I was being eaten alive by … something, on my overstuffed couch where I spent most of my time. I found a few bedbugs full of my blood, creeping around, and lifting up a couch covering, found signs of them, and about half a dozen scuttling around. We vacuumed them up and we had the couch, chair, and loveseat removed the next day. (there are no carpets, only hardwood floors). I am now sitting in an empty living room in a camp chair, with my remote control in the drink holder, and mulling over getting some more furniture in here. Before I do that, do you think I should have an exterminator come in to look around, just to be sure? There are no bugs upstairs as far as I know. My bed and box spring are clean. Nobody else got bitten in the house, just me, and I haven’t had any new bites in a couple of days. (the bites I have, have calmed down and seem to be healing). I know the answer is always “yes, get an exterminator in to look around just to be sure”. And once they come in, they will say, ‘we’re going to spray just to be sure.’
So, what would you do? I spotted about six on the couch, it is gone, and no new bites.
I’d get an exterminator. Because you think everything is clean, but I wouldn’t trust it. Bedbugs are as tenacious as hell - they can fit into itsy, bitsy crevices and live for a year without feeding. All you need is a couple to make it and they will slooowly start repopulating your place and in a month or two you might start getting bites again.
That’s me though. I tend towards the overly cautious about such things.
Even spraying isn’t guaranteed to kill all the little buggers.
Apparently the only genuinely effective way is to have an exterminator heat your house up to 135 degrees, but even that’s complicated. My FIL was going to have it done, but apparently you’ve got to pull all the outlet covers off and do a bunch of other stuff to prep the house, which can be a real challenge if you’ve got a lot of clutter.
All I can say is, good luck, salinqmind. I feel your pain.
God, I hate bedbugs. I’d rather deal with simultaneous infestations of ants, cockroaches, and termites.
You can get bedbug proof covers for your mattress and box spring. Any of the little monsters trapped inside will eventually die; any new bedbugs from elsewhere in the environment won’t be able to burrow their way in. I don’t know if they have that for couches though.
Yes, the living room furniture is gone. Hardwood floors, bookshelves, a couple of wood end tables. The only one who was bitten was me, and that was on the couch, and the couch/loveseat/chair are gone. Including pillows and coverings. The bedrooms are upstairs and I have examined the mattress and box spring from kingdom come, no one else has had any bites except me, down in the living room. (I’ve had no new bites for 3 days. It’s gradually clearing up).
If you had just bought the couch, and IT was the culprit who brought the bugs in, then you’d have a chance of being right. But if it’s not strictly the new couch’s fault, then logically it was probably you yourself, so anywhere in the house that you have been is suspect. As are (certainly) all the jackets, sweaters, shoes, and bags you have touched lately. Plus anything THOSE have contacted, such as closets, other people’s clothes, etc etc.
Get professional help ASAP. You have more than a “few” bedbugs and who knows where they have all got to by now.
I had a “few” bedbugs once and it took me months fighting them before I got rid of them. Your sleep sucks because you know you might be attacked when you sleep. In my case I became preternaturally aware of any little thing on my skin and would pop awake, turning on my phone flashlight, to start hunting bedbugs. Every few days I’d kill one or two and then a few days later another…and so on…for over three months. It sucked beyond belief.
In that three months I laundered everything in one day several times. I bought bug sprays meant for bedbugs. I fashioned homemade traps from advice on the internet (didn’t work…probably my fault).
I only succeeded in stopping them by leaping awake at the merest hint of one in my bed and stripping the bed completely and tossing everything in the clothes drier on high heat (heat over 120F kills them…or somewhere around there) and sleeping without sheets. Eventually that seemed to do the trick.
And I never saw more than three at one time. Most of the time it was two or one.
They are no joke and ungodly difficult to get rid of. My current apartment building had me sign a very strongly worded contract to immediately report any bedbugs to them the moment I discover one (if I discovered one). Failure to do so puts the cost of eradication and cleaning of numerous apartments squarely on the tenant that fails to report them instantly. Along with that came a packet on how to spot them and what to do (besides calling management). In other words they take it hyper seriously. A bedbug infestation could ruin the building and/or cost huge sums to solve.
They CAN be gotten rid of–pro exterminator (they seem to have the chemicals needed), plus washing and drying sheets, clothes (ALL of them), etc., and getting rid of suspect furniture, bed casements, etc.,and OTC spray for bedbugs in addition to make you feel better. Don’t waste your money on store-bought foggers. They are useless. I’d ask around about an exterminator with a good local reputation and who is willing to come back if problems re-appear. They’ll go away eventually!
The link I provided said diatomaceous earth is but one part in a multi-pronged attack on the little bastards.
By which I think we can safely assume it will not solve the problem on its own (or at least not reliably so). Also, if it is used, it needs to be spread about constantly for days or more. Diatomaceous earth works slowly to kill bugs and you need to have it about to catch the ones who managed to avoid it early on.
As I said in my first post here the best choice is to get a professional exterminator in to work on the problem.
DE is one of the primary weapons of a combined arms approach. DE kills BB by being such a powerful absorbent it can suck fluids out of an insects exoskeleton leaving dried out abscesses that cause dehydration and death. They will not develop immunity to it.
Bedbugs die off in a few hours heat over 113F. A typical mini storage during the summer will do that easily. I am in an area that regulary sees 100+ degree summertime temps so BB’s are rarely an issue here. If temps inside the storage regulary cross that line, tossing anything you want to save into one for a month or so will take care of it.
spray it all over, any cracks or gaps in headboards or furniture nearby as well. spritz it onto seams around edges of mattress/couch.
I laid down strips of two sided tape all around my bed. Used a clothing steamer to hit every corner and seam I could find.
I left for a weekend with a bag of freshly dried clothes that never saw the bedroom. put my mattress in a mattress bag along with a 10 pound block of dry ice and a few small holes in the top of the bag. as the dry ice sublimated, the CO2 sinks and fills the bag forcing out lighter gases. eventually the bag is full of mostly CO2. I left it that way for 3 days. When I came back the mattress bag was still “poofy” from the CO2. I poked a few larger holes in the top till it went down, then taped up the holes again, then put a fitted sheet over the mattress bag and all. Left it this way for another week or so. I got a handful of other bites over the next few weeks, and they died off.