Pests in the City

I have been here in Abu Dhabi for exactly 60 days already, to date. And still there are a lot to discover about this city. Bucketful of food to taste, places to visit and, yes, pests to exterminate lined up my things to do. First on the list is the extermination. When roaming the downtown area of the city, many tall structures serve as offices and residential units for both locals and expats. We happen to be living right in front of Hamdan Street. I know the street stretches into kilometers but its somewhere along this street. So we have a beautiful view of the city streets at night and a bountiful of sunlight during the day. I love how the streets light up the night with all the passing cars, making blinking lights. Reminds me of Christmas. Also, our housemates are fun. Most of them because most of them speak the same dialect as I do. A good thing, I don’t have to worry saying the wrong word and come out as the idiot in the group.

The room that we rented was adequately small. Enough to accommodate the bed, one cabinet, the tv and the fridge. Other stuff will just have to be stashed outside. The airconditioning was good. And I can easily adjust the temperature whenever it suits me, the only weird thing is, its placed on the wall. It’s the first time I see an AC on the floor. Anyway, it works, no issues on that. The kitchen was well, ok. You can cook, you can wash and you can even borrow the landlady’s cooking utensils. The bathroom was ok, except for the water which is scalding hot. I think I’d go bald in 3 months if I continue to bath in that water temperature. No wonder the bathroom has many pails filled with water. Some of the tenants collect water into those pails and have it cooled down before using it. But its summer, water being hot straight from the pipe is a given. It was pleasant and all until the attack.

It started with a small insect bite on my arm. It was really itchy so I just had to scratch it to my satisfaction. Then the next day, another one appeared on my arm. By the first week here in Abu Dhabi, my arms were already full with insect bites. So we thought it was just some harmless mosquito. We had to spray the room with insecticide whenever we go out. And had the insect repellant turned on the whole night. We even had the light turned on at night because the attacks usually happen when its dark. But still, more insect bites consume me, my arms, my legs, my back and my tummy. I’m all covered up. At first I didn’t believe it was the killer bed bugs. Our mattress was brand new, so the possibility of bed bugs is highly unlikely. So I continue to believe that something else was trying to cover my skin with red spots and I continue to bath myself with Calamine lotion. After the itchiness is gone scars decorated my arms and legs, and before I came here I was, well, *blush* flawless. In my own way, that is. So we have decided to move house. Our housemates were generous enough to include us while they were also room hunting.

While we were packing up our stuff, that’s when we discovered our brand new mattress was indeed covered with bed bugs nests. It was gruesome. The hair at my arms stood up while we decide what to do with the mattress. We need to shop a new one. Shopping always gives me a heady feeling of euphoria, but not this time. I kind of felt upset about disposing a brand new mattress and barely 3 months old just because of bed bugs. But that is the only solution. So we had a new mattress, did major cleaning and washing, now we are comfortable with our new home. I sleep well at night and wake up with a clear skin. I don’t have to sleep with scotch tape by my bedside anymore. Oh by the way, scotch tapes are used to catch crawling bed bugs. You can’t just squished them their blood could spread their egg that could continue to wreck havoc with all your belongings. Ewww. I know. But that’s how it works.