HELP!!! I found a bedbug! In my living room!

[specialmama]

I'm seriously freaking out. I don't think I can handle this... I would rather deal with so many other things than this.....

 

please tell me it will be okay and that I can do this.

 

please pray for me, my sanity...

 

Garga, how on earth did you do this?

 

Beds/mattresses appear okay.

 

I'm thinking either this box of used curric from the homeschool store I picked up a few days ago, or one of our basement tenants who travels alot (a trucker).... it's a nymph, sort of tan coloured, but positively absolutely one....

 

can you all please pray that it is only that one? What are the odds? Maybe this is God's way of getting me to do a deep clean. Can we hope for that?

 

Oh sanity, sweet sanity... where are you? :crying:

[Ibbygirl]

I'm so sorry Karyn. I found this link for natural cures. http://www.natural-cures-for.com/remedies/bed-bugs Maybe if you can spread boric acid around the perimeter of the room it will keep them from spreading. I don't know if it is safe for dogs and people though. I'm sure others will chime in and give you helpful advice. God will never give you more than you can handle and I know you are handling a lot. I'm praying for you love. :grouphug:

[specialmama]

I'm so sorry Karyn. I found this link for natural cures. http://www.natural-cures-for.com/remedies/bed-bugs Maybe if you can spread boric acid around the perimeter of the room it will keep them from spreading. I don't know if it is safe for dogs and people though. I'm sure others will chime in and give you helpful advice. God will never give you more than you can handle and I know you are handling a lot. I'm praying for you love. :grouphug:

 

thank you so much... I will look into that link just as soon as I gut this corner of the living room... thank you thank you... your prayers mean more than you know!

[JudoMom]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

[Starr]

Go back and read all the posts. I don't think the natural treatments were working very well. I am so sorry.

[FaithManor]

I am soooo sorry.... Ugh this epidemic is beginning to freak me out...waiting for it to invade my little town and itching in advance.

 

I'll pray that the evil little critter has no friends and did not breed. Please fight the urge to burn the room and its contents!

 

Faith

[mcconnellboys]

If it's the tenants, then you'd have to fumigate/clean their places, too.... It could be the books, I've heard about lots of libraries having trouble with books lately. I believe they are putting their books in big ziploc type bags and freezing them for some period of time to kill bugs.....(Or if it's cold enough, maybe you could put them outside for some time?)

[LibraryLover]

No!

 

They can come in on anything.

Edited December 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Whereneverever]

:grouphug:

[Garga]

Garga, how on earth did you do this?

:crying:

 

Oh dear. I'm not even sure what to say. It's just all bad news and I don't really want to have to tell you. Did you lift up the mattress and look? I didn't see any evidence, until Ninja Bug Guy found it on the underside of the mattress.

 

Did you check all the couch cushions? Bed bug's 2nd favorite place to live is in the couch.

 

 

Ok. Ninja Bug Guy treated for the bugs and then, as part of his deal with us, he comes back 5 more times to check to see if his treatments really got rid of them. When he came back to our house, he never found another sign of the bugs. He said our case was his best one ever. He credits it to the fact that we did exactly what he told us to. The big things we did were to completely clean out the rooms that he needed to treat (EVERYTHING was either thrown away or put in big plastic trash bags), and we put the mattresses in mattress bags. We happened to buy the more expensive mattress bags (so that DH wouldn't sweat all night on a plastic bag), but Ninja Bug Guy said that the $20 WalMart ones are just as effective.

 

 

Here's all I can tell you:

 

1. Find a really nice person to work with. I went with the local guy who owns his own business over the employee who works for a big company. Ninja Bug Guy is supporting his wife and kids with his extermination company, and if he doesn't do a good job, he doesn't have enough money to support them. The employee working for a big company who doesn't do a good job, just gets a reprimand (if his boss even notices), but keeps working at the same pay.

