<p>One of D2’s not-so-great accepted student visits may still be haunting us. She got some bug bites (several) while sleeping on the floor of a dorm room back in April. We put her luggage and clothing in a garbage bag to put out in the hot sun this summer (still sitting in the garage, it has really just gotten hot here). But the clothing she wore home and her purse escaped the process, and I think that was a big mistake.</p>
<p>She and I have both gotten dozens of bites during the night over the past 10 days in our beds in separate rooms. :eek: It could be something else (spiders?), but I am awfully suspicious. Of course this comes at a terrible time for me to pay for treatment of the house (already dealing with a leaking roof AND two different leaks in our basement, end of child support payments, a major car repair recently, and six months of unemployment last year – so, yeah).</p>
<p>So I plan to do some initial sleuthing myself. We are out tomorrow, but my plan for Tuesday after work is a thorough inspection of all bedding and areas around the bed. Also the couch downstairs where we watch TV. I found a good video on how to do it, so we will start there.</p>
<p>If that does not turn up any evidence, I was thinking of getting what are called “passive bed bug interceptors” that you put on the foot of beds and couches and leaving those in place for a couple of weeks to see if they find any evidence. Does anyone know where to buy these things except online (don’t want to wait for them if I need them). Would a Lowes or ACE or someplace like that have them?</p>
<p>Obviously this has to be fixed so (1) we stop getting bitten, and (2) so she doesn’t carry this problem off to her college in fall and anyplace else we travel. But I’d like to try to figure out if I really think that is what it is before calling someone to deal with it.</p>
<p>Has anyone else had a serious infestation? I am guessing if we have 'em it is bad, since it is in two bedrooms that do not share a common wall (across the hall from each other on the same floor, but doors are offset by about 10 feet). What kind of treatment did you have?</p>
<p>You can lay on the bed to see if you get stinged. When you get stinged you can easily find the bud. Bed bugs can hide bud they don’t run fast. When I was young I could tell my friends’ houses had bed bugs or not right away after sitting on the chair five minutes. Bed bugs have a strong stinky smell. They tend to hide in the wood cracks or clothing plies. When I was stinged I used a small stick to pick the bug out of the crack. If you feel itchy but don’t find a swollen bump aout 1/8 to 3/8 inch then it’s probably not bed bug. It could be summer fleas.</p>
<p>You can put the bed, the mattress and clothes under the hot sun. Bed bugs will run away from the heat and you can see them on the surface.
You can also use a hair dryer to chase them out.</p>
<p>Well, I know they can hide in other places besides the mattress (on the underside of furniture and lamps, etc.). We do have large welts from the bites. Might not be bedbugs, but that is why I want to try those “passive bed bug interceptors” – does anyone know where to buy those besides the internet? And has anyone had a professional treat their house for them?</p>
<p>I do react in a similar way to flea bites. So maybe… but we only have one pet, a dog. She lives downstairs (has never been upstairs in our house), spends most of her time in a large mud room with a dutch door off the kitchen, and has been treated right on time each month this summer with that stuff you put on the back of their neck. I have not seen her scratch even once all summer. I suppose we could have gotten them some other way, though. I will watch for them while examining for the bedbugs, too.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I had to become a bedbug expert. Let’s hope it’s fleas. Are your bites in a line? Typically, there will be 3 in a row. Do either of you have any blood on your sheets? White, or light-colored sheets really help with detection. I would also try to contact the girl from the dorm. Chances are she knows what it could be. </p>
<p>Storing things in a hot garage is not going to get rid of bbs. You need to carry all the clothing into the house in a plastic trash bag and wash it all. The dryer will kill the bugs. I recommend 30 minutes on high. The suitcase is trickier. About all you can do is vacuum it real well. We decided to throw ours away. If you throw anything away, make sure to label it with a large warning sticker. You don’t want the garbage men taking home a “beautiful” piece of luggage. </p>
<p>Besides the internet, I was able to buy bed bug interceptors from a local pest control company. I don’t think bed bugs are bad in Minnesota, so they may not be stocking them, like they do here in Ohio. They’re expensive, so I’d try to rule out fleas first. The other option is make them yourselves. They are like small plastic plates with a powder coating. I have also heard of people using oil to “catch” bbs.</p>
<p>We recently went on vacation in Indiana and stayed at a state park there. I had several bug bites and I was very worried it was bed bugs, but my husband didn’t have any and then it occurred to me that maybe it was chiggers. My kids always went to camp in the mid-west and they often complained of chigger bites. I looked them up on-line and the symptoms were dead on. [Chiggers</a> or Bedbug Bites? - Yahoo! Answers](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20110525173631AADVAse)</p>
<p>The bites were incredibly itchy and kept on being itchy for several days.</p>
<p>I have had chigger bites, and also react to those quite a bit. But I usually get those on my ankles when sitting in a lawn chair, have not had them up on my shoulders and back (where a lot of these bites were). I am not a fan of bugs. At least biting ones.</p>
<p>Although I know I have to wash the clothes in hot water, I have heard that placing the suitcase in a black plastic bag on the driveway for a few days when it is really, really hot out can kill them. Really like that bag, would like to figure something out for it. </p>
<p>Has anyone had the heat treatment for their house for bedbugs? If it turns out to be those…</p>
<p>I have a friend who travels even more than I do, and she tells me the best single way to avoid bb’s is to put your suitcase in the bathtub every night, and never to leave anything soft near the head of the bed. Put your pj’s in a plastic bag before packing them in your suitcase. When you get home, put the pj’s in the dryer for 30 minutes on high and throw away the plastic bag. If you kept your suitcase in the tub overnight, if the closet where you hung your clothes is not right next to the bed, and you bagged your pj’s in plastic before coming into contact with your other clothes, you should be pretty safe, even if the room is infested.</p>
