Bugging Me

[Eamar]

Urrrrrgh bed bugs >.<

A place I rented for a few months a couple of years ago came with this charming... extra, in a big way. It was horrendous. The bites were unreal, it looked like I had bubonic plague or something, and I just didn't trust anything. Even after repeated exterminator visits when they were ostensibly removed, the paranoia was ridiculous. Before leaving that house, I had to wash all my clothes and towels on the highest heat setting possible. Twice. [small]Ok, maybe three times.[/small] And I was still paranoid a few would have managed to hitch a lift to my new place. I still check the mattress from time to time.

The most infuriating part was that the landlord tried to blame me for the infestation, despite the fact that it was clearly long-established. Fortunately I was able to give her the contact information for everywhere I'd lived/stayed in the last year, all of which confirmed they'd never had a bed bug problem. To her credit, the landlord did then stump up the costs for the exterminators, new bed, etc etc.

You're right though OP, bed bugs do change you. *shudder*

 

[Rylot]

We had an infestation of German Cockroaches. They're pretty small and not much of a bother but holy fucking shit do they breed quickly. It took about two weeks from seeing the first one to a full blown infestation. After about a month there were several hundred living under our fridge. It took five or six months and two different companies (Orkin guy wasn't cutting it so we went with a local company) and we're now rid of the little fuckers. If we ever see them come back we've decided that we're gonna just burn the whole house down. Way easier that way.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

I'm quite lucky in that in addition to living in the UK, where it's usually to wet and cold for insects to bother most of the year, I grew up in a house that had a roost of pipistrelles living in the roof.

Spoiler

As well as being cute and fluffy, they eat all the insects. It did get weird when you could hear scurrying sounds in the wall when you where trying to sleep, but you get used to it very quickly

There's actually a variety of bedbug called the batbug that would love to much on your little friend there. Luckily they're not so interested in people, but will nest in homes that bats live in or near. Still pipistrelles are cute pest control, much better than spiders.

I used to get a lot of roaches. I swear, when I turned on my light when I walked into the kitchen, for less than 1/10th of a second, at least half the floor was brown to black. It was disgusting.

Now that's where bug bombs come in handy. Nothing takes care of roaches like a good nuking, although if the roaches are coming from somewhere else (like a sewer issue or a neighbor) then they'll just bounce back. I've never had to deal with roaches that bad, just thinking about it gives me the creeps. I remember laying in my bed at night and listening for the sound of a palmetto bug flutter it's wings. I had one land on me in my sleep, it was horrible.

 

[General Winter]

Anybody who complains about Canadian weather, don't. They keep all this stuff away.
Whenever I think of this stupid winter, I just think of all the creepy crawlies that exist further south, and it makes me feel a lot better.
Although, my grandparents had a big infestation of ticks awhile back. Man, those things are awful. I shudder just thinking about it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nothing's worse than roaches for me. Filthy fucking creatures.

Would it gross you out if you heard my family and I are breeding Argentinian Roaches as food for our Bearded Dragons? Because we are and they are strangely endearing bugs.

Are they any different from the roaches you find in US soil?

I think so, they look like this:

Spoiler

They don't fly or climb walls, so you just get a big box, get a heater, fill it with egg cartons and away you go, one good breeding colony, they don't smell or make noise either (except some scuttling when you open the box)

Much different than Cockroaches, the ones that waste no time in trying to piss everything within a 5 mile radius off...I remember on holiday we had one fly into our hotel room and it wouldn't leave no matter what we did, we caught it and tried releasing it, then it flew in before we could shut the door! God I hate Cockroaches!

Well, I know what "Argentinian Cockroaches" look like because I live in Argentina To me they're just "cockroaches". That image there is exactly what a cockroach looks like. American roaches can fly???

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

You're right though OP, bed bugs do change you. *shudder*

Don't worry, when the bedbugs overrun the Earth, as they're slowly doing, and all those people who doubted us are infested, we will be the ones who know how to deal with the problem,

and the masses will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll whisper "no."[footnote]Watchmen reference, I'd probably actually help.[/footnote]

 

[Nowhere Man]

My last apartment had house centipedes. Bastards would show up every late spring and not let up until mid to late fall. They were invasive as hell and hauled ass whenever you moved in to try to kill them. They would show up in the most random spots on my walls in the late evenings and I'm a bug-phobe so this would cut into my sleep on the worst of nights. I hated those things. Gives me shivers just thinking of them.

 

[Asita]

I generally don't mind 'creepy crawlies' so long as they aren't in my home. Of the ones that have gotten in, I think a special mention goes to wolf spiders. They're pretty much harmless and help keep other bugs in line, but it's still irksome when they get in the house, and that image right there isn't too much larger than they are. Now I'll be honest, I don't much care for squashing anything larger than a mosquito (especially if it has a hard exoskeleton. The crunch always makes me feel queasy), so I'm more apt to corral those spiders out the door than swat them...a tendency which served me very well when I saw this:

Spoiler

Again, surprisingly close to life size.