 

I am SO appreciative that Ninja Bug Guy comes out for a full 2 months after the initial treatment. He says that's the best way. Sometimes they hide for a couple of weeks, and then you find more evidence of them.

 

I called around until I found the local guy who owns his own business.

 

2. Let your Bug Guy come to your house and try to find where the bugs are coming from. If there is no evidence (meaning that you found a single bug), then I'm not sure what to do. But if they can figure out where the bugs are, then you can go from there.

 

If the bugs are in the couch, that's harder than the bed, I'm thinking. You can't really bag up a couch, and I don't think they're allowed to spray the cushions. The bug guy will have to assess what to do.

 

The bug guy should look EVERYWHERE, if he can't easily assess where the bugs are. He should be using a flashlight and looking in every corner of every room in your house. He might take off the light switch and power socket covers (bugs like to hide in the electrical holes). He should be looking in smoke alarms.

 

3. Before they can treat, you have to clean out whatever rooms, and some adjoining areas, before they begin. Let this take you 2 or 3 days. We cleaned out our rooms in one day and it was beyond grueling. (You can search for my original post.) It was depressing and we were feeling desperate. The work was overwhelming. But having the time limit forced us to make quick decisions about what to keep and what to toss.

 

They'll ask you to put everything in big plastic bags, and do your best not to punch a hole in the bags (NOT easy.) That way, if there were any buggies in your stuff, it will be bagged up and unable to get out. Slowly, over the course of a couple of weeks, you'll unpack your stuff examining your things, and your bug guy will come back and see if there was a resurgence.

 

Your Bug Guy will need to look in your tenant's homes as well, so they'll need to be ready. This is the hard part. If the bugs are coming from them, they'll have to be willing to do all the above, or it won't be effective.

 

4. If the bugs are in the bedroom, you'll need to get those mattress bags--one for the mattress and one for the box spring(either the cheap ones or the expensive $80 ones that are breathable.) This will trap the bugs in the bags until they die. Mine are staying on my bed for a year and a half, to be sure the bugs are dead. (They can hibernate and live w/o food for up to a year.)

 

5. Anything fabric that can be stuffed into a washer/dryer from the rooms will need to be washed on hot water and then dried in a commercial dryer for 20 minutes at 120 degrees. Your home dryer will NOT get hot enough. It'll have to be the laundromat. I spent well over $100 on the washing/drying. If I could do it over, I'd have washed at home and only dried at the laundromat.

 

6. Before they treat, you'll need to vacuum the entire room, and don't forget to throw away the bag (if it's a bagged vacuum) when you're done. You do not need to steam clean, though. (I thought I did, but you don't.)

 

 

The worst news is the cost. Ninja Bug Guy halved his fee for me, because the infestation was so small. (another reason to go with someone local who owns his own business. An employee of a big company wouldn't have the authority to halve the fee.) Halving his fee still ended up with me paying him a smidge over $700.

 

700 Ninja Bug Guy

$160 mattress/box spring covers

$120 laundromat

$? Big black bags, strong twistie ties, tape

 

Total= about $1000.

 

 

The good news? We got rid of 12 big black plastic trash bags of junk that was in our rooms. It inspired my DH to actually go through the shed and throw 2 truck loads of stuff away. It inspired me to go through 2 other closets in the house and there are 3 big trash bags waiting to go out from those closets.

 

My bedroom and the 2 adjoining closets are completely cleaned out. In fact, I still go and look at them every day just to see how clean they are and to feel the peaceful feeling from looking at them. There is NOTHING under my bed. I love the feeling.

 

 

 

The hardest part was getting into bed before the treatments were done. I just knew they were there crawling on me. But, I found that I was a lot stronger than I ever knew. I would just take a deep breath and crawl into bed and curl up against my dh, scratch for a few minutes, and then fall asleep.

