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Bed bugs at camp, now what?


JenneinCA
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Today I got an email from the camp my daughter is attending saying that three bed bugs had been found in the cabin she is staying in.

 

She and all the other campers have been moved to a different cabin and the old one is being treated. All the kids' luggage spent the afternoon in the sauna at 120 degrees. All the kids' clothes and bedding including pillows went through the commercial washers and dryers at 120 plus degrees.

 

She won't be coming home until Saturday so I have plenty of time to prepare. Is there anything I need to do? I am already planning on leaving the luggage in the garage in plastic bags for at least two weeks and replacing the pillow and sleeping bag. They aren't even making it into the house. I was going to wash everything again in super hot water and run everything through a super hot dryer. What else?

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Do you really need any of this stuff? I only let T pack her scuzziest stuff for camp and I'd just dump the whole lot in the camp dumpster before we got in the car. Maybe an overreaction, but dealing with bed bugs is just so awful (and potentially costly) that I couldn't justify it for a bunch of old clothes, towels and sheets. I'd rather spend $200 replacing stuff than buying diatomaceous earth and scouring every surface.

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I don't have a problem with chucking it all, but she took some of her favorite clothes to camp. Her favorite shirts and the shorts with the pockets all went.

 

Just put the clothes directly into the washer when she gets home.  Wash them in hot, and dry them on high.  That will take care of them.

 

Make sure you take garbage bags with you when you pick her up.  Better yet, take those huge ziploc bags.  Seal her stuff in plastic bags *before* you put them in your car.

 

HotShot makes a special spray for Bedbugs and Fleas that is super powerful, yet has no odor.  Spray anything you plan to bring into the house, and leave it outside for a couple days before bringing it in.

 

 

ETA: Just saw that she is flying home in an airline.  This bothers me.  I would ask that her suitcase be sprayed with Bedbug killer before being filled with clothes and put on a plane.  The airlines may even have special plastic bags she can seal her suitcase in, to keep it from possibly infecting other bags.    

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Hopefully the problem will be mostly solved before I have to do anything. I can hope that the bugs are all dead at camp and none make it onto the plane. And then I will encase everything possible in plastic or run it through the washer on hot.

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Please contact the camp and ask them to throw away anything she asks to leave behind, and wrap her suitcase in plastic before she checks her baggage.  

 

Please

 

Pretty please!

 

All of the passengers she will be traveling with will appreciate the courtesy.

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Thats okay then... I was imagining that it was in my daughters cabin or something... That's cool though - your daughter and mine probably saw each other in passing at the international day celebration. And they've probably met the same Concordia airport staff. It was her third camp there -- she loves it!

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Have you ever read "A Long Way from Chicago," by Richard Peck? Or maybe it was the other title, "A Year Down Yonder."

 

Anyway, back in the Depression era and shortly thereafter, traveling salesmen and drifters encountered all sorts of cooties on their journeys.

 

The grandmother in the story is willing to put up a gentleman who has been traveling by train and staying in hotels, but she utilizes her protocol for the situation before she lets him step foot in the house. Strip off and wash off in an outbuilding, toss the disposable clothes and boil and scrub the clothes you have to keep. (These are things that people used to know, that we really need to learn again now that bedbugs are everywhere.)

 

I'd have them toss the clothes and buy new ones for her, even if I had to sell something. And have the camp make sure none of the campers are carrying home hitchhikers on their persons. If these solutions are truly untenable, I'd de-bug everything outside the home, and if it couldn't stand up to my cleaning/soaking/boiling/sunning/suffocation techniques, then too bad.

 

Seriously, a mistake with a bedbug can end up costing thousands of dollars and endless sleepless nights. :( Favorite shorts are not worth it.

 

Edited to add: Found it. "A Year Down Yonder," by Richard Peck.

 

Excerpt:

 

"She just said I'd have to go door-to-door to see if anybody'd rent me a room...and you're the last house in town. Don't you people have a hotel around here?"

"Used to, but it was burned to the ground in the War of 1812." Grandma watched him to see if he was dumb enough to believe the War of 1812 had been fought around here.

 

He was.

 

"Where you from?" she asked.

 

"New York."

 

He stood drooping in the yard, keeping his distance from Grandma. "I'm here from the WPA. The Works Progress Administration."

 

(snip -- he explains that he's a government propoganda muralist, she argues that there's no room for his art in their dinky post office so the whole proposition is useless...)

 

"But they've cut my orders in Washington."

 

Now Grandma's eyes narrowed to slits. "That's our tax dollars in action," she said. "What they paying you?"

