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Bedbugs - MEGAMERGED - vs. tell these pests to gtfo

I'm moving the first week of September. We're both fed up and we need a bigger place anyway.

Both my landlady (my apartment is sublet to me) and I have been raising hell with management. Our requests have so far been ignored so we've decided to ditch this place. I have to throw out my bed, wash and bag every article of clothing and movable rug, vacuum every day before I move. It's going to be maddening!

But these slumlords WILL pay. :X
 
I forgot to mention that Terminix completely forgot (or weren't told to bring) the bedbug removal equipment when they came. They set some nontoxic traps and that was it. The guy told me to call the property management company so they could bring their equipment next time.

After multiple calls that probably border on harassment - I finally got hold of Brian, the cocksucking senior property manager himself. He had the fucking audacity to say he had received no calls from myself or my landlady. So my landlady got hold of the president of his company (Brian's boss) and ripped him a new one. Then Brian called my landlady to bitch her out for getting him in trouble! LOL! We're getting the rent board (75% of people in my city rent and they carry a lot of weight) as soon as we get the deposit back for my landlady.

As for me - I found one this morning. It was just a baby, about the size of a flea (the largest one I found was the size of a small beetle and when we squished it, it was full of blood). Naturally it was disposed of immediately. I did save one in a baggie to show Terminex.

I have several bites along the veins of my right arm. I look like a fucking junkie but it seems I'm not as allergic to them as I was. I have had to cut out all perfumes and scented lotions before bedtime, and I stay awake between about 5 and 6:30 a.m. because that is when I was informed they feed - just before dawn. The calendula has stopped working. I found a source for DDT but it's prohibitively expensive and from overseas, and we're about to move.

(Of note is that bedbugs were eradicated for about 50 years as a result of DDT use - it really is the only thing that kills them besides heat - BRING IT BACK!!!)

My partner still hasn't noticed any major problems except seeing the bugs.

*bangs head*

I'll update after the exterminators come on Friday.
 
They're coming tomorrow with their steamer and hardcore insecticides!

I have to bag all my shit up that I won't use for the next 3 weeks tonight and tomorrow morning. Wash ALL the rugs and linens, my down comforter, all my sheets and towels, and put them in non-contaminated garbage bags, and not open them for at least 2 weeks.

I'll spend probably $75 or so between this and drycleaning.

Fucking ridiculous, but allegedly they'll be gone. I'm still ditching my bed when I move, though - my partner's bed can be shipped from Wisconsin to the new place.

I'll let you know when I find some dead ones! :D

*edit - and yes, that is one in my avatar ;)*
 
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Terminex came yesterday! :D

Turns out there were 3 infestations on my floor. Two of the apartments w/infestations had NOTHING bagged up and none of the pre-treatment protocol followed. So we got our treatment first, since we were prepared.

I have crown molding throughout my apartment... and they were living in a corner of it, nearest my head in a corner that was cluttered with boxes of my books.

The Terminex guy was REALLY knowledgeable. He spotted them and their eggs right away. We had to leave for 3-4 hours once he started the chemical treatments, so we went out and got drunk. ;) He sprayed and steamed my mattress and boxspring, and sprayed insecticide throughout the house.

We briefly talked about DDT but he didn't want to lose his licence. ;)

I think there may be a few stragglers, but we really did all we could. They said it could take up to 4 weeks for them to be completely gone but no new bites last night! :D

The cluster of eggs was GROSS, I dared to look.

I'm just glad to be moving... and if they decide to show my apartment to a prospective tenant I may have to inform said tenant that the place was full of bed bugs. =D And my landlady and I are writing complimentary letters about the Terminex guy (who did his job very well) and complaint letters about the management to the Better Business Bureau (with copies to the management, of course). =D

I'll change my avatar as soon as the last of 'em dies :D
 
13 days without a bite.

Then I woke up today to see 4 bites on my right ankle.

I'm moving in a little more than a week, most of my stuff is still quarantined and THIS SUCKS.

Resilient little bastards.
 
This thread scares me.
If I ever actually saw that shit, burning this house down would be the only option.

Spider infestation hard enough to deal with.

Thats some creepy shit, must make sure..... to try and not look for them.......


out of sight.... out of mind . . ..
 
Oh, I almost forgot. My landlady e-mailed a Harvard professor of entomology regarding an article he wrote on bedbugs, and he responded.

Thank you for writing and for your good questions. I apologize for the delay in this response. I had been overseas on assignment for several weeks in a place where email is virtually impossible. In case my reply may still be of use, I'll now try to offer a brief answer.