 

 

Sorry, Specialmama. I hated writing this all out to you. It's very difficult and draining and depressing. BUT, the good news is that everything will feel so clean and peaceful when it's all over. The only thing I truly regret about the experience was the money, because it's a doozy. I'm actually pleased that we were forced to get rid of so much stuff. And I could handle the work, though it ended up taking about 8 days off of our homeschooling, some before the treatment, and some afterwards (when we unpacked all those bags.) I just hated parting with my money.

 

P.S. I wish I could send Ninja Bug Guy up to Canada for you.

Edited December 1, 2010 by Garga

[Garga]

Specialmama, I pm'd you.

 

After thinking about it overnight, I have a plan for you. It might save you some money. See the pm.

[Impish]

Love you, girlie :grouphug: Praying hard for you :grouphug:

[specialmama]

Oh dear. I'm not even sure what to say. It's just all bad news and I don't really want to have to tell you. Did you lift up the mattress and look? I didn't see any evidence, until Ninja Bug Guy found it on the underside of the mattress.

I did and I used a flashlight and a magnifying glass too. Nada. But I have a lot of junk around my bed (gasp, not junk! BOOKS!) that I have to go through and lots of stuff all over. My bedroom has been sorely neglected for too long.

 

Did you check all the couch cushions? Bed bug's 2nd favorite place to live is in the couch. Yuck. I mean, yes... yes, I did. It's a 2-3 yr old set and I flipped it upside down and even cut the bottom fabric off. I was able to peel off some batten and really get in every little nook and spring. Nada. But it still freaks me out that they might be somewhere else! Apart from the kids' rooms and their bathroom, every wall in the house is recessed oak pannels... real oak, real moulding framing it in from floor to chair rail height or to the ceiling. There are so many cracks. So many places for the little buggers to hide. :sad:

 

Ok. Ninja Bug Guy treated for the bugs and then, as part of his deal with us, he comes back 5 more times to check to see if his treatments really got rid of them. When he came back to our house, he never found another sign of the bugs. He said our case was his best one ever. He credits it to the fact that we did exactly what he told us to. The big things we did were to completely clean out the rooms that he needed to treat (EVERYTHING was either thrown away or put in big plastic trash bags), and we put the mattresses in mattress bags. We happened to buy the more expensive mattress bags (so that DH wouldn't sweat all night on a plastic bag), but Ninja Bug Guy said that the $20 WalMart ones are just as effective.

Well considering I'm ready to just blow up the whole house, I suppose expensive mattress bags for all aren't that big of an expense. Some already have them, but not the box springs.

 

Here's all I can tell you:

 

1. Find a really nice person to work with. I went with the local guy who owns his own business over the employee who works for a big company. Ninja Bug Guy is supporting his wife and kids with his extermination company, and if he doesn't do a good job, he doesn't have enough money to support them. The employee working for a big company who doesn't do a good job, just gets a reprimand (if his boss even notices), but keeps working at the same pay.

 

I am SO appreciative that Ninja Bug Guy comes out for a full 2 months after the initial treatment. He says that's the best way. Sometimes they hide for a couple of weeks, and then you find more evidence of them.

 

I called around until I found the local guy who owns his own business.

 

2. Let your Bug Guy come to your house and try to find where the bugs are coming from. If there is no evidence (meaning that you found a single bug), then I'm not sure what to do. But if they can figure out where the bugs are, then you can go from there. Do you clean before he comes? I am because, well, I have to. My perfectionist personality won't allow someone to see my bedroom until it's clean. Is that okay?

 

If the bugs are in the couch, that's harder than the bed, I'm thinking. You can't really bag up a couch, and I don't think they're allowed to spray the cushions. The bug guy will have to assess what to do. I hope they're not in my couch! The cushions are dense foam like most, do you think they can be in the middle of that? :001_huh:

 

The bug guy should look EVERYWHERE, if he can't easily assess where the bugs are. He should be using a flashlight and looking in every corner of every room in your house. He might take off the light switch and power socket covers (bugs like to hide in the electrical holes). He should be looking in smoke alarms. I bet he's going to want us to tear the oak pannels off the wall. :crying:

 

3. Before they can treat, you have to clean out whatever rooms, and some adjoining areas, before they begin. Let this take you 2 or 3 days. We cleaned out our rooms in one day and it was beyond grueling. (You can search for my original post.) It was depressing and we were feeling desperate. The work was overwhelming. But having the time limit forced us to make quick decisions about what to keep and what to toss. So does that mean he came to see before you cleaned?

