Bed bugs!
-
tankee:
I could be wrong, but I understand its pretty widespread.3Boys:
Another thing to note is about bringing luggage home from travel. The US hotels are undergoing a major bed bug infestation. When you get home, try not to unpack in your bedroom, but in the hall, or outside in the patio if possible. When done, put the empty cases outside to sun for a bit. Some cases may not tolerate direct sunning, so you may need to do a good wipe down and put them in the store far from the bedrooms.
I thought only New York is having this bed bug issue. How bad is the situation?
:shock: -
Personally no.
But with my granma’s house yes. No idea how it started also.
The pest busters come in and identified areas where the bugs have burrowed into and they spray some kind of chemical in there. As the mattress that my granma was using was old and infested, they suggested dumping it. We told them to treat the mattress as well and when they come back in 1 weeks time to assess the effectiveness and the problem is controlled, we will change the mattress. No point getting a new mattress for the bugs to infest as well.
They suggested sunning the mattress and beddings and vacuum and clean daily, air the rooms, etc. But for a stubborn 80+yr old woman who insists on her independence and refuse to have a maid, that is near impossible. But after the treatment which was a about 2 yrs back, no recurrence. -
3Boys:
Agree this is not only enough. It is in addition to the suggestions you provided.autumnbronze:
Always wash your bed linen in hot water.
I don't think you really need to do this every time, it consumes a lot of energy, and when there is a bed bug infestation, this in itself will not be enough.
My DS was diagnosed with dust mite allergy after a skin prick test and PD recommended the above as one of the solutions. She also mentioned its one of the solutions to eradicate bed bug problems too. -
3Boys:
I could be wrong, but I understand its pretty widespread.
I am planning for holiday in US this year since the exchange rate is so favourable.
Now, I better double check the bed bugs issue before confirming the trip.
thanks.
-
My house is infested by bedbugs and due to a long story reason I can’t do anything to get rid of it…
Anyone can help in suggesting how and Wat can I do to kill and prevent more bedbugs… Totally clueless on what to do…
Calling pest control helps??? [/list] -
I brought home bedbugs a few years ago. Came back from US for a business trip. Never have I imagine or suspect that the culprit on my body are bed bugs. I was bitten on my hands while working in the hotel room. Since I have history of hives before, I thought I have hives attack again since there is a sudden change in temperature.
As usual, when I came back from business trip, I unpack my luggage in the bedroom. That was the worst place that have gotten infested. Because I was in denial state (bed bugs in the millenium??), I did not act on it until I saw the creature with my own eyes. If you happen to see the creature, rest assured, your home is really infested!
What 3Boys did is the same thing that I do now. Spray luggage outside of the house with bedbug insecticide and immediately washed all the clothing once I am back from travelling.
I called up pest control thrice. But due to paranoia and because I travel for business and pleasure, I bought a dozen of bedbugs insecticide. Any furniture that are infested, I simply throw them out - dining tables and chairs, mattress, study table and chairs. I sun out the carpets.
I replace my mattress with a new one & paid a bit more for anti bed bug material (King Koil).
My furniture are replaced with those that have very minimal crannies.
The bedbug spray I bought it from an importer in Singapore. I don’t have the details of the importer name. It’s on the spray which is now sitting in the store room amongst so many stuff. Might want to google on the internet. It’s cheaper to spray on your own rather than call pest control. -
EN:
Ha ha! I threw out a mattress too! But soon decided I couldn't afford to keep chucking furniture away, so bit the bullet and embarked on an eradication exercise. Long, tedious and painful, but :xedfingers: , bug free for 2 years already.
I called up pest control thrice. But due to paranoia and because I travel for business and pleasure, I bought a dozen of bedbugs insecticide. Any furniture that are infested, I simply throw them out - dining tables and chairs, mattress, study table and chairs. I sun out the carpets.
I replace my mattress with a new one & paid a bit more for anti bed bug material (King Koil).
My furniture are replaced with those that have very minimal crannies. -
There’s no need to throw away & buy new mattress, esp if your mattress is those expensive type!
I encountered bed bugs few years back at my old rental place. This is what we did to get rid of them thoroughly:
1. Search carefully, where are they hiding? You can spot their hiding place by small black dots or stains on the mattress. Or you will see small eggs hidden in creases.
2. Get tea tree oil or citronella oil or both (available at most pharmacies). I used both. Mix with water, put into a spray bottle & spray. Then vacuum up. If using water based vacuum, put the oils into the water also. If using dust bag, BURN THE BAG after you vaccum.
3. Bed bugs are AFRAID OF HEAT. They die at temperatures about 60 degrees celcius. If you have a steamer (those standing steam iron), steam the entire bed. If you do not have one, use hair dryer or normal iron to iron.
4. Check all your pillows, bolsters, comforters, bedsheets & blankets. For those washable items, use HOT WATER to wash them & use iron to iron them. For bulky items like pillows, bolsters, cushions, give them same treatment as the mattress. Best if can sun them.
5. Check the entire house. All dark dingy corners, behind furniture, in cracks of floor are good hiding places. Put tea tree oil/citronella oil & steam it/blow dry it.
6. They also die when in contact with alcohol. My husband tried spraying some rubbing alcohol on the bed after that as preventive measure.
There’s no need to get professionals. Can DIY. You need to repeat the above for around 2-3 times, spread out. Do it every 2 weeks. Reason is that if there is any eggs left and they hatch later, you need to stop it before it grows again.
BTW, the above methods are the safest to carry out with any side effects on your family’s health.
I did extensive research & the above methods are tried & tested by me & my husband. Effective cos we have a baby and a dog, so we do not want excessive chemicals in the house. The pest control ppl told us that they use strong pesticides and we should not sleep on the mattress for at least 3 days. -
Had one episode on this abt 15-20 yr ago, when my elderly granny came to my parents’ place to sleep at nights.
She sleeps on one bed, and sits at one particular seat on the sofa. I can’t remember how it started, but it must have been that someone complained of itchiness and being the young man that I was then, i was observant enough to detect the first of those creatures, and to my surprise, tracking them down showed that they had infested my granny’s pillow and bedsheet, the whole sofa, and my parents’ bed too.
I started on my detective work and was able to catch them one by one, some of them fat with blood still… There were indeed lots of black stains in the pillow cases, bedsheets, sofa covers, etc. so we threw whatever couldn’t be washed clean, away.
I guess we probably were lucky and detected the problem early so managed to nick the bud all by myself. I remember catching enough numbers to fill up half the plastic container for holding negatives (before the onset of digital cameras mah…).
For some reason, i playfully sprayed some of this spray that was used to clean the video heads of VCR into the container, and all the energetic bugs straightaway became motionless…
Better don’t ever encounter them again… -
Yeah agreed...for bed bugs you should always keep lavender oil and mint leaves... use lavender oil around the bed frame and spread mint leaves in the whole room.... you can know more about this sudden problem.. http://www.whatdobedbugslooklike.net/interesting-bed-bugs-pictures.html
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login