Is vacuuming safe? Yes, but you must either seal the vaccum bag in a ziploc or other airtight bag and dispose of it right away, or clean the canister thoroughly. Boiling water poured in a canister would work, though it might harm the canister.

If you are wearing shoes it is of course possible that there might be a bed bug in them. This is more likely if the shoes are kept under the bed or near an area where bed bugs were known to harbor.

If there were one in your shoe, I doubt it would hang out there all day.

However, I assume the PCO will put a residual pesticide down (and possibly a mechanical killer dust as well). If you came home with a bed bug, keep in mind, it will probably be exposed to poison and die.

Read the FAQS in the travel section which detail how to avoid spreading bed bugs to others:

http://bedbugger.com/faqs/travel

And make sure your home is retreated every two weeks until all bed bugs, bed bug bites, and signs of bed bugs are gone. If you do not react to bites, I’d get retreated anyway, since one visit almost never does it. If you have further questions or need support, click “forums” at top right to come to our forums.

Good luck!

Is this safe practice? I just purchased a vacuum this evening and have not been able to wash all clothing. That’s going to take more than a day, especially since you have to run the dryer for the complete cycle. I have started to bag clothes up, tie them and tape the top shut. I have every bag labeled with it’s contents and the bags are clear, so when I get ready to wash I can just place the bag load in the machine. instant presorted laundry.

After vacuuming, I am suppossed to put EVERYTHING in the apartment in the center of the floor. I guess there was a reason I played so much tetris as a child.

What about my shoes that I will be wearing since i’m out the house during the extermination. Can bed bugs get into your shoes? Kind of a creepy thought.

What crept me out was that our neighbor upstairs reported bites even after our recent treatment. We suspect that they didn’t follow the instructions to launder and bag everything. So I immediately laundered my remaining bags of clothes and sealed everything I have in the closet (although it is in another room). I even separated the ones which I took out on the night of treatment.

I work at home so I’m the prime bait for BB in my apt. So far I didn’t get any new bites for a week since they captured the adult bug and nymph on my bed box during the very first checkup. However it’s too early to say they’re gone from our apt, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

PS: We suspect buildings around our area in SF downtown are getting infested, so we’re keeping our clothes bagged for a long time….

Please do NOT unpack yet. Most cases need more than one treatment (in fact, 3-5 is much more common). Cases I have heard of that needed only one were NOT cases in which there were so many bugs, so many affected people, multiple affected apartments. So I would guess one will not do it for you.

Keep your clean things in the bags. Unpacking them will mean washing, drying and rebagging before the next treatment. The PCO will need to retreat you and all the affected neighbors every 10-14 days until you see no bugs and have no allergic reactions. See our FAQs.

All changed 6 days ago, when one of them had around 10 bites on her when she woke up from an evening nap. On the same night, I had 2 new bites on my right index finger which swelled and prevented me to draw.

The next day, I made a desperate call to our landlord and learned that our neighbor upstairs had also just reported a BB problem. Our landlord said that he would give us some foggers to try out but I insisted that according to my reading, it doesn’t work and so an exterminator had to be hired.

The PCO came the same day to inspect, tossed my bed box, found a big adult and nymph (along with some poo)and a smaller bug in my 1st roommate’s room. My 2nd roommate whom I’m sharing a walk-in closet with, was not infected. But just to be safe, he arranged a time to treat all 3 rooms.

Our instructions were to seal all clothings and bedding, wash and dry on hot, and empty all shelves into sealable containers and bags. We bought Sterlite special-priced Halloween orange containers at 3.99/ea. We taped the 2 tiny holes at the handle and all around the cover to make sure they’re airtight.

On the treatment day,which was yesterday, the guys came in and did a thorough inspection first, then checked our closets and ripped our bed boxes. The guy said that it seemed that we’d caught the BB infestation right away but was surprised when I told him that I had BB bites for a month already.

They requested us to leave and only return around 4 hours later because they don’t want us to be exposed to any of the “materials” which they would be laying down. According to them, they would treat all our mattresses and sofa with vacuum and heat to kill any bb or eggs.

When we returned, I called to inquire if we can put all our laundered clothings back into the cloest and vacuum the floor. They said it was okay. I also asked if the next treatment will also involve the same procedure and they replied that they would only come to inspect the bed again.

As an experiment, I dipped the adult bedbug found on my bed, sealed in packaging tape, into a small tub of hot tap water for 30 secs.
It hasn’t moved its legs since…

I forgot to mention that the landlady has said that they will discard the mattresses and box springs of the beds here when the PCO comes again next week to treat for BBs, even though they have each been wrapped in vinyl bags since the first treatment in July and no bugs could have entered them , I would think. That does not seem necessary, does it? They are new. I guess that was part of the PCO’s instructions to her. But since the vinyl covers were put on, there has not been a large infestation as there was before, even though I did see a couple of bugs in my bed a few weeks ago, after which I laundered the bed cloths and the mattress cover and pasted vaseline around the legs of the bed, there have been none since that I could see in my bed. I have seen them on my desk and one crawled across some papers, though.

Mr Bill

I am planning to call the PCO who will be treating this rooming house for BBs next Wed. and ask them some questions: What questions can you suggest that I ask? So far they have not provided us tenants with any written instructions for prepping, and I don’t know if they will be using a fogger or not, nor what type of pesticide. The landlady tells me that they plan to return in 30 days to re-treat the place. Sound weird?

Also, can you tell me how to check to see if they are licensed. (just ask them, or, anonomously, contact state license agency?).I am in Cincinnati, OH.

I did check what I could last night with the BBB and found this PCO listed as a member with a satisfactory rating, for whatever that’s worth.

You know, as I guess I have told you, the landlady is trying to sell the house and I just wonder if she is trying to get off as easily as she can with this BB problem and move out, instead of trying to do a thorough job of eliminating them. Who knows?

Mr Bill.