Introduction

Hello,

I live in an apartment complex in Perth Australia. It's located in the CBD (central business district, right in the middle of the city). I pay a lot of money for rent, and the apartment itself is trendy and exclusive with good facilities (gym, pool, spa, sauna). With that said I don't earn a lot of money, I don't own anything amazing (not even a car), I just live close to work and want to make my life into what I want it to be.

And then yesterday the worst happened.

I've been living here for a few months (4 or 5) and at some point in time started having itchy marks on my legs. At first I thought it was my shoes, as I'd just bought new shoes a few weeks before and switched back to my old ones. The marks did not go away. I thought they were mosquitoes (the apartment is located near the river and so gets lots of them) so I closed my doors when things started to get dark outside. I stopped getting mosquitoes, but the marks remained. I thought it was a flare up of eczma I had when I was younger. I started putting on expensive lotions at night. The marks didn't go away.

They were annoying, and bled a lot, but I thought there was something wrong with me. Until yesterday.

On the 27th I was up late in bed when I saw a bug walking around on it. I flicked it out of the window and thought nothing of it, that maybe it had just crawled in from outside. I consider myself an animal lover and rescue bees from the pool, and things like that.

I went to sleep for a few hours and woke up again, turned on the light, and discovered 5 bugs sitting in the corners of a book I had sitting on my bed. I thought that was really strange and killed these ones, because obviously something odd was happening. I turned the light off.

Then in the morning I woke up and got out of bed and saw bugs all over the edge of the base. I killed a half dozen with a tissue, each one spurting a whole bunch of blood - my blood.

I knew something was up but I didn't know what. I pulled all my sheets off and put them in the corner ready to be washed that afternoon. I went to work and started doing some research on the net. I discovered I had bedbugs, the images of the bugs matched what I saw, then I saw pictures of peoples bites and realised - holy crap there is nothing wrong with me, I'm being fed on every night!

I still had hope. I went home that afternoon and put some of my clothes in the washer/dryer to get the process started, thinking it might still be nothing. Then I lifted my bed up against the wall to inspect it.

At first glance I breathed a sigh of relief - there was nothing on it. Then I lifted up the base against the wall. I saw nothing at first, then I noticed some dark patches in the corners. Then I looked closer and peeled away the backing a little, and discovered there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of bed bugs, large and small, their eggs, feces, and blood stains all through the corners of the base of the base.

I suddenly felt sick. I've never seen anything so horrific. To think I'd been laying in this bed, unable to sleep, covered in bites, thinking something was wrong with me, while paying exorbitant rent and thinking it was all worth it, only to realise I was living in a place full of bedbugs and no idea and that none of the blame was mine - I was shattered.

My housemate came home, his name is the one on the lease. I confronted him straight away - showed him the bugs, explained what I'd learned about them on the net, described my bites, and told him to contact the landlords ASAP and that I'd be sleeping at work, on the floor under my desk, until they're gone. He kept saying it was no big deal, while discreetly removing the house vacuum from my room (so it doesn't get infested) and closing the door (to keep them trapped inside). Riiiight.

And I did just that! I went to work, ate dinner, slept there, went home at 5am in the morning, had a shower, got some clothes from my cupboard, and went back to work. I felt so weird being in my room, with everything turned over, knowing there could be bedbugs in my clothes, not knowing what was going to be done to fix it. Knowing that I hadn't been home that night, and they'd be walking through the rest of the house looking for someone to eat.

I've been sitting at work all day, itching in my chair. I can't help but think they're still all over me - even though I don't see any. I took photos of all the bleeding red marks on my leg from where they've bitten me in the past few days.

My housemate called me at 2:32pm. The conversation is paraphrased below:

Housemate: I called the real estate agent and they are trying to get in contact with the owner to get permission to get an exterminator.
Me: When is this going to happen? It has to be right away.
Housemate: Well I'd hope it is today or tomorrow.
Me: They have to do it right away.
Housemate: Where did you sleep last night?
Me: At work under my desk.
Housemate: Why, you can sleep on the lounge, it's a fold-out.
Me: You don't understand, they'll be in that too, and if they're not they'll walk out of my room and find me and bite me there too. The owners are likely going to have to rip all that stuff apart to see if it has bedbugs in it. I'm covered in bites!
Housemate: Well I don't have any bites.
Me: Not everyone reacts to the bites. But I have so many bedbugs, I'm sure you have them too. I'll LOOK at the couch, but I'm not going to sleep on it. And I'm taking photos of my bites.
Housemate: Why are you taking photos for?
Me: So I can take action if the agents and owner don't follow through properly and quickly. They HAVE to. It's a MUST.

So this is my plan.

- Remind my housemate this is a serious problem, and I won't be sleeping in the house until it's fixed.
- Take photos and a diary online to document everything in case things take too long or go sour.
- It's Thursday. It's a long weekend. If the real estate agents haven't been able to contact the owners yet, and there's no pest controller scheduled to come in over the long weekend, I'll be putting flyers on the community noticeboard to let them know this isn't being taken seriously but the spread of bedbugs will affect their property.
- If by Tuesday there's still no action, I'll go to the local TV station current affairs show and lodge a complaint. Then it can be on the news.

I'm totally stuffed over this whole thing. I can't use my own place, the rent is paid up 3 more weeks in advance, I can't afford to move, there's nowhere TO move on such short notice, I can't sleep, I'm totally stressed, and nobody seems to be taking this seriously. I can't even have any friends over now, or they might infect their houses too. I'm totally trapped and things are spiraling out of control.