Bed bugs in my bed. I’m horrified!!

[BeLimeTiger]

We got back from holiday in Italy three weeks ago and my partner was complaining of bites (I thought he was being a bit of a hypochondriac). Anyway, I noticed bites today and specs of brown/red on our pillows.

I found one of the critters and took a picture of it… definitely bed bugs.

Has anyone successfully treated an infestation and if so how? I’ve put all the sheets and mattresses protectors in the wash. I’m so horrified!

They don"t stay in the bed all the time, they move back to the "nest", and you will find them attacking if you sit for a long time somewhere, watching TV for example, hence you need to dust areas where you sit for long periods of time, the bottom line is they don"t have long legs like humans so they can walk about, they CRAWL about on carpets etc. to find the blood source, there is no blood in a duvet, the areas where they travel across have to be dust zones.

By 'the dust' you mean DE? Cimexa and similar silica gels are also dusts.

I had bedbugs in 2019. We employed professionals who used DE as part of their strategy. Despite them coming back three times it didn't work. We bought some DE and continued to treat ourselves for a further 3 months. It didn't work. We bought some cimexa, which I think was £16, put it down once and after 3 weeks there were no more bugs. That is my real world experience.

The research articles I linked to are by a team led by professors of entomology at the University of Kentucky. It's true that there are also industry professionals involved (pest control companies rather than 'dust' manufacturers) and these particular studies have not been peer reviewed. I can find you some peer reviewed papers if you like, or perhaps you have some on DE you'd like to share?

Rest assured, I am not in the market for buying any 'chemicals' or 'dusts'. I still have a big bag of DE stuck in a cupboard that I don't know what to do with, as well as half of the tub of cimexa, which still has not run out, despite a prophylactic reapplication about once a year.

Mostly they will build harborages within 1-2 metres of your sleeping head. Favourite spots include the insides of bed frames and the undersides of mattresses. They sometimes wander further afield but mostly not. Whole generations will be born, feed, breed and die without ever leaving the bed.

I’ve had them once and it was hideous. I now keep an old chest freezer in the garage and anyone who stays in a hotel has to leave their bag in it for a couple of days. (They are often given away on free cycle or similar). DH and DS think I’m off my rocker but I honestly think I would rather jump off a building than go through that again. Grotesque little bitey fuckers.

Such a shame the heatwave is over. Wrapping stuff in thick sealed black plastic out in the sun was thought to be effective back in 2005 when we had the NYC infestations.

Not on metal bed frames and not on mattresses with the plastic cover still on.

So your preferred method is to replace the bed with a metal frame (they can infest metal bed frames although it's less likely. If they get inside the metal tubes though, they're even more of a nightmare to get rid of) and sleep on a sweaty plastic covered mattress (you'd need a proper mattress encasement, not just the plastic cover it came in) in a room entirely dusted (except for the bed!) with a powder that is both ineffective and an inhalation hazard?

OK.

How would they get inside the metal tubes if the tubes are sealed and they can"t climb up the metal bed legs?

You can cover the plastic cover with a bed-bug sheet that costs a few quid on Amazon, and you would also have the normal sheet on top of that, so you are not really sleeping on a "sweaty plastic covered mattress" are you?

Are you saying that the chemicals the con artist "treatment companies" are throwing about are safe to breathe in as you sleep?

What area are you in? My friends in London had a nightmare trying to get 2 companies to do a repeat visit. They only want to come back and do targeted spraying, they don't want to heat again. They are all promises and smiles while you are in the "sales" phase. The non lucrative call backs- they are not interested.

https://doctorsniffs.com/can-bed-bugs-climb-on-metal/

Of course not, it is all a con.

So how many bed bugs did you find on your own metal bed when you checked it?

Can bed bugs grow to a giant size and eat humans if they start to consume metal?

Do you mean these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Premium-Bed-Bug-Guard/dp/B000VXS9KE

They're mostly resistant to permethrin and I don't think it's good for humans. Also this setup still sounds quite sweaty to me.

OK, I'm out.

We’ve only found evidence of them on the bed in our bedroom (but had the other bedrooms treated). DP reported that he found 28 of them on the bed on Sunday morning (2 days after the treatment), 3 this morning. Hopefully they’re on their way out!

Me too, people just have to try what works for themselves, a box of dust at 16 quid or something is a no brainer starting point IMO. BTW you still didn"t explain how they get into the sealed metal tubes and attack you from there?

Just popped back to say - if anyone is getting rid of infested items - mattresses, bed frames or whatever, take precautions to prevent any spread into other rooms or further afield. Double wrap the item with pallet wrap before you move it out of the room, or two layers of completely sealed plastic bags for smaller items.

Also do not leave seemingly good items of furniture outside your house which look like they might be free to a good home. If you have to leave furniture ouside, smash it up a bit, daub it with paint or whatever to make it look unattractive.

Good luck everyone who is dealing with this, I wish you a swift victory over your uninvited guests

I got a metal tube bed frame after the buggy one was disposed of. They are far harder for bugs to hide in but the tubes are never completely sealed. You connect the tubing together by sliding ends of pieces into each other. Bugs can potentially hide and lay eggs in these joins.

Don’t you have to tell the collectors the items are hazardous?

I don't know if you have to, we did when we took some things to the tip and they said that's fine, just chuck it in. There didn't seem to be any special arrangements for buggy items and I imagine they're dealing with them fairly constantly these days. Best to call them and ask, maybe?

But sometimes when I've arranged a council collection things get taken before the van comes round and I'd hate for someone to take home bugs in this way.

Or just set fire to it, that will discourage passing tramps from taking it home with them.

Potentially? When was the last time it happened to you?