I mean, really, who has bedbugs? Nobody I know. Not in my whole life. That particular scourge had never visited upon us. Not even when we traveled and stayed in motels or the homes of other people. Not ever.

And then there were bedbugs. Itchy things. Just like a mosquito, with a swollen bite that itched. A cluster of them, actually.

They don’t last long, by morning the bumps are gone. Not even a red rash where they were, just gone. You mighta dreamed it but it was too itchy to be a dream.

More bugs, bigger clusters. More bugs, more clusters… On the arms, the neck, the feet. Wherever you are not covered by clothing, or wherever the bugs can’t get under the clothing. Sometimes along the waistline where they crawl under your clothes.

We caught them from someone else. We were living in someone else’s house when HE bombed his bedroom. Our bedroom was across the hall, and I’m sure some of those bugs just packed their suitcases and moved across the hall to our bedroom. We moved out a week later. A week after that, we had bedbugs in the new house, only in our bedroom. No other bedrooms were occupied by people.

First a few bites, then the insanity of too many bites to even sleep!

So we did the logical thing. We washed everything we could. Sheets, pillow cases, and blankets. Can’t wash our pillows, wrong kind to wash.

It got somewhat better, but didn’t stop them entirely. And when you wash your sheets, the bugs retaliate and bite you more the first few nights. No idea why they do, but it is a confirmed phenomenon.

So we bought flea powder. This, my friends, is the thingamabob that does the job.

We dusted between the mattress and the box spring. Just lightly.

We dusted under the mattress pad. Just lightly.

We still had bedbugs. For six more days. They got less and less.

We laundered again, and sprinkled a little more flea powder on – between the mattress pad and the mattress cover. We keep the mattress pad in place with a mattress cover.

No bedbugs. Just a little mild wandering itchiness (no bumps) from the flea powder. Zyrtec to the rescue.

I am chemically sensitive, so we used a type labeled as “natural”. Smells of chlorine (I’m terribly allergic to chlorine), but did not irritate me very much.

But the bedbugs are gone, and won’t be back. They have a long life cycle, and generally laundering regularly keeps them at bay unless you have an infestation coming from somewhere else in the home. Once you have them, it takes something to get rid of them, but they don’t easily return if you launder even once a month.

Something about snuggling under the covers and getting all warm and drowsy without thoughts of creeping things waiting in your bedding to feast on you as soon as you drop off…

Ah… Blessed normality again.