Bed bugs!

[Lookingforh]

Name changed for this as could be identifying.
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Nightmare situation. My previous tenant infested my flat with bed bugs. The new tenants moved in and now they moved out once we found out about the bed bugs.

I'm having the heat treatment but I'm worried it won't work 100%. Has anyone had the heat treatment - did it work? Any other ideas?

Tricky one - of course it can be sorted but takes time and patience. You will need to throw out a lot of things! Lots of advice online.
Have you checked your home insurance as it may well be covered. Insurance does cover bedbugs/vermin but sometimes it is an "add on".

@20questions thank you for responding, have you ever had the bed bug problem?

We had bed bugs but it was confined to one bedroom so we caught it early. We also tumble dried our clothes and bedding so that naturally killed a lot of them.

We basically had chemical treatment which involved stripping the room, bagging up everything and washing/tumble drying everything in that room that we could and then it was fumigated by professionals. It worked.

Not me , but a close relative. The heat treatment wasn't suitable, so had the chemical one. It was about one third the cost. Say 500 instead of 1500. They had to take drawers out I think, and leave the house for something like 4 hours. They haven't had a problem since. They tried all sorts of stuff before the fumigation, but nothing worked.

We paid £800 for main bedroom and downstairs livingroom. Had to massively declutter and then leave the house for 12 hours if I remember correctly. It worked though first time.

We had them absolutely everywhere when we finally noticed them. even in the sofa. I had just got together with my now husband and he actually found the nest. I just about lost my mind with the 90 degree washes and freezing things but the council did the treatment pretty fast and along with some truly insane washing and vacuum sealing everything it worked.

Yes I have used the heat treatment and it worked.

Before that I had 4 applications of the anti bug stuff, bagged up everything every time, put every single thing in the tumble drier for 40 minutes. It was a fucking nightmare. And I had a basement to store all the bagged/tumble dried clothes. It was before covid and I think I found covid and lockdown easier because of the experience. Yeah it's a global pandemic but at least it's not bedbugs.

What we did - recommended by the heat treatment guys - (I'm in the US so may not be available in the UK) was get a bed bug dog in to check where the last remaining bugs were (in my son's bedroom - he brought them home from college but unfortunately didn't react to the bites so they really established). Then I did the heat treatment for the whole house (except basement as superdoggie said that was fine). Then a month or so later I got the dog guy back to check again. I also got rid of our beautiful wooden beds (with storage drawers underneath) and our beautiful fabric headboards and will never again have anything but a metal bed in my home.

The heat treatment DOES work. It is more expensive though. I wish I had googled better and done it right from the start. The pesticide doesn't really if you have a real infection (not just one or two just beginning). I think they are immune to it tbh.

good luck! and google if there are bedbug detecting dogs in your area. Our fellow was trained in the University of Florida and was amazing.

Also remember to encase your new mattresses in bed bug protectors. I've done the pillows too.

We had bedbugs. We discovered them about 4 months after we moved into a new house, so I think they were in the house when we moved in. Luckily only in 2 bedrooms, the other rooms were unaffected. We had the heat treatment, and it didn't work in one bedroom. They came back to check and there were still bugs. But as the work was guaranteed, they then did chemical treatment for free. When we moved the (new) bed back in I put bed bug traps under the legs and STILL caught a couple more, but after that no more. They are very hard to get rid off 😢

It is also a nightmare if you don't react to bites, and these are your early warning system. Only 1 out of 4 of us in the family reacted to them.

Yeah had them and were a nightmare. Confined to one room more or less. Had house sprayed from top to bottom, kept up with twice weekly sprays on our bed and hoovered daily. Every item of clothing was washed and zip bagged until I was sure they had gone. decluttered and through our so much stuff. We couldn’t afford heat treatment as we got quoted around 1.5k but apparently it works well. Did find the house spray did a great job tho and it also killed the bedbugs every insect/wasp/fly in the house lol or who came near the house for weeks after. Ours came from abroad back with us or from hospital 🤦‍♀️

We had them but caught it early, they are hard to get rid of. We bought the diatomaceous earth and sprinkled it everywhere. Plus sprays and constantly hoovering and cleaning.

My DD could have been your new tenant - moved in and woke up the next day to bites and visible critters. Couldn't have missed them. We all thought the landlord should and could have found them with a proper inspection between tenants!

Anyway, the LL did get a reputable company in and blasted the place, 4 treatments in a month I think, and fortunately paid for the girls to be put up elsewhere. Not ideal for anyone. I don't know if heat was involved in the treatment but chemicals were. The girls returned eventually to a flat covered in white powder
Problem does appear to be solved. But it was pretty traumatic for them.

what did the nest look like?

