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?

I really hope the heat treatment is the end of it. It's causing me so much panic and stress.

the heat treatment WILL work. And when you are bug free, your stress and worry will go. Mind you, I check hotel beds now very carefully. best of luck.

I really hope so for you as well. I'm sure it will, it was extremely successful for us.

Just a word of caution, though, if you're staying there some nights at the moment - they can hitch a lift/lay eggs on items really easily. Please be very careful that you're not inadvertently bringing them into your own home and spreading them, because that would be awful. They can hide in the most unexpected of places. I'm not trying to distress you further, I just would hate to think of this happening when you're working so hard to be rid of them.

So the nightmare continues! The guy I booked in to do the heat treatment said he couldn't do it because there was no parking. He turned up and left (I wasn't there). So I panicked and re-booked with the same company who do the sniffer dog (only for commercial as I rang them). I told them about the parking issues and that there are lots of stairs etc and they said it's fine, but they also take half the payment and it's non refundable - I tried to cancel a few minutes after booking as I spoke to another guy who slammed them. But they would not let me cancel without losing nearly £1k. I really hope that they do it and it's the end of it, but I'm worried they will do a bad job and I will spend £1.5k and still have the problem.

How did this resolve OP? We are having steam treatment in one room tomorrow as rest of house is already upside down with building work going on so can't get into every room to treat. I'm thinking of following up with heat treatment next month. Did you do that in the end?

Same here. We had three spray treatments all in all as the egg cycle of bed bugs is 3 weeks apparently. Had to also buy a new bed and bedding.

I'm a bedbug veteran, awful things

Heat treatment can work but isn't 100%, they can hide bloody anywhere (skirting, floorboards) can so can sometimes evade them. Some folk need heat + chemicals.

Important to know that chemical treatments work by getting them to come out and walk through the insecticide, and they will only do this if there is live bait a person there to feed from. They are attracted to hear and CO2. They can hide for months and months without food, spraying an empty flat might cause them to hide and go dormant which will make the situation worse.

I'd go with a specialist independent company (not fantastic services/rentokill) with excellent reviews and talk it through.

Two months on we've had heat treatment plus two chemical treatments and they still won't fuck off. And I think they've spread to one of my kids rooms now.
Honestly I feel like I'm losing my mind over this.
Please please someone send me hope!

Sounds like heat treatment and diatomaceous earth are the most effective ways to get rid.

We are in a terrace so no good really- they just go next door via the skirting board until it cools down.
Ughhh honestly miserable situation.

Have you managed to get rid yet? I'm at my wits end with mine, vigilance, cimexa and interceptor traps on bed legs is how we are doing stuff at the moment I react to bites, I can't afford to get a pest control guy right now, I'm stressed massively, I've been tackling them since early October

Hello,

I know this is an old thread but finding it very helpful.
We have somehow ended up with bedbugs. We've had 3 rounds of steam and chemical treatment. However I started to get small bites again and this is how it normally begins! Our pest control company were not able to find any evidence after the first treatment. So worried about the impact of the chemicals on our babies. Relieved to see some success stories on this thread.

We have a king size ottoman and wondering whether we should ask our pest control to dismantle the bed and treat or we just get rid of it. Either way, worried that they might scatter in the process if they haven't done so already. We also run the risk of it actually hiding somewhere else and it may be pointless getting a new bed?

We have LVT flooring and I dont think heat treatment works with flooring generally?

@beccahamlet @Believeitornot do you recall which company was used for the chemical treatments and which chemical they used?

OP, hope the nightmare ended for you!

Thanks everyone!

I would get rid of the ottoman bed.

We had a SK ottoman, it was fabric rather than leather. Initially told by pest control that once room treated it would be fine. 3x treatments later, still finding them. We decided to get rid of the bed, and on dismantling the buggers were in the threads of all the small screws!

We lied on contents insurance for the purpose of replacing our bed and mattress which was 3k worth after the cost of the treatment alone rocketed and the fact that infestations are not covered.

Little bastards to get rid of, you have my sympathy!

Hi @AlphaAlpha

Thank you so much! I think we are going to have to try this. Did you do another treatment after noticing some were hiding in the threads of the screw or did you just throw the bed out and it was sorted? My little one has had a few small bites too and he sleeps in a different room in a cot so we are now worried it's spread but don't know how that could be possible after three treatments to the house.

I can’t remember if we had further treatments to be honest, it was around 8 years ago now. But yes, once the bed was gone then so were they. The main infestation was around the back of our headboard (it makes me shudder to recall that!) but we also found them in plug sockets around the bed!

Does your little one get into bed with you?
For peace of mind, I would treat their room also.

Thank you for the information, thats really helpful. He just plays on our bed to be honest and once in a while sleeps with us. I think you are right though we probably need to treat the whole house again. So tricky because we only ever saw a bedbug once and that was before the first ever treatment. We havent seen any since. They are so good at hiding.