Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » General Topics
Should I be weary? HELP!
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terrifiedtosleep
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Jun 10 2008 17:33:42
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Hi-
I just wanted to ask those if any of this sounds funny..My infestation is very light. I picked up the bugs while I moved last week and the bugs are for the most part all babies.
So I called the exterminator that I'm thinking of using today to ask some additional questions and I'm now a little more concerned than I was before about the treatment he's going to do.
He quoted me 350.00 for 2 bedrooms and the living room. Is this low?
He said that we wouldn't have to go where I haven't been which basically means our foyer, my roommates insanely cluttered office and all but one wall of our living room.
I asked the following questions today:
Do you have a written protocol for preparation of the rooms being treated?
In which he said I only had to do what he asked me to do at the time of extermination.
Basically he asked me to bag up all my paperwork and my books and that he can "FLUSH OUT" the bags while he was here.I have not heard of anyone flushing out bags of sealed non-washables. He said that I could take these items out immediately after the treatment.
He also said to not worry about treating my non washable shoes, bags etc. and that they would treat them while they're here to do the treatment.
I told him that some people seal up items and don't use them for up to 18th months and he said that was silly and I might as well throw those items out if I'm going to do that.
As far as chemicals he said he uses non-repellent chemicals like PI, Gentrol, Sterifab on the mattress, and something (that I'm probably spelling wrong) called susper.
The information about non-washables has me VERY concerned.
PLEASE HELP!!!
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Joined: May '08
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Jun 10 2008 18:36:42
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My landlord has rented a PCO. They haven't given us any written instructions, and told us to wrap our mattresses in black plastic and leave them on the balcony.
It's the middle of winter. Uhhh, like 10C, not cold enough to kill them and not hot enough to kill them (and in fact, there's no evidence EITHER would kill them).
The guy is coming Saturday. God help him if he doesn't have a steam cleaner with him, because I'll f***ing destroy him if he thinks he can do a half-ass job and walk away. I'm the one who has to sleep in there.
I'll also report him to the national pest control council for not following the bed bugs code of practice.
Grrr I'm so angry.
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Joined: Dec '07
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Jun 10 2008 20:14:50
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bbvictim,
Good for you! If he doesn't do it to code you should report him.We here in the US don't have that luxury,but I wish we did! Good luck and keep us posted. -
IveBeenBugged
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Jun 10 2008 22:14:03
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terrifiedtosleep I think you probably mean suspend not susper. Both Suspend and gentrol don't seem to have the effectivness they once had. Gentrol may actually make things worse. It's supposed to be a reproduction inhibitor but the latest studies show that it may have the opposite effect.
I'm not sure what PI is. Sterifab is widely used by some on this site.
Perhaps one of the resident PCO's could weigh in on your ?'s.
I've never heard of being able to treat (flush out) bagged items in the bag and then being able to remove them and have them bug free.
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terrifiedtosleep
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Posted 5 years ago
Tue Jun 10 2008 22:36:12
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Thanks guys!
The worst part of this is my roommate (who is the lease holder) REFUSES to ask the management company to pay for this.
I just moved in a week ago and had no problems previously. I spoke to Cesar today of the famed Cesar and Trey.. He said they were probably already in the building and while moving my stuff in they were introduced to the apartment.
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buggedmama
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Jun 11 2008 0:08:16
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I'm curious what you told Cesar that made him think the bugs were introduced to your stuff as you brought it in to the building? Is it that your roommate isn't showing any signs of bites? Because to me, after reading your story, my gut reaction is that your apartment was already infested with bed bugs living either in the room you moved into, or your room and your roommate's room. Even if your roommate isn't showing bites, doesn't mean s/he isn't being bitten. Is this someone you knew before, or did you respond to an ad? I find your roommate's reluctance to go to the landlord suspicious, too. And I don't really see why not? Because, I'm pretty sure from reading other threads on here that in multi-unit buildings PCOs have to be paid for by the landlord in Brooklyn (though hopefully someone from there will correct me if I'm wrong).
