I just want to get all of my feelings out! Beginning the rollercoaster of crushing Bugs-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named
TLDR; Just being an emotional basketcase about the whole situation.
Pertinent Questions:
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Landlord is sending in exterminating services. Is there anything else I need to do to prepare? See instructions provided below.
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What kinds of plastic bags work best for sealing clothing?
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Can I steam some of my clothes instead of tumble drying them?
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After the treatment, should I apply CimeXa? Should I put bed bug covers on my mattress and box spring? Related: Does the bed bug cover go over my mattress pad?
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How do I get my roommate to understand that this is a big deal and that I'm not insane? How do I get her to follow pre-treatment instructions in a timely manner so that we can get this over with?
I am so sorry if this is long and pointless. I just want to have someone to talk about this with. I feel like no one else in my life understands why I am so anxious about a little bug. The only people who don't think I'm crazy are my mom and a friend who lived with an infestation for 6 months. Oh, and my landlord, so I guess I have that going for me.
I discovered the bug at around 6 pm on Saturday night. I had taken everything out of my closet that day to rearrange (Konmari style!). My clothes were all placed on my made bed before being rehung and organized. I removed all of the shoes from the bottom of my closet, then swept thoroughly underneath the baseboards and wiped the top of the baseboards thoroughly. I then rearranged my shoes back in my closet. I did not notice anything peculiar in the dust bunnies and miscellany that I had swept up, but I also was not on high alert.
I pick up a sealed plastic file box near the closet to move it elsewhere and find a crushed bed bug next to a blood smear. Freak out ensues. I immediately isolate my bed, remove my bed skirt and begin sweeping the baseboards around that area. I notice weird, bug-like looking things in a yellowish clear color and brush them off as centipedes or something. I dispose of those into the trash, which is taken to the dumpster the next day. I realize now that they were most-likely eggs, which I'm hoping didn't get tracked through the apartment. I have to leave to go to dinner and stay the night at my boyfriend's house for my sanity.
On Sunday morning, I return. I completely inspect and remove all of the storage under my bed. I thoroughly clean these storage items and move them elsewhere. I discover another bed bug egg-looking thing and save it to take a picture before discarding it. I launder all of my bedding, except my pillows. (Probably should do those, too!) I order Cimexa, a bellows duster, mattress and box spring encasements. I sleep at my parents - butt naked. I wash anything clothing I bring over that could be contaminated. I Google info that night - come to the realization that the centipede looking things are probably eggs. I can't sleep because I'm having nightmares about bugs and being bit.
Meanwhile, my roommate and boyfriend think I'm overreacting. "It's just one bug." "What if it's an old bug?" "You're crazy."
Today, Monday morning, October 5th. I get in contact with my landlord. She says that they want to treat both mine and my roommate's bedrooms right away. She sends over a list of pre-treatment tasks to complete. I do not know what kind of treatment they are doing, but can PM the name of the company to anyone interested! I could not find any relevant information about them or what kind of treatment they might do online.
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Strip all beds to bare mattress and box spring.
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Empty closet and dresser.
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Launder bedding separately from other items.
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Launder all other items. High heat in dryer for over 15 minutes will kill all bed bugs and eggs. Is this true?
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Place your laundered items in clean plastic bags for two weeks after treatment.
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Unit should be free of clutter for thorough inspection.
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Vaccuum carpeted area thoroughly on a daily basis, seal and dispose of vacuum bag immediately. Not applicable to us.
There you have it! I'm so glad to have this subreddit and resources. Hoping I will be a bed bug champion very soon...
[Edit: Formatting]
Posted Oct 5, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC · edited
First off, are you absolutely certain you have bed bugs? A lot of people misidentify bed bugs and you don't mention any bites (although some people don't react) or finding any other bugs than that one. From what I've read, bed bug eggs are usually quite well hidden and also stick to whatever they've been laid on. So it's strange to me that you would find eggs around your bed but not more bugs.
Moving on and assuming that you do have bed bugs, your exterminator's instructions seem good to me. Sounds like preparation for a chemical treatment, which usually involves spraying the apartment/furniture and putting down dusts in cracks and behind outlets. Just make sure that the exterminator is planning on coming back after the first treatment at least once as getting rid of bed bugs requires two treatments at a minimum - one to kill the live bugs and one to kill the eggs that are unaffected by treatment and hatch within up to 21 days. Often it takes more than two treatments (mine took just two - we had a small infestation) and they are usually scheduled 2-3 weeks apart to work with the bed bug reproduction cycle.
