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Fuck, bed bugs! UPDATE: VICTORY!
TL DR
Not at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered User regular
Not at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered User regular
Just got home from work, and my girlfriend is pitching a fit because our mattress is covered in them. She already spent $120 on cleaning supplies and plastic wrapping for the mattress/box spring, and is trying to get a hotel reservation for tonight because she wants to spray poison.
I need help and advice. Am I pretty much doomed to live with the fuckers for the rest of my days? Is it feasible to take a stiff brush and a vacuum cleaner, and clean out the ones in the mattress before wrapping it in plastic, instead of spraying chemicals?
I need help and advice. Am I pretty much doomed to live with the fuckers for the rest of my days? Is it feasible to take a stiff brush and a vacuum cleaner, and clean out the ones in the mattress before wrapping it in plastic, instead of spraying chemicals?
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I would wash everything you have, keep it separated until it's all clean. Then go through and wipe everything you can with some sort of disinfectant cleaner.
Everyone does have them. The reason their rapid spread through the country hasn't made much ruckus is because they're pretty harmless. Some people apparently react to the bites, but most people just get small red marks that might itch if irritated. They aren't known to spread disease.
As to the severity of our infestation: we've seen a total of 5 bugs, including 2 infants, after careful scrutiny of the bedroom. It is possible that someone tracked in one or a small number, and we're nipping the problem in the bud. Replacing furniture at this point, aside from not being an option financially, seems unwise because if there is a more serious problem in a neighboring apartment or something like that, we'd just get our new stuff infested.
Bedbugs are VERY hard to eliminate completely (for example, they like to hide in CPU towers, for the warmth).
They are a huge problem in a number of places, and an extreme pain in the ass to eradicate. One of the reasons is, if you don't do the job right, you end up just breeding bed bug resistant generations if you don't kill all the eggs, which happens all the time. One of the social housing projects in my city is now using a heat room to clean furniture of the bugs.
To the OP: Get a professional. If you rent, call your landlord right the fuck now. Oh, and you may not want to tell your GF this, but hotels can be havens for bedbugs as well.
Exterminator is really your only hope, but even then you'll need to find out where they are laying eggs and destroy what ever that may be. Its the only way.
EDIT: Also, spraying chemicals that YOU can buy (I.E. don't need a special license for) isn't going to do anything. Bedbugs only feed on blood and do not clean themselves so they never ingest poisons that they come in contact with. THEY ARE THE DEVIL.
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
but they're listening to every word I say
I did get a new dog that I'm allergic to when I moved into the new place, but I've gone to an allergist, gotten meds and all that. And the dog is never in my bedroom and doesn't sleep with me, at any rate.
If its an actual bed bug infestation this will do nothing, get an exterminator. Unfortunately the job will probably be expensive as they need to be very thorough and use specialized equipment as has already been mentioned.
Its a good idea to do a simple 'bed bug test' before going crazy though.
Wrap some tape (sticky side up) around the legs of your bed and the area close to where you sleep, leave it for a week or so and see if anything gets stuck.
This is a good idea. With school bills coming due, there just isn't $900 around to pay someone to fumigate my apartment. So far we've taken all our clothes to the laundry mat and are storing them elsewhere, and have sprayed some decently heavy duty bed bug poison from a mental health facility. (Friend works there and they wage an ongoing battle, since their clients are free to move around the city and some don't shower.) Today I'm going to spend probably an hour with a hair dryer set on "SCORCHED EARTH" meticulously going over every crevice in the bedroom. Then double-sided tape on the bedposts, and there's this stuff called Diatomaceous earth that's some sort of fossilized abrasive microorganisms that are harmless to mammals but vivisect and dehydrate insects.
Fuckers are going to pay.
Also, it appears my significant other may have been a bit distressed when she described the situation as "an absolute catastrophe" and said "they're in the walls, in the floors, we're fucked man, we're so fucked!" before being drug screaming through a grate in the floor by a 7" tall xenomorph. The total number of creatures we've observed is about 5. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.
They were at one point. There's an old saying "Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
I did quite a bit of research when one of my apartments became infested. Bedbugs used to be less of a problem because of DDT. Mattresses and furniture were treated with the chemical, as well as used more commonly as a pesticide, which pretty much killed them off back in the day. Now that we have more stringent laws concerning pesticides, they've made a come back.
Feels good to think I may have just killed dozens or hundreds of organisms, if there were eggs.
@Tim: what did you boil and pour on your stuff? =p do let us know if they're still around, I would be most curious.
I would like to know as well
I bought a small steam-cleaner. It's advertised use is for spot-cleaning carpets, pressure washing boots, that kind of thing, but it put out some really surprising heat, and I went over every inch of that bedroom.
Uh, not to be rude buddy, but I'm pretty fricking sure that not everyone has them. If fact, I'm pretty darn sure that we don't have them.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bedbugs/#what
I misspoke (typed?). The Cat already picked up on it. I meant "everyone had them" the same way "everyone is going to the party this weekend"
It's a large and growing problem is all.
Thanks for the help, everyone. Going to bump this thread in a few months with a status update.
I feel like the President in ID4 after they down the first alien ship.
I believe you potentially may be confusing dust mites, which are pretty much ubiquitous in bedding, and bed bugs, which (while they also share similiar habitats) are quite a different color of horse.
Dust mites are a pretty common allergen, and they're pretty much impossible to totally eliminate. There are products to denature the proteins in the shed body parts, which is what people are typically allergic to; although washing bedclothes in hot water is pretty effective by itself. For pillows and matresses there encasements that can limit exposure. Dust mites are significantly less creepy, since unlike the bed bugs, they're microscopic, and don't bite.
With dust mites, if you think your bed is infested, you're probably right. If you think you can see your dust mite infestation, you might want to seek an alternative explanation.
I hope your bug elimination is sucessful, it really sounds like a miserable situation to be in.
Get on the wire, tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down.