“I knew this was happening, I had heard many stories, but it’s another thing to experience it,” Yeandris explains.
By Mercedes García (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – The home of 29-year-old Yeandris has suffered tremendous losses. The bed bugs rapidly infesting the city of Sancti Spíritus have not only drained his resources but also stolen countless hours of his time and sleep. “Just yesterday, I had to throw away three mattresses that were still in good condition. There was simply no way to control those bugs,” he confides to 14ymedio.
The ordeal of Yeandris and his family began in early December in the JesUs María neighborhood. “We started to notice something biting our legs while we watched television on the sofa in the living room,” recalls the man from Sancti Spiritus. “At first, we thought it was mosquitoes, but it happened most frequently when we sat there. When we examined the folds, padding, and cushions, they were full of bedbugs.”
The bed bug, an insect that feeds on the blood of humans and other animals, has become an unwelcome visitor in many Cuban homes. Overcrowding, lack of cleaning products, and poverty have significantly increased its presence in recent years. Outbreaks in provinces such as Santiago de Cuba and Havana have frequently made headlines in the island’s independent media.
“I knew that this was happening, I had heard many stories about it, but experiencing it is a whole different thing.” explains Yeandris. Shortly after discovering that the insects were in the sofa, the family realized that the bugs were invading the beds too. “My mother’s mattress, my baby’s crib mattress, and the one my wife and I share were all infested,” he laments. A computer engineer by profession, the man thought that, as with computer viruses, all that was needed was to find an antidote and apply it to the infected furniture.
“A neighbor who had gone through the same thing recommended that I go to the community health center in my area to ask for help, from there they sent me to the provincial Public Health office and I spent weeks bouncing back and forth,” he recalls. “During all that time, at my home nobody could even sleep. My son had an allergy outbreak due to the bedbug bites and some of them even got infected and caused sores on his skin.”
This past Christmas at Yeandris’s home was not for celebration. “That morning I couldn’t stand it any longer and I took apart the three beds.” A week earlier, a fumigator recommended by Public Health and paid out of the pocket, sprayed the entire house, especially the bedrooms. “We thought that was going to solve the problem, but those bugs just multiplied more.”
On December 24th Yeandris took the three mattresses out to the backyard, the family went on a thorough cleaning spree, and exhausted, they crashed that night on the floor with just some blankets. “I never thought it would come to this, but nothing was killing those bedbugs, and after almost a month of terrible sleep, all you want is for the nightmare to end.”
A few days later, with the help of another neighbor, he threw the three mattresses into a nearby dumpster. There, he encountered a scavenger who, despite the warnings, decided to pick up what Yeandris had discarded. ’I take them apart, put the stuffing in bags, and soak them in the river for days,’ the man explained his method to the astonished Sancti Spiritus resident, who advised him not to take such a bedbug-infested nest. ’Then I dry the stuffing in the sun and can rebuild the mattresses,’ he added resourcefully.
“Altogether, with the loss of the nearly new mattresses, the two visits from the exterminator, the sofa I had to throw away, and all the useless remedies I bought, it all costed me nearly 250,000 pesos (US $735),” calculates the affected person. “After going through this, I’ve become really paranoid. I don’t want to sit down anywhere anymore.”
Yeandris’s obsession isn’t a sign that he’s lost his mind. In Sancti Spíritus, residents warn each other about places infested by the plague. “You can’t go to the provincial library; the armchairs are full,” warns an internet user in a Facebook group for city residents. “In my neighborhood, a neighbor put her mattress out in the sun to get rid of the bedbugs, and now she’s spread them to all of us. The whole block is infested.”
In May 2023, a similar warning reached local media. Osvaldo Gomez Hernández, deputy director of surveillance and anti-vector control at the Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, acknowledged the extent of the problem in the province. “It’s hard to eliminate bedbugs, but it’s not impossible. This allows us to offer some home treatments without having to resort to chemical treatments,” the specialist stated in response to citizens’ calls for official intervention to fumigate the neighborhoods.
“I’ve been to the health center three times to get help with fumigation, even if I have to pay a hefty fee, but they never come,” complains another affected resident in the Sancti Spiritus Facebook group. “I had to burn two mattresses and an armchair. I’ve been battling an infestation at my mom’s house for a month, and nothing works because the problem is everywhere. You kill 100 bedbugs in the morning, and by night, 200 more come from the house next door.”
Translated by Gustavo Loredo for Translating Cuba.
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