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Well You all know why Im here

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mksmth

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Posted 9 months ago
Mon Aug 6 2012 11:30:06
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Hi Im mike and I have BB's

My daugher and I started getting unexplained rashes and on saturday while sitting on the couch I had a couple of those little suckers crawl on my arm. Both mine and my daughters rashes started after we had slept on the couch separately so that explains that. My wife also had slept on it but she never showed signs of bites.

So saturday night I found the nests on the back of the couch in the tufts. First thing I did was tip if forward and took it outside, I think I should have vacuumed first but my fight instinct kicked in and I just reacted. I vacuumed it very well outside and disposed of them in plastic. I also had a garment steamer and steamed the heck out of it. Before steaming I went back in the house and immediately vacuumed the carpet and baseboard in the living room. We did find 2 bugs crawling up the wall that the couch was next to but I think they were just ones that jumped ship when I moved the couch. I have never seen any other signs in the house prior to this.
After that I took everything that was in the living room, blankets, pillows, shoes, etc and put them trough a 30 min high dryer cycle. I washed the clothes I was wearing in hot water also. I checked all the beds in the house and the 2 chairs in the living room and found no signs of bugs, crossing fingers they dont show up.

Sunday. Mad cleaning day.

First off tell me how wrong this was. I read that heat would kill them so I had a bright idea that probably at best was a dim one. My garage gets hot during the day and I have several electric heaters in there for winter storage of plants. I put the couch in there and cranked it up to 115-120 degrees for about 10 hours thinking if by chance that if any remained it would kill them. I dont have an infared thermometer yet but an ambient one was placed at the lowest spot on the couch. Today its also cooking while im at work, Wife is home to keep an eye on it for safety. I cant afford a new couch but if we should just toss it we can live without one for now.
Vacuumed the carpet and baseboard again as well as use my carpet cleaner. did the same in my daughters room.
All the bed linens and clothes that were not hanging off the ground were washed and dried on high. All my daughters stuffed animals in her room were put in black bags and cooked in the 105 degree sun all day.
As like most others I dont have $1000's laying around to call in the pro's right now and im not sure I need to just yet.

Should I go ahead and encase the mattresses now or wait to see if they show up?

My plan is to 1, keep a close eye out, 2, Do some type of monitoring system, 3, DIY pesticide application.

I have an idea were they came from but its a sore subject that Id rather not get into.

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Thanks
Mike
mksmth

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Posted 9 months ago
Tue Aug 7 2012 11:22:25
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Im sorry I hate bumping my own topics but this has me a little freaked out as Im sure most of use are.

Anyone have any advise on what Im doing/plan to do. My couch was in the garage again and the the sustained temp was 121 and I also put a box fan blowing the air into the bottom side. Im doing it again today. I also put backwards tape and petroleum jelly on the legs of the beds. we havent seen bugs or had any bites since saturday.

Mike
bed-bugscouk

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Joined: Apr '07
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Posted 9 months ago
Tue Aug 7 2012 12:12:57
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OK sorry to be the bearer of bad news here but your home thermal plan is a fail.

If you search this forum you will see loads of threads similar to this and the outcome is always failure because you are fighting against the laws of physics:

http://medent.usyd.edu.au/bedbug/papers/garrards_bed_bugs_2007_fullarticle.pdf

It does not get hot enough on this planet for black bags outside to work, the Sun is a conductive heat source once inside the bag and therefore the core does not get up to temp.

The same also goes for your couch, the air temperature is not the critical issue its the core temperature, I have conducted enough tests where the air temp its 170F+ and the core of the items is 111F after 6 hours exposure.

Thermal is a specialist skill that requires specialist sensing and QC as well as a lot of experience.

All of this also work for those who leave things in cars, it will not work on planet earth.

You would be better off reading the FAQ's and looking at combinations of steam and DE to treat.

David
mksmth

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Posted 9 months ago
Tue Aug 7 2012 12:52:44
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Thank you for the info. The bags of toys were sealed tight and Ill leave them that was until I figure out what to do. I never saw any bugs or eggs on them to begin with but for now Ill leave them be.

The couch is 10 yrs old anyways so Ill just take it to the dump and call the pros I guess.

Thanks again.

Mike