We have bed bugs!

brownwe3 · September 2013

So I'm looking to get some advice from people who have dealt with this issue. I am currently 17 weeks pregnant and my husband and I recently moved into an apartment in late June. Mid July I started to receive bites, from what I believed were mosquitoes at night. Several times since then we did a thorough check of our bed to ensure that we didn't have bed bugs, and we never came up with anything. However, 2 weeks ago my step daughter, who sleeps in an entirely different room received similar bites on her arms that were incredibly itchy and identical to mine. At this point we didn't have confirmed bed bugs but I was treating it as if we did. I began washing everything and when i went to wash my comforter I noticed a dead bug in front of the washing machine which looked exactly like a bed bug (I searched on google). We told the main office of our apartment complex and they scheduled pest control to confirm this the following week. During this time we washed every article of clothing, vacuumed and steamed the carpets, steamed the baseboards and furniture, and encased the mattress and box spring. We found only about 3 live bugs during our cleanings, but figured there must be more somewhere.

After we did this the bites were greatly reduced to practically none, pest control came last Wednesday and sprayed the apartment using an organic mixture which is suppose to be safe for pregnant women, however I still stayed out of the house for 48 hours. Everything seemed to be going good, until this Tuesday and the past 2 days in which i've been bitten 4 or 5 times.

Have any of you dealt with bed bugs? If so, how long after treatment did it take for the bugs to stop biting you? When can life return back to normal? It seems like every speck of anything I freak out thinking its a possible bug. I'm constantly upset and I want this to be resolved before the baby is due. I can't imagine bringing the baby into this environment.

DTNZ4Ever · September 2013

We have had them in the group homes where I work. Typically the only thing that gets rid of them for good is having the homes treated with very high heat. We don't even do the spraying we just go to the heat to treat. I would get your home treated with heat.

mcgeeva · September 2013

never had them but I heard they are expensive and hard to get rid of. Most of the time when places are infested you have to trash furniture etc. And they aren't fleas? Fleas would be killed though if they bombed the place. They are much easier to get rid of.

ddembinska · September 2013

Well, these damn things are like fleas. It's a huge, tiring battle to get rid of them. They say that if your mattress was infested, throw it out. Sounds expensive, and it is, but it may keep them around if you don't. The adjoining apartments also need to be looked at because they could keep reinfesting your place if they are also next to you. Bed bugs can be killed with high heat or rubbing alcohol. But let somebody else handle stuff like that. Vacuum the (excuse my french) SHIT out of your apartment multiple times a day. I bug bombed my apartment when I got fleas, and they still lived. After a month of suffering, i found out the unit above me was infested and kept reinfecting mine. Good luck. I feel for you!

mcgeeva · September 2013

Well, these damn things are like fleas. It's a huge, tiring battle to get rid of them. They say that if your mattress was infested, throw it out. Sounds expensive, and it is, but it may keep them around if you don't. The adjoining apartments also need to be looked at because they could keep reinfesting your place if they are also next to you. Bed bugs can be killed with high heat or rubbing alcohol. But let somebody else handle stuff like that. Vacuum the (excuse my french) SHIT out of your apartment multiple times a day. I bug bombed my apartment when I got fleas, and they still lived. After a month of suffering, i found out the unit above me was infested and kept reinfecting mine. Good luck. I feel for you!

Like she said - if it's that bad I would have the building pay for a new mattress etc to replace!

lopezalonso · September 2013

My roommate had them a few years back and luckily they were confined to her room HOWEVER it is very important to have the ENTIRE apartment treated ASAP. Buy bed bug mattress and pillow protectors and cover up your stuff. This will suffocate the ones already in the mattress and pillows but it needs to stay on for months at a time because those suckers can survive almost anything. All of your clothes, rugs, and curtains must be washed with high heat. Take dry clean only items to dry cleaners. The fumigator will take care of carpets and cloth upholstery.

lopezalonso · September 2013

Also, buy giant zip lock bags (the kind for storage and clothes) and put all of your clothes in there after you wash them to keep them from being reinfected. You can take them out after the fumigation process is complete (usually a week or so).

MamaP19 · September 2013

I dealt with them when I was younger, and totally broke so throwing everything away wasn't an option. Our landlord had the apartment treated a few times. We washed all clothing, bedding, etc. We bought the mattress and pillow protectors. Also, because we read that heat kills them, I used my hair dryer on the pillows, mattress, & box spring for a while each day.

