It’s a gorgeous Spring day in Manhattan… imagine waking up to the bright sunlight hitting the skyscrapers… then looking through your window and seeing this oversized beauty of an advertisement.
Truth is, I’m exactly the target audience for this gnarly Protect-A-Bed billboard. In a city like New York, everyone has a bed bugs story. I’ve never had to deal with them, but I remember a girlfriend moving into an infested building and having to get rid of all of her belongings: all of her wardrobe, shoes, antiques, even artwork; and pay over 5K for extermination. Now that’s what I call starting again… from scratch.
Since then, I’ve developed an obsessive fear of blood-sucking insects. I hear the word and I start itching. The moment I have a red spot or zit anywhere weird on my body, you’ll find me browsing through Google images just to make sure that this is not what bed bug bites looks like. Even now that I’ve moved to LA, I change my sheets twice a week and spend hours combing my mattress on the hunt for these little fuckers. You could say it has become a phobia. Completely retarded and irrational.
So today, my upstairs neighbor, who thinks it’s hilarious to tease me for being so paranoid, sent me an article from the New York Times in which I learned the precious information you can read below:
“Bed bug-sniffing dogs, adorable yet stunningly accurate – entomology researchers at the University of Florida report that well-trained dogs can detect a single live bug or egg with 96 percent accuracy – are the new and furry front line in an escalating and confounding domestic war.”
Wait – I could be getting any worry out of my mind would be to appeal to the services of… a bed bug-sniffing dog? Awesome!
The Bed Bug Inspectors, as featured in the NYT story, charge a mere $350 for a full inspection. To me, that sounds quite cheap for peace of mind.
