New readers: if you have a current infestation and want your questions answered, or want feedback of some kind, this is the place to post your message. Click comments to do so.
I’ll start things off with Redhead, who asked in the “What are bed bugs?” FAQ“:
RedheadFeb 1st 2007 at 10:31 pm
I have a bedbug infestation. This situation is completly new to me. Is it possible with this bedbug infestation to salvage both my mattress, box springs and fabric hide-a-bed? I have been told that covering both pieces of the bed in plastic would suffocate the bugs.
Redhead, sorry for your troubles with bed bugs,but you came to the right place. First, you need to go back and read the relevant FAQs, starting with “Think You Have Bed Bugs? Some Do’s and Don’ts.” The FAQs on getting a Pest Control Operator, tenants, and doing your own pest control are probably also key. The three FAQs on protecting your bed will answer the question posed above. Then come back and let us know what else we can help with.
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nbom – on your feb 9th reply to my question re: isolating bed – i do live out of the baggies, have been exterminated like 7 times, my friend is sealing all moldings and applying plastic wood or whatever that stuff is to fill on all cracks and spaces in woode nfloors, i am reinsulating my radiators. hopefully this is all.
i did have one question – i tough jeffs preparation info was great. i did his suggestions and then had a different pco come in – who told me this was the best prepared apartment he had encountered. why would another pco suggest a different preparation? i think that jeff was logical.
Nightshirt-
It’s because some PCOs would rather not seal up virtually everything in sight and instead allow most possessions to remain exposed so that any bugs that are potentially inside them will be able to crawl out to feed and then naturally cross the chemical barrier and die. If most possessions (even those that may harbor bedbugs) are bagged and sealed, there is no way for the bugs that may be inside to be killed- except for starvation, which takes up to 18 months. That’s a long time to live with bags!
It all depends on the method of the PCO- so everyone should follow what individaul PCOs tell them to do. (Assuming that all of us have competent, experienced and trained PCOs- and we SHOULD.)
Nobugs,
Thanks for recoomending the site (bedbugresource.com). It looks very informative. I’ve just put up a posting, asking for feedback on what my PCO intends to use.
For the record here (since Deb asked) my PCO told me to unclutter the room and carefully inspect shoes, papers, books, electronics, and suitcases. Leave these items in the room. He’ll then come in and do the following:
1. apply insecticide (”Demand CS”: 9.7% synthetic pyrethroid, 90.3% other ingredient) to baseboards, electrical outlets, and other ’suitable’ surfaces.
2. following (1) he’ll use an aerosol insecticide (”CB-123″: 1% pyrethrins, 2%
piperonyl butoxyde, 3.33% n-octyl bicycloheptene dicarboximide, 93.67%
inert) that would stay in the room for 2hrs, to kill the bugs hiding in my
belongings. The bugs that try to escape would walk over (1) and get killed.
Are foam mattresses safe? Will bugs live in them or lay eggs in them? Can they crawl on them?
They at least seem to be able to do the later as I took my zippered mattress cover off to wash it and didn’t put it back on as I thought it would be safer without it. However I am still getting a few bites (14 days later)(not swelling up now, because I am taking allergy pills), even though I just have the loose sheets on top, not even to the edges.
I brought 3 bugs (I think, because I was only bitten 3 times the 1st nite) home in a library book. I’m pretty sure that’s how I got them, as I had just brought the book home, read a little, put it down on the bed, got up to do something, and shortly after I came back and was sitting on the bed for maybe 10 minutes, noticed I had been bitten on the leg, 3 groups of 3.
I ran into bugs 3 years ago when travelling, and am extremely allergic, very large swellings, and it was the tell-tell sign of 3 bits in a row in each group.
I put the book in a plastic bag in the freezer and took it back to the library 2 days later and told the librarian. He wasn’t surprised, says it is rare but has happened before.
I put a clear plastic leaf bags on the bed the next day and put all the fabric on the bed into, sealed it and did a hot wash and hot dry, putting the fabrics back into new bags. Also spray the bed frame and floor and baseboard with Raid, then put down the d. earth dust, on floor and bed base. The bottom and edges of the foam mattress have picked up some of the dust, which I thought would kill anything trying to climb up to me.
I only put the sheets back on the bed,Only on top, not tucked in, as I thought they couldn’t climb on foam but that isn’t the case. Would I be safer off sealing the mattress in a “allergy- dust mite” cover?
