I FOUND A BEDBUG! What do I do???

[Savoir Faire]

Sorry. I am so freaking right now.

I was brushing my daughter's hair and found a brown bug in her hair. I pulled it out and took a good look before getting rid of it.

I thought it was lice. Googled Lice. It wasn't lice. BEDBUG.

I ran upstairs and looked at their mattress but didn't know what to do. Ripped off sheets and washed on hot.

Several weeks ago, my son (who sleeps with her) was covered in phantom bug bites on his face and arms. They were very itchy and he said they hurt. It was unlike anything I'd seen before...we thought he had gotten them outside one day.

Now I'm wondering if they were, in fact, bedbug bites.

Who has been here? What the heck do I do????? Do I toss all sheets and such?

[rootzdawta]

I've been there and it is not a pleasant place at all. I thought I had developed hives or something from my stressful job but it turns out it was the bed bugs

At the time, I only had one child and we all slept in the same bed. Our bed was relatively old and we opted to get rid of the whole thing: the mattress, box spring and frame. We got rid of them that way.

Our family upstairs didn't want to get rid of all their beds. We ended up calling in an exterminator twice to no avail. The apt. was cluttered and so they just found other places to hide. Eventually, my bro-in-law found that freezing them (with the air cleaner you use to clean a computer) worked well and so he went around all the bed and did that. It helped a lot but recently he discovered them again.

I don't accept used furniture or buy used furniture. Any used clothing I bring in I wash and dry on hottest. I don't let me kids come into the house and get on their beds in their clothes. Our couch (which is a futon) has plastic over it and a cotton (washable) cover on top. We just finished wrapping our mattress in plastic and we're going to wrap the kids' mattresses soon.

(((Hugs))) Bed bugs are really horrible and resilient. I hope you can get rid of them. Sounds like it's in the early stages so if you act now, you should be able to.

[justmama]

supposedly the pest control companies have a hard time controlling bed bugs so they don't use chemicals, they use heat. they heat up the room really really really hot to fry the little suckers.

[mouso]

A friend of the family had great success with the super-heating thing.

I would get the mattress bags and put them on mattresses- bedbugs eventually die inside them.
Wash everything and dry HOT again. The dryer kills them. I would spray bed frames/wood furniture and probably wash/dry every piece of clothing in the room too. Thorough vacuum. Throw out bag.

I hope they are easy to get rid of. I know a few people who have had them and they can be a nightmare. I am terrified of them!
Good luck.

[bass chick]

We have a friend who owns rental properties and deals with this regularly. It is hard to kill them, but as mentioned by some pp's, heating the house up will kill them. It is about the only thing that will. They hate light, so you may never see them in the day.

[zoebird]

here's a very informative article: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/th...bugs/19627257/

it says not to use DE--that it's not going to work--but i think it likely would, if you add it to all of the other things such as vacuuming, good scrubbing, washing, etc etc etc.

DE-- diatomaceous earth

it's a very fine powder, all natural and non-toxic to anything without an exoskeleton. sprinkle it everywhere, and it will dehydrate them and their eggs. then you vacuum it up.

i think the main thing is that you have to be vigilant for a number of weeks, and then see how it goes.

[leigh09]

i have also heard a good way to get them out of your mattress is to wrap it in black garbage bags and let it sit in direct sunlight for quite a while.
you likely have to google this for more info ... lots of hugs.

[rcr]

My husband manages affordable housing and deals with outbreaks of bedbugs all the time. He says that the best way to get rid of them is heat. I forgot hot hot and for how long, but it is a while, and it is pretty hot. Their are companies that will do it for you - I think you need special equipment to make it that hot.

[mattemma04]

On one show I saw a dog used to sniff out the bugs then a pest company would spray them FROZEN. Probably not many companies use the freeze method yet. If you can bag it and heat it(hair dryer,drier vent attached) I would opt for that.

Toss what you can.They will live in any crack/cover.

[StrongBeliever]

Yikes! What a bummer. You're gonna have to do far more than the bedding... They actually get INSIDE the mattress and inside cracks in furniture. I've never had to deal with them, but I've had to deal with fleas and *gag* finding a way to obliterate pinworm eggs. For the fleas I would use Borax... ALL bugs hate Borax, it's toxic to them. I'd use the powder and dust all of the cracks on furniture and baseboards, and use a concentrated Borax spray on the mattresses. If it doesn't kill the big ones, I'd think it would get the larval stages, anyway(the ones hatching wouldn't make it to maturity).

For the pinworm eggs I used clove oil... Made a spray of vinegar and water with a good amount of Clove essential oil and sprayed EVERYWHERE(the eggs are microscopic)... Furniture, mattresses, base boards. Clove oil is the one essential oil that will penetrate and kill parasitic worm eggs... Maybe it would work on bedbegs too? There are a lot of EOs out there that kill bugs... I'd look into it.

[Awaken]

say to say I'm subbing to this thread. We found them last night in 2 bedrooms. How's it going, OP? Have you found any more, and has anything worked?

I'm so overwhelmed, I can barely manage to care for the kids, keep us all fed, in clean clothes, and homeschool, the thought of having to do massive amounts of cleaning and spraying and heating is so depressing I seriously don't know how or when we'll be able to do all this, room by room. And I'm so worried that as we work on one room at a time, the other rooms will be overtaken. I grew up in a house crawling with roaches and mice, the last thing I ever want for my children is to grow up with bugs

[mouso]

HUGS, Awaken. I imagine it is so stressful. I hope you can tackle them and it's not too hard to get them gone.

[mkksmom]

I know someone who had them and it took a good year and a ton of work for them to get rid of them. Go to bedbugger.com There is a forum there where you can get help.

A lot depends on if you are in a single family home or an apartment/condo. The whole place will need to be treated.

You need to wash and dry everything you can and BAG IT UP in plastic bags. Make sure you seal them air tight. My friend got rid of her mattress, couch, etc. but it didn't really help.

When you go out, you need to put on clothes straight from your washed and sealed bag of clothes to prevent them from spreading to your friends.