Bed bugs... the horror story

[StillMedusa]

I have an average house, average family. The house is decently clean and tidy and we have never had any problems with fleas or bugs or anything.

Til today.

I was stripping the bed.. 10 days since the last bed change (usually a week but I've been busy) and I spotted some odd marks on the sheet..like tiny blood drops. Strange. Then I remembered dh said he itched, so fearing that the dog somehow has fleas I stripped the bed and turned the mattress to discover... bed bugs!

Checked the other rooms.. nothing. So I hoovered the mattress and put it in the garden, hoovered and dismantled the bed and that went too. Boiled (and then still chucked) the bedding. Texted DH and when he got home he took up the carpet and bagged and binned it.

Booked pest control to come out on Thursday to do the whole house.

I am mortified and totally perplexed as to how they got in the house at all...? I'm guessing the most likely route would be DH's job as he sometimes has to go into some very grim places although having read, it seems, like nits, it's nowt to do with hygeine and they just hitch hike a ride to anywhere.

I now have no bed, no mattress, no carpet (and to the naked eye no bugs) but I am so grossed out I want to torch the house! I am boiling all of our clothes... I may have nothing to fit me by Thursday!

I completely understand your feelings. We had bed bugs - never saw them but I got bitten in their standard pattern and DH had just been away in a very 'basic' hotel with work and I buy lots of second hand clothes, so could very easily have brought one home with us. We ended up having the house heated up to a very high temperature to kill them as I just wanted the little bastards dead and I didn't fancy the drawn out process of treating them and wondering whether it had worked. It was expensive, but so worth it for the peace of mind.

It's nothing to do with cleanliness - they really do hitch a ride anywhere. Public transport is apparently pretty rife with them, hotel rooms (hence why you get that funny bench with metal legs for your suitcase), second hand clothes, clothing retailers also apparently often have to treat for them due to them hitching a lift on returned items as well.

No need to boil your clothes - tumble drying them (if you can) for half an hour should do the trick. It's quite sensible to do this for any new clothes you're bringing into your home going forward. Washing at regular temperatures doesn't kill or remove the eggs. They hide in cracks in walls etc. as well so don't go crazy on the carpet and mattress as you just have no idea where they might be, unfortunately. I really do recommend the heat treatment if you can possibly afford it. The guy who did ours did 2 chemical treatments alongside it (one on the day of heat treating and one 2 weeks later) and we didn't have to throw our mattress away or anything and we haven't had an issue since the first day he came. It's pricey, but cheaper than replacing all the carpets and mattresses and means all your rooms get treated so there's no escapees!

Good luck. I know how horrible it is but try not to be tempted to sleep in a separate room - they will follow your scent/heat imprint and you'll potentially risk spreading them around the house. Best to keep them contained to one space, although I know how vile it feels trying to sleep where you know the little beasts are.

Don’t throw stuff out, most stuff can be decontaminated and it’s throwing good money after bad if you buy new stuff before fully eradicating the problem. Just declutter and tidy infested spaces.

Hoover thoroughly then immediately dispose of hoover bag outside, or clean dust collection chamber.
Wash bedding & clothes at 60, plus full hot tumble dry cycle. Put decontaminated stuff in sturdy, sealed, labelled bin bags for now.
Put things that can’t be washed in the deep freezer for 2 weeks, trying to open the door as little as possible.
Steam clean the bedroom, taking apart the furniture, getting into all the nooks and crannies around the joins and around the room.
Lightly but meticulously dust the room & furniture joints with diatomaceous earth/cimexa. It’s non toxic, but a lung irritant, so you need a respirator mask, ie the kind with a valve, not just a light decorator’s mask or covid mask.
It might take several breeding cycles, but the dust will desiccate the bugs and hatchlings.

Haha oh I've been there! I'd only just met my future DH, third date, he found them. Horrific. I also chucked away the mattress and the bed, but there's no need to bin everything else. Pest control will sort it. I also went nuts, washing and cleaning every single thing I owned and binning everything I could bear to parrt with. Bought dozens of vacuum storage bags and froze stuff. Was handy for moving in together, but in hindsight a bit nuts.

Tbh the only thing that worked for us was calling in the experts and doing heat treatment. You have to get every single one, they breed and lay eggs at a fast rate. It was eye watering expensive but after months of us trying the diy way it worked and we were so relieved.

The trouble with dragging your mattress and bedding around the house is you’ve probably spread them through the house!

Too late now, but you need to keep everything inside the bedroom: if you need a wee in the night, PJs come off and go naked. Nothing leaves that room. For laundry, bin bag it before transporting it. Wash at 60 and tumble dry. You can buy special bags that dissolve so you put your laundry in it in the room, then straight in the wash, bag and all – no risk of a bed bug falling out in the kitchen.