Also, can someone give me a link to the Vancouver City legistlature on landlord responsiblities regarding getting rid of bedbugs?
Hopeful-
I’m glad you visited Sean’s site. Hopefully, you’ll get some good responses. I hope you pass along any insight to those of us here at Bedbugger.
Your PCO sounds like he’s on top of things. The Demand is a good product, from what I’ve heard. I’m relieved to hear that he is not, in fact, going to fog anything! You’re on the right track.
One thought I have is to make sure the PCO is going to come back within a two week period to treat again, as there will be eggs hatching, and the residual value in the Demand will be starting to wear off at that point. Did he mention this?
I’m so happy to hear you’re in good hands.
Jess
Hey Vancouver,
Welcome. You need to contact your landlord and get a qualified PCO in there right away. And I highly doubt you picked up the bedbugs from the library book. I really do. It could have come from anything, including your neighbors, and I’d be very careful in taking responsibility for bringing bedbugs in- especially because I don’ t think it’s likely they came in a book.
So, read our FAQs on how to properly protect your bed. Learn about bedbugs and bedbug bites- three groups of three bites don’t necessarily indicate just one bug. Contact your landlord, because you have to let him/her know what’s going on so that they have the opportunity to remedy the situation and prevent the spread to other apartments. And make sure you get a trained, qualified, experienced PCO to inspect and treat right away (your landlord should arrange this) . You don’t want to keep trying to handle this on your own.
Good luck, keep us posted.
Jess
Hopeful…before I read Jessinchicago’s comment I was planning on saying the same thing…one treatment is not enough…and there is no guarantee that any bugs in your belongings are going to come out and walk over the chemicals sprayed within a two hr. period. Also , the Demand SC. in an emulsion state cannot be applied to electrical outlets…ask him if he is going to use a dust form of insecticide for the outlets…(drionne being the most effective)..Have you gone online and researched the products ?…I would recommend you get as informed as possible..the more you know about how to kill bed bugs…the more you will know if the PCO is capable or not…Deb
Hopeful-
Deb is right, most PCOs (that I have heard of, anyway) use a dust inside outlet plates, etc., and a liquid can’t be applied inside electrical outlets. It’s important because bedbugs use those outlets to travel and/or hide. It would be good for you to ask about this. Drione is effective, but other dusts are commonly used, too.
Sorry I missed that in my first response, and good job of catching it and passing on good info, Deb!
Nightshirt,
You asked, why would another PCO require a different preparation for treatment plan than Pest Away’s plan?
Simple: there are different ways of dealing with your stuff when you kill BBs. Pest Away’s protocol involves cleaning all your stuff and, from what people tell me, sealing it all up for 18 months, period.
I am sure that many PCOs are pleased if you do this since it makes treatment easier. But many customers are glad to find that treatment can be done successfully without giving up your stuff for 18 months.
It is not the only way. Other PCOs do NOT expect you to seal your stuff up for 18 months. They might ask you to bag and seal it until they spray, and then they might ask you to unload it so the bugs can come out, walk through poison and DIE. Just as the bugs in the baseboards will want to come out after spraying and eat your blood, so too the bugs in your box of books. Seriously, why would they be any different.
So a box of books that is open after treatment, is one bugs can walk out of, walk through poison and die before or after eating your blood.
Now, I am not recommending anyone get their home treated while full of clutter.
However, it is possible to box stuff up temporarily and still have a treatment. Many people treated in this wayhave 4-5 treatments. Apparently many of Pest Away’s clients also have 4-5 treatments (as Bonnie Friedman did).
Would you like to seal up everything you own and put it in storage or a corner for 18 months? I would prefer not to.
HOWEVER, and this is my key point: whether you do or do not seal everything up is a decision you should discuss with your PCO.
Your PCO may insist you seal your stuff, as Pest Away appears to.
They may also insist you do not.
They may tell you to keep it sealed then take it out.
Ask them. If they know what they’re doing (ie you chose a good PCO or had a good one chosend for you), they should have a plan.
Different treatment plans may require you do different things! And that, Nightshirt, is why people should not necessarily do something because someone else had luck with it. You need all the information.
Vancouver,
Our FAQ on tenants’ rights has a brief explanation re: Vancouver laws.
Click Frequently Asked Questions on the top of the page.
And others are right–get a qualified PCO in asap. Don’t hesitate, it is not your fault– Vancouver has a big bed bug problem–lots of press on that. (And hey, the librarians admit the library is infested?!?)
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