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Questions about Ziplocks in Dryer and Treatment and Treatment Preparation
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depressedandconfused
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 2 months ago
Sun Aug 30 2009 4:38:55
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Hi -- I'm new to this site and forum and am finding it very helpful. I feel really #@*#-ed up about our situation. I'm obsessed and can't focus on my regular day-to-day life at all. Also, just to give a little more info, we own our apartment, and, of course, I'm terrified to tell my neighbors.
About 14 days ago, I started getting bites at night--3 on top of one foot, two on the side of my knee, 3 on my breasts, 3 on the top of the other foot, a few on my behind. It seemed like I was getting bitten every night for about 4 or 5 days. I have heard other people's horror stories and was immediately suspicious. Before I read all the controversy on this site, I hired a canine to come in (Champ from M and M). He indicated our bed, a chair near our bed, a basket hamper in the bedroom and a basket in our bedroom closet.
I have found some "specimens" on the chair and on the bed, but they don't look anything like the bed bug pictures I am seeing. Instead of being somewhat diamond shaped, these are oval and ridged or segmented almost like an armadillo and they have teeny tiny legs all along the outside of the oval. I've saved a few and on Monday I will call the PCO to try to get an appointment for identification. I know that I have bugs. I know that I have bites, and I know that I need to exterminate. However, I'm still not sure that I can confirm that these are bed bugs. Any thoughts?
I have talked to M and M about treatment, but I'm freaking out about the prep. We have so much stuff. Forgetting the cost of treatment, it will cost a small fortune to buy enough seal-able plastic containers to store our stuff. It could easily take me days to launder all of our clothes and fabric items and pack them away. It's a nightmare! I had bought my father two brand new polo-style shirts for his birthday, and I am afraid to give them to him even after laundering. That made me really cry.
Now I have a million questions -- first, I don't have a packtite yet, but I do have a bunch of super large ziplocks leftover from a vacation. Can I put these in the dryer for 20 minutes on high heat? Will I start a fire/burn the whole house down doing this? Will they melt in the dryer? Can I spray alcohol in the bags to "sanitize" them? Or should I just wait for the packtite? Is it safe to put the clean clothes in a lawn/leaf garbage bag that's knotted at the top?
As for my belongings, rather than spend a lot of time packtite-ing our hundreds and hundreds of books and our many other belongings. I'm wondering if I can just put a lot of stuff in traditional cardboard boxes and move them to one of those self storage places for two years. The idea is that the bed bugs won't have access to live humans to bite and will die. Then we can retrieve our stuff. I'm especially concerned because I have thousands of dollars worth of expensive baskets. The other option is a fumigation pod or truck, which costs about $1000 or more. Any advice is welcome. If we lived in a house, I would just Vikaine the place.
To complicate matters further, we have a bird, and they have very sensitive respiratory systems. Birds have been known to die from things like Febreeze, Oust and non-stick cookware fumes. This is why I went to M and M -- they use Eco-Smart, which is supposed to be safe for birds. I am definitely going to let them treat and seal all the cracks in my apartment, inject pesticides into the walls and ceiling and treat all the baseboards in my house. I'm still not sure about doing the dusting though. That would require all my belongings to be cleaned/treated and packed in air tight containers. Unless you use a packtite, how do you clean/inspect toilet paper? tampons? rolls of ribbon and wrapping paper? a food processor? a package of stickers? What if things don't fit in a packtite? Then what do you do? Can I really get this all done before they come on Thursday? One is also supposed to dismantle all the furniture. How do you dismantle a dresser other than taking the drawers out? I have two solid cherry armoires that weigh a ton. I don't think I can even move them away from the wall by myself. I also need to call and ask if the dust is Eco-Smart too or something else that's more harmful.
What a mess, I'm so depressed and confused that I have barely been functioning the last week and a half. Any advice/support/help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post--there are just so many details.
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nycbedbug
junior member
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 51
Posted 2 months ago
Sun Aug 30 2009 7:09:36
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I am using M&M. The prep is a lot...it took me more than a week, and I have a small studio apartment. As far as open toilet paper, napkins, your package of stickers, etc., I say throw them out. Anything that was very cheap and easily replaceable, I got rid of (or even if it's not easily replaceable, but its value is little compared with ALL that work you're doing -- and what if this was the one item you didn't check carefully enough and it ended up re-infesting your place?). I did disassemble everything that could be disassembled: bed, bookcases, table, and the things that couldn't be disassembled (dresser, TV cabinet) were carefully treated as is. Good luck!
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depressedandconfused
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 2 months ago
Sun Aug 30 2009 10:59:47
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nycbedbug -- Thank you for the advice. Wow, it's going to take me forever to prep for M and M. I am going to call them on Monday and try to make an appointment with them to go over my options in more depth. It might make sense for us to use storage or a fumigation truck. In addition to the books, many of which I guess could be discarded, we have at least 5 file drawers of papers. Most of them are statements and things that can not be thrown out. It may be time to go paperless.
Anyone know about the ziplocs in the dryer? PCO treatment and birds?
Thanks nycbedbug and all!
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hathead
junior member
Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 46
Posted 2 months ago
Sun Aug 30 2009 12:20:52
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I tried my big ziplock bags in the dryer and they melted and got holes in them.
However, they do fine in the packtite. -
depressedandconfused
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 2 months ago
Sun Aug 30 2009 14:41:34
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Thanks hathead. I was afraid of that. I'm going to try to post some pictures of what I'm finding in a new post.
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nycbedbug
junior member
Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 51
Posted 2 months ago
Mon Aug 31 2009 20:45:07
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You can call or email Tim at M&M and I'm sure he'd have the answer to your worries about Eco-Exempt. (And he gets back to you very quickly -- I finally met him for the first time in person today and we felt like we already knew each other from all of the email exchanges over the past month). I know in order to have Champ (their bedbug dog) come in to inspect, they're very strict about waiting 21 days because even though Eco-Exempt is not a harmful chemical, dogs are much more sensitive to it and Tim said there have been cases of dogs getting sick or worse when people bring them in too soon after a treatment. He called Champ "a member of the family," so I think he's pretty animal-friendly and he'd tell you the truth about the risk to your birds.
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