Murder and mayhem at the Vigilant

These last two weeks at the Vigilant the bugs have resurfaced for spring, only to be hit with more cold weather; but they are regrouping in the woodwork, out of which they will emerge. So be ready New York, this breeding ground of bloodsuckers is getting ready to send out its troops. While the bugs moulted and hibernated, much was going on with their human hosts. One man was set to be evicted, but I stepped in and advised him of his rights and told him he may well be severely overcharged. So he looked into it and stood his ground. The management tried their best to get him to leave, offering him $1,000, but he declined. We went to dinner and came back around 7pm to find police in the building. At first I thought they had called them to evict him, which would not be legal; but instead I found that a friend of mine had committed suicide. So one man got to stay, another left for good... The next week cops were called again, this time because someone wrote on the bathroom walls MURDER: ALBERT WAS MURDERED. I do not doubt that the owners are up to some nasty stuff, but murdering a tenant, even one who gave me information and once considered joining a rent strike, is beyond them. Maybe not morally, but murder takes a bit of planning, timing and bravado. The management can hardly keep paint on the walls, let alone slip into a room and force a tenant to swallow pills and leave a note. So no. This is one conspiracy theory I do not buy, but some may believe it. Maybe there is something I do not know, and it was suspicious that at the very time I was helping a tenant stand up to them another tenant passed away...but this world is full of coincidences. So I am not calling the police with mere speculations; which is what they are wont to do to, as every time some idiot writes on the bathroom wall or a toilet jams they call the cops and point the finger at me. Some detective is getting quite a file. I just hope he has the same view towards evidence of a crime that I do, and does not send the SWAT team to my door for that leaking loo on my floor...better to send a plumber and fix them all for a change. And oh, speaking of suspicions about crimes, I am not alone in thinking that this hotel is deliberately being used to breed bedbugs as an act of bioterrorism...but, without proof, I cannot call the NYPD. And it could well be just incompetence, apathy and greed. Which are not quite crimes in this city...

Borax recommended for use against bugs

In the New York Daily News, a letter by Howard Scott Pearlman extols Borax:

"Borax has the ability to get on insects' skin and then suck the moisture out of their bodies. If you do laundry with borax soap powder, your clothes and sheets get a borax residue on them. Unsuspecting bedbugs pick up that residue and take it back to their nests, where all their nasty little friends meet Mr. Borax, dry out and die. Borax soap powder can also be sprinkled on carpeting and left for days, providing you do not have small children or pets that will eat it."

27 January, 2011.

It may or may not work, I would assume that they would get hungrier (or thirstier...) and go for more blood...on average adults eat once a week. They can fast for over a year.

Vaguely I recall borax being illegal to use in New York as a powdered bug deterrent, but I am not sure. But this is worth knowing about. My own flat has seen a decrease in the bugs, which I attribute to more use of ziploc bags and therefore loss of habitat.

Also, is this a free ad for a product - or is it reality? I wonder if it only makes the critters hungry, and rather than dry out and die, they just go for more blood. At least Mr. Pearlman is not selling us on DDT.