Notice all the bumps on its back? Those aren't a part of the spider. Those are the spider's babies hitching a ride on momma. Try to kill momma and those little guys scatter.

 

[Rad Party God]

We have a lot of scary critters here, we have Black Widows, flying cockroaches (more annoying than scary), scorpions (one actually stung me twice, luckily I was too drunk for the poison to even take effect), but the ones that I fear the most are these little bastards:

Spoiler: Dengue Mosquito

When they sting you, they're kind enough to give you the Dengue virus into your bloodstream and your immune system starts to get crazy, giving you severe fever for a few days at best and they could kill you at worst, so basically, if you don't treat yourself immediatly after you start feeling the symptoms, there's a high risk of it killing you.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Bed Bugs are terrifying. I think I'd rather my apartment was overrun with Wolves.

 

[RJ 17]

Spoiler: Bed Bugs

The worst thing about them is that it takes an Act of God in order to truly purge an infestation. Seriously, you have to leave your house for a week with this big fuck-off furnace-thing cranking the heat in your house to OVER 400 DEGREES (F)! And god help you if you live in an apartment that gets infested with bed bugs...yeah, that building will never be uninfested until the day they tear it down.

Snip

Oh god why... why would you explain to me about these bugs? I thought this would be a fun thread but- now i'm terrified. Bed bugs especially. April fool's is long past now, so doing this is just cruel D:

Just imagine your place is infested with Fluffle Puffs, I'm sure that'll ease your mind. =3

OT: For me, it's simple...

Spoiler: These little bastards...right here:

Can't quite make out what your looking at?

Spoiler: Here's just one of the little buggers...

That's right, the Asian Multi-Colored Lady Beetle. A.K.A: The Lady Bug.

Seriously, every fall my city gets absolutely overrun by these things. Their numbers darken the sky, and we can't fight in the shade! Every building is absolutely covered in these things, much like Eclipse Dragon's love bugs...which we get swarms of as well. Seriously, you'd think there'd be a turf-war going on between these tiny bastards but nooooo, they just want to swarm all over everything...including each other. It's all fun and games until they start seeping through the cracks in your house and invading your livingspace.

Spoiler: And lets not forget the arachnids, shall we?

I don't know what kind of spider this is, all I know is that it looks like a frickin' Queen Alien, and I found six of them in webs all around my front door. It was an ambush!

 

[Padwolf]

You... you have made me itch! I can't take it! Now I'm going to become paranoid. All those bugs are terrifying and I hate the thought of them. But the one thing that bothers me the most are moths. I really hate moths. I think it's because those little buggers are not scared of anything. They will fly where they please, they will get in your face and then fly off as if to say "Hahahahaha I win!" They will fly all over your bed, fly on your pillow just as you are getting ready to sleep.

I'm thankful I live in England and don't have to deal with half the stuff the rest of the world does. However, I really hate moths. Or any kind of fly for that matter, really. Bah now I'm all itchy!

 

[Caiphus]

The only problem I've had with bugs was a cockroach infestation when I was living in Dubai. It was taken care of while I was at school. My mother told me about it. Apparently the exterminator lifted up the drain covering outside, and... nothing happened. Then he sprayed his gooey scoo into the drain, and about a hundred cockroaches swarmed out. Or so mum told me.

So I'm glad I was at school. My 8 year old brain probably wouldn't have handled it well.

Some friends have had experiences with bedbugs. I don't know if I need to specify: there are no good experiences with bedbugs.

Otherwise, I can't stand spiders. Creepy bastards.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Apparently, a sufficient amount of cobwebs will make your house Mormon proof.

My mum was sitting in the lounge room, heard people come up the driveway a bit to go door to door preaching, looked at the path to the front door and changed their mind.

 

[Zhukov]

Ohhhh, nothing much in the way of bugs where I live.

...

Except that every once in a while I look up and see one of these bad boys scuttling along the wall.

Spoiler: Courtesy of Australia

 

[Tzzimy]

Aaah, i remember my service in the army and the first time i ever met bed bugs... I had no idea what those rushes on my hands and legs were, I actually thought it was an allergy so I never mentioned it to anyone until I realized it was a common army "feature" that we had to deal with. I remember while i was trying to sleep after a 0200-0600 harsh watch night shift, I saw a tiny little thing crawling up my sleeve. Then I removed my sleeve and I saw my fellow getting his back legs up while he kept biting me in a straight line. It was actually kinda funny... xD
Of course i got pesticides, special body-lotions all that kind of stuff and I managed to survive until my military service was done.
So please do not tell me EVER "don't let the bugs eat you". Seriously.