Comments on: Reader question: How to move and leave bed bugs behind?

By: megan

megan — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:18:46 +0000

in sept 07 i discovered bed bugs in my old apt on the midtown west side. i lived with the infestation for a while- it was really off and on- after i put a casing around my mattress i was rarely bitten. it wasn’t a bad case- as i could live with it but now it is aug 08 and its just enough already. i had an exterminator come and i packed up all my stuff- vacuumed (not enough i suppose) sprayed every day and 2 and a half weeks later i had bites on my arm. i told my landlord i wanted out and so i moved. i threw out a lot of stuff, zippered all my clothing in plastic, and got rid of my bed frame…i kept my night stand and book case- i am so paranoid that i brought them with me- that it gets in the way of my every day activities. i wish i was bed bug free. the anxiety is killing me!

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:46:10 +0000

Hi Rich,

I am concerned that you are living in a multi-unit building and yet trying to do this on your own.

I suspect you are not the only one with bed bugs in your building. It is nearly impossible to get rid of bed bugs if your neighbors have bed bugs and are not concurrently treated along with you.

If you are renting, in most NYC apartments, the landlord is responsible for treatment. The best scenario would be the landlord having a professional inspect and treat all infested units concurrently.

If you own your apartment, the coop or condo board needs to rally and have all units inspected and treated.

The good news, is that with proper treatment, you can beat this. If you want to discuss it further, or want more feedback from more people, please come to the forums, since this is kind of offtopic for this post. The forums are here:
http://bedbugger.com/forum (or click forum button at top right).

By: RICHARD Totoian

RICHARD Totoian — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:34:13 +0000

hi I live in an old apt in the west village nyc. Have been here since 1974.I am fighting with the dreaded bed bugs. It seems overwhelming but I have gained inspiration and info from others. Iam trying to do this on my own as I am retired and living on a very small income. I had a pro come in and told me it would be very tough ridding my place as there are so many cracks in the floor boards , I have wall to wall rugs . I got a mattress encasement for my loft-bed in the back and my platform bed in the front. I got rid of 1500 lps. and I also am ziplocking my dvd’s and 1500 cd’s. Ouestion is there a pest strip or something I can put in the ziplock bags before I seal them up to kill them? I can’t find anything like that on line or at Home Depot. I spray around my bed with BEDLAM , and Sprayway , once a week. Results indoor insect killer, sprinkle powder on rug and then vacuum it up. It is a nasty way of hoping to kill them. Saw one on the ceiling in my t.v. room last Monday then found one crawling in bed with me tuesday am. I am caulking all the holes and cracks in this old place, and filling the pipes with steel wool and then caulking over that so the can’t run between floors.My main concern is not throwing away my books cd’s and papers . I have read they can even infest your smoke alarm and T.V.remote. Can you spray these items? Thanks. Rich T.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:27:31 +0000

Bugaboo, as Mike notes in the first comment, it’s essential that no bed bugs or eggs get into those ziplocs (I think eggs can be tricky to spot).

As far as the guitars, anything anyone here says is going to be speculative. I’d ask the PCOs on the bedbugresource.com in their forums. Maybe one of them has helped someone treat a guitar. Tell Sean we sent you and let us know what they say.

By: Bugaboo

Bugaboo — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:08:57 +0000

First let me say that i really like the site! It looks great. Second. I too have to move, and appreciate this info. I am being a little crazy. Everything is in ziplocs, DVDs, books, clothes, etc. I am inspecting the ziploc bags before I put them into a garbage bag (which I will seal) and placed into another garbage bag (which will be removed once it leaves the moving van) so the bottom garbage bags of ziplocs are protected. I am throwing all of my furniture away except kitchen and bathroom stuff (which will be sprayed down). All of our clothes are sealed. All of them. I will also be spraying all of the furniture, pictures, etc… with steri fab and kleen free after they are removed from the van as well. Then I will spray our shoes before we enter the apartment. Once in we will strip down and seal our moving clothes.

SO! My question after all of this is, how do I deal with the electronics and the quitars my boyfriend has? The guitars are in bags which I can spray, but the guitars themselves? I am being super careful, and I know i will freak out if I cannot treat them somehow.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:30:45 +0000

HI Toni,
Please copy and post your comment here. It’s a thread for general questions and answers and you’ll get many responses that way.

By: Toni

Toni — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 04:10:00 +0000

sorry forgot to add that i have three other kids who have not been bitten at all.

By: Toni

Toni — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 04:09:10 +0000

For about 1 1/2 My son and i have been getting bitten by i guess bed bugs. The bites sometimes swell up and itch like crazy. So far i have caught three on my bed and one in the bathroom. What i want to know is can cats carry bedbugs and if the apartment building where i live is infested with mice can this be the cause of the infestation?

By: deblynn

deblynn — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 04:07:14 +0000

Jane..My first bite surfaced as a round symetrical raised welt , on my upper breast. Every bite thereafter appeared like small red spots, very round in the center, like a puncture mark. Sometimes one, or two in an even row, or even three. Most bites appeared on and around my stomach. They always showed up after a hot shower in the morning, and they always itched. But the itching went away in a day. When I began to isolate my bed and wear more clothing to sleep, they began to bite my face and ankles. I went to a Dr. who was clueless. Have you found any evidence at all? Use only white sheets and look for any small blood smears on the sheets. Look all around the seams of your mattress for black poppyseed sized specks, and bug skins. Have you read the FAQ’s.?..Start in any way possible to begin killing them off. They are voracious breeders, so its important to take steps to lessen their population asap…I cannot speak to the exact numbers of bed bugs in Edmonton, but I can tell you that Canada in general, is experiencing an explosion of bed bug infestations.. Vancouver has adopted laws specifically addressing bed bug problems in their City. A large percentage of their hotels are admitting to problems with bed bugs. These bugs are communicable, they are called “proficient hitch hikers”, so please exercise caution.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 03:46:28 +0000

Hi Jane,
We’ve had people on the Yahoo Bedbugger Group (see links in sidebar) as well as seen articles on entire buildings in Edmonton with bed bugs. See this.

But every city in Canada has bed bugs, from Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and on so on.

I am not saying you will move to another apartment with bed bugs, but rather, you have a good chance of moving WITH your bed bugs–which is why Jess and I, and others recommend staying put and fighting them there. I know you may want to move, but you probably don’t want to spread bed bugs, if you do have them. No one can make the choice for you, we are just sharing our opinions.

BuggedinBrooklyn has mentioned in our comments that he and his sister found bed bugs in their hair (once, twice, individual bugs). But not as a perpetual thing, and not in the context of moving. Bed bugs can’t live on you, and a shower would remove them if they climbed on briefly. No one on this site has said they moved and took bed bugs in their hair, and if they did, they were certainly mistaken, since the one thing anyone who moves will do is have a shower and change of clothes! I know this is a small point, but I run the site and I don’t want people to read something here and take away misinformation. If anyone notices anything like that, they should alert me so I can remove it. But it’s not likely there was a comment I did not read.

Doctor’s may not be able to diagnose you–they aren’t all aware of the range of reactions. Your bites do sound like bed bug bites. But if you have bed bugs, there WILL at the very minimum, be small black specks sitting in your bed, and possibly elsewhere. When the bed bugs eat, they poop. If you do not find this sign anywhere, and often, then you probably don’t have them.

If PCOs have been treating your apartment, it is, from what I understand, also possible to react allergically to that.