 

"Four dollars per diem," he said.

 

"Son, you're home," Grandma said. "It ought to take you about a month not to paint a mural in the post office. I charge two dollars and fifty cents a day. You can get your meals up at the Coffee Pot Cafe."

 

I nearly keeled over. I didn't think the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago charged two dollars and fifty cents for a room. But Grandma judged it was fair. She saw a chance to recover some of her tax money from the government. Though I doubted if she paid taxes.

 

"It's steep rent," the stranger said, bravely.

 

"And the last house in town," Grandma replied.

 

That's how we got our lodger, Arnold Green, the New York artist. Grandma shook him down for ten dollars in advance. She sent me inside for some of Grandpa Dowdel's clothes. And she aimed him at the cobhouse to skin off what he was wearing. She built up the fire and tossed his traveling clothes into the pot. She threw out his socks and scrubbed his shirt on the washboard.

 

"Laundry included in the rent," she said generously.

 

 

 

 

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What I've done in the past was unpack the suitcase outside and put everything into a plastic bag.  Leave the suit case outside in the sun or throw it out if you don't mind getting rid of it.  Take the clothing and immediately put it into the dryer and run the dryer for awhile.  Chuck the plastic bag immediately outside.

 

 

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On way home from airport go to hotel.  check in.  have her take a looooooooong hot shower.  take her a set of clean clothes to wear home.  throw everything she brought on the airplane (hopefully minimal) into the dumpster.

 

but I'm just a little, no make that a lot, OCD.  Stop by the store on the way home and let her have a little shopping spree :)

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I would throw everything into a black plastic bag and let it bake in a hot area (garage?) for a week or so. Then I would wash it. I would let your daughter jump into the shower immediately and put the clothes she had on in the bag to bake.

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How reasonable is it to assume the camp is successful in not transferring bb from Cabin A to Cabin B?  I mean did they simultaneously make each kid strip down in the shower and throw away the clothes they came in, shoes and all, and hand them freshly laundered and dried outfits and new shoes?  Did they make everyone blow dry their hair?  

 

This would guide my decision to trash everything or not.  

 

 

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Just put the clothes directly into the washer when she gets home.  Wash them in hot, and dry them on high.  That will take care of them.

 

Make sure you take garbage bags with you when you pick her up.  Better yet, take those huge ziploc bags.  Seal her stuff in plastic bags *before* you put them in your car.

 

HotShot makes a special spray for Bedbugs and Fleas that is super powerful, yet has no odor.  Spray anything you plan to bring into the house, and leave it outside for a couple days before bringing it in.

 

 

ETA: Just saw that she is flying home in an airline.  This bothers me.  I would ask that her suitcase be sprayed with Bedbug killer before being filled with clothes and put on a plane.  The airlines may even have special plastic bags she can seal her suitcase in, to keep it from possibly infecting other bags.    

 

My son's summer camp sent us a warning ahead of time they had found bedbugs in some of their cabins. They had treated us but wanted to give us instructions on how to 1) help them not get bedbugs again and 2) How to treat stuff  that comes from camp to prevent it coming back.

 

They said to dry all the clothes for 20 minutes as soon as it comes in the house. to dry BEFORE washing -- bedbugs can evidently escape the washer.

 

We did not have any problems with bedbugs after doing this.

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It cost my FIL thousands to get rid of bed bugs. Honestly, I would chuck it all in the trash.

If she has absolute favorites, have her bring only those home, then have her strip inside the kitchen (this is what we did coming home from FIL's), immediately bag the clothes she was in (her favorites) and send them into the dryer, then the washer, then the dryer again - all on hot. Have her shower immediately (hot again). 

Our daughter lost one of her beloved AG dolls to FIL's bed bugs. I swear I spent years after meticulously checking the beds after every single travel. In fact, DH is in Germany right now and I plan to make him strip when he gets home and shower. 

I have a serious phobia about bed bugs, lol.

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When we stayed in a hotel and the maid found bedbugs, they hotel dry cleaned all our stuff (including undies!!) and steam cleaned our luggage.  My husband works in the pest control industry and said that you have to dry clean/steam clean stuff, commercial washers won't do it.  If it had been up to me I probably would have thrown away some of the stuff but since the hotel paid the bill it was okay.  So if I were you I'd throw away what I could, dry clean/steam what I couldn't.  

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I would meet her at the airport with a new outfit and then have her toss her suitcase out. I would put it in a garbage bag before it got in my car and then I would toss it in a dumpster.

 

New favorite shorts etc are MUCH better than bedbugs in the house.