<p>Just a skeevy additional note: we always assume bedbugs are from sleeping over some place, but that’s not always the case. Bedbugs are attracted to dark places where there is a lot of carbon dioxide and a food source (i.e. us breathing). Humans sleeping in beds is the best source of all that. However, we often forget the next best place for those conditions is a movie theater.</p>
<p>intparent - washing clothes in hot water is not as effective as putting them in the dryer on highest heat setting for 30-45 minutes. The dry heat is a lot hotter than the hot water setting is. Then wash them.</p>
<p>Have you just turned your mattress and examined it? If you have bb’s, you should be able to see them or their droppings in the seams and cracks of the mattress. Any dark spots would be a sign of bb’s.</p>
<p>Edited to add: to save your suitcase, I think putting it in a black plastic bag in the hot sun on an asphalt drive for 12 hours should do the trick. Make sure the plastic bag is closed up tightly.</p>
<p>We had bed bugs. My H brought them home from a hotel in the DC area and left his luggage near my Ds bed ( which is on the way to the attic). When my D returned from college that summer, she woke every morning with bites.</p>
<p>What Toledo said about the bites is very important. If they are bed bugs, the bites will be in a cluster or a line on your skin. The size of the welt is not relevant because everyone reacts differently to the bite. When we had the house inspected (dog inspection, 300 dollars), they detected them in both of my Ds beds but only my older D exhibited bite marks.</p>
<p>Bed bugs cannot survive in temps over 115 degrees but putting stuff in a garbage bag and in the sun is too inexact for my liking. To treat items like luggage, shoes, purses, etc, put the items in a large garbage bag with a Hot Shot Pest Strip ( available at Lowes or Home Depot). Close the bag AIRTIGHT. Leave it for a week.</p>
<p>A telltale sign to look for besides the dark spots on mattresses is the skins of the bugs. As they grow, they shed their outer shell and these can be found on the floor around the mattress or on the mattress itself. They look like the little skins that come off of popcorn kernels, but smaller.
Int parent, if you do have them, resist the temptation to treat this problem without a professional. Using off the shelf pesticides is dangerous and ineffective against these pests and will even make things worse by driving them deep into the walls.</p>
<p>Oh, I do not intend to actually treat it without a professional. I know I probably would not be successful. But I want to try to figure out if that is what it really is before calling them in. I am also quite reluctant to use a pesticide solution – my mom has Parkinson’s, and I know there are studies linking some insecticides and Parkinson’s. If we have to treat, it will probably be the heat treatment. I also know that if I need to call someone in to figure out if I have them, it is better to call someone who is not affiliated with an exterminator (so they don’t have the incentive to find them and sell more business…).</p>
<p>If you are looking for a non-toxic method to get rid of bedbugs, diatomaceous earth may be the answer. It is a powder that apparently dehydrates and kills insects and can be bought at Lowes. Disclaimer: I have not tried it for bedbugs (just ants) but there are many on the Internet who claim that it is effective on bedbugs.</p>
The bites I had (I had about 8) were not on my ankles. I had three on my back, one or two on my legs and one under each arm pit! I read on-line that one way to alleviate the itch was to hit the bites with a hair dryer for as long as it could be stood. I followed that up with some aloe vera, and it worked very well.</p>
<p>This is the stuff that is used to treat expensive Insect Shield hiking clothing. It can also be used to spray treat chothing and gear. It’s used for that purpose by the US military. It has to be sprayed or soaked into fabric then allowed to dry. Once dry, it is supposed to be completely safe (although it is toxic to cats in liquid form).</p>
<p>It is used as an indoor bedbug treatment (also a spot flea/tick treatment for pet bedding).</p>
<p>It would be easy enough to use this to spray treat the inside of the suitcase, etc. Also, spray treating the mattresses would eliminate them as a potential problem.</p>
<p>You can buy it pre mixed at outdoors stores, but buying the bottle linked above and mixing 2 TBS (1 oz) to 24 ounces of water will let you mix up five spray bottles for the price of one premixed. It goes fast spraying down something the size of a mattress.</p>
<p>We treated with an exterminator. I looked at the heat method but it is not widely done in this area, not sure why. I am averse to pesticides as well but felt it was safer to use a professional than to try any home remedies.</p>
<p>I also would recommend bedbugger.com as a resource and I also use Bedbugregistry.com to check out hotels before I stay. Not that it guarantees that any hotel is bed bug free but at least if there are reports on a hotel, I can avoid it.</p>
<p>While I haven’t had bedbugs the college my son is going to has a list of what the kids need to do along with the college treating the dorm room if they end up with bed bugs:
_______ All bagged clothing items must be washed. Bag ALL clothing items in your room.
This includes everything in your closet/wardrobe, under your bed, in dresser drawers, towels, curtains, bedding, everything. Be sure to tightly tie the bag
closed.
_______ Bring laundry bags immediately to laundry room and empty contents into the dryer.
_______ Immediately after unloading and starting laundry, dispose of plastic bags in a dumpster outside of the building. Run the dryer on high heat for at least 20 minutes before washing; the dryer heat on campus is above 130º degrees which is
what is needed to kill them. Wash twice, in hot water, and dry on high heat. Place
cleaned laundry in a new garbage bag; you are NOT to unpack until given
clearance to do so by an exterminator.</p>
At least biting ones.</p>![http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/southcountymail.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/32/a32a5036-db39-598f-aec6-e2b23acd566d/509acaad46ac4.image.jpg[/url]](http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/southcountymail.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/32/a32a5036-db39-598f-aec6-e2b23acd566d/509acaad46ac4.image.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