Items in closed plastic bins are likely relatively 'safe'. Bed bugs can't climb very smooth surfaces, and they certainly would have trouble entering a closed container of this kind. For the other items, it would make sense to keep these out of your sleeping area. Store them in a basement, attic or some other place for weeks or months. After awhile, any bed bugs that might have accompanied them will have died or dispersed. Few, if any, would likely find their way to your bedroom. Some items can be treated with the synthetic insecticide, permethrin. You can find such products in most retail drug stores for treating clothing (to protect against ticks) and sofas (for supposedly protecting against lice.

I hope this late information is of some value.
Click to expand...

I called a garden supply store that has permethrin, maybe I can get them to get me some friggin DDT. My stuff is still quarantined for the most part. It sucks :(
 
Synapse999 said:
This thread scares me.
If I ever actually saw that shit, burning this house down would be the only option.

Spider infestation hard enough to deal with.

Thats some creepy shit, must make sure..... to try and not look for them.......


out of sight.... out of mind . . ..
Click to expand...

If it wasn't an apartment building, I think I might have been driven to that. And I look several times a night, unfortunately. They are responsible for a couple nightmares and one panic attack so far.

And if you saw the first one we killed, you'd probably be even more freaked out, it was the size of a beetle and spewed blood everywhere once it was squished. It is the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

They were on the local news tonight as well. Seems they're absolutely all over the place, so hopefully this thread will help educate people about them.

I also dislike spiders but I only know one person who's ever had a huge problem with them. I had to steal him an empty syringe from my orthopaedic surgeon so he could suck out the pus from his 40-50 bites. :\
 
mariposa420 said:
If it wasn't an apartment building, I think I might have been driven to that. And I look several times a night, unfortunately. They are responsible for a couple nightmares and one panic attack so far.

And if you saw the first one we killed, you'd probably be even more freaked out, it was the size of a beetle and spewed blood everywhere once it was squished. It is the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

They were on the local news tonight as well. Seems they're absolutely all over the place, so hopefully this thread will help educate people about them.

I also dislike spiders but I only know one person who's ever had a huge problem with them. I had to steal him an empty syringe from my orthopaedic surgeon so he could suck out the pus from his 40-50 bites. :\
Click to expand...

when i had hundreds of tiny spiders hatch, and come out of my light fixture in ceiling a couple years ago. i fogged my room...oh did i ever...
larger spiders still manage to fricken live.

http://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_cdrf.asp

kills up to 600sq ft. stuck it in my room..closed door. multiple times....!

Wonder if it would work on these bed bug things, i'd rather kill them off before ever seing one of them personally ;p
 
If you smoke cigarettes, smoke away. Nicotine is an insecticide at moderate doses.

You can at least spitefully fumigate your livingspace this way. Fuckers, eh.
 
I'd bomb (as in bug bomb) the place but it could be toxic to other residents. I live in a 5-story building, 140 or so apartments. A logistical nightmare. My elderly neighbors would have to evacuate as well as everyone in the hall, at least. :( I had a dream about designing a DDT bomb but I'm not a chemist and I am very accident prone.

Synapse999 - That sounds like an absolute nightmare, I bet you can never erase that visual. :( Hope you're now spider-free.

Terminex is supposed to come back tomorrow or Monday and I am moving in a week, I just don't want to take these bastards with me. The quarantined stuff was all sprayed by Terminex and it reeked when I touched the bag to attempt to get out one item. I am repacking my 5 boxes of books (evidently they like those) and may quarantine them in my dad's garage.

(sorry for the postwhoring, I'm lit on caffeine)
 
bachus said:
Replacing the bedding won't work. You have to get them out of the mattress, bed-frame, and any crack in the walls or floors or nearby furniture where they hide out during the day.

They only ride around on cats for fun (Spring break and public holidays are very popular bed-bug cat riding times). The fleas (who have to ride around on cats for a living) really hate this. It also confuses cats that can't tell a flea from a bed-bug.

;)
Bachus
Click to expand...

priceless :D
 
We found one more. That was all. We killed it and put it in a baggie to show Terminix when they come.
Click to expand...

i was going to suggest placing its head on a toothpick with a tiny sign saying 'LET THIS BE A WARNING TO YE'.

anyhoos - bet you'll be glad to get out of there!
 
Daymn. I thought bed bugs didn't exist in Australia (we rarely hear of them) but apparently they do, in some hostels and such. Our new consultant pharmacist works in St. Kilda and he has backpackers come in complaining about them.

