bed bugs

[JennK13]

My husband is an exterminator and deals with bed bugs on a daily basis (Jess, I'm sure you can imagine the influx of calls they've received with all the recent press locally about them!!).
You can actually get rid of them by calling an exterminator - he treats for them all the time without "flames" or heat - he uses a spray to kill them, but only professionals have it (not something you can get from HomeDepot or some thing). The best way to NOT get them is to NOT bring them in. Check the stuff you buy BEFORE bringing it into your house. You can see them; they look like miniature ticks. You can also see their feces (like black dots) on things. Whenever we travel, before we unpack or anything, he pulls up the sheets on the bed and looks at them to see if he sees anything - like I said, it's pretty obvious if they're there.
Something I find really odd (Jess, don't get grossed out!), we moved to Colorado from California. He would do one or two jobs a YEAR in California, mostly at hotels from travellers bringing them in. Here in Denver, he does one or two (or more) A WEEK!!!! A person's financial situation doesn't matter - he services poor people in the ghetto just as often as he services rich people. And usually they are brought in by either people who have recently travelled, or those who have bought furniture used and brought it into their homes, or the college kids who come home for a break (who have bought stuff cheap as college students do).

[Chicken Little]

I leave my luggage in the garage for 24 hours after I get home. The only thing that comes in the house goes directly into the washer/dryer.

[OakLeaf]

I read to take everything out of your luggage outside and put it on white garbage bags. The white plastic makes it easier to see the bugs.

+1 on checking hotel mattresses. Also never put your luggage on the floor.

[jessmarimba]

I'll just hope all of his work here is in hotels too!

[marni]

while you still should check the beds in hotels, a catalog store called gaia used to carry a silk travel bag/ sleeping bag style sheet that kept you off of the questionably cleaned sheets in a hotel. I have one and use it whenever I do a cross country tour because between dealing with a) finding a motel that can house 20-30 women for one night, all preferably in ground floor, non smoking rooms, that is not in a huge suburb, and b) finding the next one withing a doable days ride for 6-8 weeks is a challenge which means that at times, the nights' lodging ends up being in less than totally desireable locales.

I also leave anything new or returning luggage outside in the garage and then go straight to the washer or a white garbage bag for 48 hours.

just saying....

[badger]

this may sound stupid, but what does leaving luggage in the garage for 24 hours do? will the bugs leave? die?

[Grog]

Bed bugs can lay dormant for one year so I'm afraid 24 hours in the garage won't do much. Laundry will help kill the eggs if the water's really hot. Not sure the dryer is quite enough, but it's better than nothing I guess...

If you are *really* terrified you can get a bug-proof casing for your mattress. (In fact, you can ask me to give you one - my husband would NOT tolerate it and kept thinking that it made plasticky sounds... I did not think it was that bad.) It's the most obvious hiding spot for them and will prevent most problems supposedly...

When we were in Paris last year I inspected everything in the hotel room when we checked in (mattress seams especially) and couldn't find anything, however the first morning I found a dead bed bug (positively identified) on the bed. No traces of blood anywhere, no feces, nothing but a single dead bed bug. (I kept the dead bug and used it to bargain a deep discount on the room price later on.)

Needless to say, we were freaked out, but there was no way I was going to try finding another hotel in Paris for the remaining two nights, and the other place would have been just as likely to have bed bugs, as every hotel of every major city in the world does. When we landed back home, everything went straight to the hot cycle in the washing machine (even what was not supposed to - that's life!) and our bags were thoroughly inspected and vacuumed outdoors.

Later that summer, I started getting bites on my extremities, often two in a row. (Bed bugs are well known for taking three in a row, also known as "breakfast, lunch and dinner" when they are disturbed in their blood-sucking activities.) Freaked out even more. It took me a while to realize that the bites were occurring after my night shifts volunteering at the aquarium, and that's probably where the bites originated. [For Badger's: I always wondered what the kids brought from home when they came for sleepovers.... But maybe it was just from outside when I checked resp rate at the surface.] In the meantime, we cleaned everything EXTREMELY THOROUGHLY in the home, vacuumed every crack obsessively, and covered our mattress with the aforementioned mattress cover, which my husband despised.

We never saw a bedbug again, but they terrorize me still.

[JennK13]

I'll just hope all of his work here is in hotels too!

haha! nope, it's all residential - from Cherry Hills Village and the Pinery to Colfax. No one is safe!

And, no, 24 hours isn't enough time to do anything about them. After a job, my DH will spray himself down and disrobe his uniform in the garage before coming inside, then straight up to shower.

Also, don't think they only live in mattresses/couches. They can live in wood, too, so simply hanging your clothes in a wooden armoire won't protect you if there's an infestation. The good news - back in CA, the one to two bed bug jobs he did were in hotels. Here, the several a week he does are all residences - like I said, college kids coming home with them from buying used furniture, people picking stuff up on craigslist, people bringing them home from their OUT OF COUNTRY travels (most hotels here are pretty good about staying cleaning and taking care of problems).

[sundial]

When we were vacationing in NM I woke up one morning with a bed bug making its way up my sheet. It is shaped like a lady bug so it's easy to spot. I told the front desk about my plight and they had just treated the room last week for BB. They said that with the military coming home some of them are bringing the uninvited guests along for the ride.

My exterminator told me to use hot steam to kill the bugs and eggs and to look for them along the edge of the mattress and bed rails. Fortunately I didn't find any of them after we got home from our trip.

[Cataboo]

Not everyone who is bitten by bedbugs actually reacts to them. many people have no idea they have an infestation till a guest comes to stay that is allergic to them.

Bed bugs are being spread by travelers - so obviously, they're hitching rides on clothing and in luggage - so it's not unreasonable to expect them to hitch a ride in your clothing or your luggage if you've left them open on a soft surface. Bed bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to chemicals.

I do have a silk liner bag - but I'm not entirely certain why people think bed bugs won't crawl into a silk liner bag just because y ou're in it?

I know I'd be extremely upset if I had a bed bug infestation, so when I know that I have been around them, I take preventative measures. It doesn't cost me anything and it's not really all that much hard work. Just like if I have been staying with a friend or whatever that i know has roaches - I leave my suitcase & such in the shed or outside for however long and inspect very carefully before I will take it into the house.

A landlord once gave me roaches (gave me a used fridge that was infested with them) and it took me about 3 or 4 months of intensive chemical warfare before I managed to get rid of them. It wasn't fun.