What do I do?! BEDBUGS

[housedramas]

Morning everyone - need some advice please as I don't know how far I go in gutting my house!

Early hours of Friday morning and DD walks into my room complaining that she is itching everywhere, especially in her hair. I look and can see several crawlies, almost white in colour crawling through her hair. Straight in the shower and hair washed plus blasted dry with the hairdryer - definitely NOT head lice. Popped her into my bed to sleep. In the morning then I stripped her bed to find several pinpricks of black, smaller than the white things, burrowing into her mattress. Chucked mattress straight out, opened windows and sprayed room. Yesterday afternoon then I decided that I needed to check my bed as thought they were dust mites maybe. Several really tiny dead bugs on my mattress - really freaked out now so sprayed mine. Went up to make bed a few hours later and saw a black crawly on my pillow, squished it and blood came out - this is bedbugs right?! Spoke to pest control last night who thinks they may be young ones but says the blood is a sign, they are coming out Monday. Other two beds in house (2x DS's) completely clear.

Background - we've never had bedbugs or anything remotely similar before. Moved house three weeks ago into a house which needs a good refurb - think 20 plus year old carpets. We've had to move in as no where else to go and as a single, full time working mum I've been literally rushed off my feet so our stuff is everywhere - think clean washing over lounge floor as I am literally so pushed for time. I've started hot washing everything from DD's room like sheets and teddies and pillows. She had a clothes rail - do I need to wash all this too? I'm thinking of hiring a skip and literally just ripping all the carpets etc out to try some damage limitation - not that I know how far they have gone! House is just covered in 'stuff'. I could cry, I've worked really hard to get us here and I knew we had lots of work to do but the thought that I have brought my children into a potentially bedbug infested house feels soul destroying - I'm well aware of how dramatic this sounds! Should a just get a skip? What should I do?!

Also, pest control man asked if any of us had headboards - only my DD and it was in self storage for six weeks before we moved...

Honestly, I'd wait for the advice from pest control. Although I imagine there's lots of advice online.

Just wanted to offer sympathy.

Thank you! I know I should probably wait for pest guy too, I'm just so freaked out 😭

Aww OP I've been there! Firstly don't freak out. It's horrible but they can be gotten rid off. Stop throwing furniture out as they live in skirting boards etc too so they will just go roming for food (aka the other bedrooms!) you want to limit them to the rooms that are effected.

we had a whole house spray ( was about £200) which worked wonders and then hoovered daily for a month.. and I mean everywhere. Wash clothes on a 60 wash and if you can tumble dry too even better as that will kill the eggs. Place clean clothes into them resealable bags for now. When we had the house spray we were told not to hoover for as long as we could handle minimum a week.. I last 3 weeks.. if not House speay, spray the effected rooms weekly. I still do my mattress and headboard monthly even though it's been three years since we had them.

it will take a while to get rid but don't panic. They make you feel ick but they are actually not harmful or disease carriers.

I can only imagine how upsetting this. :-(. All you can say to yourself is you will get through this somehow.

Clearly you need professionals in to spray treat your home. You may have to do this 2 or 3 times. Catch a couple of bugs
and put it into a glas jar for identification purposes.A good pest controller should be able to give you advice as well. There are plenty of pest controllers - ring around and you will find one easily.

In the meantime, you could hot wash and hot dryer a lot of things. Wash must be 60’dehrres to kill them. Things you can’t treat in this way you can freeze. If necessary buy a chest freezer (you can sell later) and do this over phases. I think you have to freeze for 3 - 4 days. Obviously seal up the clothes again then. Even put in storage facility whilst you de-louse the house. Maybe an idea to get rid of carpets if they’re old (ask the professionals about that though)

I would start off getting some big (clear?) plastic bags and bag up and seal belongings,
clothes, cushions, toys.Systematically treat each bag of stuff with heat or cold over the coming days and weeks. Buy Mattress fully zipped encasement-covers, you can get from Amazon around £20z

There are lots of things you can do. I went through some of this and did a lot of research but MN was really good. You can look up previous threads.

Since you have clearly seen the bugs and they are seemingly well established in your home I think you will need professional help as well as home actions. Hopefully they will advise you too.

My sympathies. Mine were the colour and a bit smaller than an apple pip. They smell awful when crushed. Have only seen one or two since then (moved flat but I suspect came on some clothing or something?) New mattress and bed.

Agree no point in chucking furniture. Until completely gone, they can reinfest
new furniture and beds!

Also a lot of bed bug sprays on Amazon are no good unless you spray direct into a bug. So are a waste of money. The professional insecticide is much more effective. Also bed feet interceptors. A lot of people highly recommend something called Diatomaceous Earth DT (get food grade) which is cheap and non toxic, you can get from Amazon too. You need a face mask for the dust though when applying.

