To want to burn down my flat?

[Tortu]

Having just got rid of the bedbugs (where? Where did they come from? Bleurgh) and coped with the expense of getting everything that is 'dryclean only' drycleaned, everything fabric washed at a high heat, chucked half the clothes away (in a sealed binbag, obviously) and emptied my freezer to try and freeze the little gits out of my handwash items.....I have just seen a mouse.

Burning seems to be the only solution now.

Anybody else got vermin? I'd really appreciate some hideous bedbug stories right now.

[A1980]

Not bed bugs but fleas.

I once lived in a flat where the previous owners had had cats and when I moved in the flat was full of fleas. Disgusting and painful.

I've had squirrels in the loft that took months to get rid of. One died above my bedroom and stank the room out. It was awful I had to wait 2 days for pest control to come and remove it.

[DogsBestFriend]

I can't give you bedbugs but I can give you another story.

I'd dumped a load of washing on the floor beside the washing machine one night last summer. It was a warm night and a couple of the cats were out so I left the kitchen window open. Got up in the morning, fed the cats although one was in deep do-do for having the previous night brought in a bird which he'd dismembered across the kitchen floor, put the washing on.

When the load finished I took it out and transferred it to the tumble drier. Spun the drum of the washing machine around, like you do, to ensure that I hadn't left anything in it and saw that I had left a dark-coloured sock in there. Put my hand in to get it...

.... and found it wasn't a sock.

It was a frigging mouse! Very wet, very flat and very dead!

I screamed for England!

The cats were obviously not content with dismembered bird and so they'd brought the mouse in overnight, killed it and dumped it in my washing pile!

Does anyone want to swap a killer cat or two for a well behaved goldfish?

[Tallulah1978]

Here, I'll make you feel better. I have lived in my flat for 7 years and live straight onto wideopen pastures which could be to blame. I am by no means a clean freak, but neither am I gritty. We have had rats in the roof, which when died caused an infestation of carpet beetles. Then we had mice. Most recently, having had two dogs for ten years, neither of which has ever had fleas, we have suddenly been infested with fleas which we are struggling to get rid of. As I am 16 weeks am keen to get rid of them, particularly as they seem to love pregnant lady blood - no word of exaggeration I have had nigh on a hundred bites over the last month. Happily, my three year old son appears immune and even tho 8 have found a couple of the little blighters on him, he has not had one single bite. Not one.