>Go through a bedbug infestation 6 years ago when I was living in shit commie block.
>Get rid of all my furniture, throw away 90% of my clothing except a handful that had sentimental value, wash in high heat, dry in high heat, seal everything in a bag and move out.
>Move places several times ever since, never wear anything from the bag because Im terrified of it.
>Living in a home now, finally decide its time to put the contents in my closet.
>As soon as I open the bag I get impending sense of doom.
Half a decade later and I can't get over it. Im terrified of it happening again, Im trying to convince myself that surely bedbugs can't live close to 6 years without food source.
I ended up in a bad place, three years ago.
Maybe you'll appreciate the story.
The landlord wasn't really, he was just an old belligerant drunken toothless animal that was always going to throw me out of the house someone else owned, who took pity on him. Well, I'm pretty sure throwing me out was always the plan, anyway, because he just so happened to know where else I could move after giving me less than a day to get illegally evicted (and kept in too much panic to get my wits back)...
His old landlady was one of two entirely amoral property managers working this series quadroplexes where they pretty much just threw shit in rooms (together, if they could only pay $600 monthly) and see if it stayed long enough to pay rent.
The entire thing should have already been condemned, and two buildings already were, but were still being rented out...
Everything crawled.
I ended up sleeping in my car in the parking lot instead. It was summer, so the heat cooked everything that was alive anyway.
I end up in another apartment, completely clean, no furniture, but that was alright: The landlady simply moved some of the bedframes from the previous apartment into the new one and then acted like they were different (she bought everything at goodwill and other thrift stores anyway).
I'm not gonna describe the tenents beyond how the complex wasn't just putting everyone from dept. corrections and other instutions, services, the property managers were even just picking up homeless people and driving them back. Like they were gonna panhandle enough money to rent.
The point is... The bedbugs, the roaches, none of it followed me when I eventually left town. I had to deal with roaches only after agreeing to board two dogs of somebody that helped me, but I got rid of them, too.
You can outlast and outlive pestilance.
You can win.
You probably already have and just won't know it for awhile.
Ten years is what I think, maybe more.
But the heat should have killed anything on your clothes.
I found one of these frickers on my shirt this morning. Washed all my bedding immediately, searched every inch of my bed and couch, nothing. My apartment sent over Orkin, he did an inspection and also found absolutely nothing. By coincidence, my building sent inspectors with canines to check every apartment last week and we were clear. Must have been a hitchhiker but man this was not a fun day.
Baseboards.
When the house I rented got infested, I got to the point of throwing away all furniture, sleeping on a yoga mat, and crawling the floor every night with a dryer sussing them out from behind the baseboards and frying the nasty fricks.
Just thinking about that time gives me shivers. It makes you feel so nasty, like they are in you themselves.
One time I felt a bite and happened to see one try to hide into my sandal.
Worst was that I had really bad reactions but my roommate was practically immune, so he wouldnt help at all with trying to get rid of them. That is, until his kids came to visit and they got tore up.
I couldnt sit on the downstairs couches, I'd either be paranoid and checking my skin every 30 seconds, or I'd get bit a lot.
Never wanted people over. Never wanted to go to someone else's house in case they hitch a ride.
Shit is so so terrible. I feel for anyone who gets in this situation.
I don't see what this has to do with my situation anon. We've been in this apartment for 4 years and never had an issue, I found one bug today and 2 professional inspections determined that there wasn't an infestation. Quit fear mongering.
Did they check the baseboards?
You've lived there four years and have just had your first issue.
It was commiseration, not fear-mongering, but your defensive response shows you clearly are afraid.
I would be, too. I never want to go through that again.
Yes of course they did, not a speck of feces or molts or live bugs
I cured them in a couple days with ivermectin
Bed bugs aren't something to be worried about. Are you paranoid about mosquitoes? Of course not. They just want a small drop of your blood, and then they'll leave you alone.
I’d be paranoid of mosquitoes inside my home if they were able to burrow into my furniture and floorboards and harass me nightly to the point I’d be sleepless for months.
