Bed Detective

Once upon a time, in a bid to find out what was causing my upper back to be sore when I wake up in the morning, I turned over my mattress (and as anyone who's turned over a king-sized mattress on their own can attest, it can be a real backbreaker for something seemingly so soft).

I was horrified to find what looked like sawdust on the base of my bed. Naturally my first thought was termites. That night I swept up the up the "sawdust" and turned over the mattress anyway.

Cut to coupla months later. My upper back still hurt (suspicions now lay on old shoulder injury, but that's another story), so I decided to turn over the mattress again. Again, but w/ awe rather than shock, I saw sawdust. Got the vacuum cleaner this time. What I found odd was every time I lifted portions of the mattress to vacuum the bed the sawdust kept appearing. Just how active are these woodeaters? I moved the mattress off the bed and unto the floor until Ma could get her hands on the insecticide.

When she got up to my room the maids had inadvertently put the mattress back on the bed. They again removed it and we saw the same sawdust. Curious, indeed. I got the vacuum out again, and guessed that those yellow sediments must be coming from the mattress itself. But how?

While vacuuming the mattress itself I found tears in the seams. Further inspection finally found the culprit: dried up mattress foam that crumbled into yellow dust in my fingers.

Long story short: Wasn't termites eating my bed, it was just my mattress disintegrating on me. Neither conclusion was pleasant.