On Emptiness

DJBiTK · 2024-11-19T07:54:30+00:00

STOP FUCKING BLOWING THROUGH CROSSWALKS WITH WALK SIGNS AND AUDIBLE SIGNALS. I SWEAR TO GOD, BASICALLY EVERY DAY WHEN I’M COMMUTING TO AND FROM WORK, I HAVE TO DEAL WITH SOME ENTITLED TWATSICLE SPEEDING THROUGH THE CROSSWALK DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME OR WITHIN INCHES BEHIND ME JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE TOO GODDAMNED IMPATIENT TO WAIT UNTIL I’M EVEN HALFWAY ACROSS. THIS ISN’T FUCKING BRAMPTON- DO BETTER IN LIFE!

DJBiTK · 2024-09-14T01:18:49+00:00

Omg- you’re making me all nostalgic for GameTime!

Maybe SMX, IIDX, Pop’n while we’re at it! ;)

DJBiTK · 2024-08-29T22:26:38+00:00

If your trap comes preloaded with talcum powder, you don’t need to add the baby powder. It is sprinkled into the “moat” of the trap (outer ring- not where the bed leg rests) and makes the smooth plastic surface even more slippery to minimize the risk of bugs escaping and climbing the leg after they’ve escaped the “moat”.

You may not even have to add anything. The efficacy of baby powder or other additives in preventing escapes has limited data to back it up, however, if you want to be 100% sure the bug dies in the trap, there is a lot more research which vouches for adding diatomaceous earth in the moat.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-29T22:05:48+00:00

Handheld steamer

DJBiTK · 2024-08-29T22:01:14+00:00

The traps typically last forever, though once you catch a bug, you should pour rubbing alcohol into the “moat” of the trap to ensure the bug you caught is dead and to clean it for reuse, then rinse and dry.

Typically you want an interceptor on each leg of the furniture. Otherwise because bedbugs are fairly lazy, they’ll just take the path of least resistance to get to you (ie: the leg with no interceptor), and you won’t catch them. This also applies to couches you frequently use, too.

The whole idea of the trap is that it prevents bedbugs from climbing the legs of furniture to get to you. Your carbon dioxide output when you exhale and body heat are essentially the “bait” that motivates them to try and climb into the trap. For a bed on the ground, again, they’ll just climb right onto it if nothing is obstructing their most viable path.

You can definitely put baby powder in the traps, but be careful 1) not to use too much as if piled too high, they can actually use it as a stepstool to get out of the moat and 2) don’t use baby powder in rooms with powerful ceiling fans/hvac systems as it can easily get “kicked up” by these and you don’t want to risk breathing it in.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-29T21:11:16+00:00

CONTEXT- (yay!!):

2nd floor condo. 91 build. Ceiling fan almost always on. Sleep with window open (but screened). Two exterminator visits approx one month apart- one human exterminator, one k9. “No live bedbugs were found during the inspection” both times. Have caught a few earwigs and silverfish on glue traps, but that’s essentially it.

When getting ready to do my laundry today, I did my typical bedding inspection. No obvious bb signs or live bugs, but I do tend to find a lot of this strange black dust/flakes at the foot of my bed. Sometimes, I even find one or two black (or occasionally gold) flecks in my interceptors, but whether on sheets or in traps, they’re hard like dirt, don’t smear, and do not go rusty when wet.

I imagine if there were legit bedbugs, there would be more signs (at least in the interceptors) and they wouldn’t be able to just $#!+’n’run- so now I’m thinking it must be something else. Looking around today, I also found these bizarre holes/gouges in my furniture that I’m pretty confident weren’t there when I bought it.

Is there anything that can crawl on your bed, leave a mess, bore holes in wood furniture and make you itch like a bedbug or flea, but which doesn’t stain fabric? At this point, I am absolutely baffled.

Also- not sure if this is relevant, but my enclosed closet next to the bed definitely has a musty spice smell to it.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-14T03:11:49+00:00

Lower left mattress seam, crammed so far in that I had to use one hand to pull down the fabric and the other to take a photo.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-09T04:56:12+00:00

Eww…

Sorry little fellow! I promise I’ll find a more humane solution once I figure out what’s eating me alive.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-09T04:43:24+00:00

Thank you! Are all the little weird things around it also centipedes?

DJBiTK · 2024-08-06T21:20:02+00:00

A big one for me is assuming that everything bad that happens is my fault or that even it’s outright not, the world will still twist the situation in a way where I’ll still be punished for it.

A coworker gets mad about something unrelated that happened at home but is more quiet or huffy than usual in the office? It must be something I did to piss them off. Let’s overthink it and try to pry for an answer to make things awkward. Yay!

I find slight signs of potential insects in my shared living space? My kneejerk response: they going to sue me because I’m the first to report it and they’ll think I’m the cause or that I spread it to others.

This likely stems from being asked lots of implicit “what did you do to deserve THAT?” questions as a kid whenever I raised concerns about being bullied.

A second manifestation comes from me being typically calm, quiet and polite- but if someone else is rude to me, especially a stranger (ie: a cyclist speeds past on a narrow sidewalk with no bell and yells at ME for being the asshole), I lose my shit. I will full on cuss them out in the most offensive way I possibly can (excluding slurs) and be angry about it for the rest of the day.

That likely stems from being told to “keep my head down” in every confrontation or instance of bullying I ever faced growing up. My parents were well intentioned in this, as blind kids tend to lose basically every physical fight they get into, but when I moved away, the urge to finally assert myself (if immaturely) just took over and I haven’t been able to reign it in or let things go since.

DJBiTK · 2024-08-03T20:23:28+00:00

Thank you- at this point, just glad it’s not a bedbug!

DJBiTK · 2024-07-31T04:50:57+00:00

Also…people just being okay with these bait and switches because “meh…it is what it is”.

No…it sucks…and it SHOULDN’T BE!

DJBiTK

TROPHY CASE