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Spiffster
Oct 7, 2009

I'm good... I Haven't slept for a solid 83 hours, but yeah... I'm good...


Lipstick Apathy
Have you taken that bug to an exterminator to confirm it is what it is? It's good to take precautions like you did but it never hurts to get it confirmed.

Leaving things in a garage worked for me but I also left them there for over 400 days (and still going until 500 when they should all be dead even in the most extreme circumstances) be prepared to leave things bagged out there for awhile so grab what you absolutely need and double bag tight the rest.

Using your own washer and dryer was a bit of a risk to be honest, but not a huge one. God forbid you have a next time but if you do, In order to lower the risk of the buggers getting in your house you could have taken it to a laundromat and used their facilities to do so. Just be prepared for a long dry cycle on a high continuous heat. Don't separate it out, let them dry for as long as possible, ideally a bit over an hour or an hour and a half. That should kill any bug or egg on your clothes or sheets.

You can also prevent the bugs from trying to climb up your furniture or bed by brushing with a trim paintbrush with some dichotomous earth. Don't get the pool grade stuff (that's way to strong and can hurt you or pets) but the garden brand stuff you can find in lowes. Spread it with the brush on and around the legs of the furniture to kill any bug that tries to climb up the legs to get to you. Some people use Vaseline to prevent them from climbing up but it can ruin the furniture legs finish.

Make sure that when you do inspections of your mattress and the box spring to check any folds or loose bits of fabric as they love to hide in there. Some things to watch for are sheds and waste spots (black dots concentrated in one spot) if you see these you may want to invest in a really nice mattress and box spring bug cover that you can seal them in so they starve to death and you can still use your mattress.

Good luck and I hope this trip you took doesn't cause a full blown infestation.

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hambeet
Sep 13, 2002

Get some portable radiant heaters (the ones with the glowing bars) and just heat the gently caress out of it. Bed bugs die pretty quickly at 47 Celsius (116f for the metrically challenged). If you can ensure you're cooking your goods to at least 50c (122f) for at least an hour or so you'll be fine.

axolotl farmer
May 17, 2007

Now I'm going to sing the Perry Mason theme

adorai posted:

I plan to freeze (for two weeks) or possibly dry clean all of her nice stuff. I am not sure what to do about the shoes. I am going to put suitcases into black garbage bags and set them outside for two weeks in January.


You can freeze the shoes. Put them in airtight plastic bags: ziplock and tape. Then freeze for a week.

When you take the stuff out, let it reach room temp before you open the bag. That way no moisture will condense on the frozen items. You can do this for most sensitive stuff. I have used this method for treating carpet beetles in zoological museum collections.

photomikey
Dec 30, 2012

adorai posted:

Since it's not a standard hotel and they are selling an "experience" I truly believe that they will do anything to avoid a bad yelp review.

Since we are now deep into fall, there is no chance of a car in the sun getting to 120 where I am for at least 6 months, unless we have a freak hot day.
Would love for you to follow up and hear what their response is.

120F is not that hot, it can be 75F outside and if it's sunny it might get your car to 120F. A space heater in the car would help this effort.

Lemming
Apr 21, 2008

Spiffster posted:

You can also prevent the bugs from trying to climb up your furniture or bed by brushing with a trim paintbrush with some dichotomous earth. Don't get the pool grade stuff (that's way to strong and can hurt you or pets) but the garden brand stuff you can find in lowes. Spread it with the brush on and around the legs of the furniture to kill any bug that tries to climb up the legs to get to you. Some people use Vaseline to prevent them from climbing up but it can ruin the furniture legs finish.

Do this but with silica gel instead of diatomaceous earth, as per this post from earlier in the thread:

Three-Phase posted:

Some good news - it looks like diatomaceous earth is out, silica gel is in as far as dust treatments go.

DE basically doesn't work
http://www.pctonline.com/pct1213-Diatomaceous-earth-study.aspx

Silica Gel does work
http://www.pctonline.com/pct0814-silica-gel-research-bed-bugs.aspx



I got this stuff recently after coming back from a stay in Berlin where I got annihilated by bed bugs in a hostel one night and wanted to be 100% sure I didn't bring any home (after washing + drying all my clothes and luggage for hours multiple times at other hostels/hotels)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085HRWI8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lemming fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Oct 24, 2014

adorai
Nov 2, 2002

10/27/04 Never forget
Grimey Drawer

photomikey posted:

Would love for you to follow up and hear what their response is.
They are refunding the cost of my stay.