Also
>implying there’s no dengue fever in my area
Nuke all parasites
My dog had fleas once and I waited for like 2 months for them to go away before calling an exterminator. Every time I see a black speck on myself or somewhere or feel the slightest itch I immediately think “fleas” but it never is.
t. ~~*parasite*~~
I worked at a UPS Store about 5 years ago and after this couple dropped off a stack of boxes I was scanning them in to the system. I lifted one up and I see a HUGE bedbug running across the box below it. I panic and kill it with sone blunt object and throw it in the trash while wearing gloves and using 3 layers of tissue. Long story short we had to call the couple and tell them; of course they denied it. I quit not long after. Was VERY lucky I didn’t ever get bedbugs myself working in that situation. *Knock on wood*.
That’s horrifying, I feel for people working in service/hospitality, I’m glad I no longer live in a large city, I stopped using public seating and going to the theater back then, preventing Lyme disease exposure is easier than avoiding bedbugs
i am extremely allergic to them. 2 weeks ago i had people for the first time in like 3 years, 1 week ago I started having patterned bites on my belly, 1 bite on my finger and arm. had to turn my living room upside down again since that's where I've slept for the past 3 months, steam the couch spread diatomaceous earth everywhere and set up CO2 traps. my allergy is both a blessing and a curse since it allowed me to catch them early and get rid of them twice in the past. there's no God, he wouldn't have made these shitty things
Same, absolute nightmare to deal with, hope you can get rid of them soon.
I tried managing things myself like you, the infestation was not as severe and I only found about 5 bugs in my mattress since the shitters where crawling from the flooboards, however the diatomaceous earth was not getting rid of them all by the time I hit the second month mark, I decided to get pest control nuke the apartment instead and moved the frick out.
yeah can't afford to do that since I own my apartment. worst case scenario, I will sleep in my cast iron bath tub for a year since they cannot climb it lmao. but it's likely I still have only one or two just like last time, because I could not find any. 1 was enough to ruin my life for a month last time and I caught it running up the wall after moving my wardrobe and bed while inspecting for bugs. I just spread the earth around my couch and bed, also dusted my door frames like my house is possessed by literal demons, set up CO2 traps and will sleep in the other room starting tomorrow night. frick 'em
Just because you can’t find them doesn’t mean they’re not hiding away from view. You coping anon you have to accept there has to be dozens and dozens of them if not more, possibly from your neighbor units, you also have to apply diatomaceous in every surface, nook and cranny or it will be useless. Just get an exterminator do yourself a favor.
CO2 traps will only spread them further from your bed and their nest.
Get an exterminator now while it’s early, don’t wait.
I've been told the same last time and it was just one. there's no way i have dozens upon dozens, they couldn't have been multiplying from the people who visited me 2 weeks ago that fast. I turned the entire house upside down, and even disassembled and reassembled the couch and bed. not even casings or blood marks or poops. I was bit only in one night a week ago and it's probably a bed bug because i know how their bites feel and their clustered style of biting. i know what it means to have "dozens", when i was being bit daily and i managed to actually find them. there's no way im gonna call an exterminator until 1 month passes and i haven't solved the issue. i went through this twice and solved the issue before it went out of hand. I'll do it again
also the CO2 traps are literally on my bed and around my bed. how the hell would they banish them away
That’s fine in that case, however even then if you lure all the adults out you will have to deal with the nymphs later, only prolonging the cycle. You have to cover everything in DE, including the floor and corners, it’s not enough to lay traps or throw it wherever you assume is the nest.
Throw out shit you don’t need or have no attachment to, don’t leave objects on the floor and blast all your clothing in high heat else you throw that shit away. Take this as a time to deep clean and purge your apartment.
If you haven’t already invest in bedbug proof mattress covers and pillows to trap them inside and starve them. You won’t have to be neurotic about them hiding in the mattress as much at least.
If they fed on you they most likely have laid eggs by now, you are dealing with the current batch of adults then next come the nymphs who will continue the cycle. Be my guest and be a moron by not nipping it from the bud, don’t frick around with bedbugs.
Apparently 120F is the magic number for total bedbug death. A dryer on high should hit that, no?
it should,did it once but would rather not have to do it again since high heat ruins cotton and syntethics