We had them a few years ago, but fortunately I react (only one in my house who does) so we caught them early. We had the heat treatment as we were fortunate to be able to afford it and the chemical treatments didn't seem that reliable - apparently they have built up a resistance to it and it can cause them to "scatter" to other areas of your house and go into hiding for a while. They can survive for a long time without feeding so if they do this you can think they're gone for a good amount of time before they pop up again. Bloody hateful things.

The heat treatment worked and the guy who did it also put a powder down around the legs of the beds 2 weeks later for any remaining ones (I think he said it made the females infertile but might be wrong). I wasn't bitten once after the first heat treatment, though, £1000 well-spent as far as I'm concerned. We didn't have to throw anything out, either, just de-clutter a bit and hoover thoroughly before he arrived, so by the time you factor in replacing beds/mattresses etc. with other methods the heat treatment probably wasn't that expensive after all. It's been years now and no sign of the little bastards since, so it did work. I am absolutely paranoid about them, though, so mentally it's definitely affected me a bit, which sounds daft, but I think the distress they cause is really underestimated until you're actually trying to deal with them.

Apparently lots of people blame hotels/hospitals, but a really common way they get into houses is through clothes purchases, especially second-hand/charity shops (which I buy a lot of) and retailers with big warehouses where a single item returned from a house with bed bugs can cause an infestation. I am certain that's how how we got them. I tumble dry absolutely every item of clothing that comes into my house now before I put it on, even cashmere etc. as so long as it is dry it won't damage or shrink it but 90 mins at 50 degrees will kill the bugs/eggs. Also throw packaging away in an outside bin and open outside by the bin if you can. Be aware you need to freeze items for days (literally) if you want to kill them, especially the eggs, so heat is a more reliable way to kill them.

Hope you manage to get it sorted. It is really horrible so you have my sympathy.

Thank you for everyone who has replied. I'm not sleeping well at all due to the worry.

@toastfiend thank you for your sympathy and giving me hope that the heat treatment will work. We're staying in the property occasionally after the chemical treatment (booked on the day I found out and before I knew about the heat treatment) to try and encourage the little horrors to come out and hopefully help the heat treatment to be more effective. Because it's a bad infestation as the previous tenant ignored it I'm worried some might be hiding places that the heat doesn't reach! Please wish me luck!

I had bedbugs once and had to get them treated with a horrendous spray that was sprayed in every bedroom. It took three treatments set at three weeks apart as that's the egg circle. I can't remember the cost as it was ten years ago. I also had strict instructions on what to wash and what to put in the freezer. It was incredibly stressful. I also had to throw out my bed and get a new one as that's where the infestation had started. It did get rid of them though thank god. I never want to go through that again.

best of luck OP. When we had them it massively affected my sleep/worry etc.

I think having the chemical treatment first is probably a good idea - control the infestation a bit. The heat treatment really does work. (the people who did our said they are regulars in high end hotels btw).

I would, however, get rid of any wooden furniture/fabric headboards etc. it just isn't worth it.

Also, as I said before we used the sniffer dog service (recommended by heat treatment guys) and it was amazing.

www.jgpestcontrol.co.uk/london/bed-bug-sniffer-dogs#:~:text=Bed%20bugs%20are%20an%20increasing,the%20specific%20areas%20of%20concern.

have a look at this. If there are live bugs left the dog will sniff them out.

Unfortunately not covered on contents insurance, as we found out. Bought the fuckers back from holiday. Cost around £5k+ to get rid and replace our bed and mattress (despite pest control saying we wouldn't need to, the fuckers were in the threads of screws in the bed we had)

Not sure if it differs with renting etc.

Yeah I agree with Alpha I had to get rid of my bed all the bedding and pillows duvets the lot. It's incredibly stressful.

Thank you everyone for your messages. I replaced the beds with metal beds. New bedding. Encasements for the existing mattresses. It is costing me thousands unfortunately.

@AlphaAlpha what type of treatment did you have?

Chemical/spray treatment. I considered the heat treatment but the cost and potential retreatments put me off.
We had 3 maybe 4 chemical treatments, and only really got rid when we dismantled our bed.
We were told keeping the bed would be fine but like I said, I couldn't rest so we took it down and that's when we found the fuckers in the threads of screws.
We had a super king, fabric ottoman bed. We now have a metal frame bed too.
What I found behind the headboard will haunt me forever.
I'm ashamed to say that we 'stretched' the truth on a contents insurance claim. Knowing that BB infestations were not covered we had to recoup some costs somewhere.

I hope you get it sorted, it's a horrible situation to be in.

Thanks @AlphaAlpha

@Pallisers they said they only use the dog for commercial where there are lots of rooms, they said it's easy to find the infestation in residential