To be shitting bricks about this bed bug invasion?

[KnackeredMami]

I know it's probably alarmist media but I'm terrified it's true or if it's going to become true! We'll pick them up on public transport, but if we don't go on public transport they'll still get us in hotels, or from other people who do go to hotels, or from our kids in school. I'm reading they sneak in clothes and bags, hide in wardrobes, beds, behind photo frames, in the carpet, in the sofa, I mean basically everywhere? So how the fuckety fuck would you check if there are any? Check every inch of my house everyday? How would I get rid of them if they did arrive? If they could literally be anywhere and everywhere.

This actually makes my blood run cold!

We’ve had them in the UK forever. Wasn’t there an outbreak on national express coaches a few years ago?

Yes that is the best way to kill them but it is expensive.

And spray? What spray is this you are taking about?

Thanks I am glad now I’m getting some info for the war against them.

P.S I will win

Just don't burn the house down lol.

@CallieTR so are we.

I had a chat about it with our local pest controllers and the one thing they asked is what kind of luggage we have. They strongly recommend bringing hardshell-type bags rather than fabricy bags which are easier for the bugs to attach to.

That isn't enough.

Good info here.

https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/bedbugs/bed-bugs-travel.pdf

My parents had them years ago in their London flat, they got in to the house on a secondhand piece of furniture. It took awhile (maybe 2 weeks?) but they managed to get rid of them with calling in professionals. I think they hired a steamer and attacked the infestation that way.

I came on to look for this…

Diatomaceous earth works on bedbugs, fleas etc but you have to vacuum and re-dust regularly to cover the full breeding period.

My ex got them once from some shitty cheap accommodation in the UK. He moved in with me, brought his stuff in black bin bags and left it out to get really hot in the sun. All clothes taken to the launderette to be seriously blasted in one go in the boil wash and hot tumble dryer. All gone. A hassle but not more so than locking yourself out of the house or similar. They didn’t transfer to my house. If they were that infectious they could have done. I suppose we were lucky that as it was rental accommodation he could take his stuff and go. Would be worse to get rid of them in your own house…

This is what frightens me. All that effort and expense... And what if they're still not all gone?! Just imagine going through all that only to have to do it again

Bass suitcase is a good idea. I shall be buying one.

I'm mildly concerned by bed bugs, and don't buy second hand soft furnishings.

The media seem to be wanting to create mass panic about them.

We had them a couple of years ago. Not a big infestation but definitely a small colony.
Based on advice on here I bought a steam cleaner and steamed the mattress, bed frame (all wood), floor, wall (all hard surfaces) emptied nearby drawers into bin bags and put in the shed.
Steamed every few days and the numbers quickly dropped although it took a while before we stopped seeing the odd one.
It wasn't fun, but I am not scared of having them again.

Are they small?

The ones we had were about the size of a saucer when young and the size of a dinner plate when fully matured. An especially big one we saw was about as big as a hub cap.

I’m teasing! Yes, they’re small - like a very small wood louse.

They are much more common than we are lead to believe. Where I live and the council I deal with (south east) whole blocks of flats and houses have infestations where they lie dormant and don't often need to feed.
I lived next door to someone who refused to treat her house... has lots of children and they traipsed them into all the other houses. It took me six months to get rid of them.... The bugs that was. In my top bedrooms (I had a three storey house they were everywhere... behind posters, in bedding, clothes etc. I had to get rid, get fumigated and replace everything.
Oh and move.

‘Hubcaps’Imagine one of those jumping around on your bed😂

You and me both OP. I have been anxious about them for a couple of years but this new media frenzy has massively triggered me. I had to go to London yesterday and even though I didn't sit on public transport I went straight in the shower when I got home and put all my belongings in a sealed bag in a freezer. And I still feel really unsettled studying every speck of dust in the house.

I'm really struggling to concentrate on anything and look after the kids. I can't possibly live my life like this but I don't know what to do.

Crying couple of weeks ago I went past the first hotel (motel A12 Witham bound in the early 00’s I worked there in the early 2000’s and that smell of eggs and bacon when I went for the first interview - It was clean oh why does it have to be demolished.

Now a demolition site for the offering.

Very sad.

I learnt about bed bugs in 2016 when started on a facilities maintenance desk way after I entered hotels in 2001.

I read The L Shaped Room by Lynn Reid Banks. In that they put a (damp) bar of soap in the bed, turn the lights off , and all the bed bugs rush to the soap and stick to it.

Or maybe it was cockroaches.

I wonder if it had to be carbolic soap? I love a bit of carbolic soap.

I once stayed somewhere and woke the next day to a line of bedbug bites on my shoulder blade.
Itchiest bites ever!
I bought a can of raid, sprayed the mattress and all around. I wasn’t bitten again and didn’t give any bedbugs a ride in my luggage.

I am exactly the same.

I always check for bed bugs if I am away from home

I used to wish that I didn't know about them as no-one else seem to care. They do now though.

Backpacking in Oz back in 2000
Got eaten alive in Byron Bay and a few other places by bed bugs

I survived to tell the tale

Itchy for a few days and they gonaway

Omg the soap story above brought back many backpacker memories