Man, bed bugs REALLY suck

[Downtown Hound]

So, I became a first time homeowner two and a half years ago. Rented out one of the rooms to a tenent that didn't have a lot of money, and he went and bought a used bed at a yard sale. Well, the bed just so happened to be infested with bed bugs.

Somehwere between six months and a year after that, I began to notice that I had all these itchy little bite marks all over me. Then I began to notcie that when I woke up in the morning, I would sometimes see these wierd little bugs in my bed, and when I killed them with my fingers red blood would explode out of them.

After awhile, I realized that I had bed bugs. YAY! So the first things I did was order mattress covers for all the beds and couches in the house. They were advertised as a cheap way to get rid of them, you simply seal the bugs up in the encasement, wait six months or so, and they will all die. All of these covers cost me nearly $1000 (the couch covers alone were $150 each).

Well, that didn't work out to well. Bed bugs appraently make nests all over the polace, not just in the bed. The other bed bugs just took to making new nests in the folds of the mattress covers.

What next? Steam cleaners! I bought a $500 steam cleaner and took to steam cleaning everything in my house. This was a ton of work, as I would have to make sure to get under EVERYTHING in the house. Underneath the beds, tables, entertainment center, under the cracks of the walls, inside electrical outlets, you name it.

The steam cleaning dramatically cut down on the population, but it never seemed to totally get rid of them. There always seemed to be one that I would miss, and that one would just start the whole cycle up again (bed bugs can lay up to 5 eggs per day).

So finally, I called around to different exterminators, and found one that offered "heat treatments." Apparently, bed bugs major weakness is heat. And what the pest control people do is heat up your whole house with these industrial strength heaters to a temperature that kills the bugs, and then they go through your house, turn over all of your drawyers and dressers and closets and things just like the police would do if they were looking for dope, and make sure that the heat kills all the bugs.

That happened two weeks ago, and I haven't seen or been bitten by a single bed bug yet. I feel like I've been through a war here.

The moral of the story, if you get bed bugs, don't waster your time and money by trying to get rid of them yourself. You won't be able to. They are the most resilient little bastards I've ever encountered, and I would have saved myself in the neighborhood of $2000 had I just called the exterminators initially.

Not that the heat treatement was cheap. It was over $2000 alone. But it was worth it. The rest of my purchases? Not so much.

Man, I am just thrilled that they are finally gone. Over $4000, a lot of work, and a lot of unpleasant scratching later.

[unionworks]

1. your honesty is to be commended

I have been in motels since about 2006. The first two years were fine. After that it was bed bug city. Most all hotels/motels in the northeast now have bedbugs. For short term relief- buy mice glue traps and put them under each leg of your bed. Then buy boric acid, a white powder available at Family Dollar for about 2 bucks, and dust your mattress and box spring. That is all you can do without a professional exterminator. I have seen people in shelters who literally ripped the skin off their arms and legs from the itching.

[blueknight]

2. what area you live in?

i live in northern ky, across the river from cincinnati. and cincy is supposed to be the most infested area in the country

[Downtown Hound]

8. I live in Santa Rosa, CA.

[quakerboy]

3. They really do

I worked with a lot of low income households with that issue. You get a little paranoid about bringing them home. Nasty little beasties.

The heat thing does seem to be the best option currently. Usually the exterminators in this area hire a sub company which will come out and not turn things over, but merely move them out away from the walls. They get something like 200/hr for the jobs, and they don't feel like doing anything other than walking in, setting up the machinery, and walking out, and would rather subcontract any physical work. (Ive seen about 200 of these, if they turned your stuff over, you must have annoyed them or something.)

I believe they may also do a baseboard spray in some circumstances. Although last time I spoke with one of the exterminators they made it clear that the chemicals they used to use have basically become ineffective against the current strains of bed bug.

It really sucks for people in shared buildings(especially those with shared ventilation) because the little bastards will start in one apartment and quickly be everywhere. If you don't treat the whole building, they are back in a week or two. Even if you do treat the whole building, there's always that one hoarder down the hall who saw a jacket lying in the street and brought it home. And the whole building gets re infested.

What they will do when these bugs develop a heat resistant strain, I do not know. Its going to be a big problem.

[Chan790]

4. I'd assume gas them.

I mean bug poisons kill them. If they got immunity to that, there is the post-nuclear option.

Ultimately, there is nothing on Earth that is a carbon-based lifeform that can survive Lewisite poisoning if it comes to that. A full-scale Lewisite war would leave the Earth's surface as barren as Mars, except with toxic lakes, rivers, streams and oceans.

Lewisite: Man's first (and arguably only) extinction-level WMD. Was invented by a Catholic priest actually.

[quakerboy]

7. With what?

Lewisite doesn't seem all that scary to me, based on the Wikipedia entry. Less so than radiation or any other form of chemical weapon. How can you think of something that is neutralized by high humidity as an ultimate threat?

Seeing as there are critters that can survive hard radiation, complete dessication, freezing, anything below actual incineration, hard vacuum, and virtually any poison or chemical you can name, its hard to believe that given enough generations bed bugs cannot eventually become immune even to mustard gas.

[femmocrat]

5. Is the tenant still staying with you?

Sheeesh. What a nightmare!

[Downtown Hound]

9. No.

[Odin2005]

6. Never take ANY upholstered furnature left on the curb.

A coworker's friend did one time and it caused a bed-bug infestation in the friend's apartment building.

[Mira]

10. That is so sad. thanks for the warning and education!

Bedbugs are a bonanza for exterminators financially, but they are worth hiring, as you said, because you can't kill them without the heat.
I do some work for a local exterminator. He had an open house in his new and improved location recently. Huge. Paid for by bedbugs.
He had 4 dogs there, bedbug sniffers, they are able to sniff out ONE VIABLE EGG.

Expensive to train, buy and keep. But worth all of that in accounts receivable.

NEVER put your suitcase on a bed in a hotel.

[Major Nikon]

11. Geez, I thought crabs were bad

[Phentex]

12. Quite the ordeal!

I'm glad you found a good solution. Sounds like something awful to have to go through.

[HopeHoops]

13. Bedbugs DO suck - that's sort of their job.

[unionworks]

14. DDT

...was an effective means of controlling bedbugs. It was outlawed due to enviromental concerns in the early 70s. After my run in with bedbugs I wish they'd bring it back. Yes, I know that's wrong. It is also wrong that those who have the means to pay an exterminator are bedbug free while those who don't live in misery.

[LisaL]

15. And another moral of the story:

don't buy used beds! Its gonna end up costing more to get rid of all the bed bugs.