I second the bag idea for your clothes. After washing we bagged all of our clothes and let them sit in direct sun so the bags would be warm and then after the apartment was done being treated we rewashed and took them out.

Bees Everywhere · September 2013

Sorry you're dealing with this. We got them after a trip to Cincinnati, do you know where yours are from? If not it's possible another apartment is infested and until the other apartments are clear you'll get re-infested.

I'm sure you've searched online but look at lots of pictures of what to look for to see if you can find where they're breeding/ laying eggs/ coming from. They like tight crevices in couches, chairs and beds.

Wash and dry everything on high heat then bag it. Get bedbug bags for your mattress, boxspring and pillows. Have the apartment keep bringing out the exterminators until they're gone. They can live in books and everything. We used just poison and they sprayed everything and it worked at killing them.

If you want to stick with natural, I'd recommend sprinkling diatomaceous earth all over your carpets/ mattress etc. It works on insects by scratching up their shells and drying them out. It works for fleas and everything. It might take a while going this route for them to be completely gone but it's pretty effective. Also, you'll want to use a broom to get it into the carpet or you'll have white powder everywhere and when you vacuum it will be a mess.

Hope it works out- that sucks. Make them check the other apartments!

mamathefox · September 2013

The only way to permanently get rid of them is heat treatment. It will run you anywhere from $700-$1200. If the bedbugs were there when you moved in then your landlord/property management company needs to be informed and do the treatment. If other units are effected they will just come back (thru carpet or vents) if the other units are not treated as well. I used to manage an apartment complex....

MamaP19 · September 2013

Bees Everywhere said:

Sorry you're dealing with this. We got them after a trip to Cincinnati, do you know where yours are from? If not it's possible another apartment is infested and until the other apartments are clear you'll get re-infested.
I'm sure you've searched online but look at lots of pictures of what to look for to see if you can find where they're breeding/ laying eggs/ coming from. They like tight crevices in couches, chairs and beds.
Wash and dry everything on high heat then bag it. Get bedbug bags for your mattress, boxspring and pillows. Have the apartment keep bringing out the exterminators until they're gone. They can live in books and everything. We used just poison and they sprayed everything and it worked at killing them.
If you want to stick with natural, I'd recommend sprinkling diatomaceous earth all over your carpets/ mattress etc. It works on insects by scratching up their shells and drying them out. It works for fleas and everything. It might take a while going this route for them to be completely gone but it's pretty effective. Also, you'll want to use a broom to get it into the carpet or you'll have white powder everywhere and when you vacuum it will be a mess.
Hope it works out- that sucks. Make them check the other apartments!

I'm from Cincinnati. This gave me a good laugh

pdilly2b · September 2013

We went though it in 2008 after a trip to Europe. The heat thing wasn't an option at the time so we did a pesticide treatment - not the really bad pesticide that they banned a number of years ago, but some other blend. They had us bag everything out of the drawers of our bedroom and did an extensive treatment of our bedroom, including all hard surfaces and the walls, plus a more minor treatment of the rest of the house. It worked the first time for us. I've heard mattress wrapping and cleaning doesn't do much because they are so good at hiding. We did not have to get rid of our mattress or any of our other stuff, nor go through washing everything.

FWIW, we used https://www.americanpest.net/bed-bug-services. I think the heat thing sounds like a good idea. I would definitely be more comfortable with that while pregnant than the other options. Good luck. I know how much it sucks.

IrishBaby1982 · September 2013

I am originally from Indiana and the only thing I ever knew about bed bugs was the saying, "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" which I didn't know was a real thing until I moved to Brooklyn New York.

We had bed bugs, but luckily caught it early on. I am not sure which state you are living in, but here in New York, the landlord is responsible for paying to exterminate the apartment. Anyway, we had to wash EVERYTHING (and I mean literally everything) at the laundry mat on HIGH temperature. All the furniture had to be taken away from the walls and taken apart. The exterminator sprayed the entire apartment, including the furniture. We then bought the protective liners for our box springs and mattresses. I think the exterminator came a total of 3 times just to make sure everything was killed. It's not easy to get rid of them totally. Look at it this way, if a nuclear bomb were to hit tomorrow cock roaches and bed bugs would still be alright.

I know that they put a powder around the wood work throughout the apartment. The thing is they crawl into all the furniture, but particularly into the woodwork and then they come out at night to feed.

I know it's scary, especially when you're pregnant, but if you can go stay with family for a few days and let them do your thing it will solve the problem.

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