Anyone gotten bed bugs and successfully gotten rid of them

[Anonymous]

We got bedbugs from a piece of used furniture last fall. We used Connor's pest control. They have a trained dog for the detection (which is better than human detection) and then kill the bugs with heat rather than chemicals. I HIGHLY recommend the heat treatment. It's more expensive initially, but chemical treatment usually requires repeated treatments while heat is effective in one treatment.

[Anonymous]

We got rid of them!! It was huge pain in the ass.

We picked them up at a hotel. THey were only in my daughter's room. We bagged everything...EVERYTHING!, sealed the mattress, steamed every inch of the furniture/carpet, washed/dried, emptied the closet, removed everything from her walls, used diatomaceous earth in nooks and crannies, etc. It wasn't until we got rid of the bed frame and dresser that it all stopped. We rewashed and steamed in between all of the above steps over a 3 week period. She lived out of bags for 2 months.

Oddly enough, we kept the mattress. The bites slowed considerably after we sealed it in one of these: http://www.amazon.com/SLEEP-ALLERGEN-PROOF-Mattress-ZipCover/dp/B002UBMM4O/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1345298752&sr=1-9&keywords=bed+bug+mattress+protector
I encased all the other mattresses in the house, too.

Good luck! If they are all over the house already, you'll need professional help. Also, be warned that taking the steps we took could lead to a full-house infestation. We didn't really have the money to get pro help and decided to try to handle on our own and move to the pros if it got worse. I recognize there was some risk in that decision.

[Anonymous]

Heat treatments are believed to be much more effective than chemical treatments. Just be advised that the construction of the home can impose some limitations. For example, older homes with thicker walls may leave some harborage areas unaffected.

And the dogs are not foolproof, although they do seem to catch bugs that human visual inspections miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of them!! It was huge pain in the ass.

We picked them up at a hotel. THey were only in my daughter's room. We bagged everything...EVERYTHING!, sealed the mattress, steamed every inch of the furniture/carpet, washed/dried, emptied the closet, removed everything from her walls, used diatomaceous earth in nooks and crannies, etc. It wasn't until we got rid of the bed frame and dresser that it all stopped. We rewashed and steamed in between all of the above steps over a 3 week period. She lived out of bags for 2 months.

Oddly enough, we kept the mattress. The bites slowed considerably after we sealed it in one of these: http://www.amazon.com/SLEEP-ALLERGEN-PROOF-Mattress-ZipCover/dp/B002UBMM4O/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1345298752&sr=1-9&keywords=bed+bug+mattress+protector
I encased all the other mattresses in the house, too.

Good luck! If they are all over the house already, you'll need professional help. Also, be warned that taking the steps we took could lead to a full-house infestation. We didn't really have the money to get pro help and decided to try to handle on our own and move to the pros if it got worse. I recognize there was some risk in that decision.

I'm glad your problem seems to have passed, but the risk in your decision to treat this yourself (and to treat only part of your home) was not only to your own family, but also to anyone who comes into contact with your stuff in any public place.

[Anonymous]

All of a sudden there're bed bug infestations spreading in American cities. What's the situation in Europe and elsewhere? Does anybody know if they're also dealing with the same explosion of cases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got rid of them!! It was huge pain in the ass.

We picked them up at a hotel. THey were only in my daughter's room. We bagged everything...EVERYTHING!, sealed the mattress, steamed every inch of the furniture/carpet, washed/dried, emptied the closet, removed everything from her walls, used diatomaceous earth in nooks and crannies, etc. It wasn't until we got rid of the bed frame and dresser that it all stopped. We rewashed and steamed in between all of the above steps over a 3 week period. She lived out of bags for 2 months.

Oddly enough, we kept the mattress. The bites slowed considerably after we sealed it in one of these: http://www.amazon.com/SLEEP-ALLERGEN-PROOF-Mattress-ZipCover/dp/B002UBMM4O/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1345298752&sr=1-9&keywords=bed+bug+mattress+protector
I encased all the other mattresses in the house, too.

Good luck! If they are all over the house already, you'll need professional help. Also, be warned that taking the steps we took could lead to a full-house infestation. We didn't really have the money to get pro help and decided to try to handle on our own and move to the pros if it got worse. I recognize there was some risk in that decision.

I'm glad your problem seems to have passed, but the risk in your decision to treat this yourself (and to treat only part of your home) was not only to your own family, but also to anyone who comes into contact with your stuff in any public place.