It could be said that either way, you have them now and it doesn't really matter where they came from... but it sort of does. It gets really frustrating receiving treatments (especially if you end up paying for them) but just having BBs come back because the infestation is spread to other parts of the apartment, or building... sometimes the only way to find out is by talking to your neighbours yourself, especially if your landlord and/or roommates aren't being helpful.
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buggedmama
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Jun 11 2008 0:14:16
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Also, the first exterminator you spoke to might be planning on using residual sprays and figures that any bed bugs will eventually have to come out of any items they might be hiding in and cross the residual, hence his/her belief that heating or otherwise treating and bagging all your belongings is unnecessary. This is one of the places where advice varies from PCO to PCO, I think, and also from bedbugger to bedbugger. I know a lot of people here machine dried/baked/or Steri-Fab'd every item in their house, then bagged, etc. For us, with a young child, that wasn't really an option. We couldn't put all her stuff in storage. (Or at least, we didn't want to unless we became really desperate.) Luckily, our strategy seemed to work for us; and it was in line with what our PCO recommended. Finally, $350 seems like a reasonable price for spraying chemicals. Some PCOs will also dry steam, which is more time consuming, and thus charge more for their services...
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your host
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Jun 11 2008 0:49:25
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I'm with buggedmama. No reason to assume the entire apt. is not infested, nor that the apt. was not infested before you moved in. Your roommate may be bitten and have no reaction. Entomologist Michael Potter says as many as 50% of people may not react to bites.
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fightorflight
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Jun 11 2008 5:38:17
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As Nobugs points out, the PCO seems to have given you some questionable advice, however
> I have not heard of anyone flushing out bags of sealed non-washables. He said that I could take these items out immediately after the treatment.
this does not sound so crazy to me, as it seems to be just a variant on the procedure that some PCOs use of having you pack up your belongings (in the middle of the room or something) and leave them unsealed so the bugs can come out for meals post-treatment and cross the poison. I dunno, maybe I'm not getting it and the professionals have a better opinion...
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terrifiedtosleep
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Joined: Jun '08
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Posted 5 years ago
Wed Jun 11 2008 18:38:18
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Hey Guys-
My roommate says that I brought them in some how because she has nor has anyone previously in this room have had problems. They could have been here, they could have come from next door when the people moved out, I could have picked them up in the hall but the truck seems like a more and more unlikely theory. I did know my roommate before and I have lived in the same room before moving out a year and a half ago to go live with friends.
The first PCO said the infestation is very light and he examined my roommate's mattress and didn't find any signs of bbs in her room. He did accuse her of having bb bites (that look a whole lot like bb bites) that she swears up and down she got at the historical house she works at here in Brooklyn or that it's "rosatia". Just now when she came home she said that she thought they were bites!
Either way I think her whole approach is lame and I'm really trying VERY hard to hold in my anger with her because of how she's treating the whole thing. The whole thing is so fishy to me and I want to call her out on it but I don't feel I can until after I talk to Cesar about my options. I know this is a horrible approach but if she's going to be un-coopraritive I'd rather pay for my personal belonging to be treated somehow, so i a can move to a new apartment, or in my case probably to go live with my boyfriend in Boston for a while because my portfolio for work is probably infested so getting jobs is going to be hard and because I can't afford the cost of treatment and moving.
Her approach with the landlord is that she wants to talk to the super and the landlord but wants to handle it herself and we haven't discussed how to split this up financially. She said she'd split it when I found the guy for 350.00 but I'm pretty sure he's lame and isn't very good at a all. I also didnt feel like there was any support and I felt very overwelmed by everything I needed to do and I don't want someone that's supposed to help me with this problem get angry with me when I start to ask questions.. and if we get quoted by someone that's reasonable and comes recommended by others 800-900.00 I know she won't want to split it and try to turn the tables around.
Regardless, I need to get the apartment's first treatment or my stuff done ASAP, treated ASAP as in this coming week because I leave in three weeks for a job out of state that's two weeks,
I lived in the same room I moved back into two years ago and never had problems and was BB free at my old apartment. So whatever is here is somewhat a recent development on my end.I'm already have thousands of dollars in debt and I really can't afford this alone, paying for the cheapo PCO vs Cesar (and I'm really scared to find out what my quote from him is going to be) and I think even if we treat ourselves we should, at the bare minimum, for the luxury of having our own exteriminator we've decided to use ourselves, have the landlord 1/2 because regardless of if I brought them in from my old place (which i didn't) or if I brought them in from the truck, building, etc. They're here and it's his responsiblity. Either way, Im not on the lease, I write my checks to my roommate and I have no idea what my rights are or what I can do about this. Any one have any ideas?
