My worst fear is here

[EconDiva]

So I got a note underneath my door from my leasing office about 2 weeks ago that stated someone in my unit had a bug complaint and they needed to enter my unit to 'check on things' the next day. I know they did come in my unit because stuff was moved around, but hadn't gotten any other notices since then and didn't think much of it.

I did my laundry in the downstairs laundry area of my building Sat night. Sunday morning I wake up and there's a bed bug on my comforter. I freak out and email the leasing office. I sprinkle some diatemaceous earth in the baseboard areas. Within half an hour, one comes out of the baseboard. Another one is on the ceiling, one crawling on the wall next to my bed, and yet another one on my comforter. I barely slept last night on my couch. Kept the lights on all night  When I woke up, 3 more on the ceiling, one on the wall, one on the floor.

 

[jfer_rose]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

[EconDiva]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

[dragoncar]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

Is it possible they are fleeing the infested apartment above/next to you after remedial measures in those apartments?

[GuitarStv]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

Is it possible they are fleeing the infested apartment above/next to you after remedial measures in those apartments?

No.  Bugs aren't smart enough to do that.  They'll be dead long before they recognize that they're being poisoned.  Standard practice is to seal any point of entry in a treatment area though, so it's possible that some had gone wandering and got locked out of their previous home.  Apartment buildings with infestations where they were treated piecemeal were gold mines for the pest control company I worked for for this reason.  Either you do the whole building once, or you do bits of the building about 100 times over several years.

Good luck to the OP, bed bugs are tenacious as hell and many strains are resistant to common insecticides.

[dragoncar]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

Is it possible they are fleeing the infested apartment above/next to you after remedial measures in those apartments?

No.  Bugs aren't smart enough to do that.  They'll be dead long before they recognize that they're being poisoned.  Standard practice is to seal any point of entry in a treatment area though, so it's possible that some had gone wandering and got locked out of their previous home.  Apartment buildings with infestations where they were treated piecemeal were gold mines for the pest control company I worked for for this reason.  Either you do the whole building once, or you do bits of the building about 100 times over several years.

Good luck to the OP, bed bugs are tenacious as hell and many strains are resistant to common insecticides.

I occasionally get silverfish, and tried to get rid of them with DE.  As an experiment, I trapped one under a bowl and squirted some DE in there with him.  He lived for at least a week after that.  I'm honestly not sure if the DE accelerated the process at all.

[JPinDC]

Ahhh! I have no advice, but just wanted to wish you good luck getting rid of those suckers!

[Silverwood]

Totally feel your pain. The apartment I lived in before I bought my house ended up with cockroaches.  I was having a pot luck dinner with friends and had them start running up my walls. The landlord tried to say I was dirty. Yeah right.  They can live on skin cells in the carpet.  The company refused to acknowledge they were cockroaches too even though I had them looked at by an exterminator.  Good luck. I'd look at cutting your losses and getting the hell out.

[oldtoyota]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

I am sorry this happened to you. I was in a hotel last week and freaking out because I'd been bitten. It turned out not to be bed bugs though.

The leasing office is treating them with what?? Poison? If so, that is terrible. See if they will let you move out without losing money. The best way to get rid of them is with heat. Then, dogs should come in and check to see if they are still around. Bed bugs give off a scent that dogs can pick up.

[BlueMR2]

I am sorry this happened to you. I was in a hotel last week and freaking out because I'd been bitten. It turned out not to be bed bugs though.

The bed bug problem is getting so bad now that it's helping me save money.  I quit traveling and staying at new places because of the bed bug epidemic.

[LibrarIan]

I've had two scares so far in my apartment, but both instances were hitchhikers from 1) another apartment in another city and 2) a public bus. Both times I freaked the hell out and started spraying, checking everywhere, sealing shit and boiling things, but both times I was reacting to one that hitched a ride on a my pants or whatever. It's always best to be safe about these things.

Here are my tips as someone who lives in the bedbug capitol of the USA (Cincinnati, OH).

- Seal your mattress in a bedbug proof cover
- keep suitcases in plastic bags
- If you ever go to the following places, remove your clothes prior to entering your home and put them in a plastic bag until you can wash them:  Other homes/apartments, hotels, motels, public transportation, movie theaters, libraries, clothing stores (if you try things on)
- Spray the hell out of your baseboards, around your bed, door thresholds, etc
- If possible, use your own washer and dryer
 

[windawake]

I had bedbugs once. It was awful, I woke up with bites all over me for months and eventually discovered the terrible infestation on my box spring. But, it's okay. It sucks, but you'll be just fine.

My apartment building did the heat treatment, which did not require us to launder or do anything special with our linens. See if your building will consider this even though it's more expensive. It's much kinder to tenants since you have to do less work but will kill all your plants. It was worth it for us.

Bedbugs are tenacious little motherfuckers. They can live, dormant, without food for 18 months or something. So if they get into an apartment building it can be extremely difficult to eradicate them if some are living in the walls in between apartments.

Good luck.

