Newbie: Legitimate PCO in Brooklyn?/questions and concerns

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Newbie: Legitimate PCO in Brooklyn?/questions and concerns

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terrifiedtosleep

junior member
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 86

Posted 1 year ago
Mon Jun 9 2008 23:18:17
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Hey guys-
I JUST moved a week ago. I have never had problems with bed bugs before and I have lived in the apartment I moved into before for three and a half years and no problems whatsoever . My first night here was GREAT and then suddenly the next night I noticed bites.

When I moved, I moved my mattresses in sealed plastic tarps yet somehow, I got them!

I recognized them right away because my boyfriend had a problem a few years ago.

I spent the following 5 consecutive nights. Washing all of my bedding on top of the bed and convincing myself it was NOT bed bugs and checking all the seams and not seeing anything.

I read to not contact a PCO until I had bug specimens.
Last night I decided to REALLY dig. I found 4 bugs in various stages. Most are very young and I'm fairly certain they're all over my room now from the constant shifting of furniture in the room during the move.

The last few days my skin constantly feels like it's crawling and I'm taking like four showers a day. I am terrified to go to sleep tonight on this bed but know I have to to keep them from spreading. Our living room might have them but I don;t want to make it worse.

I told my roommate that we have to get in touch with the management company and she flipped out. She was afraid they would try to say I brought them with me even though I never had this problem before.. and some of the bugs are obviously older than a week. She's afraid they'll get nasty and tell her she can't have roommates anymore (is this even legal??). So she wants to split the cost with me but only if it's cheap.

Either way I called a ton of exterminators. All of them quoted between 500.00 and 900.00 for 3 bedrooms and the living room (not including my roommates very cluttered office) I basically can't afford this at all. The only person that I could get to come out for a consultation even though I definitely have bed bugs was this one exterminator from www.pestcontrolnewyorkcity.com. A guy by the name of McDonald. He didn't even want to give me a quote until he saw the place.

This is what he suggested:

He looked at my room and inspected mattresses top to bottom and said that the problem is very recent because everything he found were very young and there were no signs of bed bug spots or excrement. He suggested doing the whole bagging of all my textiles and washing them in super hot water and putting them in sealed bag.

He also suggested taking all my books off my shelves and everything out of my desk and chest of drawers and leaving all the paperwork in the room in sealed bags for him to treat with a special gas to treat the items with to kill the bugs. Leaving my rug, which he can treat and then using several different type of chemicals in and on my mattress, along the floorboards and bedboards and sealing the matteress. Basically anything I can't treat by washing he said he can treat with the chemicals..
Is this correct?

He also said it was likely that I brought them home recently from an infested apartment or place because the infestation is so light... the subway, etc.

Last night I stupidly slept on the couch so he looked at the very cluttered living room and said that since the infestation was so light he'd want to treat most of the living room with the exception of the built in book case on the far wall.. is this typical??
He basically would want to treat the other walls and everything around or touching the couch.

He also looked at my roommates room and wants to treat that as well since she's been in the living room a lot lately too.
He doesn't think it's imparitive that we do our foyer, my other roommates room or the disaster which is my roommate's office which basically has 20 years worth of extreme clutter in it (this room also shares a wall with mine and I'm very concerned that the bugs are just going to go hang out in there until they can come back).

She has a TON of clutter everywhere. It's incomprehensible really and I'm afraid that it's going to be impossible to treat. My room is very clean and neat with lots of open space along the walls but her office that is cluttered has like 20 years worth of crap in it and I'm afraid that the bugs may just run to the other room during treatment..
I also have to sleep on my bed for at least a week before he comes and I'm missing work to help my roommate prepare and to prepare myself.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the things I can't wash in the washer? Like shoes, books, etc? Do I have to keep them all sealed for 18 months?

Also whats the best thing to do about this washing clothes situation. Should I buy new clothing to wear while I'm laundering everything before the first treatment? Also, are trash bags ok? what's the best way for sealing trashbags?

Also I found an adult bed bug tonight. I totally don't want to go to sleep. D:

HELP!!!

I feel like I've read so much but still don't feel like all of my questions have been awnsered appropriately.
bugsonmugs

newbite
Joined: Jan '09
Posts: 5

Posted 10 months ago
Wed Jan 14 2009 9:33:54
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We are also in Brooklyn and just had Metro Pest Control in yesterday. We skipped the inspection because I found a live specimen and wanted to get treated again. They were very through, looking for evidence in the bed and couch and treating all the rest of the apartment. 2 bed/2 bath apartment was $500. That includes 2 visits (and a probably useless 90 day guarantee).

They also told me that it must have been a recent infestation. I found one large one, one small live one and then they found a few more baby ones in the box spring. No evidence of them anywhere else in the apartment.

We did the washing/drying on hot for every single article of clothing, bedding, linens, etc. It completely sucks and we will be living out of these bags for the next 6 weeks or so. Get the HEFTY ONE ZIP bags to put your clothes you will be wearing. We also used large contractor bags sealed as best we could with duct tape to store the things we wont use during this time.

Best of luck.