An ordinary day at an op shop turned into a nightmare when bed bugs almost caused its permanent closure.
Fundraising has saved the Daylesford Community Op Shop, but it is closed for six weeks, to be deep cleaned and have its soft stock thrown out after an unknown person donated cloth infested with the biting pests.
The critters swarmed up the arms of a volunteer as they opened a bag in a sorting area of the warehouse-style shop on January 18 and bit them several times.
And then all hell broke loose.
The store, in Mink Street, Daylesford, north-west of Melbourne, was evacuated and closed within 20 minutes. The affected volunteer was sprayed with a solution of eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil and rubbing alcohol that managers had installed in the shop for such an emergency.
In the past 10 days, all soft stock including clothes and bedding has been taken to a hazardous materials tip.
The store is partway through two hazard cleanings and two pest control sprays.
“It is quite an abhorrent, heinous event for us all,” said co-founder Michelle Clifford. She said that even though the shop sometimes had dirty nappies and bloody clothes donated, this was “the worst thing that could happen”.
“Bedbugs live in crevices in clothing, bedding and mattresses, feed off you, then crawl back into their little homes, and they’re incredibly hard to get rid of,” she said.
Clifford said the charity’s board feared the shop would have to fold because of losses including lost sales and more than $15,000 spent on cleaning and tip fees.
But she said the store would now reopen in early March, thanks to fundraising of more than $11,000 so far, including donations, a GoFundMe appeal, a market stall and an upcoming online raffle.
Clifford has wondered why someone would donate a bag containing bed bugs, and suggested mental illness or carelessness. “But it could also have been intentional,” she said.
If she had spoken to the anonymous donor, “I would let them know what impact they have had on us, financially and psychologically”.
She said the volunteers were “quite distressed. It’s not a nice thing to happen to anyone.”
Entomologist Stephen Doggett said people could suffer bites all over their bodies from bedbugs.
Bites could be extremely itchy for weeks and scratching could lead to secondary infection, he said. Anyone who is allergic can suffer hives, swelling and difficulty breathing.
Compared with a mosquito bite, a bedbug bite can extract 10 times the amount of blood from a human, which in cases has caused anaemia.
Doggett, who works for NSW Health Pathology, said that after infestations in the home, a pest controller visit could cost more than $1000. However, such a service is usually needed because bedbugs can live for months without extracting blood, with no host, and can survive bug spray and washing machines.
Doggett said infestations could spread to a home’s carpet, mattresses and furniture and into neighbouring flats.
“Modern strains of bedbugs are highly resistant to insecticides and extremely hard to kill,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
