Busy!

It's in my nature to research to the point of obsession. So, the onset of our bedbugs has resulted in my devouring as much information as I can on them. Unfortunately, it is difficult separating the actually useful information from the downright paranoid. I have read how bedbugs will live in everything from your keyboards, TVs, PCs and books and refuse to die, and conversely, how sealing off your mattress and dealing out a couple of doses of professionally applied pesticide will shift them eventually. I even read somewhere that bedbugs will climb the walls and ceilings, position themselves over your bed and drop onto to you to get around some of the anti-bug measures used on bed legs. I'm not sure how widespread this last one is, but it certainly makes you think.

Today we continued double-bagging all our possessions after declaring them bug-free. I was rather upset to find that they had had the audacity to lay eggs in two of my soft toys (only the sentimental no-way-to-replace-them ones, so not too big a deal) and despite neither of us have been bitten for about a week and the eggs were cases so not live, I've still decided to freeze them all for two weeks just in case. I feel this is a good compromise between just throwing out everything in a paranoid state of mind, and being too complacent about it.
I also soaked some back packs in nigh-on boiling water that were too big to fit in the washing machine and a couple of dead adults floated out. I think the pesticide from the original pest control visit is probably what killed them though. These little bastards can survive a surprising amount of heat, but I tried going for shock tactics and plunged the bags in so they had no chance of gradually getting used to the heat.

The battle continues. It's still too early to see who is winning. We are still in the cautiously circling each other stage, carefully sizing each other up.