[Eric]

Ugh, we had them a few years back after bringing them back from a hotel with us.  Besides diatomaceous earth, we vacuumed daily, bought a bed bug proof mattress cover (to seal them in until they're dead (can take up to 18 months!!)), and were "lucky" that it happened in the summer, so we bagged up all of our clothes, bedding, etc and put them into our hot car in the sun with the windows up to kill them.  The whole process took a couple of mostly sleepless weeks.  Good luck!

Totally feel your pain. The apartment I lived in before I bought my house ended up with cockroaches.  I was having a pot luck dinner with friends and had them start running up my walls. The landlord tried to say I was dirty. Yeah right.  They can live on skin cells in the carpet.  The company refused to acknowledge they were cockroaches too even though I had them looked at by an exterminator.  Good luck. I'd look at cutting your losses and getting the hell out.

You can't just move and expect that to solve the problem.  The bedbugs will move with you.  They're now in your clothing, bedding, bed, etc.

[Silverwood]

That's why I said cut your losses.

[Cassie]

I have known people that had to throw away their beds, couches, etc and then put their clothes/things in a storage unit for 2 years before they were safe to use.  How horrible to have to go through this. 

[EconDiva]

Ahhh! I have no advice, but just wanted to wish you good luck getting rid of those suckers!

Thank you.  I'm definitely not able to sleep now.  I'm just not sure how I went from seeing none to 5 in one day.  Because of the note that was circulated the other week, I'm sure someone else has them and that's why they requested to check my unit.  Now I have them.  However, when I spoke with the lady in the leasing office she stated that "I'm the first to complain of this".  I'm NOT buying it.

[Cassie]

The owner should fumigate the entire building so they have nowhere to hide but that is expensive and they probably are just trying to be cheap. 

[EconDiva]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

I am sorry this happened to you. I was in a hotel last week and freaking out because I'd been bitten. It turned out not to be bed bugs though.

The leasing office is treating them with what?? Poison? If so, that is terrible. See if they will let you move out without losing money. The best way to get rid of them is with heat. Then, dogs should come in and check to see if they are still around. Bed bugs give off a scent that dogs can pick up.

I believe she said they sprayed.  My unit had a chemical-y smell to it when I entered yesterday.  Everything had been moved around, things unplugged, etc.  But because they only treated my unit I have no hope this situation will resolve *permanently*.  I'd love to just start staying away from my place in a hotel, but chances are at this point in the game I'd be bringing them with me and that's just not right.

I feel like the only thing I can do right now is trust they'll fix it, and declutter my space/launder everything as the leasing office has instructed me to do.

[EconDiva]

My sympathies. Bed bugs are terrible, I know from experience. I wonder if maybe you are not allergic to the bites? I say this as someone who lived with bed bugs and fortunately have come out on the other side. I had unexplained bites for months and months before I ever saw a bed bug-- they are so good at hiding! I am very allergic to the bites, but I know people who have been exposed to them without ever having any visible/itching bites.

Maybe I just haven't been bitten good yet?  I just think its weird that the first day I saw them I ended up seeing 5, and even more the next morning on the walls.  It's like they came out of NOWHERE all of a sudden.

How long did it take you to get rid of them?  My leasing office said they just treated my unit and that I need to bag all my clothes and linens and take them to the laundrymat asap.  And that they'll treat again in two weeks.  I'm so scared of these things... :(

Is it possible they are fleeing the infested apartment above/next to you after remedial measures in those apartments?

No.  Bugs aren't smart enough to do that.  They'll be dead long before they recognize that they're being poisoned.  Standard practice is to seal any point of entry in a treatment area though, so it's possible that some had gone wandering and got locked out of their previous home.  Apartment buildings with infestations where they were treated piecemeal were gold mines for the pest control company I worked for for this reason.  Either you do the whole building once, or you do bits of the building about 100 times over several years.

Good luck to the OP, bed bugs are tenacious as hell and many strains are resistant to common insecticides.

I occasionally get silverfish, and tried to get rid of them with DE.  As an experiment, I trapped one under a bowl and squirted some DE in there with him.  He lived for at least a week after that.  I'm honestly not sure if the DE accelerated the process at all.

My understanding is that DE won't kill the bugs on contact at all.  I'd have to look up information on it and post it here, but when the bugs walk through it, it then slowly kills them from the inside, breaking down their skeletal structure.  Although the process is slower than a chemical, they say its more effective because bed bugs have become resistant to so may chemicals.  The DE process is a physical one which means permanent death.

[EconDiva]

So after speaking with the leasing office on the phone yesterday who stated they brough out pest control to spray my place, I emailed them with the following questions:

Hi XXX,

Thank you for confirming earlier that XXX Pest Control came out and treated my unit (#XXX) for bed bugs today.  I forgot to ask you how they treated it. 
 
Did they use heat or chemicals or both? 
And you said they'd be back in two weeks, correct? 
When you said they checked the other units, only my unit was treated today, correct?
Will you be informing the other units so they can take preventive measures?
Has anyone else complained of bed bugs in either my building (#XXX) or #XXX within the past 6 months?
If so, how long did it take before the tenant(s) stopped seeing them? 
 
Sorry for all of the questions.  But as you can tell I'm a little freaked out right now.