My biggest nightmare is having the landlord bring in a PCO that's not that familiar with bed bugs and having the problem worsen, so I'd rather bite the bullet and make sure someone good is handling my problem.
All this is really lame and shady and I've set up a time to talk to Cesar afterwards about what my personal options are because I don't think my roommate is going to follow protocol perfectly because it seems like her areas of the apartment would be IMPOSSIBLE to treat because it's so cluttered and she's messy. I'm going to talk to him about the options for just my belongings and see if there's a way to get out of the apartment all together. I really don't care at this point because she didn't charge me a deposit when I moved back in. I'll just leave.
I'm starting to think that it may have not been the rental truck because the day we moved was hot 85-90 degrees and I'm trying to be optimistic and tell myself any BBs that were in the back of the truck probably would have died off because the back of of the truck could have easily heated up to 120 degrees with the door closed.
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buggedmama
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Posted 5 years ago
Thu Jun 12 2008 16:43:36
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I get the impression that Cesar is pretty knowledgeable about bed bugs, so if you have the opportunity to talk about your situation with him on the phone or in real life, it might be better than relying on typing up really long explanations and taking the advice of total strangers online. But, this particular stranger would like to advise you that paying for treatment yourself, and only treating your belongings and room, should be an absolute last resort. Even if bed bugs are found no where else, neighbouring rooms and units need to be sprayed as a preventative measure to keep them from spreading.
Time is of the essence when it comes to bed bugs, it is true, since they reproduce quickly; however, I will reiterate--you really do need to take the time to make sure all affected areas in your apartment and throughout the building are treated or you will just be wasting your money whether it's only $350 or much more.
I totally understand your predicament, particularly after reading your latest update and seeing that you are not on the lease, but I still believe you need to convince your roommate to go to the landlord, so s/he can have a PCO inspect yours and neighbouring units. If you are assuming you are going to have to pay for your treatment anyways, what difference does it make whether the inspection turns up you are the only one with bed bugs? (I should add here, that in some places landlords still are required to pay for pest control whether they think they can prove you brought them or not). But I would wager that you are not the only one in the building experiencing a problem, especially considering you're living in a bed bug "hotzone", and you did not have a problem before moving in.
If you really push your roommate to approach the landlord and s/he continues to refuse, then you should consider talking to neighbours and/or the landlord yourself. Finally, after you've done all of these things, you can look once again at just having your stuff very carefully inspected and treated and getting out of there, away from your uncooperative roommate, before things get worse.
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terrifiedtosleep
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Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 86offline
Posted 5 years ago
Thu Jun 12 2008 18:54:42
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Bugged Mama-
Cesar was very helpful and took his time to talk to me about all my options after his inspection.
It was the truck or the building. I've looked into trying to find out where the truck is but I doubt I'm going to be able to get my hands on it.
My roommate did finally go to the landlord after we met with Cesar!
They have a guy they use. They are in the building for sure. I e-mailed the previous roommate here and she never saw anything and has no bed bugs now but she knows someone in the building had them and today coming home, I saw a mattress outside that was severely infested. I took photos just incase it turns into an issue and I'm documenting everything.
The building's bed bug exterminator is coming tomorrow to take a look and I plan on grilling him on everything bed bug related.
I can't really afford Cesar twice if the apartment can't be successfully treated and if I have to move in order to get rid of them and have the 2nd apartment treated by Cesar I'll do it but the timing is so bad. I have a job out of town and in order to pay for any treatments, I have to take it, so I'm looking more at a move in for August 1st.
If the buildings guy seems werid, then I think the woman I rent from is going to pay for Cesar and I'm going to talk to her about the bill because I can't pay for a portion of it and then have to move because it doesn't work and the cause being she has too much stuff making it impossible to appropriately treat the apartment. Especially when I didn't have them when I moved in.
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