Then pull your bed away from the wall – bed bugs can’t fly but they can climb and you want to them to climb up the bed, not the wall, and you’re the bait. Surround the bed, and cover the frame, with diatomaceous earth. They crawl through it, they die. They’ll crawl to you because they’re attracted to the CO2 you’re breathing out as you sleep.

The chemical bombs don’t really work – they just fling the bugs all over the room. Heat does: so as well as the diatomaceous earth, before you do that, dismantle the bed and blast it all over with a hairdryer.

Ask me how I know all this

@stuntbubbles

The trouble with dragging your mattress and bedding around the house is you’ve probably spread them through the house!

Too late now, but you need to keep everything inside the bedroom: if you need a wee in the night, PJs come off and go naked. Nothing leaves that room. For laundry, bin bag it before transporting it. Wash at 60 and tumble dry. You can buy special bags that dissolve so you put your laundry in it in the room, then straight in the wash, bag and all – no risk of a bed bug falling out in the kitchen.

Then pull your bed away from the wall – bed bugs can’t fly but they can climb and you want to them to climb up the bed, not the wall, and you’re the bait. Surround the bed, and cover the frame, with diatomaceous earth. They crawl through it, they die. They’ll crawl to you because they’re attracted to the CO2 you’re breathing out as you sleep.

The chemical bombs don’t really work – they just fling the bugs all over the room. Heat does: so as well as the diatomaceous earth, before you do that, dismantle the bed and blast it all over with a hairdryer.

Ask me how I know all this

Can you use a normal hoover to vac the treatment up you describe? I have some to get rid of dust mites but worried about breaking hoover or breathing it in...is it safe?

@plantsareglorious you can vacuum it up - empty the vacuum bag outside, ideally use a bag less Hoover where you can put the container in the dishwasher.

We went with a company that used the diatomaceous earth precisely because it was the safest – we moved into a house with bed bugs when we had an 8-month-old baby and no chemical bomb company would touch us with a barge pole.

Is it like moths? I bought a separate freezer (second hand on ebay) to freeze all my clothes when I discovered funking carpet moths had eaten under everything.

As in, I know they are not the same but does freezing work?

@MistySkiesAfterRain Not sure tbh – they’re such utter bastards I wouldn’t put it past them to survive the freezer just to fuck with me.

[quote stuntbubbles]@plantsareglorious you can vacuum it up - empty the vacuum bag outside, ideally use a bag less Hoover where you can put the container in the dishwasher.

We went with a company that used the diatomaceous earth precisely because it was the safest – we moved into a house with bed bugs when we had an 8-month-old baby and no chemical bomb company would touch us with a barge pole.[/quote]
So you don't think it will block the filter in my hoover? That's what I'm worried about, we only have a henry with proper hepa bags for allergies

I don’t think so - I actually realised the other day we still had some on our bed frame. It looks like this - see photo. So could be wet wiped up if you’re concerned about the vacuum.

It's an horrific nightmare. Sympathy OP. I am 99% sure I brought them home from the hospital with me when I had my first baby.

The only thing that will work is pest control. Don't faff around freezing stuff/washing stuff. It won't work.

@stuntbubbles

I don’t think so - I actually realised the other day we still had some on our bed frame. It looks like this - see photo. So could be wet wiped up if you’re concerned about the vacuum.

Thank you!

Well we stripped the house... pest control came and sprayed the whole house but said it appears only our bedroom had any signs.
We are boiling everything.( our electric bill is goinh to be HUGE although we are also using the local mega washing machine) and I'm chucking our wardrobes and drawers even tho they have been treated.. I just can't face using them again!
DH is going to relay the floor as the floorboards are creaky and shot, and lay laminate....no more carpets for us!
New bed, new mattress..new furniture and treatment... hopefully... goodbye bugs!

diatomaceous earth was the only thing that worked for me. Superb. I sprinkled it liberally and left it for as long as I could - a few days in open areas and months in the areas under/behind furniture. I also sprinkled along the top of the skirting board and dismantled the wooden bed (popped the ones I saw and dusted it down). Mattress was covered in a bug proof cover, some earth all over beforehand then hoovered before closing up.
Don't know how they got in, perhaps a sleepover. Only effected my daughter's room. Tried many things over months but this nailed it first go. everything else was a waste of time and money. I still have a stock of this stuff in the loft in case if need. Never had a problem again and now five years on.

Damnloginpopup Thankyou!!! I'd not heard of that til you said, but
I ordered some from Amazon and have sprinkled it very liberally !!! (as we have taken up the carpet I've chucked a load in all the joins of the floorboards, in the one remaining set of drawers etc) Tomorrow the creases in the sofas get some as well, just in case, although thankfully it appears they were only in one room. When we get new flooring and bed I am getting mattress protectors for every bed... I am never going through this again!!!!

(Plus it works for fleas too.. we haven't had any for many years but with pets it seems a good thing to have in case!!!)