----------------------------------------------------

In the past, she's always responded to my emails promptly/the same day.  She hasn't replied to this one. 

[golfer44]

You'll be fine. Yes, speaking from experience.

Plus after this you'll have the knowledge that you faced your worst fear and came out a-ok. It sounds insane, but think of this as an overall win.

[NewStachian]

My friend bought a condo and found out there was a roach infestation from the nearby condo. While I completely agree that the apartment complex is responsible for taking care of your place, you might want to try his trick to speed things up and take matters into your own hands. Lining your baseboard area with boric acid works wonders. I tried it in my house with crickets and in a few weeks they went from having little colonies in my basement to not a single one in sight.

I mixed the Boric Acid with a little honey and put it on tinfoil so it was easy to throw away. It's great because bugs will get it on their feet and take it back to their nest. It's a small enough poison to not really affect us, kids, or pets, although I personally still don't let my pets in the areas where I put it down.

A relatively large tin of boric acid will set you back $5-$10, but it might be worth that just for the peace of mind and control you'll have.

[GuitarStv]

My understanding is that DE won't kill the bugs on contact at all.  I'd have to look up information on it and post it here, but when the bugs walk through it, it then slowly kills them from the inside, breaking down their skeletal structure.  Although the process is slower than a chemical, they say its more effective because bed bugs have become resistant to so may chemicals.  The DE process is a physical one which means permanent death.

Diatomaceous earth absorbs fats from the shell of the insects and dehydrates them to death.  It doesn't work unless the particle size is fine enough, and won't work if it gets wet or is used in a humid environment.

The single best treatment for most types of infestation is a whole building heat treatment . . . get the place warm enough, and it's terminal for all bugs inside.  No residual pesticide, no survivors with resistance to treatment.  It's what we would do in food processing plants.

[hybrid]

My understanding is that DE won't kill the bugs on contact at all.  I'd have to look up information on it and post it here, but when the bugs walk through it, it then slowly kills them from the inside, breaking down their skeletal structure.  Although the process is slower than a chemical, they say its more effective because bed bugs have become resistant to so may chemicals.  The DE process is a physical one which means permanent death.

Diatomaceous earth absorbs fats from the shell of the insects and dehydrates them to death.  It doesn't work unless the particle size is fine enough, and won't work if it gets wet or is used in a humid environment.

The single best treatment for most types of infestation is a whole building heat treatment . . . get the place warm enough, and it's terminal for all bugs inside.  No residual pesticide, no survivors with resistance to treatment.  It's what we would do in food processing plants.

How warm is warm enough, generally speaking?

We've had a problem for years with cave crickets getting into our house. I still haven't figured out where they are getting in, but I assume it's the vents given where I typically find them. They're just a nuisance though.

[GuitarStv]

My understanding is that DE won't kill the bugs on contact at all.  I'd have to look up information on it and post it here, but when the bugs walk through it, it then slowly kills them from the inside, breaking down their skeletal structure.  Although the process is slower than a chemical, they say its more effective because bed bugs have become resistant to so may chemicals.  The DE process is a physical one which means permanent death.

Diatomaceous earth absorbs fats from the shell of the insects and dehydrates them to death.  It doesn't work unless the particle size is fine enough, and won't work if it gets wet or is used in a humid environment.

The single best treatment for most types of infestation is a whole building heat treatment . . . get the place warm enough, and it's terminal for all bugs inside.  No residual pesticide, no survivors with resistance to treatment.  It's what we would do in food processing plants.

How warm is warm enough, generally speaking?

We've had a problem for years with cave crickets getting into our house. I still haven't figured out where they are getting in, but I assume it's the vents given where I typically find them. They're just a nuisance though.

Most critters will be dead at 50 degrees C.  (But how do you remove all the dead bugs from the food processing plants?  Hahahahahaha . . . we don't, they're processed and you eat them as long as they're below acceptable 'food defect' levels.  Read about it here to find out how much insect is acceptable in various foods in the US: http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/sanitationtransportation/ucm056174.htm  - only if you're not squeamish.)

[EconDiva]

My understanding is that DE won't kill the bugs on contact at all.  I'd have to look up information on it and post it here, but when the bugs walk through it, it then slowly kills them from the inside, breaking down their skeletal structure.  Although the process is slower than a chemical, they say its more effective because bed bugs have become resistant to so may chemicals.  The DE process is a physical one which means permanent death.

Diatomaceous earth absorbs fats from the shell of the insects and dehydrates them to death.  It doesn't work unless the particle size is fine enough, and won't work if it gets wet or is used in a humid environment.

The single best treatment for most types of infestation is a whole building heat treatment . . . get the place warm enough, and it's terminal for all bugs inside.  No residual pesticide, no survivors with resistance to treatment.  It's what we would do in food processing plants.

I understand that the heat treatment is best, but a lot of places just put a band aid on the problem by treating units as they have issues because its cheaper that way than doing the one time heat treatment for an entire building.  Sucks for me.  But after my property management team does the second chemical treatment and I still end up seeing them, I will ask if they'll consider heat treating the whole building.  It's worth a shot...I guess.....

[vern]