Bedbugs - please help!

[Buuuuuuugs]

We have bedbugs! I can’t believe it!

Anyone has experience?

We live in a small block of about 20flats.

They are in at least two of the three rooms (2 bedrooms and living room) we have. Only realised as have bites and couldn’t actually find anything forever (well about 2 months)

None on the mattress but some in bed frame and then along the walls.

I had two theories how they got in. I wonder now with a third, could they have come from other flats in the building?

Anyway, if you had them, did you manage to eradicate them and how (apart from
burning your house down and pouring cement over the ashes 😂)

Your Local Council may offer a professional bed bug extermination treatment. Look on their website.

I believe it's usually a number of spray treatments over a number of weeks.

The bugs can travel from other flats in your block. They hide in cracks in walls, skirting boards etc.

Tackle them as fast as you can.

If they are in one room, chances are that eggs are being transferred into every room on clothing and socks/ shoes, so all need to be treated. I had a one-time only treatment (a mist/ spray treatment that killed anything alive; took ages for the spiders to come back) and that did the job.

Yes, bed bugs in flats are hard to eradicate as they can wander between places.

Indorex, lots of.

They can come in from other flats. They can hide in crevices around skirting.
they can walk up walls. And along the ceiling.
they don’t need to stay near beds .
they can visit in the night.
this is especially true if you use sprays on the bed frame etc, they hide further way and then visit.

I had a firm come in and heat our space up. And this worked.

DO NOT USE any sprays that you can buy yourself.
do not use powders.

use a firm that only deals with bedbugs and offers a repeat visits .

but the heating up worked for us and I would do it again without hesitation if it were to ever happen again it’s 18months since if happened and we had a terrible infestation before we realised, and haven’t had any recurrence since . .

Sprinkling a fine dusting of diatomaceous Earth is the only thing proven to kill them other than heat or freezing.

We had them (house though). They either got in through being picked up on public transport or from a weekend away, but we never knew for sure.
Recommended on Mumsnet, bought a steamer and just kept steaming bed frame/mattress/ floor and washed everything that had been in drawers or put in bin bags in shed until I could deal with.
After the first couple of weeks we only found odd ones but that went on for months although the steaming got less frequent.
We were helped by finding them before they spread out from the bedroom and by having hard floors everywhere.
You have my sympathy, it's upsetting when you find them.

I was concerned that it might have negative health impact on kids, but used it. And Sprays that were harsh chemicals but didn’t kill bugs apart from if you sprayed it in it and squashed it.

The only thing that worked for us was getting a company in to heat the hole house up to 50+ degrees it cost a packet but given the MH impact having them biting us had had I wished I’d done this straight away.

Yes the whole house heating is the best way to kill them all.

I was thinking after killing them all, that if they are in neighbouring flats, putting down a fine dusting of diatomaceous Earth along the party wall and any sort of ways in might help keep bed bugs from next door from simply moving in to replace the ones killed. The way it works is it clogs up the bedbugs pores and they slowly dehydrate to death on contact.

www.thepestinformer.com/pest-guides/bed-bugs/diatomaceous-earth-for-bed-bugs/

The company I used where able to find nesting sites etc, and looked at everything very thoroughly. It was a big upheaval doing it- preparing for the process- putting things back. I think they would be able to identify if there were places along party wall etc which were access points .

most stressful time of my life .

i have messaged the firm several times in last 18 months to thank them for never having to see them again.
it took a lot of time to believe they were gone and to be able to relax

Really sorry to hear this - it's an awful problem. My DD had them a year ago in her two bed maisonette. Not clear where they came from. She wasted a lot of time and money buying sprays and powders and replacing all her bedding, including mattresses. Nothing worked. In the end the only option was to get a firm in to heat treat the whole place. It was expensive (£800) and a total faff as they had to take furniture apart and put the cats into a cattery for two nights. However it got rid of them completely. The firm gave a guarantee that they would return and retreat if the bugs reappeared with 6 months, but they didn't need to use it.

Do act as quickly as you can.

I thought we brought some back from holiday. I got the pest control guy in and he said they mainly live in cracks in wood so entirely plausible they have come from other flats.

I washed everything at 90, tumble dried and then froze anything that couldn't be washed.

It cost around £350 per room for a professional treatment which luckily we have avoided so far but I live in fear of them now!

Any chance it could be fleas?

Get a professional in. It’s worth the money. Don’t go for the heat treatment that’s advertised (it can mess with electrical stuff). A professional will know exactly where to spray. My whole house was turned upside down but it was worth it.

You need professional pest control or if you must DIY order cimexa and a powder diffuser from amazon. It works by dehydrating them, wear a mask while spraying it then leave the area for a few hours. Cimexa is the only DIY product that actually works.

Don't use DIY sprays, they don't work and can make the problem worse as they encourage the bugs to hide in weird places.

Don't chuck everything out, they tend to hide in furniture rather than bedding.

Another vote for CimeXa. They have it on amazon at the moment but it's often quite difficult to find. You don't need to use much, find some youtube videos for how to apply it. You can leave it down indefinitely and stay protected from them returning.

We had them a few years ago, I wrote a couple of detailed posts here on what we did:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/3915786-Bed-bugs-clearance-diy?page=2&reply=98435638

We paid the council £300 and they visited three times last year for bed bugs. They are a bugger to get rid of.

We had them. When my youngest was a newborn we got them from staying over at someone’s house who had bedbugs, they told us they got rid 🙄 we got loads of bug bombs from Amazon but be careful if you have pets as pets and you need to be out of the house for least 3 hours. We done that 3 times a week and bought spray from Amazon to kill them off. We repeated the process and ours wasn’t that bad so they was gone. Also wash what can be washed on 90, and put it all in the tumble dryer as the eggs are killed by heat! touch wood haven’t seen anymore since!

Thank you for the responses. I haven’t actually seen any for about two months since the first bites appeared. In some way probably lucky that I’m allergic! Did the spray at home but fear now as some people said they are just hiding elsewhere. Did find some in skirting. And am still getting bitten, although much less after the spray. So I know they are there, even though I can find any after the DIY
spray.

I need to find a reputable company to come and deal with. Just worry that we pay and the problem won’t be sorted, although I see it worked for some people.

Where are you? I can recommend a really good guy in the West Midlands area.

In London - keen for good recommendations though