topic Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!! in Community Chat

Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

mima — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:52:43 GMT

Please read the entire post before jumping in with "get an exterminator". If I for sure had them, I would get an exterminator.

We are buying a house that has not been lived in for a year even though it had all the furniture left from the previous owner.

The owner moved out and into a house with someone else and left everything. At the time he moved out he didn't have bedbugs. Well now the owner that lives in a different house DOES have bedbugs.

The owner at his current house is not getting an exterminator, but is fighting them himself. So that means to me he probably still has bedbugs.

This wouldn't be an issue, except the owner of the house we are buying has been in and out of the house we are buying and moving everything out before we take possession.

I'm thinking the house most likely does not have bedbugs currently, but I think I need to do precautionary things to prevent getting infested. I'm scared the bed bugs could drop off the guy why he is over there getting his stuff out. We are going to remove all carpets when we get the house.

Do you have any experience in this? What would you do? Any products (bug killers) you recommend?

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

apple1964 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:19:54 GMT

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Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

SuiGeneris — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:21:42 GMT

Will bed bugs travel on people?

Bed bugs may hitch a ride on clothing that people wear, but they are not like lice and will not travel directly on a person.

The thing that makes bed bugs so challenging for detection and control is they have excellent abilities to squeeze into cracks and crevices and will often go unnoticed by the casual observer.

The majority of bugs will cluster around areas where people will rest, but a few of them will move off to hide in more remote areas. They shun light and if they are disturbed or if they suddenly feel exposed, they will attempt to move to quieter (and more remote) areas. It is this cryptic behavior that creates the challenge to dis-infesting articles that have been in areas of bed bug activity.

Link: http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/bed-bugs-and-traveling/

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

KYToby — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:27:59 GMT

Inspections can be done for bed bugs. A lot of hotels use these services.

Your best bet is to actually call an exterminator (maybe call several) and ask about getting an inspection. A couple of hundred dollars now to inspect and treat (if needed) would save you stress and expense in the end.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

CatsyCline — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:32:16 GMT

you really cannot know if there are no bedbugs there. the owner could bring suitcases over to pack stuff up on. bedbugs hide in all sorts of crevices and they can be carried on clothing items, handbags, suitcases. They can hide in small electric appliances like coffeemakers and blenders. they can go for months without biting a host

ask the owner pay for a heat treatment, as a precaution, after the carpeting is removed. Heat treatments can kill most infestations and it is simpler to do this when a home is empty.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

Hooty — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:48:08 GMT

Ever since this became a problem, I have "bed bug" phobia!

I will not go anywhere where I have to stay in a hotel/motel, and I have also thought about this in regard to buying a house!

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

SuiGeneris — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:53:19 GMT

On 4/8/2015 ashleigh dupray said:
you really cannot know if there are no bedbugs there. the owner could bring suitcases over to pack stuff up on. bedbugs hide in all sorts of crevices and they can be carried on clothing items, handbags, suitcases. They can hide in small electric appliances like coffeemakers and blenders. they can go for months without biting a host

ask the owner pay for a heat treatment, as a precaution, after the carpeting is removed. Heat treatments can kill most infestations and it is simpler to do this when a home is empty.

According to most websites I visited, "bed bugs can go without feeding for 20 to 400 days, depending on temperature and humidity. Older stages of nymphs can survive longer without feeding than younger ones, and adults have survived without food [blood] for more than 400 days in the laboratory at low temperatures. Adults may live up to one year or more, and there can be up to four successive generations per year."

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

KLevineFan — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:29:46 GMT

I speak from experience, get an exterminator to look at the place. No OTC spray really kills them, the commercials lie. I had them for months, have no idea how I got them (had lived in my apt 40 yrs at that time, now 46+) & I slept on a cot in the middle of the living room for months afterwards before I could bring myself to sleep in my bed again (had to get all new bed, bedding). It even gave me gray hair. It was a hellish 6 mo. & I examine hotel rooms w/a magnifying glass now, just in case. It cost me about $150 incl a spray he did recommend for the few days following his visit. Never saw them again after that.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

mima — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:33:13 GMT

Thank you so much for replying. I think an inspection by an exterminator after everything is out is a good idea. My DH helped the owner yesterday clean some stuff out. He is disabled and if he doesn't help him, we most likely will have to clean it out ourselves after buying. Truly, most of it is garbage. The owner is paying for one of those huge dumpsters to put stuff in to be hauled off.

I made DH take ALL his clothes off before entering the house last night. We do live in the country where no one would see him. LOL

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

jewelfool — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:33:29 GMT

We just recently had them in a room at one of our fire stations and after a couple of months of treatment from a professional, we actually had to demolish the room. They were in the woodwork and walls. There is no easy fix.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

mima — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:34:52 GMT

On 4/8/2015 KathyLFan said:
I speak from experience, get an exterminator to look at the place. No OTC spray really kills them, the commercials lie. I had them for months, have no idea how I got them (had lived in my apt 40 yrs at that time, now 46+) & I slept on a cot in the middle of the living room for months afterwards before I could bring myself to sleep in my bed again (had to get all new bed, bedding). It even gave me gray hair. It was a hellish 6 mo. & I examine hotel rooms w/a magnifying glass now, just in case. It cost me about $150 incl a spray he did recommend for the few days following his visit. Never saw them again after that.

