new environmentality: The dog that gave me bedbugs

More than 7% of New Yorkers suffered from bedbugs in 2010. For a few weeks in India, I felt their pain. Perhaps my roommate and I shouldn't have adopted a street dog for a night.

By way of background, I'm a softy for stray dogs. There are millions in India. Scavenging for food. Nursing their puppies. Napping in the middle of the road. The sad part is that young litters have 4-5 puppies. Older litters have 1-2 puppies. Many of the little guys don't make it.

My roommate and I found a puppy near our favorite breakfast spot. Word on the street was that someone had "dropped him off." Translation: he had been abandoned.

So little Leo came home with us. In return, that Trojan Horse gave me bedbugs. The worst part wasn't the unsightly raised red blotches on my skin, the itch, or the embarrassment of admitting to my friends that I had bedbugs. It was the fear of going to sleep knowing that critters would be drinking my blood while I was unconscious, running across my exposed skin with their grimy exoskeletons. It was knowing that each night Cimex lectularius would be helping itself to my torso flesh.

The good news is that I may have discovered a new solution for bedbug treatment. (New Yorkers, listen up.) I found that by leaving on a large bright flourescent lightbulb, bedbugs wouldn't show themselves during the night. The theory—which is probably completely wrong and resulted in my sleeping in a blindingly bright room—is that this light prevented bedbugs living in the carpet from traveling to my bed.

A few days later, I made sure that little Leo found a home, which is a coveted, rare thing for a stray dog in India. He now lives outside, away from his owners' beds.