![There will be blood](https://cdn.magzter.com/1631185742/1705512037/articles/L7aq4SAGo1705658377217/Bedbugs-Bloodsucking-parasites-Infestation-Orkin-Canada-Pest-control.jpg)
IN the spring of 2017, I moved into a grubby basement apartment in the Beaches. When I went to view it, I could already tell that it would be perpetually damp-it smelled faintly of turned earth and musty sock. It was depressingly dark. There was no place for my desk, and I would have to store my cat's litter box in the shower. Yet I was desperate to move out of the apartment I shared with my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, and I couldn't afford much else on my freelancer income. Besides, the space did have a few things going for it. I liked the industrial-boho aesthetic of its exposed-brick wall and concrete floors, and there was a washer and dryer squeezed into the bathroom. Plus, the location: I could leave my cave for the sandy, sunny shores of the lake any time I wanted. In a moment of willful delusion, I told myself I could make it work.
I couldn't. Despite the $300 dehumidifier I splurged on, my apartment remained stubbornly soggy. Then, in my first winter there, a couple of days before New Year's Eve, the pipes froze. When the plumber finally arrived, his strategy was to hack into the drywall-raining debris on my floors and furniture-until he found the offending pipe; it took days for my landlord to (badly) patch the gaping holes. After that, ants streamed in, forming undulating lines across my bookshelves, my kitchen counters, my bed. I stocked up on traps and diatomaceous earth, orchestrating the colony's demise with the glee of a serial killer. My relief was fleeting. One day that summer, I arrived home to find an anonymous note in the mailbox. It helpfully informed me that a few houses on the block were battling rats-rats!-and that the rodents could squeeze through the smallest of cracks.
Denne historien er fra February 2024-utgaven av Toronto Life.
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Denne historien er fra February 2024-utgaven av Toronto Life.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
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Scatter Brain - Maybe it sounds glib to suggest that a complex neurodevelopmental disorder is having a moment, but if you haven't noticed that ADHD is everywhere these days, you haven't been, well, paying attention
Five years ago, hardly anyone was talking about adult ADHD. Now it's all over social media, and self-diagnosis is rampant. How a complex neurological condition became the new superpower
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Marital Arts
Three Toronto couples who celebrated their nuptials in spectacular fashion
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Strings Attached
Country music's barrier-busting cowboy Orville Peck is tearing through 2024 with a new album, new collabs and a new outlook on life
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On Thin Ice
As a competitive hockey player, I dreamed of playing professionally. When I lost my leg to bone cancer, I thought it spelled the end of my career
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THE BATTLE FOR Leslieville
Last summer, when a stray bullet killed a young mother near the South Riverdale supervised consumption site, it sparked a vicious fight between area residents. One year later, tensions are high, neither side will back down and the opioid crisis rages on
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WHO EARNS WHAT
Groceries, rent, inflation, shrinkflationToronto has never been more expensive. What better time than now to obsess over other people's incomes?
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There will be blood
Bedbugs are-no exaggeration-everywhere in Toronto: our libraries, offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, transit and homes. Inside the always expensive, often traumatic, probably futile battle to eradicate the bloodsucking parasites that are ruining our lives
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Work Less, Live More
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Dinner, Party
Four resto-clubs where you can fuel up then boogie down-all without leaving the premises
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Urban Diplomat
One of my friends has started policing strangers' social lives online. If he overhears people gossiping, he'll whip out his phone and surreptitiously record.