3 days of infestation. What are my chances of beating this?

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3 days of infestation. What are my chances of beating this?

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aww_man

newbite
Joined: May '08
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed May 14 2008 7:30:25
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Hello all,

I have a 3 day old BB problem.

- I moved into a brand new condo 3 days ago. This building is brand spanking new, only a few weeks old- construction is still going on on the upper floors.
- I moved into the apartment with only 2 suitcases of clothes and many, many, many boxes of shoes and a laptop. No furniture, no books, no kitchen stuff.
- No sign of BB at the old residence.
- I ordered a brand new mattress which was delivered 3 days ago and is laid on the floor (waiting for bed frame delivery, which I will have to postpone) All the bedding and pillows are brand new. All of these were purchased from major department store and packed in original packaging.
- I experienced bites during my first night in this new apartment.
- I sent all my clothes to the cleaners and steamed my delicates.
- Encased my bed in one of those plastic+zipper mattress sleeve.
- I sprayed EVERYTHING with BedLam and Steri-Fab. I also applied Permacide Residual Insecticide, which by the way, smells like awful gasoline.

I did all of this yesterday and woke up this morning with more itchy bites. When will it go away? My apartment is virtually empty aside from my mattress and clothes, which I hit with Steri-Fab as soon as it came back from the cleaners. I don't imagine that they would have many places to hide. And I also believe that since I attacked it early enough, I would have a pretty decent chance of beating these little pests. Is that wishful thinking? Am I being naive?

The only thing I haven't done is vacuum, which I will purchase as soon as the store opens.

Is there more that I can do to increase my chances of success? Any thoughts?
Battle of the Bugs

newbite
Joined: May '08
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed May 14 2008 9:12:05
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Dear Aww,
Very sorry to hear about your situation, finding them just as you move into a new place. You did right to encase the mattress, did you make sure it is bed bug proof? Did the package say anything about bed bugs or dustmites? What did you do with your pillows? I don't mean to be an alarmist, but I have an acquaintance (this is first hand, not hearsay) who's wife bought a pillow from Walmart, it was made in China and had bedbugs! They were getting bites after purchasing it when a couple of weeks later, my acquaintance was siting on the bed reading, happen to look over the pillow and see in a seam or opening of the pillow and saw something dark...it was full of bed bugs! (this is after a few weeks of being bitten and them growing in there). Not very comforting, I guess the only thing I can suggest is, encase your pillows too!

Also, I would add, if you have bbs on the premise, just encasing the mattress won't stop you from getting bites, they can still crawl on. You need to isolate the bed, create a barrier. Maybe you should get the frame (better if it's simple and metal), then you can get the mattress off the floor, vaseline/tape the legs, surround with DE... whatever you like. I think there is info in the FAQs for this.

Good luck!
bed-bugscouk

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Joined: Apr '07
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed May 14 2008 14:23:18
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Hi,

First of all bites do not = Bed Bugs, there are a whole host of other things that could be at play here.

I would suggest that you first familiarise yourself with the sights and signs of a Bed Bug infestation and do a thorough inspection of your new apartment. If its Bed Bugs and they are feeding they will leave tell tale faecal trace signs, these may be hard to find in light infestations but they will be present.

If you cant find any I would suggest that you try a plug in flea trap to rule them out.

Rushing into a chemical treatment at this stage without knowing what is actually the cause is in my opinion the wrong thing to do. If you don't know exactly what you are dealing with you stand little chance of resolving the problem.

Sincerely hoping it turns out to not be Bed Bugs.

David
buggedmama

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Joined: Nov '07
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed May 14 2008 17:45:39
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When you moved, where did you get the boxes? Is there a chance someone with an infestation might have used them before you?

Even if the building is new, it doesn't take long for bed bugs to move in if someone brings them in on furniture or in other belongings.
DeathToBBs

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Joined: Jan '08
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed May 14 2008 19:50:31
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I read about a woman from the Bronx who is suing Sleepy's because she got bbs from a brand new mattress. Yes, it was a new mattress. Your new mattress may be the reason for your problem.
Munched

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Joined: Jun '09
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Posted 3 years ago
Sat Jun 13 2009 17:15:03
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This is a pretty old post, but I'd sure like to hear back from aww_man on how it turned out.