bedbug blues

I spent the morning relaxing with Bret, glad to have the day off.  It wasn’t until I finally decided to shower and get ready that I realized I had a series of bug bites on my feet.  I wrote it off instantly to lying in the grass in Devonport on Sunday.  However, Bret noticed dozens more on my arms, and after further inspection, they were scattered all over my legs, hands, and torso.  Oh well, I seem to be susceptible to bug bites, after collecting 70 chigger bites on a camping trip a few summers back.  It wasn’t until the bites started itching horribly , welting, and practically multiplying that I grew concerned.  A friend living in a different room complained of the same bites, and that’s when I knew…bedbugs!

Bedbugs are the bane of any backpacker.  They can travel in luggage and go for months without feeding.  I’ve gone seven months myself without a single bug bite, except for one sand fly from Milford Sound.  Seventeen dollars worth of hot water and high heat laundry cycles, 100 bedbug bites, two bug bombs, and a room change later, I am frantic to heal the little buggers on my skin.  I am already a bit germophobic, especially in the shared, confined, and often messy spaces of a hostel, but now this?  I am taking all of the precautions to rid myself of the pesky pests.  Any advice?!

I'll spare you the picture this time...Bret was worried it would turn people away!!!