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The Plan & a Couple Questions
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bitebedbugsback
newbite
Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 32
Posted 3 weeks ago
Fri Oct 30 2009 16:29:37
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A PCO came yesterday and confirmed that I have bed bugs. He's coming back next week to start treatment and today I was going to start doing all the stuff I have to do. I ended up sitting around all day, though, feeling overwhelmed and thinking of any supplemental stuff I can do and how to go about doing it. Here's what I'm thinking.
Obviously all of the standard stuff my PCO told me to do: washing and sealing all clothes, vacuuming, and so on.
- I've been on the fence about whether to throw out my wooden futon which is in the living room. I've slept on it quite a bit until about 1-2 months ago and found the shell of a bb (which looks like it died quite a while ago) on the back of a painting that hung on the wall above it.
I've been getting noticeably fewer bites since early/mid this week, which is when I stopped sitting on the it. A very plausible explanation is that a number of the bites came from bugs in/around it. This is further pushing me to throw it out. The PCO said he can treat, but I'm still seriously thinking of trashing it anyway.
If so, then after I strip, wash and dry the sheets, I'm going to wrap the mattress in saran wrap. Unfortunately I won't be able to throw it out until next week so in the meantime I'm going to put the legs in paper bowls with either mineral oil or vaseline in them. This will prevent the bugs from climbing down and moving to other areas of the apartment (and save the cost of using interceptors).
- Use climb-up interceptors with anything else that I can: coffee table, end table, tv stand, dresser, and so on. My Ikea chair and computer desk don't have clearly defined legs so maybe risers will allow me to use intereceptors with them also.
This will prevent any bugs on/in them from spreading and to give me an idea of whether they're infected and how well treatment is working. The only thing I won't use them on, at least initially, is my bed, since I have to be the bait.
- I have boxes of old magazines, papers, and so on in my closet I'm going to throw out. Again, though, I can't chuck them until next week. I have a couple large boxes so what I'm thinking about doing is putt the boxes on strong cups and putting the cups in bowls of vaseline. Then put anything I'm going to throw out in the boxes. The vaseline will hopefully prevent them from getting from the box to the floor.
- Put the mattress and box spring in encasements after the first treatment. Throw out my pillows (already bought new ones, along with pillow encasements).
A couple questions: (1) should I ever use interceptors with my bed, before, during, or after treatment? If the treatment doesn't work, I suppose I'll want to make sure they stay around my bed. I'll ask my PCO but I figured I'd ask here as well.
(2) I have some boxes of papers and junk I want to keep. I'd love to get a Packtite but I already dropped about $500 on other stuff. What should I do about the boxes of stuff I want to keep? I was thinking about totally wrapping the boxes in packing tape (maybe saran wrap too) so any bed bugs can't get out. Then either not open them for 18 months or until I get a Packtite, if I ever do.
Sorry for the long post. Bedbugs have become my life the past few days. :-/
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