Mushrooman
Apr 16, 2003

Disco Dancin'
My wife and I dealt with these fuckers about a year ago so I'll tell you my story. I don't recommend my solution to anyone, sine it was a little reckless and mad-sciency, but it worked and we haven't seen them since. Phoneposting, so sorry in advance.

We did the usual stuff, bagging and isolating and whatnot, and nothing phased them. Then I stumbled on a study showing that Beauveria Bassiana, a parasitic fungus, showed some promise as a bed bug treatment, but they were very early tests and not conclusive.

By this point we were sort of going nuts; they seldom bit me but my wife was being eaten alive, and what made it worse was that she is a light sleeper and woke up at least once a night because she could feel them crawling on and biting her. She actually plucked one off her neck one night and that's what made me go over the edge. I bought a tub of Beauveria powder off Amazon (they sell it for farmers and gardeners), a spray bottle, a bag of disposable gloves, and some particle filter masks.

We knew they were confined to the bedroom, so every Saturday I took apart our bed frame to get at all the nooks and crannies and went on a seek and destroy mission. I'd capture one of them alive (at the peak of it I found 12 live bugs) and alcohol the rest. The live one I put in a container with some scrap fabric I sprayed with the Beauveria, increasing the concentration each week until I saw an effect. Then I sprayed the whole room: the sheets, the frame, the carpet near the bed, the baseboards; once I found the right dose I stopped catching and killing in favor of misting them and letting them go.

What's supposed to happen is the spores stick to them, and after about 3 days they germinate. The upshot is that they crawl back to their hidey-holes and smear spores all over their eggs and larva.

I did that every Saturday for 3 months, even though we stopped getting fresh bites after a week.

hambeet
Sep 13, 2002

Mushrooman posted:

My wife and I dealt with these fuckers about a year ago so I'll tell you my story. I don't recommend my solution to anyone, sine it was a little reckless and mad-sciency, but it worked and we haven't seen them since. Phoneposting, so sorry in advance.

We did the usual stuff, bagging and isolating and whatnot, and nothing phased them. Then I stumbled on a study showing that Beauveria Bassiana, a parasitic fungus, showed some promise as a bed bug treatment, but they were very early tests and not conclusive.

By this point we were sort of going nuts; they seldom bit me but my wife was being eaten alive, and what made it worse was that she is a light sleeper and woke up at least once a night because she could feel them crawling on and biting her. She actually plucked one off her neck one night and that's what made me go over the edge. I bought a tub of Beauveria powder off Amazon (they sell it for farmers and gardeners), a spray bottle, a bag of disposable gloves, and some particle filter masks.

We knew they were confined to the bedroom, so every Saturday I took apart our bed frame to get at all the nooks and crannies and went on a seek and destroy mission. I'd capture one of them alive (at the peak of it I found 12 live bugs) and alcohol the rest. The live one I put in a container with some scrap fabric I sprayed with the Beauveria, increasing the concentration each week until I saw an effect. Then I sprayed the whole room: the sheets, the frame, the carpet near the bed, the baseboards; once I found the right dose I stopped catching and killing in favor of misting them and letting them go.

What's supposed to happen is the spores stick to them, and after about 3 days they germinate. The upshot is that they crawl back to their hidey-holes and smear spores all over their eggs and larva.

I did that every Saturday for 3 months, even though we stopped getting fresh bites after a week.

That's interesting. I'll have to looking to them as an option of removal, especially in situations where they're suspected of being in the skirting boards / corners of the room.

CoasterMaster
Aug 13, 2003

The Emperor of the Rides


Nap Ghost
I found a small bug in my shower this morning that looked like it might have been a bed bug, but I'm not sure. Figured I'd ask here. It was brown, about the size of a grain of uncooked rice (maybe slightly shorter). I don't have any bite marks on my body and it was just hanging out in some tile grout. Splashed it and it went down the drain pretty easily. I don't have any marks on me, so hopefully it was something else. I realize that this isn't much to go on, but I didn't think much about it until someone at work mentioned it might be one. I haven't traveled anywhere recently, though I do live in a 6-unit apartment building.

I guess I'll have to wait till I get home to hunt for more signs, but I'm really hoping it's not an infestation.


edit: after looking at more pictures online, the bug I found this morning was shaped like a grain of rice instead of being flat, so I think I may be ok on this one....phew

edit2: but thanks to this thread, I have some nightmare fuel now

CoasterMaster fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Nov 10, 2014

hambeet
Sep 13, 2002

that sounds like more carpet beetle or whatever they're called.

