Bed Bugs. How scared of them are you?

[PennyWistful]

Me? Bloody terrified. Know someone who has them and would avoid them like the plague until they sort it. AIBU to think I need to stay away? They’re a nightmare to get rid of.

There are things I avoid and precautions I take strictly in order not to risk bedbugs. My very clean and house-proud friend picked them up either at church or in a gym locker and found it nearly broke her to get rid of them.

Another friend's brother came back from travelling in Asia, and as he'd reported suspected bedbug bites on an overnight stop-off in a swish hotel in Dubai on the way home, she made him strip butt naked on her drive when he returned home from the airport to stay at hers, and -no word of a lie- had him burn his handluggage and clothes in the front garden before letting him enter her house. I don't think that was excessive, having seen how our other friend struggled to get shot of her infestation.

We had them, either picked up on holiday or on public transport. Took a while to get rid of them but not worried about having them again.

My son got bitten by them, then developed impetigo he was a mess, took ages to clear and he has some scars, so I have first hand experience and they are a nightmare.

Can I add this was not from our home, but we had to pay to get our own place treated.

I have them & have tried to get rid of them. Next I will chuck out my bed and mattress and carpet and burn the place down!!!!

Ok I won't burn the place down but I will chuck out my bedroom furniture (they need replacing anyway).

I was bitten by some in an expensive UK AirBnB. Stayed there for two nights, and got 27 bites. They were extremely uncomfortable, the worst bites I've ever had, and I had to throw away my suitcase and clothes. I've been paranoid about them when staying at hotels since.

In terms of other people’s descriptions, no, they weren’t!

DS stayed in a hotel last year in London and found bed bugs - he came home and sealed his ruck sack and clothes in bin bags and put them in garage freezer for a week so that we didn’t get infested - thankfully it worked 😊

We have a huge garage freezer, our luggage goes in there when we get back from holidays.
I work in community health and I've been in lots of houses with bed bugs and also fleas.

What are the chances of them being carried on a person's clothes and infesting my car?

I am utterly paranoid about them and have developed OCD after having encountered them in both America and Italy. Fortunately we didn’t bring them home with us but I have had to put lots of measures in place to reduce the risk of them coming into our home.

We have a chest freezer in the garage that is just for freezing things before they come into the house. All luggage and clothing or soft furnishings go in there for a week. Any clothes we buy get frozen before they come in the house. Second hand books (which DH insists on buying) are also frozen for a week. DH travels a lot for work. On the day he’s returning I put a change of clothes by the back door and when he gets back he strips in the garage, puts everything in the freezer and puts on the clean clothes before coming in the house.

Unfortunately my paranoia means that I can’t cope with anyone staying here anymore so no more sleepovers for the DC and I’m uncomfortable just having visitors popping in. I’m currently very anxious as DH gave friends and their luggage a lift back from the airport the other week. He refused to put their luggage in bin bags before they went in the boot so I’m worried we’ll have them in the car and then we’ll bring them into the house. I’ve also struggled with having a DC at uni as worried that they’ll bring bed bugs back and when they’re only home for a couple of days I can’t freeze their stuff!

I worry constantly about picking up bedbugs in pubs, restaurants, hairdressers etc and don’t enjoy going out anymore. And yes I know that this is not a normal level of worrying and I’m currently waiting for a counselling appointment!

Popping back to echo another poster re Diatomaceous earth... it's an excellent preventitive/treatment. Buy a big tub from Amazon and sprinkle it into the cracks of floorboards, under the mattress etc. It's natural and not toxic (you can actually eat it tho God knows why ) although they say not to breathe it in when you scatter it.
It works because it literally dries out the bugs if they touch it and they die.
After our experience with bedbugs , and once the house was treated we put a good dusting in all the places they could ever hide, just in case we ever picked them up again travelling!

Can this diatomaceous earth hurt cats, though? This is one of my fears. That I have to fumigate and ultimately in order to do that must put my cats into a cattery.

Diatomaceous earth works too slowly to eradicate them. It takes about 10 days to dry them out but until they're fully grown they moult every 3-5 days so they keep getting a fresh start. Once they are adults DE will kill them in 10 days but that's plenty long enough for them to mate and lay eggs. It's useful as one part of a strategy as it will limit the population a bit.

CimeXa works in a similar way - it dries them out - but it only takes 1-3 days so they don't survive to adulthood and the breeding cycle is broken.

https://www.pctonline.com/article/pct0814-silica-gel-research-bed-bugs/

They've got it on Amazon at the moment:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ROCKWELL-CXID032-CimeXa-Insecticide-Rockwell/dp/B0085HRWI8

I recommend watching some YT videos to see how to apply it.

Both diatomaceous earth and cimexa are safe around pets, although I'd keep them away for an hour or so just to let the dust settle.