Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums Topic: Success Story

jrbtnyc on "Success Story"

jrbtnyc — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:50:27 +0000

<blockquote><cite>justdiscoveredbb - 4 hours ago <a href="http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/success-story#post-101646"> » </a></cite> ... It wasn't easy for any of us to beat this. It was persistence and hard work.</blockquote> Not questioning the effort you had to put in. The difference is, many other people have had stories to tell where they worked just as hard but then still had bugs thereafter.

justdiscoveredbb on "Success Story"

justdiscoveredbb — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:46:45 +0000

I am not familiar with pesticide resistance so I can't comment.

justdiscoveredbb on "Success Story"

justdiscoveredbb — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:44:46 +0000

Hello, Our building's PCO used Tempo and Prelude. I don't know what my friend's PCOs used. I am still friends with one of my neighbors from my old building and she said the building was clear. At least she hasn't heard anything. I suppose it's always possible. I remember my landlord spent $25,000 to make sure the entire building was clear. They even sprayed all of our neighbors who weren't infested. I don't know if infestation ratings vary but our PCO explained it like this. 1 room infestation is light. Several rooms is medium or hundreds of specimen found in one room and heavy infestation is in all rooms. In my opinion, having dealt with this a year ago. The spraying was only part of it. We had to launder everything. The prep was gruesome. We had to vacuum everyday between sprayings. We had so much pesticide on our clothing. Other people could smell it. It wasn't easy for any of us to beat this. It was persistence and hard work.

jrbtnyc on "Success Story"

jrbtnyc — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:02:09 +0000

Do I read correctly that you and one other tenant in your building had substantial infestations... > hundreds of live specimens found when he pulled > back the plastic corners on our boxsprings > when the PCO peeled his carpets back, there were > hundreds of bedbugs there (which sound to me like *heavy* infestations, not "medium" ones) ...both of which were cleared within a month or two pretty much by spraying alone plus dryering and vacuuming. That was a year ago and you've moved out since, but as far as you know none of the other people in your former building have had occurrences that may have spread from either of your apartments to theirs. (Have you actually spoken with some of them recently to confirm that, if they would be forthcoming about it.) Also, five different friends of yours in other buildings had bugs and successfully got rid of them within two months principally by spraying and have not had recurrences. Wow, it sounds like the "good old days of DDT". Everyone reading your story is thrilled for you of course, and for the other tenant in your former building, and also for your friends in other buildings, that you all beat the bugs so easily, compared to other horror stories common in this forum. It would have to occur to me to wonder whether all of you may be fortunate to have encountered a bed bug population that was completely non-resistant to pesticides, or at least the pesticide(s) your PCO's used. Such non-resistance existed in the early days of DDT, which is why that chemical worked so well at first, until resistance soon began to develop. Then PCO's began switching to other chemicals, and bugs started becoming resistant to them too. What was the pesticide the PCO used for your building, if you are able to disclose that? And do you know whether it's the same pesticide used in all your friends' buildings? Perhaps others on this forum with applicable expertise might comment whether that pesticide, whichever one it was if you can tell us, is known to have encountered widespread resistance, and therefore whether the result in your building and your friends' buildings may be considered to have been anomalous i.e. not necessarily applicable elsewhere if the same pesticide were to be used against a resistant bug population. Of course we hope that's not the case – maybe your PCO's used something which really works, and could work for other sufferers reading this thread, who therefore would certainly like to know which pesticide it was so they can make sure their own PCO's use it.

BedBugPanic on "Success Story"

BedBugPanic — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:01:44 +0000

Thank you for relaying your success story, as well as the ones of your friends. It gives hope to all who are currently suffering an infestation and knowing that no matter the degree, that these vampires can be beat

urbanbug on "Success Story"

urbanbug — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 09:40:38 +0000

I have to say that this is wonderful story because it sounds like your landlord took the issue seriously. I wish all landlords are like this..

Nobugsonme on "Success Story"

Nobugsonme — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 02:53:29 +0000

Anna, Thanks so much for taking the time to share your story. All the best to you!

justdiscoveredbb on "Success Story"

justdiscoveredbb — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 02:32:23 +0000

Just an add on, during this time, we were open with our friends and five other people admitted to us that they had bed bugs in the last year. Three in apartments and two in single houses. They all rid their infestations in under a month. Friend #1 had bedbugs in his apartment. He got sprayed once with chemicals and was cleared. He also bought a steamer and steam cleaned everything he owned. Friend #2 had bedbugs in their apartment. They got sprayed once and was cleared. Friend #3 had bedbugs in their apartment. The people in the unit below them had it really bad. Like crawling up the walls during broad daylight bad. It took 4 spray treatments and daily vacuuming to clear the infestation but they did it...shortly after evicting said tenants. 2 months total to clear. Friend #4 had bedbugs after a family vacation to Australia. It took two treatments to clear. Friend #5 had bedbugs after brother returned home from New York. It took three treatments to clear. 6 weeks total. Everyone survived and remaining calm was the key to success. Good luck to all during your battles. Take Care Anna

justdiscoveredbb on "Success Story"

justdiscoveredbb — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 02:25:25 +0000

