She asked that we do a canine bed bug inspection of her mother’s house. Then she wants her house inspected as well, as she had been visiting with her mother quite frequently since she moved in the area.
Next thing, I get a phone call from the father, who is separated from the mother and lives in his own house. Problem is that the son lives with him, but also visited with the mother several time in the past month. Needless to say, he wants a K9 inspection of his house done as well.
I then decided to talk to the mother herself to find out a bit more about her predicament. Her concerns made sense – she recently moved into this apartment and she is getting those mysterious itchy bites all over her body. But she can’t find any evidence. Following our protocol, I then asked is she had applied any pesticides in the past 30 days, to which she responded: “I just washed all the floors of my apartment with pesticides yesterday, that’s all!” She was in her seventies and she sounded so alarmed at the prospect of bed bugs snacking on her that I decided to call the daughter back and explained that I cannot bring my dogs into an environment that reaks with pesticides. It will harm the dogs.
The daughter panicked so that I proposed that since I was just 30 minutes away from her mother’s apt. conducting another inspection elsewhere, I was going to “drop by” and conduct a visual instead. With so many bites all over her body – which she actually showed me – if they are from bed bugs, we should be able to see some evidence, right?
Well, I took the bed apart, slat after slat of the bed support, screw hole after screw hole and found nothing! No feces, no cast skins, not aggregates of live bed bugs: nothing, nada, rien, nichts, niente …
Her apart was uncluttered, clean, barely any furniture, walls barren, no curtains/drapes, no carpets and very few furnishings.
I then proceeded to her couches, and again conducted a thorough inspection that resulted in no evidence whatsoever to bed bug activity. Of course, I checked the floor, the baseboards, the windows etc.
I told her a visual is not 100%. I recommended that she buys a mattress encasement and white sheets. And that she still should be vigilant and monitor her situation: if and when new bites occur, where was she – her room, her couch. Did she go outside in the evening, did she go into a public transportation vehicle recently, a movie theater etc… You see the picture.
I called the daughter and told her that it really isn’t necessary to conduct a canine bed bug inspection of her house and that of her father’s. Unless they want peace of mind.
She was satisfied and thanked me profusely and wanted to pay me -but I told her no – that I did not expect to be paid for a visual anyway – and that I wanted to help her mother out, who by the way, was very funny and very interesting. It was more important to me to help her out and eliminate a possibility of an advanced infestation.
I also handed her a free copy of Denise Donovan‘s booklet on “Bed Bugs for Landlords, Tenants and Property Management”, which she appreciated.
If you are interested in getting this valuable book, the price is $13.49 and you can obtain it by clicking on the picture below.
