I recall reading of a guy who did just this, circling his bed with, if not the earth then something else that bedbugs couldn’t get through.
The guy woke up itching in the night, turned on the light, and the bedbugs were climbing the wall and dropping on to the bed from the ceiling!
I thought he was ordering his army of bedbugs to piss on the mattress store guy.
Then what Randy Seltzer said-contact the AG, and any one else who would be in charge of such things.
How else could he get the place shut down. Oh, and spread the word-you don’t want them to sell this crap to anyone else.
Would Bosda have grounds to sue, people?
(God, call me naive, but I thought bed-bugs were a thing of the past-I remember my grandfather telling me he and my aunts and uncles got them from some used furniture as kids-but this was back during the Depression.)
I may never sleep again. If you guys start seeing lots of late-night posts from me, blame aldiboronti.
I’ve removed the mattress from the house, spray/cleaned & vacuumed.
The earth is out, as Dad is very hostile right now (I live with my elderly father).
To him, I’m the one with the bedbug problem.
:smack:
Oddly, I don’t think there were more than 1 or 2, as I had relativle few bites, & all in the same place.
Dad just told me that he won’t tolerate the box spring on the back porch, & he’d throw me out of the house if I tried to put it there. He is just mean & stubborn.
Put the box spring outdoors, away from the house.
And keep receipts for everything you pay out money for. You should be able to collect everything you spend back from the small businessman.
Check that article or title of law, that includes the mattress stuff, to see who’s charged with enforcing it at the state level, and contact them. (State Health Dept.? State Commerce Dept.? Bureau of Consumer Affairs? It’ll charge someone with ensuring it’s enforced; that’s who to contact. Get them on your side – tomorrow.
Before you get all crazy and start pestering lawyers, maybe you should make sure that you really have bed bugs. I just read the Wiki article and I’m a little dubious. Did you actually see them? Bedbugs are visible to the naked eye. You should probably call an exterminator and get an expert opinion as to what is really going on before you make yourself look foolish.
And no offense, Bosda, but it sounds like your Dad is right to be worried-those little fuckers seem to breed and spread pretty fast.
I have seen any.
Only the bites.
Guinastasia–Dad is the one that doesn’t care, I’m the worried one.
Poly–Dad gets too hostile to argue with right now. He refuses to listen.
Well, put it OUTSIDE AWAY from the porch. Screw your father, dude. Whatever they are, you don’t want them in the house.
Are you fucking insane? Get it away from your house before nightfall!
I didn’t find one for 6 months. Then I did.
I recommend an intravenous infusion of 10% malathion/DDT blend, in saline solution.
AHHHHHH!
I’m reminded of some sort of spooky campfire story. “And the call was coming from inside the mattress!”
I started a thread about my bedbug problem about 1½ years ago - it was hell on earth. It took a while for us to find the little bastards, too -the only evidence we had at first was the bites. Look online - you can easily find pictures of what they look like.
My advice is to slash and burn - get rid of everything you can! Get large trash bags and start tossing (try to think of this as an early Spring clean-up). This might sound horrifying, but they can be anywhere - behind picture frames, in the joints of dressers and nightstands, even in electrical items like radios. The things you want to keep in the house need to bagged, and pronto.
You need an exterminator. Sad to say that bedbugs are making a comeback in many cities, and they know the right poisons to use. Get any pets you might have out of the house. If your elderly father has breathing problems he might have to leave for a day or two as well. We were advised to wear air-filter masks for the first 2 days, and we sent our asthmatic child away for a week.
You can get through this, though I’m sorry your father is resistant to addressing the problem. I’m also sorry if my post seemed drastic - I still have nightmares about that time.
Good luck!
-Wallet-
And don’t even* think *about negotiating!
Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the…
Nuke 'em from orbit. Only way to be sure.