What we do have here though is dust mites. Not nearly as nasty, but this stuff gets rid of them: http://www.fgb.com.au/ProductProfiles/BosDMWPP.htm

along with this spray: http://www.fgb.com.au/ProductProfiles/BosEucSprayPP.htm

I'd be happy to post some to whoever needs it, to give it a go, it's all natural and it actually smells gorgeous and won't give you allergies. Our company is currently investigating a Bed Bug spray based on eucalyptus. I'd be interested to know if these products work for your problem.
 
Bedbugs, yay!

So I just moved and literally had only the possessions on my back, but I have many friends in this city. My best friend gave me his bed and mattress and casually mentioned that he had gotten bitten once or twice by something, but I--like a royal fucking dumb ass--didn't think twice about a free bed. Maybe the worst decision of my life...

I woke up on night two of having the mattress and found myself bitten at least ten time-- all over my back, inside thigh, back of leg, finger, forearm... The bites weren't bad the first day, but the next day I woke up and the bites were the size of quarters and rashes were forming that covered most of my left forearm and inner thigh. I did some research and learned that I now was the proud owner of bedbugs! I'm writing this partially to vent my feeling (because otherwise I may seriously be driven to suicide), but also to inform others about this fucking things. There's a thread in the archives, but its buried...

I've been in this place for about two weeks. I threw the entire mattress and bedding into the alley two or three nights ago? I've yet to see one actual living bedbug, but they're obviously here. Since I tossed the bed, I've only been bitten twice, but I know they're probably just recharging for the next massive attack. I don't have anywhere to go, so I'm forced to sleep on the floor next to an empty bed-frame. My first plan of action is to dust the entire room w/ diatomaceous earth, which is apparently the only thing effective for killing them, south of DDT. Some people say the DE doesn't work... If it doesn't, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do.

People: don't use second-hand furniture!!! You don't want these fucking things biting you and infesting your shit. If you're moving to a new place, ask the landlord if they've ever had bedbugs in the place. If they have, but they tell you they're gone, walk away right then and don't look back.

I'll update this if/when things get better.
 
Oh goodness... found this out the hard way in San Francisco. It was either Fairnymph (who had the problem back east, IIRC her neighbors had them and they spread to her place) or me that started the thread, it was several years ago and I've not lived in a place with the problem since then. I have almost all secondhand furniture, I've gotten it from people I know. My ordeal was only solved by throwing out almost everything I owned and quarantining the rest for a month :| I got enough of a settlement out of the property management to move and replace the basics. I lived very spartan for a very long time. The apartment and my things were steam-cleaned before I packed them up for quarantine. I was going to resort to DDT.

I thought I was going nuts at first because I'd wake up covered in bites. I finally woke up in time to squish one of the little fuckers, looked it up, and there it was. I averaged 2-3 hours of sleep per night before I realized what was happening. My partner at the time wasn't getting bit at all, I was the tasty one. I thought I was going out of my mind. After I moved, I was very scared the problem would reoccur. It didn't... the next apartment had black mold instead :| I put the little fucker in a baggie and figured out the problem. I gave him/her/it to the property manager with a demand to be let out of my lease and for full remediation. I got back most of what my stuff was worth and was let out of my lease without penalty from just a demand letter with, well, a dead bedbug as the enclosure. Bedbugs are really bad PR.

Please, please, please if you throw out furniture, stick a sign on it that says WARNING: BEDBUGS so that the poor soul who picks up a free mattress doesn't also pick up an infestation. Mine came from some a-hole down the hall throwing out bedding, and resulted in a couple grand in property loss. Go to a laundromat, then wash EVERYTHING YOU OWN on the hottest hottest setting. Heat kills the sons of bitches too. Grab a pack of garbage bags, quarantine all your stuff after thoroughly washing and drying. Leave it somewhere bug-free for a full month.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was going nuts enough that I was about to order DDT over the internet until I realized I would be able to recoup my losses, or at least most of them, through moving and quarantine. I did love my mattress, but not enough to keep it after it was pinned with blood stains from my tossing and turning over the things. I cannot emphasize how important it is not to pass this along. DE works in some households or so they say. I wasn't chancing it, so I wrote a letter with a bedbug in a ziploc as an attachment, I also took photos of the property. I didn't get paid for my time in moving, but they did haul out the stuff I left. :|

Know you aren't alone in this problem, it can happen in the cleanest house or hotel (another thing to note, travelers) and it sucks. Good luck. If you're in Portland, I can probably look up the rent board/code enforcement for you, or direct you to a laundromat near you, so shoot me a PM if you'd like (I'm in PDX right now, too).
 
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