Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Tales of Bed Bug Woe
My bedbug story...
(3 posts)-
yelunatic
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 1
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 13:57:47
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My wife and I live in an apt complex that has about 30 units. We have lived here for 6 years with no vermin problems. About 3 weeks ago we started noticing itchy welts and didn't know what they were. When I first noticed them I thought I ate something I was allergic to. My wife did some research and suspected bedugs, so after looking online and matching my "2 in a row" bites with photos online I knew that we had bed bugs.
We looked in our mattress and found nothing, but when we uncovered the boxspring we were disgusted to find the bed bugs in the seem near the headside. We discovered about 8 of them. I saved one in a medicine bottle that I ziplocked and we vaccuumed the rest. We immediated threw out the boxspring and checkd the rest of the apt. We found 1 behind a picture frame about 5 feet away from the bed, and a few in the wall outlet that was right under the headside of the bed. We vaccumed them, threw out the vaccuum bag and that night we slept in our car.
Here is where the story gets interesting. I notified the building manager the next morning, an she didnt look surprised, because she said they had them in one other apt on our floor 3 months ago and they had them exterminated. I told her that I should let my neighbors know in the adjacent apts down the hall and she said "NO! Everyone will freak out and you will just make things hard for us!" When I replied that people could already have them and not know, she insisted we keep it quiet. She also said that I had to use the company that they have used in the past. The good news is that they were willing to pay for it, but the bad news is thgat their exterminator company couldn't come out until late next week.
There was no way I was going to wait a week for them to multiply, so I called Connex and they they said that they could come out that day. They said they dry steam the furniture and rug seams, spray 3 different types of residual chemicals that conrol the bedbugs hunger, reproduction and growth, and they also spray an expanding chemical dust into the problematic sockets in the walls that kills the bugs as they walk across it. So, I told the bulding manager, they paid for it, and Connex came and took care of everything. The Connex guy was nice, and told me that our infestation wasn't so bad yet, but that they had definitely come in through the outlet in the wall from another apt, due to the feces the bugs left behind in the outlet and also due to the fact that another apt had them before.
Connex said that they only have to come once due to the amount of chemical that they spray combined with the steam, and that 95% of the time they don't have to come back again. If they do have to come back within 90 days, they do the whole job over again for only $45. They sprayed and steamed our mattress and chairs and rugs and bedroom furniture and closets. they said once the chemical spray dries that it isn't harmful to humans or cats, of which we have 6 (they were taken to my parents during the spraying process).
We slept at my parents that night to let everything dry, and the next day my wife and I sealed our mattress (now on the floor) and pillows with an alergylux bed bug protector from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I set up a trap with extra sticky double sided carpet tape on the floor in a 1 foot perimeter around the mattress, and I did the same on the ceiling. We slept last night and we have no new bites and only a spider was trapped in my tape perimeter. I know it is too early to say, but so far, so good. The Connex guy said even if we a bedbug, they should be dying, or their hunger and reproduction should be supressed, so not to worry. So far none have been seen. I know they feed every 5 days or so, but my question is how long will it be before I am SURE they are gone?
My next question is, how do I deal with my building manager? We are in NY state (Rockland County)and I am not sure if it is her legal duty to let all the tenants in the building know. I know it would be the moral thing to do and the best way to get rid of this situation. My neighbors could be getting bitten and not know it, meanwhile the bedbugs would be multiplying. Plus, they could eventually come back to us. I want to tell all the tenants, but how do I go about it without getting the building manager (who has my keys and collects my mail packages) mad at me?
Thoughts? Comments?
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IN HELLS Kitchen
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 16
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 14:29:45
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Yelunatic,
I live in NYC and and my bf and I currently dealing with a bedbug infestation. We live a small coop and we self manage the building. When we first discovered a bug we immediately sent out an email alerting everyone in the building. Initially, everyone else was in denial and ignored my email, except for one other tenant who has an experience in her last apt. It took a week and several emails to finally get everyone to realize how serious an issue it was and how quickly it needed to be dealt with. So, in answer to your question, you need to tell everyone in your building and not listen to the manager. If enough people are aware and get angry about the quicker the manager will have to relent and take care of the issue. The longer you wait to take action, the more expensive it will be for everyone involved.
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Just itching to get rid of them
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Joined: May '09
Posts: 124
Posted 3 months ago
Sun Aug 16 2009 14:41:46
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I do not know the laws in Rockland County, however I do know for thousands of years we have been told to "Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself." That is particularly pertinent here. We are morally bound to treat our neighbors with the kindness and consideration that we, ourselves ,want. You would expect your neighbors to alert you if they had bed bugs, wouldn't you? But there is more to this than that. If you tell your neighbors, you are actually loving yourself, because in a multi-unit apartment building, the bed bugs will continue to spread. Believe me, I know from personal experience. If the building manager wants to keep it a secret, it means the management has no plans to rectify the whole situation in an appropriate way. As with many building owners and managers, the plan appears to be to do something in a piecemeal fashion for those who complain. This means the building will never be free of the bugs. Besides this, a certain percentage of the population does not know they have bed bugs because they do not react to the bites. They are analogous to typhoid carriers, people who carry an infectious disease without manifesting the symptoms. If you tell the neighbors, you may be informing one of these "carriers" who would have no other way of knowing ,but who would be willing to look for bb signs and the bbs, themselves, and would thus be able to nip a small infestation in the bud before it spreads and gets worse. Information slows down epidemics. It seems to me the manager has no right to abridge your First Amendment rights, and as far her holding your keys and mail, doing anything to you or your property would be criminal activity of which I hope would not be in her best interest to commit! However, if you have some concern, you can tell your neighbors that your warning is confidential, just to give them a chance to inspect their places, and that if they find bugs, just to tell the manager directly without citing your name. Good luck with all your bb fighting efforts.
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