Thank you for all the good advice! I've just ordered two enclosed mattress covers for the non bedbug mattresses and some DT. Pest control is coming on Monday. I have been washing everything from DD's bedroom on 60c since yesterday afternoon - do I need to be rewashing all the clothes that are downstairs too? We were going to replace the carpets anyway, should I just get them out now? Could have a skip here by this afternoon... I just feel dirty and haven't told DD the truth as she will just flip out (ASD) and tell her Father who will think we are also dirty!

Sounds like you’re on it!

Personally I’d get rid of the carpets if you were going to anyway.

(you could also ring pest controllers to double check if it’s a good idea?).

re. clothes downstairs - I guess you should for safety. But maybe don’t try to do too much at once. You could spread it out over coming days ….

It can feel like an emergency ‼️ but actually - with treatment - my understanding is the bed bugs die over a period of time eg new ones die after hatching because of re-applied insecticide / DT/hoovering etc.

ps I’ve read that DT can ruin hoovers though :-( so is best wiped up after it’s done it’s work (maybe weeks later I’m not sure)

And then keep re-applying DT till they’ve gone…

I've stripped everything out of DD's room now, including the carpet and curtains. Skip is on its way to me! Re sprayed the room as that seems to be the source. My washing machine and tumble drier have been on the go since this morning. Thinking of putting all the clean stuff in the conservatory as all hard surfaces... Weirdly we've found no other evidence of anything...

Are you sure they’re not carpet beetles? Much easier to treat. Any worn away/eaten patches on your carpet?

I saw this article on the difference.

https://www.terminix.com/bed-bugs/identification/carpet-beetles-vs-bed-bugs/

If you can get one to identify would be good.

Definitely not carpet beetles, though we appear to have seen two different types... Firstly the fast moving more rounded and whiteish/almost translucent ones which I saw in DD's hair and then the tiny black, almost pinprick sized ones (although not many), one of which bled when squashed. We've not really seen much since! Stripped carpets out of DD's bedroom and off the stairs, sprayed for a fourth time so we can move my bed in there tomorrow and strip carpets from my bedroom. Other two DC's rooms are still clear! PC coming Monday so will see what they say. Having to go to bed again tonight though is horrible, barely slept last night.

While you're dealing with the bugs you can buy silk sleep sacks so you don't get bitten while you sleep. I always use them when I'm backpacking and have never been bitten.

Pretty sure bed begs aren't in head sized! They are about 4-7mm . The rounder ones sound like they could be, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have seen loads crawling in your daughter's hair, and they aren't translucent unless they haven't fed for a while, so if they were biting your daughter's scalp, then they would have been dark.

You also don't get different types, there are nymphs and full-sized adults, the darker ones would be the adults, but they'd be much, much bigger than you describe.

Have you actually googled bed bugs?

Another thing, you'd be unlikely to see live ones crawling around in light, they tend to hide until it's dark.

This is a very good video.

First half is squeamish but if you hang on to the second half, there’s really good advice. A lot if it’s DIY too.

Will watch video, thank you!! Yes so pest control sent me pictures which look around the second stage of the nymph and I've done piles of googling! Maybe it isn't bed bugs, the tiny black things don't necessarily appear to be them but could we have two different types of bug in the house? I mean I really hope that it's neither but the bites/blood when pressed/looking like early nymph stage certainly appear to be so.

I also don’t think bed bugs usually “go” for the hair/scalp. They usually bite arms and top part of body.

Pictures I took last night... end one is the blood when squashed which was bright red

I’m not convinced about the ones in your DD’s hair. I’m hoping for your sake those are something else! How is it that you’re so sure they weren’t headlice? I mean, I realise those are no fun either but they’re a lot cheaper to get rid of…

I had them years ago when I moved house - you have my sympathies, I remember how neurotic they made me, especially reading stuff online about them

At the time I didn't have cash for pest control so I used those bug bomb things, sprayed everywhere, went through the house with a steam cleaner and washed everything. I did throw my bed and mattress away - probably unnecessary but the thought of them being in there knocked me sick.

I did the same again a week or so later and luckily never seen them again.

I'm surprised you found them in your daughters hair - IME they're almost impossible to find through the day, they feed at night then hide in the skirting,etc - I had to look hard to find live ones through the day. They are actually quite big too, just a bit smaller than a ladybird type bug, which shocked me, I thought BB were teeny tiny things, they really aren't, but are masters at hide & seek

I hope you manage to get them sorted. Don't panic, if a novice like me can get rid of them armed with bug bombs and a steamer no doubt the professionals will get rid no problem.

Also, when you say you sprayed the mattresses … with what?

They normally bite in a line of 3 too - sorry if someone else has said that, I haven't RTFT.