Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Bed Bug Treatment
need to treat room, floor, apt or whole building? How to deal w/ kids?
(2 posts)-
pleasebugsgoaway
newbite
Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 11
Posted 2 months ago
Sat Sep 19 2009 20:01:26
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My son developed itchy red bumps last week, a few days after we returned from vacation (taking no bedbug precautions whatsoever -- who knew?) I called my regular exterminator who comes monthly, and a guy came who looked at my son's mattress but found nothing, and told me to wait and see. When my son had more bumps the next day, I called a well-reviewed bedbug specialist who came over within the hour, and found two "baby bedbugs" on my son's mattress, but no other evidence of infestation. That night and the next day we cleaned the bedroom completely: vacuumed, washed/dried all bed linens and clothes, encased the mattresses, and sprayed alcohol on everything that couldn't go in the dryer. My son was bite-free for a week. But now they're back, and they're also biting my other son in the same room, who hadn't previously been bitten. My husband and I (who sleep one floor up from the boys) have no bites. My youngest son, still in a crib, sleeps in a different room on the same floor as his bitten big brothers, and has no bites (and would almost definitely react if he did, because he reacts to everything.) The PCO came back and told us about the plan for treatment and the necessary preparations. Here's the problem: we have a fairly big house (by manhattan standards) - 4.5 stories, with two tenants on the bottom two floors, and we have an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff - wall hangings, various collections, pictures, artifacts from travel, tons of books, infinite toys, clothes etc (and this isn't even counting the tenants' stuff.) Almost every inch of every wall is covered with objects/pictures. We've been in this house over 10 years, and it shows. My husband is in denial about the problem and can't conceive of the fact that we are going to need to clean, bag and store everything (and despite all our stuff [or maybe because of it], we are far from rich, and cannot afford to pay someone to do this for us.) My question is:
What if we just treat the boys' bedroom, since nobody outside that room has bites? How about the whole floor? Do other people have experience treating just part of a house?My other question is: If we really do have to put all our stuff in plastic bags, how do we live with kids like that? Just tell them they can't play with any toys for a month? Tell all their friends' parents that we have bedbugs and that they'll need to take precautions, or else cancel all playdates and sleepovers? How have others dealt with this?
A third question, given that we clearly have bedbugs, and yet neither my husband nor me have any bites, I'm wondering if the majority of adults DON'T react to bedbug bites, in which case, the NYC infestation could really be humongous. Does anyone know the percentage of people who do/don't react to bedbug bites?
Thank you for any input! Although I wish I'd never had any reason to use this site, it truly is a goldmine of information.
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Blue_Ox
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Joined: May '07
Posts: 136
Posted 2 months ago
Sat Sep 19 2009 23:42:48
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Have you researched vikane and/or thermal treatments?
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