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Found Bed bugs! I need advice on moving please!
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winnie
newbite
Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 1
Posted 1 month ago
Mon Oct 19 2009 15:06:15
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Hi there, until recently I never knew what a horrible problem bed bugs could be. I'm sorry if this is long winded but I really need some advice!
My parents and I moved to a new house about 3 years ago and I think about a year or a year and a half ago I found a couple small dead brown bugs in my bed and thought nothing of it. For the last 2 years I have also been staying at my boyfriends maybe 4 nights a week. Recently I made the decision to get my own place, and while investigating things to watch out for, I found out that bed bugs are a big problem and I remembered about those 2 bugs I found and started researching bed bugs. I went home this morning and pulled away the mattress covers and I found a live bed bug and some "casings"!
I'm really stressed out right now and paranoid. I hope some of you can offer me some advice!
I am planning on moving November 1st and really really really do not want to bring any bed bugs to the new place. I've let my parents know there is a problem but my dad is resistant to getting professionals to do any treatement despite me offering to pay for half of it. I'm now trying to convince my mom they need to get it professionally treated.
Orkin told me that I could bring my mattress to my new place as long as I have it in a bed bug cover encasement. So my plan is to buy an encasement and bring the mattress to the new place as I can't really afford a new mattress right now. My question is, should I just spring for a new mattress and encase the new mattress? Because Orkin let me know that the bed bugs could actually live up to 3 years in the mattress even if i had the encasing on it?? I"m just worried that the encasing could get damaged or for some reason it just doesn't work.
Also, for my clothes, I was planning on washing them in my parents washer/dryer. Is that a bad idea since the house may be infested? And after washing/drying my clothes do I just put them in a ziploc bag out of the dryer and take them out when i get to my new place?
Am I able to safely bring my TV and DVD player as well?
What really makes this hard is that I'm worried I might have brought bed bugs to my boyfriends condo as well. He said he had already checked his bed and didnt see any signs, he used to work in a hotel so he said he knows what to look for, but over the last 2 years I have been bringing my clothes, overnight bag, etc. in and out of his place from my place almost daily. If there are no signs of infestation right now, can I safely stay at his place (since I'm scared to sleep at my parents now) and not risk infesting him if i wash everything that is there already?
I'm feeling really hopefless right now and discouraged that I will have to live with this problem forever .. can anyone offer me any advice?? Thanks in advance!
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stevebeast
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 1 month ago
Mon Oct 19 2009 15:19:35
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if you have the cash look into having your moving truck heat treaded, you wouldnt have to replace your mattress. three years seems to be longer than anything i have read but a year doesnt seem to be out of line if you encase the mattress and get any hole in it you are screwed. i would think its ok to wash your clothes in your parents washer i9f you use the ziplocks.
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I am in the same situation. The apartment next to me has confirmed bedbugs for 4 months. I have never been bitten up until this week, now I have a few dark spots at the corner of my mattress. I was set to move at the end of the month, into a condo I will own, but now I'm not sure what I can take. I if I get bedbug in my new condo, the bedbugs will not be the only one who shit the bed. I have some extra cash and want to play it conservative. So what should I do? I am tossing the mattress and boxspring, but would love to keep my couch if possible. What is this heating a moving truck thing. Is it effective? and who does it? I live in LA. would love a little help on this one. There is also a dry sauna in the place I am staying at. If I get the temp> 120 will that kill stuff on large items like pictures and TV's?
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parakeets
oldtimer
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 866
Posted 1 month ago
Wed Oct 21 2009 13:27:08
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You might want to get a bedbug dog to inspect the condo you are moving into before you move in and then again once you have moved in. This will be documentation that you didn't bring bedbugs with you--and could help determine that if you find bedbugs when you move to the condo, whether they were there before you moved in.
If the PCO believes the bed bugs were in your mattress or box spring, I wouldn't bring it with you if I were you. Mattress and box spring encasements can get micro-rips and or split during moving and you won't see them. Movers handle things "not gently" shall we say? The cost of a brand-new airbed at a discount store will be close to the cost of a top-grade encasement you are planning to buy and you'll sleep better. I went to a bedbug convention and they said the article of furniture that most often had to be discarded because of bedbugs is the boxspring, that there were just too many places bedbugs liked to hide!
As for the sauna, I wouldn't trust it. Contractors who have been using heat treatments to kill bedbugs are learning a lot on how treatments work. It depends on how high the temperature is, how long things are cooked, and whether the bedbugs can escape. It would be better than nothing, but I wouldn't trust it. If the sauna temperature is 120 degrees, it could be 110 or 100 inside something or even less. Only the higher temperatures kill bedbugs.
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stevebeast
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Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 1 month ago
Wed Oct 21 2009 13:56:53
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I dont know who does it in LA but here you can get a heat treatment on a moving truck they heat the back of the truck and make sure it reaches the right temp for the right time then you know everything you moved in is clean.
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amyleeizmee
newbite
Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 2
Posted 1 month ago
Wed Oct 21 2009 22:04:58
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dry wash and dry all of your clothes. I would really reccomend a new bed even. Plastic bags will be your best friends. Read up on bed bugs. It will help you a lot. They love hiding in wood and they love the glue on boxes. So I would say, pull out all your drawers and spray them down with insecticide or a steamer and put them into plastic bags. spray down the whole dresser and anything that is wood. In my job, we use steriphab and have had a pretty high success rate. It is pretty pricy though.
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 1 month ago
Thu Oct 22 2009 0:23:16
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If I recall correctly, bed bugs don't actually like the glue on boxes. They only consume mammalian blood. Some pest does like the glue in boxes. (roaches maybe?)
What bed bugs like about cardboard boxes are the hidey holes made by the corrugated cardboard.
New beds are expensive. It's often an unwise move to invest in a brand new bed until you're 100% sure you're bed bug free since getting rid of the bed may not rid you of bed bugs, and then you end up with bed bugs in the brand new mattress/box spring.
Moving without taking bed bugs with you is a tricky proposition. The people who've been most successful are the ones who had their belongings treated in a moving truck that was either fumigated with Vikane or heat treated. Yes, the upfront cost of either is high, but if done by a good PCO, it can de bed bug all your belongings. The cost of that treatment is often less than the cost of replacing the number of items that need replacing.
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