Getting out of someone else’s bedbug infestation when I am hundreds of miles from home, closing on a new condo in 12 days, and already mentally drained…

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Spin-off from this thread; enough has changed that I think it warrants fresh discussion, but feel free to tell me otherwise, I’m not sure I’m mentally able to be offended right now.

To sum up, I’m sleeping on the couch of my childhood home, hundreds of miles away from my own place, after a whirlwind family trip that was awesome. On the 17th, I’m closing on my first owned home, a condo, and I’m going to be out of there by the end of the month, with any luck.

Then I began catching bedbugs on the couch around me, three in two or three days, and bites. So I began searching the couch. Nothing evident. Then, this afternoon, I checked my dad’s favorite chair a few feet away.

I found them on the opposite side of the cover of the chair, The infestation seemed large enough to look preexisting from our trip.

So now the cover is in the trash, the chair is in the garage, and everything nearby, including, of course, my suitcase and carryon bags, is undergoing isolation and/or washing and hot drying. (One of the items is a raincoat, and I’m not sure what all the hot water and air will do to the waterproofing… just one of the many many things that sucks about this situation). Of course, we know this isn’t the end, especially after another randomly appeared on the dining table during dinner a couple of feet away from the couch. The whole prospect is so overwhelming that I’m not sure I can put in the effort yet.

My time is tight. I’m going home on Sunday. I close on the condo on the 17th, though I’d been hoping to start moving stuff before then myself. I don’t have a lot here at my childhood house I need to use, apart from my electronics and their chargers. It really sounds like the proper level of prevention will involve devoting every drop of my free time to the effort, which I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared to do yet.

I’m really really not liking life right now. This is the other shoe I was waiting to drop; things were going too well with the great vacation and the nice condo. Now things are uncertain, and the odds are against this turning out well without extreme expenditures of time, money (with a new mortgage, yay), and mental capacity.

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Can you afford a professional exterminator? That’d be my recommendation. I understand they’re more effective than DIY efforts.

How do you sleep? I’d get the heebie-jeebies imagining bedbugs crawling on me.

Best of luck!

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Yeah, my family is likely getting one. Doesn’t help me much, though, for my trip back to my own place. I’m sorta more focused on me at the moment. :slight_smile:

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The most unfortunate thing about this from your POV is that it messes up the joy of moving in to a new place. But the problem is manageable and with reasonable precautions you might not in fact import the bugs into your new place.

My understanding is that so-called bedbug interceptors (also called bedbug traps) can be very useful for both detection and prevention. If you have the type of bed that sits on legs (as opposed to a Scandinavian style frame bed) you might want to get a set of those to put under the legs, as well as under the legs of couches. The idea behind these is that it allows bedbugs to get into the outer “moat” from either direction, but once in, they can’t get out because they can’t climb on smooth vertical surfaces. A set of these might not only prevent bedbugs from climbing into the bed, but act as detectors to let you see if any have been trapped.

Best of luck!