Samples Samples

After much confusion and discussion, I traveled back to Public Health to retrieve my Bed Bug samples.  I decided I would bring them to the office of a reputable pest control company for proper ID.  We are in a phase common in bed bug liturgy commonly known as "DENIAL". 

DS was strapped in, ready for the ride of rabbit trails. First stop, Public Health.  Privacy laws prohibit the department from sharing the educational background of the person identifying the insect. Interesting.  I asked for a call, because I am still convinced I was given a false positive by public health, but I took my samples and headed to the pest control address entered in the TomTom. 

A half hour later, DS was sound asleep and I was in front of a large apartment building, on a very nice residential street. This was no pest control. Dejected and with no way to search for information, I headed home.

FYI - if you are looking for a bed bug specialist in Toronto...they have no main office...the address that Google brings up is an employee's home address.  This is not a problem to me, because I recently encountered this same situation with an electronic's store...however, I would hate to be an employee and realize that the general population could be arriving on my doorstep for fumigation assistance. Odd.

So I have my 3 samples, that I discussed in great deal with a friend via Skype this morning. We are just not certain that the positively labeled bug is, in fact, a bed bug. *sigh* more denial.

This evening, after a delicious eggplant parmesan dinner, DH agreed that we could move back to our bedroom.  

All we were going to do was make the bed...but after moving the bed away from the wall, rearranging our furniture and checking our mattresses for bed bug fecal matter, we found several more insect specimens. 

While not all the bugs we found looked like bed bugs (none of them IMO) we determined it would be best to have all 9 newly discovered critters be brought in for identification. If any are bloodsuckers, we now have one in our room and one in  DS room...enough for us to go ahead with selection a exterminator. 

I'm sure we could have put them all in one jar, but this is the way we packaged them up:

 

If you are a friend and I give out jam for Christmas...don't be alarmed, I'll double boil these jars prior to packaging.

(just kidding - I'm too uncrafty for jams anyway.)