 

And I would write a letter to the camp thanking them for their honesty.  They have saved you a lot of trouble and should be commended.

 

Gah! DH travels quite often for work and I live in fear of this. He doesn't take me seriously and thinks I am over reacting.

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I agree with all the chucking of stuff first and foremost... But, black plastic bags in the sun, washing on HOT and drying on HOT multiple times seems to be very effective.  I'm traveling on the cheap for a while in about a year, and I've read that permethrin treatment kills the bugs - so if you have something she really wants to keep that would be ruined in the wash, I'd spray it down, then put it in a plastic bag for a week in the sun.  You can get it on Amazon, and supposedly it isn't toxic to humans. 

 

As an FYI to parents whose kids haven't left for camp yet - I'd buy the permethrin spray now and pretreat everything they take.  It's great for mosquitos and ticks as well.  Once the sleeping bag, suitcase/bag, clothes, etc., are treated, they don't smell, and it lasts for at least 6 or 7 washes.  Kills the bed bugs before they can get in the cracks and crevices and hitch a ride home.

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I would meet her at the airport with a new outfit and then have her toss her suitcase out. I would put it in a garbage bag before it got in my car and then I would toss it in a dumpster.

 

New favorite shorts etc are MUCH better than bedbugs in the house.

 

And I would write a letter to the camp thanking them for their honesty.  They have saved you a lot of trouble and should be commended.

 

Gah! DH travels quite often for work and I live in fear of this. He doesn't take me seriously and thinks I am over reacting.

 

 

It is really easy to check for bedbugs in hotels.  You can find pictures of what to look for online.  The basic idea is that bedbugs follow paths like ants and the paths turn the red-brown color of old blood because well, that is what it is.   I would imagine that it is easier to check in hotels than a friend's guestroom because they wouldn't be in hibernation because there would usually be a warm body to munch on.  

 

I never saw them, but when I traveled all the time I always looked.  I used to leave my luggage in the entrance and check out the room, both for bedbugs and disgusting housekeeping.  I did find disgusting housekeeping a few times.  

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My son's summer camp sent us a warning ahead of time they had found bedbugs in some of their cabins. They had treated us but wanted to give us instructions on how to 1) help them not get bedbugs again and 2) How to treat stuff  that comes from camp to prevent it coming back.

 

They said to dry all the clothes for 20 minutes as soon as it comes in the house. to dry BEFORE washing -- bedbugs can evidently escape the washer.

 

We did not have any problems with bedbugs after doing this.

Little dd and I just went to camp, which had no evidence of bed bugs, but in being proactive and careful, this is what I did.

 

College girl had confirmed bedbugs in her college apartment last year, and she followed the above protocol in removing her clothing from the apartment.  It eliminated the bedbugs.

 

I think throwing away all of the clothing is unnecessary, but everyone has a different threshold of tolerance for things of this type.

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It is really easy to check for bedbugs in hotels.  You can find pictures of what to look for online.  The basic idea is that bedbugs follow paths like ants and the paths turn the red-brown color of old blood because well, that is what it is.   I would imagine that it is easier to check in hotels than a friend's guestroom because they wouldn't be in hibernation because there would usually be a warm body to munch on.  

 

I never saw them, but when I traveled all the time I always looked.  I used to leave my luggage in the entrance and check out the room, both for bedbugs and disgusting housekeeping.  I did find disgusting housekeeping a few times.  

 

I check this every time I am in a hotel and I tell him to do it, but he admits that he never remembers. I also keep suitcases etc in the bathroom. I was told that there aren't as many good places for bedbugs to nest in a hotel bathroom. It isn't easy, stuff gets piled up, but we manage.

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That's what I'd do too. Bed bugs, lice, parasites, other weird pest infestations... They have been with humans for a long time and can be dealt with. I wouldn't let bed bugs stop me from traveling or force me to throw away perfectly good items.

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from what I have researched, they drown pretty easily-- so I would soak all the clothes overnight in the washer, then dry-- it won't kill any eggs, but the dryer will----

 

so will dry cleaning (tell the dry cleaner)-- that way nothing actually comes home

 

I also suspect that putting things into a black garden trash bag and leaving in the sun for a couple of days should get hot enough to kill the suckers

 

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A note about permethrin:  it can be toxic to cats.  I have the spray and it says that on the bottle. 

 

Another note about Permethrin; we are in heavy tick (Lyme's disease) country, and we do use it, but it's a neurotoxin and should be handled very carefully, especially by those with any kind of neurological trouble.

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