in the patootie to have to do all of this laundry at once, the up side is obviously — we get caught up!!  😀

So, no more complaining: on our way rejoicing!!