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!

Not a good idea…

"smashing it up a bit and daubing it it paint" before throwing into the street is a good idea?

If enough bed bugs got inside the tubing of a metal bed and started breeding do you think they could eventually burst through the metal and start killing humans?

No! You think setting fire to it is a good idea?

Well hopefully it won't! I only got the metal tube bed in July but the tenants have reported fresh activity. I'm waiting for the bug techs to come out again and inspect.

It was a joke.

I went on a school trip to the Netherlands and stayed in a hostel. I was covered in bites when I got back and knew exactly what I had brought back. I washed the clothes I took, very quickly, my bed linen and sprayed my bed, carpet and suitcase. Luckily I was quick, before they took hold.
To make things worse, I also got scabies on the same trip.
This year I refused to go on a trip….

So if I was going on holiday, say to a caravan on a Haven type site, what should I look out for and where should I be looking? Bit worried now 😔

@cityliving99 What did you spray with?

My husband went straight to Screwfix and bought special bed bug spray. We bought several and used it liberally. I can’t remember the name, but it was the only one they sold.
All bed linen and all the clothes I took were washed. The suitcase was sprayed outside.
the bed was sprayed several times and we also sprayed the carpet. Luckily it worked.

Thank you for responding, I will have a look on the Screwfix website. We've been back for a fortnight now and I'm still examining the bed every day ☹️ I'll get some of the spray and we can always keep it as a just in case too.

Make the most of the nice weather. Open the windows. Keep spraying along the skirting and under the bed/ mattress.
I refused to go on an overseas school trip this year. Scabies and bed bugs was not pleasant!

We put a mattress that was riddled with bed bugs outside ready for collection. Someone took it before it was collected!

Karma - it will quite literally come back to bite them!

Heat treatment didn’t work for us. What eventually got rid of it was a guy called the Bed Bug Expert - he used tailored chemical treatment and has a year long guarantee

There's nothing wrong with reusing things to save them from landfill. We should all be doing more of that if we care about the planet. So it's not karma, they don't deserve bedbugs because they took an unwanted mattress home.

But this is why I suggest visually spoiling infested items before they're put out for collection.

Hmmm… I think I’d be inclined to ask the person disposing of an item if I could have it rather than just helping myself. Otherwise, since it either belongs to the original owner or to the council/ waste disposal company, it’s technically theft. If it were dumped on the pavement without anyone owning it, the original owner could be accused of fly-tipping.

I would be very wary of DIY pesticide sprays. There is nothing on the retail market that they're not at least partially immune to and, as these products work by disorienting the bugs and disrupting their behaviour, they can end up just spreading around the house and being more difficult to get rid of.

Mechanical methods - steaming, hoovering, dessicant dusts, freezing, hot washes, tumble drying etc. are all safe enough for DIY but chemicals are best left to professionals who have access to the hard stuff.

I got bitten in Cardiff. I moved rooms and showered twice. Left my nightdress by accident, but decided that was for the best. The bites came out 5 days later. Somehow I managed to not take them home. Never putting a bag on the bed again. The worst bit the psychological effect but it passed after a few months.

Nobody does that round my way, if it's on the kerb it's fair game and quite a few people just leave stuff out for a few days in the hope that someone else can use it and they're saved a council collection fee.

Exactly, who picks up an old mattress from the street, absolutely ridiculous unless they were a street sleeper then the cold in the winter will kill the bed bugs anyway.

Have you got his details? Thanks.

We’ve just had our first lot of chemical treatment done, not fun with a newborn and older child. You’re not alone OP

It’s awful. Hate that you’ve got to sleep in the treated rooms to draw them out. Our treatment was two weeks today and today was the first day we haven’t found a live one 🤮

The best thing is that we’ve both sorted treatment early on rather than leaving it. It’s so so awful isn’t it, but it happens to so many people and it’s not our fault x