 

They'll ask you to put everything in big plastic bags, and do your best not to punch a hole in the bags (NOT easy.) That way, if there were any buggies in your stuff, it will be bagged up and unable to get out. Slowly, over the course of a couple of weeks, you'll unpack your stuff examining your things, and your bug guy will come back and see if there was a resurgence.

 

Your Bug Guy will need to look in your tenant's homes as well, so they'll need to be ready. This is the hard part. If the bugs are coming from them, they'll have to be willing to do all the above, or it won't be effective. Oh man...

 

4. If the bugs are in the bedroom, you'll need to get those mattress bags--one for the mattress and one for the box spring(either the cheap ones or the expensive $80 ones that are breathable.) This will trap the bugs in the bags until they die. Mine are staying on my bed for a year and a half, to be sure the bugs are dead. (They can hibernate and live w/o food for up to a year.) :glare: So not cool. I'll be getting those!

 

5. Anything fabric that can be stuffed into a washer/dryer from the rooms will need to be washed on hot water and then dried in a commercial dryer for 20 minutes at 120 degrees. Your home dryer will NOT get hot enough. It'll have to be the laundromat. I spent well over $100 on the washing/drying. If I could do it over, I'd have washed at home and only dried at the laundromat. Only $100? Oh my. We have too much stuff. I can easily picture paying 5 times that amount. But maybe I'm just extra paranoid, I'd probably dry each load for 5 hours. What did you do with it after it was cleaned to be sure it wouldn't be exposed to anything? And how can you be sure you hit the right temp?

 

6. Before they treat, you'll need to vacuum the entire room, and don't forget to throw away the bag (if it's a bagged vacuum) when you're done. You do not need to steam clean, though. (I thought I did, but you don't.)

 

 

The worst news is the cost. Ninja Bug Guy halved his fee for me, because the infestation was so small. (another reason to go with someone local who owns his own business. An employee of a big company wouldn't have the authority to halve the fee.) Halving his fee still ended up with me paying him a smidge over $700.

 

700 Ninja Bug Guy

$160 mattress/box spring covers

$120 laundromat

$? Big black bags, strong twistie ties, tape

 

Total= about $1000.

How many rooms or square feed did you have to treat?

 

The good news? We got rid of 12 big black plastic trash bags of junk that was in our rooms. It inspired my DH to actually go through the shed and throw 2 truck loads of stuff away. It inspired me to go through 2 other closets in the house and there are 3 big trash bags waiting to go out from those closets.

 

My bedroom and the 2 adjoining closets are completely cleaned out. In fact, I still go and look at them every day just to see how clean they are and to feel the peaceful feeling from looking at them. There is NOTHING under my bed. I love the feeling.

*sigh* I would love that.

 

 

The hardest part was getting into bed before the treatments were done. I just knew they were there crawling on me. But, I found that I was a lot stronger than I ever knew. I would just take a deep breath and crawl into bed and curl up against my dh, scratch for a few minutes, and then fall asleep.

I can't imagine... no wait.... I can... you poor thing. I remember posting that you should put a steak in the bed. hmmm...

 

Sorry, Specialmama. I hated writing this all out to you. It's very difficult and draining and depressing. BUT, the good news is that everything will feel so clean and peaceful when it's all over. The only thing I truly regret about the experience was the money, because it's a doozy. I'm actually pleased that we were forced to get rid of so much stuff. And I could handle the work, though it ended up taking about 8 days off of our homeschooling, some before the treatment, and some afterwards (when we unpacked all those bags.) I just hated parting with my money.

