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gonZo

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #15 on: June 09, 2013, 07:10:15 AM »
I hate to say it, but since the beginning of the thread I've felt fairly sure your have bedbugs, and the "bites in rows" part just about clinches it. That's why I suggested calling an exterminator. They're hard to find and hard to kill (bedbugs, not exterminators). You need to bomb your room(s), if not the whole domicile, and if there are bedbugs elsewhere in the house, they'll still come back to you once the bomb-poison wears off.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 07:12:05 AM by gonZo »

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #16 on: June 09, 2013, 07:28:29 AM »
Thanks, Gonzo. I can't afford an exterminator. Dunno what to do.

I've studied up on it, thanks to the internet. I had high hopes for Cedarcide, but I see that the FTC is suing them for (many) false claims. Raid makes a spray, but they admit that it may not work; you have to get every sucker and its eggs, and reapply -- possibly for months, plus do everything you'd have to do without spray. I have high hopes for what's called "diatomaceous earth" (silica dioxide).

It's been an education.

There's just no quick fix. I may just have to sit it out until my lease is up (see my other thread on landlord drama), since my place is currently a maze of boxes. This started earlier, but the point is that I don't have room to do the necessary repeated, daily deep-cleaning, laundering, etc.

And in the end it may not matter. I've read that every piece of cloth I own, every piece of furniture, every electronic device, every book -- offers a hiding place for bed bugs or their eggs.

No fresh bites overnight, though. Phew!

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gonZo

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #17 on: June 09, 2013, 12:46:55 PM »
Couple of places bedbugs like to hide that you may not have thought of: the undersides of chair seats, and the backs of pictureframes.

Bombs are the preferred method, because you don't have to find the bugs to kill them. Most grocery-store-grade aerosol flea bombs state on their labels that they also kill bedbugs. You may have to reapply later if the bomb doesn't kill bedbug eggs.

While bombing, take all bedding out and launder it in hot water. Open dresser drawers. Flip your mattress so that it's leaning against the box springs (if that's the sort of bed you have). If the box spring is on the floor, lean both the mattress and box spring against walls.

(Not a professional exterminator, but I've permanently banned some people.)
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 01:06:28 PM by gonZo »

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #18 on: June 09, 2013, 12:56:57 PM »
Learned this morning that a downstairs neighbor has them, too. She threw out her bed and furniture.

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #19 on: June 11, 2013, 06:14:46 PM »
I wish I were a mod, so I could change this thread title. The new one would be:

I HAVE MET THE FUTURE AND THEY ARE BEDBUGS.
Caught what I think may be one today, and I'm going to take it to the university in the next day or so. Meanwhile, I continue to educate myself. Basically, nothing much can kill the suckers but rubbing alcohol, directly applied. Needless to say, that's a little hard to do while **83**. Diatomaceous earth -- ground-up diatoms -- also offers hope. The spikey diatoms act like ground glass on bed bugs. Meanwhile, you still have to basically throw out all furniture, vacuum everything including your mastress every day, wash all your clothing and bedding every day and dry it all on "high."

And even then, if someone else in your building has bed bugs (as I do), you're screwed.

So I'm basically a leper.

There remain some folk remedies. Bounce fabric softener sheets supposedly repels the critters. I am Bounce's newest and best customer, and it's stuffed into my matress and seat cushions.

My fallback is prayer. These bastards will take over everything. Sprays and bombs do no good, or so says all reading. My only solace is that when all animal life is exterminated from the planet, they will no longer have blood to feed on.

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DruulEmpire

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #20 on: June 11, 2013, 07:37:50 PM »
I was inspired by your tendency to sound like the only man on Earth to suffer bedbugs -- not a criticism, it's understandable -- to hit the Google advanced search (which I guess most of civilization continues not to know, as well as not know how to use) and plug "support group" into the "exact phrase" section and "bedbug" elsewhere.  Found a place called bedbugger.com but also a subsection of jezebel.com where someone claims that $10 of something called Rest Easy from Bed Bath and Beyond is supposed to be good.  I hope these leads are of some use and that you can find more.

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #21 on: June 11, 2013, 08:12:16 PM »
Apologies for being a whiner (again). Yes, I've read the bedbugger site extensively, and the Bed Bath, etc., product depends on "natural oils" -- manufacturers of which as a bed bug repellent are being sued by the FTC for false claims.

But I sincerely appreciate the note, and I'm open to suggestions!

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Palomine

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2013, 11:49:29 PM »
Thankfully, I have no personal experience with BBs (different than BB, which I'm always happy to experience! ;)) but I know folks who have, including some back east who've literally spent years in an effort to get rid of them. Long story short: few, if any of the do-it-yourself methods with 'natural' ingredients work. Period.

Professional (and agressive, and costly) extermination is the only thing that works and even that might take two or three separate treatments over a period of time. They either use chemicals or a freezing agent. And afterwards, though all the BBs and their eggs in your place/belongings might be dead/inactive, you are of course subject to re-infestation from adjoining apartments/houses.

From what I gather, BBs are super-resilient, being able to go for a long time without feeding and they can live/hide in the tiniest of places/openings and in anything even remotely porous, even unfinished parts of wooden furniture.

