Hi Everyone,
I'm posting this mainly to vent out my frustrations and confirm that my choices are for the best. My parents are separated. Long story short, about a year ago in 2016, a tenant in my dad's apartment building had bed bugs. The pests spread over to our unit and because my brothers go back and forth between my parents, they had brought the bed bugs over to my mom's. At my dad's the land lord had brought PCO to our building and heat treated all the rooms, however at my mom's didn't do much besides bug spray and leaving the light on. (She believes leaving the light on keeps the bed bugs away)
Fast forward to now, the bugs returned to my dad's place. Most likely brought back from my mom's place because after a year, she still hasn't gotten rid of them. I think what finally broke me was waking up on Christmas day 2017, to several bites all over me. We were spending Christmas eve at my mo'sm, and I rarely go over to her place because i know she still had the bugs. When i woke up to the bites hurting and found two tiny buggers right by my side of the bed I freaked out. I honestly do think i could have handled it better, but i freaked out at my mom and begged her that she needs to get the an exterminator and get rid of them. No more ignoring the problem, we need to get rid of them. She said she couldn't afford the professional, i told her the landlord is responsible for this. She's renting and just like my dad, the landlord should be able to get an exterminator in to get rid of these buggers. If they insist not to pay it, I offered to pay for the treatment. I could have said it better, I know I hurt her. She blamed me that it was my fault the bugs bit me because I didn't leave the light on. She told me that I don't understand, that it's not that easy and that I hurt her a lot from what i said. Since then she refuses to speak to me.
Ever since that day, I've taken the bed bug situation way more seriously than my family. Drying all the clothes and bed sheets (damn expensive because my dad's has coined laundry), vacuuming almost every other day, clothes and belongings are double bagged. When i leave to go out, I don't change into clean clothes until 10 minutes before leaving and when I come back home I almost right away bag up my jackets and everything i wear. I thought for a while that I may be over exaggerating because the bad infestation is at my mom's not my dad's, but I was getting bites and had found a couple of bugs in my bed in my dad's place. His place is not in the clear. Plus my boyfriend has voiced his concerns that I might have accidentally brought a bug over. I don't that $1000-$2000 bill over him.
Then I was able to get an inspector to come in and I was disgusted and shocked to find out that in one of my brothers' bedrooms, ( has an old sofa chair) we found more than 10 eggs, several nymphs and a more than 10 adults. This was at my dad's place, where I thought it wasn't as bad.
I thought, finally my family is going to take me seriously. I'm not being obsessed over these bugs. I'm not being crazy and over reacting. But no... My youngest brother came up to me recently and we had a huge fight over how wrong i was for hurting mom and that I am overreacting because bed bugs are normal. It's normal to get them... I said no. look around, ask people, they will not think it's normal. Google it and the first few links listed are how to get rid of them.
An exterminator has come into my dad's (sadly not heat treatment but it was chemical, though I tried begging our landlord for it, it wasn't our choice), I feel like it's all for nothing. My mom still hasn't gotten rid of them, so it's only a matter of when they would come back to my dad's. I can understand why mom thinks she can't afford to deal with it because she's both working and going to school, school takes up more time and so she can't work/earn as much. But this has been happening for over a year, nothing much has changed, if not now then when?
Now I am being forced to leave and live on my own. Luckily I do have some money saved and I am going back to school in September. This is a big step and honestly as sad that it's come to this. I really don't want to move out but becuase of these last few months, I have no choice. My dad thinks I am pushing my family away but they're the ones who aren't dealing with it. As a whole we aren't doing much to deal with it and when I'm the one who comes out saying that we need to get rid of it I'm being shunned away because I'm overreacting, I'm obsessed, I hurt them. No one cares. And I'm tired of dealing with these bugs. I'm out.