Please don't apologize, I want to THANK YOU so much for being so thorough and taking the time and effort to respond. THANK YOU! You're like my Survivor Hero!

 

P.S. I wish I could send Ninja Bug Guy up to Canada for you.

You think he has a brother here? :D

[specialmama]

Specialmama, I pm'd you.

 

After thinking about it overnight, I have a plan for you. It might save you some money. See the pm.

*MWAH!* Thank you!

 

Love you, girlie :grouphug: Praying hard for you :grouphug:

Thank you Imp... means a lot.

[ElizabethB]

:grouphug:

 

Praying.

 

My 5 year old calls them "bad bugs," he is smarter than he looks.

:grouphug::grouphug:

[specialmama]

:grouphug:

 

Praying.

 

My 5 year old calls them "bad bugs," he is smarter than he looks.

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

Thank you, your son is very wise.

[sbgrace]

:grouphug:Specialmama, hopefully Garga's pm was something that makes it all manageable somehow. If so, ignore my probably unhelpful thoughts.

 

I wonder about those treatments where they heat up the entire home. I don't know how much it costs but I'm wondering if, especially because of the tenants, it might be much more effective.

 

The bedbuggers site talks about this machine that safely heats possessions up (been tested) to a temperature that kills the bugs and eggs. If there are lots of laundry mat fees it might be more cost effective to get the machine and it would treat the books and etc. as well.

 

Ugh. I think more and more of us will be dealing with these. I feel for you.

[G5052]

It may just a singleton that hitched a ride into your house. Finding one does not mean that you're infested. We encountered them at a hotel in July where we stayed only one night. In that case two of us were bit, and I found two in a suitcase. We fumigated the suitcases and put them outdoors in a hot enclosed space for several weeks, and of course I washed and dried everything that we took and wore then.

 

Since then I've been checking, and I haven't seen any since. I tore the couch apart before Thanksgiving and checked, and carefully check each bed as I've changed sheets. I don't plan to treat the house unless I find more signs of them, but thus far we've been OK.

[Garga]

Originally Posted by Garga

Oh dear. I'm not even sure what to say. It's just all bad news and I don't really want to have to tell you. Did you lift up the mattress and look? I didn't see any evidence, until Ninja Bug Guy found it on the underside of the mattress.

I did and I used a flashlight and a magnifying glass too. Nada. But I have a lot of junk around my bed (gasp, not junk! BOOKS!) that I have to go through and lots of stuff all over. My bedroom has been sorely neglected for too long.

 

 

My gut feeling, then, is that it was just one single bug. Unless they're hiding in your lodger's rooms.

 

Did you check all the couch cushions? Bed bug's 2nd favorite place to live is in the couch. Yuck. I mean, yes... yes, I did. It's a 2-3 yr old set and I flipped it upside down and even cut the bottom fabric off. I was able to peel off some batten and really get in every little nook and spring. Nada. But it still freaks me out that they might be somewhere else! Apart from the kids' rooms and their bathroom, every wall in the house is recessed oak pannels... real oak, real moulding framing it in from floor to chair rail height or to the ceiling. There are so many cracks. So many places for the little buggers to hide. :sad:

 

This is why you need a Ninja Bug Guy. But if they don't find anything, I'd assume there aren't any more and I'd go to plan B, which I pm'd you about...which means to wait and see.

 

 

 

2. Let your Bug Guy come to your house and try to find where the bugs are coming from. If there is no evidence (meaning that you found a single bug), then I'm not sure what to do. But if they can figure out where the bugs are, then you can go from there. Do you clean before he comes? I am because, well, I have to. My perfectionist personality won't allow someone to see my bedroom until it's clean. Is that okay?