Not to paint too bleak a picture, but based on people I know who've been through this, it's an enormous and stressful PITA. If you can't go the professional extermination route, you pretty much don't have much in the way of options... I mean you can try the various home remedies... they can't hurt (I suppose). It it gets to be too much to live with, all you can do is launder all your clothes and seal them in plastic bags, throw away anything porous that you can't launder and then move to a new place.

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solvegas

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #23 on: June 12, 2013, 12:14:40 AM »
Bed bugs are a curse on the hospitality business. While Las Vegas has not suffered anywhere as bad as New York, we unfortunately have around town a problem with them. If a room has a infestation, you not only have to treat that room but the rooms above, below and both sides of it. While ECO-LAB is pretty good at it, our problem is that many of our foreign guest bring the critters with them and rooms get infested. Bed bugs are not the killers that mosquitos are. They don't carry infectious diseases and their bites are nowhere as bad as spider bites for example. The thought of a little vampire sucking your blood out is unnerving though. I'm afraid Palomine's solution of moving out might not be effective because the damn things are most likely already infesting the new apartment. They love to hide in wood products and guess which material our homes are mostly built with. They are like roaches. You can kill a shit load and you're still losing the war. Sorry I have no good news.  :'(

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Zorro

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #24 on: June 12, 2013, 05:29:30 PM »
I have been suffering with these critters for months on end.

My apartment has been sprayed 3 times so far.

Since I have no relatives in my area, I can not vacate my apartment for a weekend where they use a super strong bedbug killer/and gas.

Since I am living here on a pension my rent is subsidized through an organization that helps folk like me survive.

This organization advised me that all of my furniture will be thrown out and the apartment thoroughly sprayed and gassed. Apparently they are going to put me in a motel for a weekend and I have to wash every article of clothing/bedding.

The furniture part is not a big deal. This organization has one huge warehouse filled with furniture.

At this time I have no transportation of my own and rely on buses to get around.

There are people who are highly allergic to bedbug bites and I am not one of these people.

For that I am thankful, but I do not go anywhere except to my medical appointments and grocery shopping.

I do not have anyone visit me since it would only spread them to their homes.

I have spray bottles that I fill with a combination of rubbing alcohol/Pine Sol.

I get both at the dollar store down the street and the reason I mix them is that the smell of rubbing alcohol nauseates  me. Plus Pine Sol will kill the roaches too.

I do not recommend smoking while spray rubbing alcohol around.

You definitely do not want to blow yourself up or burn down your home.

This is also one reason why I can usually do about 60 morphs a week. 
WHEN STARTING OR ANSWERING THREADS/POSTS, LINKS ARE SHOWN TO PROVIDE SOURCE INFORMATION INSTEAD OF JUST COPYING/PASTING PERSONAL OPINIONS.

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #25 on: June 12, 2013, 05:53:29 PM »
From what I've read, Pine Sol doesn't kill the bastards, but I admit that information varies per website. Rubbing alcohol does, or so all agree, but only when directly applied.

Among my worries, though, is a subject that Zorro suggests: no one can now visit me? What if I want to visit others? I may pass this infestation along to anyone I know. I can't find much written on that. Supposedly clothing is fine if I dry it on "high" twice -- but what about my suitcase? My musical instrument gig bag? Heck, my wind musical instrument itself? My books? My computer? My DVDs?

There is so much conflicting information. Bleach kills/bleach doesn't kill. Raid doesn't work/Raid merely disperses/Raid does nothing. And that's information from different states' departments of health. Heat is best. Cold is best. Use a steam iron on your mattress/using a steam iron on your mattress is useless.

Like, Zorro, I'm very low income. So far -- don't laugh -- Bounce dryer sheets seem to have saved me from bites for two nights. At least, I can think of no other variable that I haven't already tried that has made a difference.

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solvegas

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #26 on: June 12, 2013, 09:34:18 PM »
Bed bugs do not like to be in hard case suitcases, they like cloth ones. The musical instruments should be OK but do keep them clean. Washing in hot water and drying in high heat will kill them but if you have delicate clothing you are screwed. Neosporin works on the red marks they leave behind on your skin with most people in a acceptable manner. I hate to say it but you have a long hard road in front of you.  :(

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #27 on: June 13, 2013, 06:46:41 AM »
Solvegas, you seem to have some experience in eradication. What about my electronic devices, such as computer and laptop?

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solvegas

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #28 on: June 13, 2013, 07:29:07 AM »
Solvegas, you seem to have some experience in eradication. What about my electronic devices, such as computer and laptop?


Unfortunately we in the hospitality business have to deal with this in a recurring manner. Security, which I work for, does the reports and handle initial investigation and we have Housekeeping contact our preferred contractor, ECO-LAB, and forward the paperwork and computer report onto risk management and let them compensate or litigate the matter. As for bed bugs, look them over but generally they don't like that enviroment. They like soft, cloth like stuff. So metal and hard plastic are generally safe. Do sanitize anyway for safety sake but you don't need to dispose of such things.

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Robin_K2

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Re: Bug bites! But from what? Advice, please.
« Reply #29 on: June 13, 2013, 07:38:05 AM »
Many thanks for your advice. It's truly, truly appreciated.