Would you welcome a relative to your house if they

Absolutely not. Unless she comes with no belongings except clothes that she will take off immediately and take a shower. She would have to be prepared to get new things, based on what she can afford.

Sounds harsh, but I wouldn't mess around with bedbugs.

I would tell her I had moved to the other side of the country.

Seriously, I would find a reason to postpone the visit.

I would be very honest and tell her how extremely worried I was that you might get bedbugs.

Also, do pesticides work? I thought you had to heat great the house.

If I had the room? And she wasn't a crabby assed bitch?

I would have her come stay, on these conditions.

She could not bring anything with her. Nothing!!! Except her meds of course. In a double sealed bag.

I would buy a cheap night gown and flip flops for her to wear out of the house. I would make her take a very long shower and use what on her hair to make sure she didn't have any on her.

Every place had cheap summer clothes on sale right now, taking her bargain hunting will be one of the best things you do this summer.

i would pay for her to stay in a hotel. that would probably still be cheaper than getting bedbugs in my home and having to have it eradicated later by a company.

Tough traveling naked though...

I hit post before I was finished. Thanks for the giggle tho.

If one of my recently widowed relatives was depressed and stressed out about dealing with bedbugs, I'd find a way to help her. Based on this article: www.thespruce.com/guests-bringing-bed-bugs-2656390 , the danger can be mitigated - particularly as this time of year there's little extra clothing that can't be laundered (no coats, scarves etc). My first preference would probably be to arrange a "vacation" where we didn't stay in my home as I am certainly aware of the difficulty in eradicating them. But if that wouldn't work, I would take precautions and let the relative stay. One of my relatives is also recently widowed and I just can't imagine not helping if they reached out to me.

Ugh. She's recently widowed, sad and depressed. Normally, I'd say no way in hell, but I'd probably make an exception. I'd tell her right off the bat that I love her, I want her to visit, but I am petrified of introducing bedbugs to my home. I'd ask what she was willing to do. The whole bit about coming naked sounds about right to me. I don't know if heat in the dryer kills bedbugs, but I'd meet her at a laundromat first.

My mother had her aunt to stay for a week a few years ago. When she left, she left behind cat fleas which bit my poor mother. It took her all summer to get rid of them, and she spent most of it vacuuming, living in two changes of clothes and not leaving the house. She had to throw away all the bedding. It was quite awful for her. She never told her aunt, but the daughter with whom she lived got quite funny about it - said it couldn't possibly be from her aunt, because all their 5 cats had flea collars. The fact that nobody else had been in my mother's house, and her aunt's bedsheets were covered with fleas and blood spots was apparently completely irrelevant.

As is this story to you, probably! I just wanted to point out the possible fall-out from saying yes to your relative. Hard as it would be, if I were you, I would find a way to delay the visit.

I understand your hesitation but because of what you wrote here....I would let her stay. Sounds like she needs some TLC

I would find a way to make it happen. Some how with help from experts and so on, I would make my home available. But, with all the work that it would entail, I would request it be for more than just a week or two. During her visit, or before, I would also help do what was necessary to get the bed bugs out of her home permanently, thus making it a "MISSION" and jokingly call it that. Being a problem solver instead of just pointing out the problem is what you do when you want to truly help some one.

I am sure this would be a lot of work but well worth it. Make a plan, work the plan. If she is depressed as you say, getting rid of the bed bugs for once and for all would be a great lift to her spirits as would the visit.

Last year we had an elderly relative visit us for the weekend. She stayed in one of my kids' rooms. A few weeks later, that son kept waking up at night itching. We thought our dog had fleas. Nope. Several months later, after flea treating the non-existent fleas on our pets, washing his sheets relentlessly, and assuming his many camping trips had caused him to find a nest of chiggers, we finally saw them. Hundreds of bed bugs along the seam of the box spring of his bed along the wall. It was like a punch in the gut. We had to clear out our house for the exterminator to heat treat our house, which is much harder than it seems. It took a couple days, and we left with the clothes on our backs, our car keys, and a debit card and stayed out of the house for three days. What a pain in the ass that week was! When we came home, the exterminator walked us through the house and said he found a plastic Wal-mart bag with a lady's flannel nightgown inside, and bugs in there with it. It was my husband's great Aunt's and we finally figured out how we got them. It cost almost $3000 to have our whole house treated, and about a week of inconvenience. Never again.

I'd sympathize with her, but be honest about the potential for infestation and offer to pay for a hotel, but only after explaining to her that she should travel there with clean, sealed bags of clothing, then immediately hit the shower and put her traveling clothes in another sealed bag. Her car should be sitting out in the sun as well in case they hitch a ride from her house.

Good luck. It's a sensitive topic, but it has nothing to do with cleanliness. Those suckers are just hard to kill.