Lord Waffle Beard
Dec 7, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mWxpL03_nU

BarristaSelmy
Oct 10, 2012
This may sound odd, but I actually brought them home from a hospital about 5 years ago. I had to stay for almost a week due to surgery and about half-way through I started getting a rash in my arm pits. Initially I thought it was either a heat rash from laying in bed all day or that it was stress or an allergic reaction to whatever detergent the hospital was using. Then after I got home it moved to my elbows, a month later it moved to my inner thighs and then my knees. My husband had no symptoms at all and no bites that we could find, but he's pretty hairy. They apparently like the path of least resistance.

We used Orkin and they were gone in a couple of months and after 2 treatments. When we come home now after a trip, we leave everything in the garage until we can launder it and we put our luggage in garbage bags until we can treat it. It's been 5 years since this happened to us, but I recently had to stay overnight in a hospital and my husband was so paranoid until they gave me a plastic bag for him to bring my clothes home in. He didn't even want to bring them to the room.

Abel Wingnut posted:

So, uh, I noticed some bites on my feet earlier this week.


As others have said, this does look more like fleas or possibly chiggers (depending on where you were camping). Most bed bug bites are in groups of 3 and near a joint (because they can find a vein easily there).

CoasterMaster posted:

I found a small bug in my shower this morning that looked like it might have been a bed bug, but I'm not sure. Figured I'd ask here. It was brown, about the size of a grain of uncooked rice (maybe slightly shorter). I don't have any bite marks on my body and it was just hanging out in some tile grout.

edit2: but thanks to this thread, I have some nightmare fuel now

You'll probably wake up with bites before you ever see them around your apartment. They are attracted to the heat of your body and carbon dioxide. Sleep tight! :wave:

Spiffster
Oct 7, 2009

I'm good... I Haven't slept for a solid 83 hours, but yeah... I'm good...


Lipstick Apathy
Carpet beetles can look an awful lot like Bed Bugs. Bed bugs don't have speckled backs like the carpet beetles do. If you see them again, capture it and take a photo. We can tell you if its a bed bug or not.

hambeet
Sep 13, 2002

Yeah I still have my jar of dormant ones at work. It's kind of gross if you think about it.

De Nomolos
Jan 17, 2007

TV rots your brain like it's crack cocaine
Wish I'd see this thread earlier. My wife and I picked up an infestation on a trip to NYC, specifically at a cheap motel we stayed at near Newark Liberty Airport. Mistake #1: choosing cheap lodging in a large urban area.

The bugs didn't show up until maybe 3 months after our return home. My wife got the worst of the bites, since they ended up making a home in the bed headboard nearest to her side of the bed, specifically in a book she'd begun, placed in a cabinet built into the headboard, and forgotten. I would get the occasional bite, but hers were daily. Occasionally we'd find a dead bug, but shrugged it off (we lived in DC at the time, bugs happened) and stupidly didn't investigate further. We'd been in the process of trying to move to a better apartment and just shrugged it off as more evidence that we needed to get out. Also, the way that my wife reacted to the bites made it look like she just had a bad case of shingles. Her doctor didn't even figure out it was a bug's bites. It wasn't until 5 months later that I found the book and we began the process of exterminating the suckers.

We have a cat, so a non-toxic treatment was a necessity. We used this webpage, helpfully provided by my alma mater, to treat the infestation: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/bedbugs.htm

Thankfully, it was July when this finally occurred. We shut off the AC, shuttered the windows, took the cat, sprayed a non-toxic spray we got at Home Depot ( http://m.homedepot.com/p/EcoRaider-16-oz-Natural-Non-Toxic-Bed-Bug-Killer-Spray-Bottle-EB1RM50016/204404045 ), and took a week's vacation. When we returned, we had to ditch the bed since it was wooden and had holes that could still contain eggs. I also placed painters tape over every wall crack I could find. We sprayed the baseboards regularly and bought a metal bed frame. They never returned.

My #1 prevention tip for anyone in a major city is to buy a metal bed frame. You don't want them to have a place to hide near where you sleep.

Hurt Whitey Maybe
Jun 26, 2008

I mean maybe not. Or maybe. Definitely don't kill anyone.
I had the pleasure of pushing my landlord over the breaking point to bankruptcy over a bedbug infestation. Two of my roommates had bedbugs all up in their poo poo, and I was fortunate to not catch them. Ended up breaking the lease because no one wanted to deal with it.