The exterminator only cost $150? I thought it was thousands?

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

YorkieonmyPillow — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:08:24 GMT

I would never buy a home someone is still living in.......learned my lesson on that issue.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

Citrine1 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:32:38 GMT

Not something I'm quick to discuss, but I had bed bugs in my home about 6 years ago. My family and I stayed at a hotel in New York City for a night and about a week later we discovered them in my house so I assume we brought them home from the hotel with us. At any rate, at first they were only in my daughter's bedroom. We had an exterminator come and treat the rooom. We had to launder (in very hot water) every article of her clothing and all bedding, drapes, etc. Two weeks later the exterminator came back and sprayed again. By now, the bugs had traveled through the house. We found them in the other bedrooms and in the living room. It's not easy to spot them sometimes as they only come out at night. We ended up having the whole house exterminated and buying new beds for three bedrooms. It cost us several thousand dollars by the time the whole ordeal was over. At the time, our exterminator was so busy with this bed bug outbreak that he told us to continue treating our house ourselves instead of having him do it. We bought the stuff from him (it's called Invader and comes in a can) and I would go around treating all the hot spots every two weeks. I hate to tell you that this continued for nearly two years. It was a nightmare. If you have any doubts at all about bed bugs, I suggest you get an exterminator.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

sophiamarie — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 01:19:20 GMT

On 4/8/2015 YorkieonmyPillow said:
I would never buy a home someone is still living in.......learned my lesson on that issue.

I don't even know if tenting the home really helps. Those little bugs are in every crack and crevice and I don't know if the stuff they use, even gets to them. It must be a nightmare. I tell my kids, when they travel, to make sure to take a flashlight and inspect their hotel rooms in the dark of night, look under the mattress for "spots", etc..... and not to put their luggage on the floor, etc.....

Ever since this scare began, it has curtailed much of our travelling. Even 5 Star Hotels can't be trusted. They could have "treated" the place the day before and all it takes is one person bringing in one bug and it starts all over again. Ewwwwww Horrible.....

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

birddrops — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 00:27:45 GMT

My son and his family went through a bedbug infestation after a visit to a 5 star hotel. It took almost a year to resolve the issue. New carpeting, window coverings, bedding, clothing, etc. It was horrible. I would kill the deal and find another house.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

Toppers — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:06:09 GMT

Yeah, the disgusting thing about bedbugs, is how they travel.

We were living in an apt. building years ago,where our downstairs neighbors had them, and their apt. became infested with them.

How they got them was by buying a used piece of bedroom furniture from someone, that was already infested with them, inside of the furniture.

They put the piece of furniture in their bedroom. They didn't know that it was infested. Soon, they had bedbugs all over their bedroom.

They were all over the room. They climbed up the drapes. They were in the crevices of the wall, and then also went in to the electrical outlets, too.

I didn't know that they could to that. I naively thought that they just limited themselves to beds, but that isn't true. They will crawl all over the place. It doesn't matter. They will go everywhere. No place is off-limits. They were just all over the place.

The only way to get rid of them was to treat our whole section of the building, including our apt., too, so that they wouldn't travel through the walls and come up into our place, too, or go into anyone else's, either.

I saw one come up into our apt. to die, and that was in our bathroom at the time. After everyone's place was treated, that was the end of them. The neighbor didn't have them anymore, either.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

lizzief — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:11:04 GMT

Wow, I thought fleas were bad! We had a bad flea infestation - I think somebody hitched a ride when one of the dogs was at the vet. The only thing that got rid of them was a repeated sprinkling of 20 Mule Team Borax all over the inside of the house, and Diatomaceous Earth (food grade) in the yard. They both work by dehydrating the pests. I don't know if they would work on bedbugs, but possibly? There was a product sold on Shark Tank called Buggy Beds that they say you should use when you go to hotels. Your stories all scare me!

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

wildcherry_1 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:15:27 GMT

I would not want to buy a home or apartment furnished, forget it. It would be a deal breaker for me.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

Irshgrl31201 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:24:23 GMT

You said read the entire OP before commenting get an exterminator and I did.

I would say if there is a possibility of getting bed bugs I would get one. Yes, it would be nice to know with 100% certainty without hiring an exterminator but I would NOT need to know 100% just to get one. There are a lot of things I would risk but that is absolutely not one of them. If you do get an exterminator you will have peace of mind.

Having said that I don't think I would even chance it. I would probably chose another house.

Re: Bed bug advice.....EWWWW!!!!

lizzief — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 01:54:23 GMT

Btw, I'm not being nasty, just curious. How did you get all of this information? Did he tell you? Did the realtor tell you?