Bed Bugs...help!

cocopops

Not sure if this is the right thread, but i stayed in my friends' place in Dublin the past two nights and i woke up with red itchy things all over my arms and legs. :eek: Turns out my friends have had them for about two weeks now and they think there's bed bugs in the apartment. (can't believe they didn't warn me but ah well). Anyways, just asking on behalf of them, if anyone knows how to get rid of them??? Is it difficult/expensive and can they put the cost on the landlord even though they've been there two years????

sharkman

LookHERE



Bed bugs were treated years ago by wholesale spraying of beds, floors, walls, furniture, etc. with DDT. This practice is no longer permitted. Thoroughness is still important, but treatments today are generally more targeted and judicious.
Inspections and treatments must be very thorough. (M. Potter, Univ. of Kentucky) It often takes hours to properly inspect and treat a bed bug infestation, and follow-up visits are usually required.


As mentioned earlier, owners and occupants have important pre-treatment responsibilities. Reducing clutter is a necessity. Belongings strewn about rooms afford many places for bed bugs to hide, and impedes inspection and treatment. Infested bedding and garments will need to be bagged and laundered (120°F minimum), or discarded since these items cannot be treated with insecticides. Smaller items that cannot be laundered can sometimes be de-infested by heating. Individual items, for example, can be wrapped in plastic and placed in a hot, sunny location for at least a few days (the 120°F minimum target temperature should be monitored in the centermost location with a thermometer). Bedbugs also succumb to cold temperatures below 32° F, but the chilling period must be maintained for at least two weeks. Attempts to rid an entire home or apartment of bed bugs by raising or lowering the thermostat will be entirely unsuccessful. Vacuuming can be very useful for removing bugs and eggs from mattresses, carpet, walls, and other surfaces. Pay particular attention to seams, tufts and edges of mattresses and box springs, and the perimeter edge of wall-to-wall carpets. Afterward, dispose of the vacuum contents in a sealed trash bag. Steam cleaning of carpets is also helpful for killing bugs and eggs that vacuuming may have missed.

While the former measures are helpful, insecticides are important for bed bug elimination. Pest control professionals treat using a variety of low-odor sprays, dusts, and aerosols. (Baits designed to control ants and cockroaches are ineffective). Application entails treating all cracks and crevices where the bugs are discovered, or tend to hide. Some bed bug species are parasites of bats or birds, and may bite people if the wild hosts are no longer available. If bat bugs or bird bugs are involved, roosting and nesting sites should also be treated and the animals excluded from the building.

Do I Have to Throw Out the Bed?
Eliminating bed bugs from mattresses and box springs is challenging. If there are holes or tears in the fabric, the bugs and eggs may be inside, as well as outside. There also are restrictions on how beds can be treated with pesticides. For these reasons, pest control firms often recommend that infested beds be discarded. If disposal isn't an option, encasing the mattress and box spring will be helpful if bugs are still present. (Allergy supply companies sell zippered bed encasements for dust mite prevention). Some pest control firms treat seams, tufts, and crevices of bed components, but they will not spray the mattress surface, bed sheets, blankets, or clothing. Vacuuming will further help to remove bugs and eggs from mattresses and box springs that cannot be discarded. Some pest control firms also treat beds with portable steam machines. The technique is useful, but does not kill bugs or eggs that are hidden inside the box spring or mattress. Fumigation is another way to de-infest beds and hard-to-treat items, but the procedure is not always available. In extreme cases, entire buildings have been fumigated for bed bugs. The procedure is costly though, and involves covering the building in a tarp and injecting a lethal gas.

Avoiding Infestations
The cryptic, mobile nature of bed bugs limits their prevention. Avoidance is especially challenging in hotels, motels, and apartments because occupants and their belongings are constantly changing. This affords many opportunities for the bugs to be introduced. Householders should be wary of acquiring secondhand beds, bedding, and furniture. At a minimum, such items should be examined closely before being brought into the home. When traveling in countries where bed bugs are prevalent, it might be prudent to examine the bed and headboard area for signs of the bugs, and elevate luggage off the floor. Although incidence of bed bugs in the United States is increasing, they remain rare in comparison to most other pests. Familiarity may help to avoid infestation, or at least prompt earlier intervention by a professional.

DrIndy

Bed bugs are uncommon here - its more likely fleas unfortunately. They are also quite likely to be animal fleas rather than human ones.

The cure is wash EVERYTHING. Wash ALL your clothes, wash ALL the sheets and turn them in as you take them off. Hoover EVERYTHING. Have a shower. Also don't ever eat in your room as the larva feed on food crumbs. Turn in all the clothes and anything else so that they don't fall off onto the floor.

We used to get them every now and again when visiting (less-than-clean) neighbours or they visited us in Donegal and this works well. Once they get established, then you need to just repeat everything over and over until they are gone.

Also deflea any pets you have as they will have jumped onto them once they have discovered them......

Capt'n Midnight

They mentioned 120F (50C) above.

One of the problems with eco friendly washing machines is that the low temperatures don't kill off all the nasties. A 30 degree wash means you end up with clean creapy crawlies

Pet

You should try and buy diatomaceous earth. Basically, it's the microscopic, crushed-up shells of tiny plankton-type creatures that lived millions of years ago..after you wash and hoover everything, you sprinkle it around your apartment, and it kills all creepy crawlies. Fleas, flies, spiders, cockroaches..it gets in between their joints and under their skin, and shreds them to pieces! It's very bizarre; my aunt used it after she had cat fleas in the house, and 3 years on and there's not an insect to be seen in her house. And it's perfectly safe for use around humans, because it's non-toxic.