Oh dear god no bedbugs

[JenRave]

We have bedbugs, just discovered them yesterday.  I can't talk to anyone about it and am not sure how I"m going to cope.  Here is the situation:

1) we live in the ghetto, and I do mean, seriously the ghetto, probably one of the worst neighborhoods in America - the lower ninth ward post-katrina, in an apartment that isn't even up to code because our slumlord landlord is such a cheapskate.

2) Why do we live here?  Because we are broke, broke broke broke. Believe me if we could afford to move we would have months ago. Which brings me to the second point - a professional exterminator is out of the question. For any idea of getting help from the landlord, see above.  If we even tell him we have bedbugs, the most likely outcomes are him laughing at us, not understanding that they are a serious problem, or thinking we are scum and evicting us. He evicts people all the time for random reasons. We don't really have anywhere to go and until we control the infestation moving won't help anything anyway (we are hoping to move in August *crosses fingers*)

3) I do think we caught this early. The itching only started like, 3 weeks ago, and in our room.  My wife went to a friends hotel room at the end of February and we think this is the most likely point of infestation, as it was about the middle of March the issue began. She is more sensitive than I, and at first I was convinced she was being her usual hypochondriac self.  In fact we had some big fights about it and I even told her she needed to see a psychiatrist and yes I feel about as big as a grain of sand right now, plus we have bedbugs.  OMG.

So - without being able to get any help from a landlord or a professional, and I see from archives other people here have dealt with this, what have you done that works?  I've found about three places on my mattress they are and sprayed those places with hotshot bed bug and flea killer, then sprayed the wall with it where we saw them on my pretty tapestry, which is now taken down and in a plastic bag to be taken to the laundromat with all the bedding later today, and we sprayed the entire surface of the beds with rubbing alcohol, and all the floors around the bed, and I took all my clothes out of the drawers and sprayed the entire inside of the dresser with alcohol and threw out all my old clothes and sprayed the inside of the drawers with alcohol before putting the clothes back although I didn't see any signs that they were in there, and I cleaned out the closet and sprayed in there and threw out all the old shoes even though I saw no signs of bugs in the closet.  I don't see any signs of them in my son's room, thank god, I think we caught this just in time, and Im going to get rid of a ton of clutter (my big housecleaning weakness) and wash wash wash things over the next few days, and I have the over the counter spray and the alcohol and we have a vaccuum cleaner and are plannign on getting mattress covers, but is there anything else we can do?  SORRY THIS IS SO LONG OMG
And in the meantime I have finals coming up and so does she and I'm homeschooling and *falls over exhausted*

I am the worst crabby horrible mess right now.  If we don't end up divorced over this having made me into a complete b***h I will be so lucky.

[lilgreen]

No advice, just insanely major sympathies. So sorry you have to go through this.

xo

[eddie170]

bag all your clothes, sheets and blankets and if they are clean just put then in a drawer for 45-60 minutes... ALL YOUR CLOTHES

go to a pest control store or a hardware store and buy Bedlam Spray treat mattress, box spring, headboard and crack & crevis,,,, you will see a big difference.. BUT you must treat everything until the last nail hole..........

[Curt Bizovi]

You have legal rights and are protected as a tenant from slumlords, which goes above and beyond the fact that yours is a cheapskate. The fact that he doesn't like to spend money does not alleviate him of responsibility of being a providing landlord.

Also, there are some very affordable bed bug products at Amazon which I promote on my own bed bugs site. If your bed(s) have legs and are off the floor, then you could just use some passive bed bug traps so that they just can't get at you while you sleep. If they don't feed then they will die or move on to greener pastures, hopefully your landlord's place :)

Here's my site:

Bed bugs evasion

Of course, you'll have to get rid of the ones on your mattress first, but that is relatively simple. If they are really embedded, then you'll have to toss the mattress and pick another one up somewhere cheap. I threw out my futon mattress and our box spring because we wanted to be sure, but if money is an issue for you then that may not be an option...

Good luck,

Bizz

[MountainMamaGC]

Seriously, I would catch some and stick them under your landlords door. It doesnt matter anyway, if its an apartment, the entire building will be crawling with them and every suite will have to be fumigated to get rid of them.

[Libelula1920]

CedarCide is the best solution… Cheap, effective and you don't have to waste more money burning your bed or your clothes. Wash everything with hot water, spray Best Yet from CedarCide in your bedrooms, and the entire house, and that's it.

Here is the video from Bed bug central, to explain how it works...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ePwVp7GfUA

[K1329]

Heat treatment was the only successful solution for a local hotel I'm familiar with - pesticides didn't work because new eggs would just hatch a few months later. Google heat treatment for bed bugs. I'd get rid of any fabric items I could, & heat treat the rest. Good luck!

[MariesMama]

(I'm surprised how many new members have solutions ... )

The apartments in my town (college town) use heat.  It's the only thing that works, and is obviously less toxic than any of the other crap that's out there.  They basically bring in huge space heaters and heat your apartment for 24 hours - you can't be there, but you're supposed to leave just about everything fabric there.  There is a lot of info out there on this.  I'm so sorry though, it probably will just come back.  Move asap.

[HRJ]

I have heard great things about the heat . Heard the bugs are now becoming resistant to the pesticides.  I would persue your legal rights.  Our pediatrician said that lice were just a nuisance but bed bugs can carry more risk like skin infections.  She said bed bugs were a WHOLE other story compared to lice.

[daniellebluetoo]

I'm NOT a new member, and I will SECOND the cedarcide..... we got it from a futon frame that was given to us BY out landlard. My son had a SEVERE whole body allergic reaction to it. We called an exterminator with a bedbug sniffing dog to confirm, and then I ordered a fogger and a few gallons, (only needed 1/2 gal) to treat the whole house, but it worked WONDERFULLY!!!!! It is safe, effective and I would use it again in a heart beat!!!!! Honestly I would tell the landlord, and then use your rent $ to pay for the fogger and oil... make sure you re-treat in a week, then every two for a few cycles... i think I continued to treat for a few months JUST to make sure, YK?  My poor son, 7 at the time, was litterally traumatized from the whole experience,  me too, but he was SO affected by it, whole body rash,  lack of sleep... poor bubbas... good luck to you.