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New poster - First week with the bugs
(3 posts)-
I only discovered my bed bugs a week ago and luckily I found this place that early morning. I am blogging my experience here: http://bugjourney.blogspot.com/ and I have a few questions.
Can eggs be laid on pet's fur, or on me for that matter?
How do I treat the plastic bins that I am sealing things up in? Won't eggs be laid on the outside?
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,129
Posted 3 months ago
Mon Aug 3 2009 10:14:26
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Bed bugs, I suppose, could lay eggs anywhere that they want to. However, their general preference is to lay eggs somewhere safe and hidden where the eggs won't be disturbed. You and any pet you own probably move around too much to be too tempting to bed bugs as a place to lay eggs.
(The eggs I found after treatment were all places like the backs of curtains that touched the bed or on the fitted sheet underneath the pillow on the side of the bed I didn't sleep on, etc. My infestation was a little atypical in that I picked the bugs up at a hotel and then proceeded to travel extensively during the time that the infestation got going until I discovered it. As a result, my bed was often not slept in for a week at a time, and I was prone to coming home from a trip and dropping into bed on one side and not even moving the clean linens I had sitting on the foot of the bed on the other side.)
Depending on what the plastic feels like, you may not have to worry about the outside. Bed bugs are, frankly, pretty crappy climbers. They can climb, but they need a textured surface to get a good grip. They have a much harder time with smooth surfaces like plastic and glass.
The idea behind storing items that you're sure are bed bug free inside plastic is to prevent the bed bugs from hiding in those items. Just sealing up infested items in plastic only means that you'll have a reinfestation when you take those items out, unless you put them into storage for a very long time (18 months).
What exactly has your pest control professional told you to seal up in plastic? And did he or she give you any idea about why that plays a role in the treatment program being used?
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I am putting things in plastic that I will treat in the PakTite when I get it, or that I plan to isolate for 18 months. Things like photos, books, jewelry, toys, rarely used electronics, bags...
My PCO did not tell me anything yet, I just had the inspection today and they are sending their Prep List soon.
My thought on packing things up is to eliminate where eggs can be laid since I've read or been told of them being on paper in file drawers, in books, on frames. I figure if those places are gone, less places for eggs to be hiding.
Another question: If eggs are already on what I packaway, when they hatch can they live the same 18 months without feeding? I thought I read that they could only live a few days.
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