Since they don't ask you to encase your mattress, I would not do so (at least until you think you're safe and the bugs are gone). In my experience encasing the mattress is pretty much useless (just traps any bugs inside to starve, which takes months) and mine ripped barely a month later, causing a lot of stress. Any bugs on the mattress should be taken care of with the treatments.
Information varies online but from what I've read 15-30 minutes in a dryer for dry items is enough to kill bed bugs and their eggs. Just make sure not to overload the dryer. If you wash the items first, then dry for longer (we did 70 minutes). After drying, keep the clothes and other materials in sealed plastic bags until you are certain the infestation is gone (we waited well over a month). I wouldn't trust steam for my clothes but I'm not sure about that. The big Ziploc XXL bags are the best for stuff you have to access often like clothes, purse, shoes. We used contractor bags with zip ties for other stuff we didn't need anytime soon, also vacuum seal bags to save space. You can put the bags in plastic bins for easier organization. Anything we couldn't launder we inspected carefully and also bagged (as per our exterminator's instructions).
Don't apply Cimexa without talking to the exterminator about it. They're probably already going to apply insecticidal dusts and you may be interfering with their treatment.
Going back to the mattress and your mattress pad - what we did was use the mattress pad to help isolate our bed from bed bugs and allow us to keep sleeping there without getting bitten. We bought a plastic drop sheet and put it between the mattress and the mattress pad, so that the mattress pad held it in place over the bed. We then trimmed the edges of the plastic sheet so that it wouldn't reach the ground. Bed bugs can't climb plastic too easily and therefore couldn't reach us on the bed. Definitely helped us get some sleep before and in between treatments. You're also supposed to keep sleeping there because the bugs will move to other areas searching for a host.
I don't know if I missed anything, feel free to ask more questions. I know how hard it is to go through this but you will get through it! I'm sure you can also call the pest management company and ask them for more information.
First of all, thank you so much for your in depth response! I appreciate the advice and will definitely start implementing as soon as possible.
Yes, I am fairly certain it is bed bugs. It looks like an adult unfed male based on the pictures posted on the subreddit. Six legs, rust color, a darker coloring in the middle. I can post pictures, but my phone camera sucks! I saved it in a Ziploc to show the exterminator. If I find more "eggs," I'll do that, too. The "eggs" I found were initially in a spot hidden by a large picture frame that was leaning against the wall in the crack between the wall and the bed. (Small apartment problems - this was a storage solution.) I obviously removed those things when I cleaned, so in doing so likely uncovered them. In reading more, I think I could have inspected the mattress and box spring seams more thoroughly.
I have also had 3 bites in the past 2-ish weeks that I chalked up to other insects. The most recent one appeared on Saturday morning after having spent the night at my boyfriend's. I'm REALLY hoping that he doesn't have them, too and it was a bite that appeared a day later... Are there any "traps" we could set out to see if he has them?
Thank you for the advice on the exterminator. I really want to get them in there as soon as possible, but may have to wait until the weekend. Do you think I should remove and seal off any of my other belongings (aside from clothing and shoes)? Like all of my toiletries and miscellaneous items? I just placed an order for those Ziplock bags, but I'm wondering if I should get more.
The mattress pad thing makes a lot of sense! Mine is really thick and has a really large, tight elastic band that goes deep under the bottom of the mattress. That's a smart prevention tip.
I'm definitely going to continue sleeping there when I am home. I did sleep at my parents last night, but they have an in-unit washer/dryer, so I was able to heat treat my clothing right away and change into stuff I already keep there.
I'm going to call the pest management company for more info right now! Thank you SO much.
I never used traps so I don't have much experience with them but I know there are monitoring traps available online and also DIY options that you could look into.
Our exterminator asked us to bag pretty much all items for the treatment. In doing so however you risk trapping bugs inside, and so we were really worried about letting bugs back out after our treatments were done (we were lucky though). I think if I went through this again I would open the bags (not laundered stuff, just stuff you couldn't really be sure that there's no bugs inside) after the treatments and let any bugs come out to die from the spray/dusts. There's also other treatment options like a packtite or hotshot/nuvan strips. We were told not to worry about the bathroom and kitchen but since our living room and bedroom are close together we inspected and bagged everything from those two rooms. We left everything in bags for the course of the whole treatment and well after.
Okay, sounds good. Thank you for the follow up! Still waiting to hear back from the company with what to do. Looks like we will be getting treated on Friday.