I was very careful about anything that came in and out of our house for months. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and that limited what kinds of chemicals could be used. I checked prices of pest control companies and we could have paid for it, but then would have been unable to make the mortgage payment. I'm not in the same HHI bracket as most DCUMers. One treatment would have been half my monthly income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of a sudden there're bed bug infestations spreading in American cities. What's the situation in Europe and elsewhere? Does anybody know if they're also dealing with the same explosion of cases?

Yes. It's everywhere, especially in densely populated cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heat treatments are believed to be much more effective than chemical treatments. Just be advised that the construction of the home can impose some limitations. For example, older homes with thicker walls may leave some harborage areas unaffected.

And the dogs are not foolproof, although they do seem to catch bugs that human visual inspections miss.

10:07 here. Our house is older but was successfully treated. We did have to take all of the outlet covers off so that the company could blow the hot air into the walls. It was a lot of work to prepare for the treatment but well worth it.

[Anonymous]

We picked up bedbugs at a flat in Italy while we were traveling. We were prepared for the worst, especially since the next leg of the trip was staying at the house of cousins we had never met before. Luckily they were very understanding and it was actually fairly easy to get rid of them because they were not in our houses. We washed everything we could in hot hot water and the things we couldn't wash on hot we put in the freezer. The most annoying part was disassembling all of the suitcases to make sure they didn't get into the little cracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We picked up bedbugs at a flat in Italy while we were traveling. We were prepared for the worst, especially since the next leg of the trip was staying at the house of cousins we had never met before. Luckily they were very understanding and it was actually fairly easy to get rid of them because they were not in our houses. We washed everything we could in hot hot water and the things we couldn't wash on hot we put in the freezer. The most annoying part was disassembling all of the suitcases to make sure they didn't get into the little cracks.

You have *very* understanding cousins! Glad you were able to resolve the problem so easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We picked up bedbugs at a flat in Italy while we were traveling. We were prepared for the worst, especially since the next leg of the trip was staying at the house of cousins we had never met before. Luckily they were very understanding and it was actually fairly easy to get rid of them because they were not in our houses. We washed everything we could in hot hot water and the things we couldn't wash on hot we put in the freezer. The most annoying part was disassembling all of the suitcases to make sure they didn't get into the little cracks.

You have *very* understanding cousins! Glad you were able to resolve the problem so easily.

I know, we were so grateful! Luckily they have 6 kids so they had an extra freezer we could monopolize for our clothes. Having bed bugs in your house must be a complete nightmare, my heart goes out to anyone who has to debug their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks pps for the good advice although the first pp made me depressed. I have been going to thrift stores for years and never had any trouble. Obviously, I would never buy furniture there, but didn't think anything of buying t shirts and jean.

This is disheartening. I love going to Goodwill but I am thinking that I need to stop doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks pps for the good advice although the first pp made me depressed. I have been going to thrift stores for years and never had any trouble. Obviously, I would never buy furniture there, but didn't think anything of buying t shirts and jean.

This is disheartening. I love going to Goodwill but I am thinking that I need to stop doing that.

Can you still go but put the clothes in a plastic bag and leave them out or in the freezer for a few days?

[Anonymous]

The problem is that outside and home freezer temperature conditions are unlikely to be extreme enough to kill such hardy bugs and especially their eggs.

You could use special equipment (like the PackTite) to heat clothes for a few hours under controlled, measured conditions, and there are specialty freezers that can offer colder temperatures than home freezers-- but even those require leaving items in the freezer for a few weeks.

Dryers are useful for this, too, but again, you have to pay attention to "how hot" and "how long is it this hot" for it to work reliably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks pps for the good advice although the first pp made me depressed. I have been going to thrift stores for years and never had any trouble. Obviously, I would never buy furniture there, but didn't think anything of buying t shirts and jean.

This is disheartening. I love going to Goodwill but I am thinking that I need to stop doing that.

Can you still go but put the clothes in a plastic bag and leave them out or in the freezer for a few days?

Pp here - basically I'm a cheap person. I can afford to buy new but I love being able to find something unique at Goodwill and pay $5 for it. However, the fear of having to deal with a bedbug infestation and pay to eradicate it outweighs any enjoyment I might get from bringing home a good "find" from Goodwill. However, this is a serious blow to my identity. I may need therapy!