Long story short: move out and walk naked to your new apartment.

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010


I've made a huge mistake.

CoasterMaster posted:

I found a small bug in my shower this morning that looked like it might have been a bed bug, but I'm not sure. Figured I'd ask here. It was brown, about the size of a grain of uncooked rice (maybe slightly shorter). I don't have any bite marks on my body and it was just hanging out in some tile grout. Splashed it and it went down the drain pretty easily. I don't have any marks on me, so hopefully it was something else. I realize that this isn't much to go on, but I didn't think much about it until someone at work mentioned it might be one. I haven't traveled anywhere recently, though I do live in a 6-unit apartment building.

I guess I'll have to wait till I get home to hunt for more signs, but I'm really hoping it's not an infestation.


edit: after looking at more pictures online, the bug I found this morning was shaped like a grain of rice instead of being flat, so I think I may be ok on this one....phew

edit2: but thanks to this thread, I have some nightmare fuel now

Burn your clothes. Burn your mattress. Burn your shower. Burn your apartment.

It's the only way to contain the plague.

Four Finger Wu
Jan 11, 2008
I am a landlord and I had to treat a 7-unit building for bedbugs. One tenant started complaining and she is a bit of a slob and I know her relatives come and visit often from parts unknown, so I was giving her a hard time about it. Then I asked around to see if it had spread. Everyone else said "no bedbugs" except for the tenant directly below her whose unit is absolutely disgusting. He said, and I quote, "oh sure, I got those little buggies!"

It turns out that the downstairs tenant had them for over a year and was using over the counter foggers to try to get rid of them. Well, these tend to drive the bedbugs away from the fogger, but do not kill them. The end result is that his self-help pushed the bedbugs upstairs into the other tenant's unit (and maybe elsewhere!). The upstairs tenant was innocent here.

I talked to a lot of pest control professionals and ended up tenting the whole building with vikane gas, which is the same as used for termites, but a higher concentration. It was also for longer period than used for termites. I considered heat, but that was a per unit charge and the cost for 2 units would have been almost as much as tenting the whole building. Also, i would have had no guarantee that the bedbugs were fully eliminated from inside walls or in other units that had not noticed/complained yet.

This was over a year ago and so far so good. In any case, good luck. I would push your landlord to pay for it if you are in a rental. There is a website called the bed bug registry which keeps a tally of apartment buildings and hotels that have bedbugs. you might want to consider that when travelling or renting, or perhaps mention to your landlord that it exists.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



So no real experience in getting rid of bedbugs, but I know the most common vector. That would be travelers.

Did you stay in a hotel or motel? Odds are at least one room in said motel/hotel has bedbugs. Before you even set down your bags in a room you should check the room. The most obvious places are the edges of the carpet and the bed. Be thorough because if you get them you are going to have to put everything you own in the drier if not just dump it outright.

Think that a low price motel is better than a five star hotel? loving think again. Cleanliness has absolutely nothing to do with infestations. You are equally at risk in each and every room you check in to.

Have someone visiting from out of town that requires at least one night slept somewhere on the road? Don't put them up in your own place. Put them up in a local hotel.

I've traveled four times at length in the last two years and have found live bedbugs in two rooms. I have only kept from dragging these bastards home with me because I checked beforehand. You should too.

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Spiffster
Oct 7, 2009

I'm good... I Haven't slept for a solid 83 hours, but yeah... I'm good...


Lipstick Apathy
There are precautions you should take before examining in a hotel as well. Don't place your suitcase on the bed for starters. Try someplace elevated and away from resting areas such as a closet racks if one is present or on the bathroom counter.

You should also create a list of areas that are highly likely to have bedbugs and examine them with a flashlight. Some places you might want to check...

1. Mattress and boxspring: doesn't matter if the sheets are clean, you should always strip the bed and check for the tell-tale signs of infestation. These being actual bugs, waste spots, and shells sheddings the babies leave behind as they grow. Don't just do a cursory glance either. Check folds l and places where fabric bend.

2. Headboard: of the headboard is right up flat against the wall, move it if possible and shine some light on it.

3. Carpet near beds and resting areas: check the molding if there is around the perimeter to see if the buggers are hiding between the two. A flashlight will once again help you out in this case.

4. Anything upholstered: if it has the potential to be slept on it could be a target. Doesn't hurt to check the couches or chairs that are in the area as well.

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