Help! Have bed bugs. Need hope...

Just got a positive visual ID for bed bugs in our apartment. Still waiting for more information and further building inspection. Would like to hear other war stories about the experience and whether it was actually successfully remediated. It’s a coop, and we were just planning to sell. I’m obviously concerned about destroying our equity value, even if we can eradicate it. Is there hope???? I know I can’t be alone in dealing with this issue. Elderly upstairs neighbor with lots of clutter will also likely make this very difficult.

irithaitin

in General Discussion 7 years and 5 months ago

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Guest User | 7 years and 5 months ago

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Fair enough, I’m glad it worked for you. Bedbugs like to hide in dark corners, cracks, crevices, behind baseboards, inside electrical outlets, etc. so depending on the extent of infestation I just don’t think that this would suffice in a lot of cases. The follow-up visits are also pretty important (unless you’re throwing away the items that were potentially infested) since most treatment doesn’t necessarily kill the eggs so the next life cycle can re-infest. There are also non-chemical treatments that use heat in a focused way (steam) to penetrate the crack and crevices and whatnot that don’t require heating up your home and all its contents to 120 degrees.

cate | 7 years and 5 months ago

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Don’t change where you sleep, hire your own exterminator who specializes in bedbugs asap, and follow all their directions to the letter. Do your best to seal apartment against entry.

BKALLDAY | 7 years and 5 months ago

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This is the process that was used and no bugs escaped into any other spaces or other buildings. The entire apartment was basically tented and taped shut and they drove very hot air into the space. We contacted other exterminators but all they suggested was us paying for spraying and offered to return if they didn’t get them the first time. Well the heat got them all the first time and we have not seen a return. Worked for us. Chemicals may work for others but that is not the route we chose.

Guest User | 7 years and 5 months ago

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this is bad advice, bkallday. turning up the heat in your own space is more likely to just drive the buggers into your neighbors apartments. They need to be killed.

BKALLDAY | 7 years and 5 months ago

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Well Obama is gone and so is hope but they are easy to eradicate with the right company. There was an exterminator on 9th off of 3rd we hired who used heat. No spraying, no chemicals. We elected to just throw everything fabric out blankets, mattress pads, sofa cushions after he was done. Cleared out the room of pots, and hard surface items. He sealed it off and turned the temperature up to an unholy degree for 2 days (maybe a bit longer). Killed everything that was living in the mattresses and sofa bed. When he was done we threw everything out and started fresh. This was 6 or 8 years ago though.

namahs | 7 years and 5 months ago

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We had a false alarm a couple of years ago. After a lot of research to find the proper exterminator, we went with Boot A Pest. The owner John is very active in the bed bug online community/forum. It is family owned, small business. Good Luck.