 

He came first to look around for evidence. Then he made a separate appointment for the chemical treatments. I did NOT clean before he came the first time because I was afraid I would destroy evidence. I cleaned for the 2nd visit, when he had the chemicals.

 

 

If the bugs are in the couch, that's harder than the bed, I'm thinking. You can't really bag up a couch, and I don't think they're allowed to spray the cushions. The bug guy will have to assess what to do. I hope they're not in my couch! The cushions are dense foam like most, do you think they can be in the middle of that? :001_huh:

 

Only a bug guy would know that, but Ninja Bug Guy said that bed bugs don't chew through things like plastic bags, so maybe they don't chew to the center of pillows if they're dense.

 

The bug guy should look EVERYWHERE, if he can't easily assess where the bugs are. He should be using a flashlight and looking in every corner of every room in your house. He might take off the light switch and power socket covers (bugs like to hide in the electrical holes). He should be looking in smoke alarms. I bet he's going to want us to tear the oak pannels off the wall. :crying:

 

If he finds evidence, he'll probably just spray along the edges of stuff. Then, as the bugs come out, they'll walk through the chemicals and die. Ninja Bug Guy also sprayed some sort of chemical that makes the females want to come out to feed, which makes them walk through the poison.

 

3. Before they can treat, you have to clean out whatever rooms, and some adjoining areas, before they begin. Let this take you 2 or 3 days. We cleaned out our rooms in one day and it was beyond grueling. (You can search for my original post.) It was depressing and we were feeling desperate. The work was overwhelming. But having the time limit forced us to make quick decisions about what to keep and what to toss. So does that mean he came to see before you cleaned?

 

The first visit, looking for evidence was before cleaning.

 

 

 

 

5. Anything fabric that can be stuffed into a washer/dryer from the rooms will need to be washed on hot water and then dried in a commercial dryer for 20 minutes at 120 degrees. Your home dryer will NOT get hot enough. It'll have to be the laundromat. I spent well over $100 on the washing/drying. If I could do it over, I'd have washed at home and only dried at the laundromat. Only $100? Oh my. We have too much stuff. I can easily picture paying 5 times that amount. But maybe I'm just extra paranoid, I'd probably dry each load for 5 hours. What did you do with it after it was cleaned to be sure it wouldn't be exposed to anything? And how can you be sure you hit the right temp?

 

My laundromat had a thermostat on each dryer. It was show the time left...then the temperature...then the time left, cycling through the two numbers. Ours got up to 170 degrees. If you put something in there with a zipper and the zipper is hot enough to burn you, then it's probably hot enough. Home dryers don't usually get that hot. I ran my stuff for 24 minutes ($0.25 for 6 minutes = $1.00 a load = 24 minutes). The machine got up to 120 well before the first 4 minutes.

 

I took the clothes in one set of plastic bags, then brought them home in brand new plastic bags.

 

 

 

700 Ninja Bug Guy

$160 mattress/box spring covers

$120 laundromat

$? Big black bags, strong twistie ties, tape

 

Total= about $1000.

How many rooms or square feed did you have to treat?

 

It was part of my living room, my bedroom, and the adjoining closets. The bedroom is 12x11, and the amount of the living room was probably also 12x11. That doesn't include the closets, which are not walk in.

 

 

 

I don't know about the heat treatment. Ninja Bug Guy said he knows about it, but that he didn't have the equipment for it, and it's super expensive. Maybe a big company would have it and it would work out for you.

[specialmama]

Oh I hope you're all right, that it was just a singleton! Nothing would make me happier! I've looked in all the spots that I can and still haven't seen any more... here's hoping!

 

You know Garga, I've never seen dryers like that! Mind you, it's been 13 years since I've been to a laundromat... I think it's high time I check it out! Thank you again for all your input, and I hope you won't take offense to my saying that I hope I won't have any more questions for you! :D That would just mean that I never found another buggie! Cuz blech! They're so gross!!!

 

P.S.: I love the zipper trick! Thank you!