please dear god help. i have seen four of these little frickers since moving into my apartment a month ago, all little like this. i live in a garden style apartment community in piscataway NJ. what is this thing. am i doomed. pictures are so bad because i was trying to take a video. how panicked should i be.
i work for a mobile mental health crisis team. if someone is experiencing thoughts of suicide or homicide, they can call us instead of 911, and we will go out and provide voluntary support services and referrals to more long-term resources. our services are completely free of cost and require no insurance, and we will see those in need within their homes. i’ve been with them since i first graduated with my bachelor’s, and now hold a master’s and a license in social work. I GET PAID $23 PER HOUR TO TALK PEOPLE OUT OF KILLING THEMSELVES OR SOMEONE ELSE. normally i am fine with this as i have dropped from full-time to part time over the 2 years i have been there, but today i am genuinely considering nerfing my employment. we had a call and the person (who was elderly and lived alone) had a very obvious infestation of bed bugs. carcasses on bed sheets, bites on arms, and literal bugs crawling over the bed and floor area near the bed. we took care of him
and set him up with what he needed (inside for 2 hours, stood the entire time away from the furniture), then went to the car. We inspected our clothes (i am wearing my favorite jeans, my favorite pair of dr martens (sinclair boots), and my favorite thrifted vintage shirt) and found no bugs or evidence of bites on us. We then went to a store, quickly bought a change of clothes, changed into them, double bagged or threw out items we were wearing, sprayed the car down with rubbing alcohol, and went to the office. Upon getting home I immediately went to laundry room, stripped naked, washed everything I could, and thoroughly reinspected each item and my docs and found no traces before either washing them or putting them down, inspected my body again for traces or bites or bugs, then got in the shower. please bed bug community… am i safe?? my resolve not to throw up in every company car there is shrivels with each and every passing moment.