Now the question is whether or not the war has been won. Last evening the sister missionaries in the affected apartment began the battle by mixing up the bug-toxic solution and spraying down their beds, bed frames, carpet, molding around the walls, and anywhere else that looked “suspicious”. They then put the mattress into a mattress bag. One of the sisters, a Chinese person from Hong Kong, was absolutely delighted to do the job. “Goodbye bedbug! We’ll see you in heaven!” she exclaimed several times. Her bed was the most affected and she had quite a lineup of bites.

One critical step was to thoroughly vacuum the carpet. “But, the vacuum cleaner stinks!” one sister complained. “It smells of feet!” Now, I’ve no idea what “feet” smell like, but the vacuum definitely didn’t work very well. I turned it upside down and discovered that the beater bar was completely plugged with hair. I’ve never seen so much hair wrapped around the beater bar in my life and I had no idea so much hair could be there and the machine still rotate the bar. After using scissors to cut the as much hair out as possible, more than a grocery sack full of hair came out of the machine. It still isn’t completely hair free. I need to take my screwdriver over to take the machine far enough apart to remove the beater bar and finish the job. It doesn’t smell like “feet” any more … and it does now vacuum the floor. I’m certain the floor hadn’t been vacuumed in months.

While putting one of the mattresses into the mattress sack, the zipper broke on one of the sacks. The sister missionary (this one from Taiwan) asked if we had any tape. “Sure!” replied one of the other missionaries, a newly-arrived-six-weeks-ago missionary with the longest blond hair of the whole troop, and she pulled out of a drawer a roll of duct tape.

Yup. She had a roll of duct tape stashed away.

The mattress was sealed into the mattress bag and all was well. When I later told Sister Priday, the Center Directors’ wife about the duct tape, her response was, “Well, of course she had some. She’s a farm girl from Idaho!”

We’ll now monitor the situation and see if any new bites appear. With any luck we caught and stopped the problem in an early stage. One of the locals in our Ward who reads my blog, told me on Sunday about another very effective treatment: diatomaceous earth.  Apparently the bedbug’s body is kind of like an accordion that expands when it’s gorged on blood. The diatomaceous earth when sprayed on them as a dry powder, gets into the accordion wedges and dries the bug out. Thanks for the info, Curt! I’m hoping we don’t have to go that far.

Some other little tidbits:

The workers have started the process of cleaning the granite / travertine tiles on the courtyard around the fountain. The tile has a very white cast to it that has darkened a bit over the past few months. It really reflects the sunlight, so when there aren’t any guests on the grounds, the sister missionaries stand in the shade. All of the missionaries, including my wife Nina, wear these distinctive (and very eye-catching) blue muumuus. When the sun is shining, some of the sister missionaries will also wear a hat. The chemical that the workmen are using is making the tile even brighter than it was when first installed! It does kind of hurt one’s eyes until one gets used to it. After the cleaning they’ll be putting on a sealing agent. Hopefully they’ll be putting the one on that darkens the tile a couple of shades!

This is definitely the season for weddings at the Temple! Just about every day recently there have been big weddings. As part of the tour through the Visitors’ Center, we have a set of pictures of various rooms inside the Temple, including one of Sealing Room #3, the room where most of the weddings and live sealings are performed. Every time I take a tour through that area, I’m reminded about how many “destination weddings” we get during the Summer, in February, and apparently during Christmas. While we love having all of these people visit Hawaii, come to the Temple, and spend time at the Visitors’ Center, I’m wondering about the long-term value of the cost of a “destination wedding”. I also wonder if the real thought and meaning behind the marriage covenant always comes through when so much attention is being paid to the location and all of the physical trappings. One wedding last Saturday had eleven brides maids plus a maid of honor and an equal number of groomsmen. They all came over from the mainland for the wedding. It just makes me wonder.

Well, enough for tonight. Life is great and I’m quite tired!