Have you ever seen a bedbug? If you don\u2019t hail from Chicago, New York City, L.A. or any of the other frequently-bitten cities, let me spare you the Google search. According to a Time Magazine article from January 2015, Detroit ranks 2nd in the worst U.S. cities for bedbugs. These little flat blood-suckers can live up to 3 months without food, and can even turn a beloved wooden table into their newest home.
\nLike many of you, I considered a few potential character building experiences that I could have moving to another city, but never in a million years could I have seen this one coming. I mean, talk about millennials learning how to empathize; my heart really goes out to everyone else who is or has dealt with this, quite frankly, embarrassing situation.
\nWhen my roommate first complained of being bitten, instead of brushing her off, I should have realized I was actually standing at the doorway to the first stage of bedbug grief: denial. Now, with a hefty combination of sprays, powders, exterminator calls, and prayer, we find ourselves towards the end of the grieving process, somewhere between depression and acceptance\/action.
\nYou can imagine my relief when I learned that bedbug breakouts actually have very little to do with the general level of hygiene in the area they inhabit. Nevertheless, here are 3 tips I\u2019ve collected in attempts at cracking this bedbug case:
\nTip #1: The only way to get rid of them is to get rid of them; moving does not solve the issue, it simply transfers it.
\nTip #2: Drying all fabric on high heat for at least 30 minutes will kill all bedbugs and their eggs.
\nTip #3: Don\u2019t apply the same principles from your beloved college town to the real world, this one doesn\u2019t seem to transfer well. Instead, examine all 2nd hand furniture.
\nWhat are your bedbug stories? And remember: it can happen to you too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever seen a bedbug? If you don\u2019t hail from Chicago, New York City, L.A. or any of the other frequently-bitten cities, let me spare you the Google search. According to a Time Magazine article from January 2015, Detroit ranks 2nd in the worst U.S. cities for bedbugs. These little flat blood-suckers can live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,370,260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livedetroit","category-be-better","category-new-beginnings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}