Yes folks my home is invaded by bedbugs. In fact I didn’t think they existed until last week.
“Don’t let the bedbugs bite” was just a cute expression I thought.
Of course when your girlfriends says “Either they go or I do” it doesn’t seem all that cute
So my problem is that for the past 8 days now I’ve been trying my hardest to be rid of the buggers. I stared with normal bug spray, and then bought stuff specially for them. I sprayed the walls, matress, wooden bed supports, every crack in my wooden floor…but they keep on coming back !
The last spray cost me 60? ($80?) but didn’t seem to do the job.
Any ideas dopers?
Sounds like it is time for an exterminator. They can get to the source of the problem. They can also kill the millions of eggs that have been laid. Do it now!
Bedbugs will lay their eggs in all kinds of cracks and crevices near the bed. They can get into clothes and sheets, and they can live for a very long time without food. There’s lots of good places describing its life, and how you get them, on the web. I’ve not had them, but I’m pretty paranoid about it because one of the ways of bringing them into the house is from staying in a hotel room that has them, and I travel for work.
I recall reading somewhere that they get engorged while feeding at night. Do you have a good camera where you could take a picture of the? That would be so cool! (I recommend doing it while your sweetie is soundly snoozing).
Not much to add or help you really, but I read an article not too long ago about bed bugs. The thing that was news to me is that after they gorge on you they often travel well away from your bed and go dormant in places like your stereo equipment, speakers, computer etc. That’s why they’re difficult to get rid of.
Also, they seem to be on the increase partly because the economy sucks and the popularity of buying second hand goods is increasing. The more people buy other people’s used stuff well, do you think that’s how you may have gotten them?
If you’re gonna hunt them down ‘bug by bug’ then you’re gonna need an insider, a snitch, to rat out the bosses. We’re talking a major sting operation here.
Sure, you can call the ‘exterminator’, but then he’s got a cut of the deal, see?
How do you know he isn’t in on it and you’re the one getting pinched, see?
Then you’ve got the outside bug bosses waiting to muscle in on the action.
And the copper bugs, you gotta pay them off to turn the other way, see?
I don’t think you realize what you’re getting into here, know what I mean?
Bedbugs are flightless, so, until the pest control folks can get in and spray, to prevent them from biting you:
-launder your entire bedclothes
-Isolate your bed from the floor - stand the legs of the bed in plastic buckets, then pour in a little soapy water - if you have a divan bed (or a wood framed one), this might be tricky, but maybe you could prop it up on bricks covered with horticultural grease, or double-sided sticky tape or something, or maybe you could place the bed on a square of lino and encircle it with a stripe of something sticky and uncrossable.
-Ensure that your bedclothes don’t drape onto the floor.
Are you in an apartment building? The reason your extermination efforts are failing is because it’s not only you who is infested…your neighbors are too! Buy some steel wool and stuff all “holes” in and out of your apartment (i.e., around pipes, radiators, and other openings). Only then can you successfully treat the bugs. Bedbugs are soft creatures - no exoskeleton. The steel wool rips them apart as they attempt to get into your apartment, so you can’t become reinfested.
If you continue to be “bugged,” it means they’ve probably gotten into your boxspring where they will make their nest. You might have to replace your bedding. I remember before “boxsprings” when beds had open spring support that people used to spray the springs with some kind of acid - I don’t remember the what kind of acid though. You really had to be thorough too!
I can’t see why the exterminator would not tell you about the steel wool. I guess right now you are a guaranteed repeat customer. The steel wool works. Get some today along with some masking tape to cover the unsightly stuff.
My bed is a long way off the ground (2 meters) so I washed all bedcloths and covered the wodden legs with grease so they get stuck in climbing up to get me every night.
Took the bed apart, board by board and sprayed every visable surface with very deadly bug-spray.
And now it’s just time to pray…
Seeing as I’m living in an apartment building I could spend all the moeny in the world getting rid of them only for the neighbours ones to track me down again so in 3 months I’m moving out of the place and moving in with my g/f instead
