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my success story with these bastards

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bugssuck

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 15:28:59
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ok, so couple weeks ago I wake up with these wierd bumps on my arm, itching. Well I naively think it must be some spider bit me and maybe i should spray something for spiders.

I live in a luxury apt building btw. anyway there's lots of spiders, so this was my first thought. It wasnt till the next day after i get mauled again on my other arm with these bites that i decide to look up online to see if i can figure out what "spider" might be doing this. Lo and Behold i figure out after surfing around for a while that this might be BEDBUGS. Naturally i'm skeptical, but i look around my place and find tell tale signs, shedded skins , one of them attached to my couch cushion.

Anyway, i'll get to the point. I initially thought i'd deal with it myself, afterall these things can tbe that virulent right? wrong! i sprayed Raid all over my place, nearly suffocating myself, then dumped boric acid all over the carpets everywhere, probably creating a completely toxic environment for myself. None of this did a damn thing. The next 2 days i got bitten just as badly and now my arms each have 10 bites, adn i'm getting them on my face as well. Basically i'm totally miserable.

Finally i'm starting to lose my marbles as i cant sleep and everything i've tried has failed. I call a few exterminators and finally find a really nice local pest control company that is family run. These guys couldnt have been nicer and gave me a really reasonable rate. 200$ for the 1st top to bottom treatment adn 50$ for follow up.

Initially i had assumed that i'd gotten these nasty critters from my couch which i'd bought from Ikea, simply because i found one in the couch. But after talking to the pest control guys it seemed more likely that these things had hitchiked with me back from a hotel i stayed in a few weeks prior and had laid eggs etc.

So what i had to do was this:
1) threw out the 2 bags I'd had with me at this hotel. one was a laptop bag, the other a backpack.
2) threw away all my "throw" pillows. I had found one in them as well.
3) threw away my sheets and comforter (i didnt have to do this but i was paranoid)
4) dry cleaned all my couch upholstery, all my suits, shirts etc.
5) washed all my clothes on HOT and dried extra long, put them in bags and stored them in my car.
6) put all my CD's books, belts, shoes, etc type of possessions into trash bags for the pest control to fumigate in the bags.
7) vacuumed extremely thoroughly every inch of the place with Shop Vac adn regular Vac, disposing of the vac bags immediately.
let the pest control guys do their thing, which was to pull back all the wall to wall carpeting and spray / dust along all the wallboards in my apt (my apt is about 800 sq ft.), they also sprayed all cracks, crevices, all wooden posts, etc etc etc. They were extremely thorough, took about 3 hours.

anyway, after all this, not a single sign or bite of these bastards since! I feel exremely lucky that i caught them early and figured out what they were. I only accidentally happened on the whole bedbug knowledge. I might have let it go too long otherwise.

so thats my story. I sympathize with anyone who has gotten these things. Its miserable. I'd say the 2 most effective things that i did were 1) vacuum, 2) throw out things that were suspect.

good luck!
pissdinastoria

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 16:48:46
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It's only been a couple weeks? I think you should still be vigilant in vacuuming and washing regularly and probably having at least one more treatment by a PCO.

...please don't get comfortable so soon.
willow-the-wisp

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 17:18:14
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ditto pissed. an infestation can remain unseen even if you react to the bites ... it could take a few days more--2 months is like a cut-off type of a point (I think). If you know you only had only a few ... and if yu react to the bugs bite, then ... in two months you will know, MORE for sure, you now have none ... Then get less vigilant.
My advice--keep a sharp look-out! Ad encase your bed 100% if you have not yet done that.
ofallthebeds

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 18:10:34
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Oh my... two weeks only... ditto on pissdinastoria and Willows comments. I have been bite free for about 5 weeks and I still have everything packd in ziplocs. I am still vacuming and washing things in a similar manner. I am not washing everything in super hot anymore though, my clothes were taking atoll. I am drying on high, but I just can't afford to loose more clothes. I just spent a HUGE chunck of money on new clothes for job hunting...

Bugssuck, pleasemake sur eyou get more follow-up treatments... if you think the bugs suck now... they will suck even more if the come back. I got a total of three treatments spaced out by two weeks. Ihad not gotten any bites after spraying #2, but I wanted to be safe and have them spray again... so I lied about being bitten. I just didn't want to run the risk. Besides, I am going out of town and wanted to make sure this was taken care of. Best of luck to you!
Nobugsonme

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 18:56:06
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Buggssuck,
that you are seeing no bugs and feeling no bites is a good sign. i'd go for one followup asap, but it may be all you need (if you were lucky to catch them very early and had very few).
bugssuck

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Posted 5 years ago
Sat Jul 21 2007 21:56:01
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hmm... i think your concerns are valid.

I am certainly on the lookout. my optimism is that they were so few that i nipped it in teh bud early.

the pest control guys told me to let the treatment alone for 1 month before getting another one btw. so i'm not up to that mark. They sprayed a TON of stuff in here.

i'll report back if they come back.
willow-the-wisp

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Posted 5 years ago
Sun Jul 22 2007 13:40:26
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Waiting a month would be more reasonable in the dead of a cold winter ... Summer, if it is not too hot ... has them multiplying more madly.
So â€¦ in a month â€¦ if you keep a watchful eye maybe, for youâ€”youâ€™ll be OK.
It is not the recommended thing, but if you get lucky ... and, if you react severely to the bites-- you'll likely know if they are back.

Now â€¦ if that happens next week--you'd be a fool to wait it out for a month nes pas?

Check me--I'm not calling you a fool--I'm just asking you a question and I'd bet you would say to me yes--I'd get the treatment before a month is up if they came back.
*********************************************************************
To All New Bites--See ... here is part of the problem:

If you have, your bed isolated, and yet there are more bugs coming in ... or new eggs hatching in10 â€“14 days â€¦ well â€¦ they will start "nesting" elsewhere in the house.

Then, you have several little nests to worry about and the PCO will have to spray even MORE TONS of â€œSTUFFâ€.
That's not all really.

They can spread to the neighbors in multi-unit dwelling quite easily too.
This means when the poisons wear offâ€”they can come back and re-infest your place yet again.

God luck and I hope luck IS on your side!
I truly do hope that for all!
Luck is not always on our side, however, as, most ...not all ... but MOST infestations are tending to be larger than we realize at first.