I remember going through my bb infestation and desparately looking for more success stories on this forum. I know many people leave this site when their situation settles down. But I want to give some other bb sufferers hope because it does end. So my story goes like this... About a year ago, I discovered that our apartment had bed bugs. I was getting wierd hive like bites and of course googled it and found out about bed bugs. I hadn't seen any bed bugs to get confirmation so I was still hopeful that it was an allergic reaction of some sort. I wasn't so lucky when my husband woke up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and found one crawling across our sheets. He grabbed it right away and popped it into an empty glass on our nightstand. We had confirmation. The next morning at around 7am, we took the specimen to our landlord. He was really good about it at first and called in a PCO. At 11am the PCO came and did an inspection and found bed bugs in both of our bedrooms. The PCO was fully booked for the week but offered to spray that day if we could prep our apartment by 4pm. I was already throughly acquainted with the prep procedures after spending several hours on this forum. The PCO rated it as a medium infestation with hundreds of live specimens found when he pulled back the plastic corners on our boxsprings. The other bedroom was a study/office and the PCO found bed bugs on some of our loose papers and books. They were also in the boxspring of our bed and behind the baseboards in our bedroom closet. He estimated that we have had an infestation for 4-5 months. I found that wierd because my hives had only been happening for 3-4 weeks. So over the next five hours, we bagged all our clothes and linens into garbage bags and then we moved everything away from the walls. We also threw out all of our empty cardboard boxes to clear the clutter a bit. We were able to complete the prep in the five hours. The PCO said our prep was excellent. We left the apartment for the required four hours and used this time to run all of our clothing and linens through the dryer. We had close to 40 bags including our bedding, pillows and jackets. The laundromat we went to had 20 commercial dryers and we used them all for two hours straight. I know 20 minutes bone dry does the trick but we did an hour per garbage bag just in case. Just to be clear, we were very safe at the laundromat with our infested items. We emptied our garbage bags directly into the dryers and then put the used garbage bags into a garbage bag that we sealed and threw directly into the dumpster. We then took all our dryer treated items to my parent's basement to store. We packed four garbage bags with our necessity items to take back to the apartment. We returned to the apartment around 9pm where we were given instructions to vacuum everything. First of all, it looked like a bomb went off so we had to vacuum everything and put all of our furniture back. Two hours later we were exhausted and nervously went to bed. We knew the PCO would be back in two weeks but what to do until then. This site was a godsend. There are many PCO professionals that frequent this site and have been invaluable with advice throughout the process. Amidst this ordeal, we were preparing to move into our new house within the next 4 weeks. So this treatment had to work. The good news was I never recieved another bite after the first treatment. Two weeks later, the PCO came back to do another treatment. They did the inital inspection and said that they only found a few dead nymphs but nonetheless sprayed again anyways. At this time, our landlord decided to get the whole building checked and found another apartment with bed bugs so they have 18 units sprayed. Infested units plus the adjoined units. Another two weeks pass and the PCO comes back for the final treatment and they find no evidence this time. They spray again anyways. At this time, we get a nasty bill for $750 for three bed bugs treatments seeing as none of our neighbours had bed bugs, we were obviously the cause. Luckily I ran into one of my neighbours when they were moving out the following week. Guess what he admitted to me, he had bed bugs from an infested boxspring that he had bought second hand. His unit was directly below mine and he said they had a major infestation but they sprayed in January; when my hives started. I asked how they treated it and he said that the landlord bug bombed it first. Then hired the current PCO to treat his apartment. My neighbour said it took three treatments but they cleared up the infestation. He said when the PCO peeled his carpets back, there were hundreds of bedbugs there. Armed with this information, I told my land lord he wasn't going to pin this bill on me. A month later, they returned for a follow up inspection with a dog. The dog and handler give us the all clear. So we prepared to move into our new house. Finally. We delayed our move by a month so we wouldn't take any bed bugs with us. Our landlord, at this time, offered to heat treat our furniture and the furniture of the other tennant who had bed bugs. On moving day, we filled up our moving truck with all of our stuff and the other tenants furniture. My landlord drove the moving truck down to the PCO where they heat treated the entire moving truck. Afterwards, my landlord took the moving truck back to the apartment and dropped off the other tenant's furniture. And we took our furniture and moved into our new house. The only thing that we did not heat treat were our books because the PCO could not guarantee the results so we packed them into 16 bins and are storing them in our garage and thus treating any remaining bed bugs to a Canadian winter which has been bad this year. So that is my story to date...