<p>i am flipped out about these bugs, too! headed to nyc for the weekend and wondering how worried i need to be. my hotel doesn’t appear on any of the bed bug reports, but it still makes me nervous. i hate to think i need to strip my bed, curtains, pictures, all that stuff before relaxing, but i don’t think we have a choice! even then, i worry about picking them up somewhere–i guess you could pick them up anywhere and i just choose not to think too much about that.</p>
<p>wbow–from what i’ve read–do strip back corner of bedding to check seams, edges of mattress; that’s where signs of them are often apparent. Consider keeping suitcases in bathroom (harder for stuff to hide there), and luggage is often how you bring them home. Or, bring large plastic bags to keep stuff in, and discard them outside your house.</p>
<p>Between brother’s experience, and my D’s paranoia on the whole subject (she doesn’t live with us, but I think if we ever got them she’d never visit us again), I have become more educated on the subject myself, and probably over-paranoid. But that seems like a better alternative than the huge hassle of getting them.</p>
<p>When D was auditioning for summer ballet intensives and doing jazz competitions we traveled and stayed in different hotels a lot. I started keeping my suitcases in the garage except when I was actually packing for a trip. Once packed I would take the suitcases back out to the garage. I keep one moth away sachet in each suitcase and replace them periodically. When I return home I unpack the suitcases in the garage. Dirty clothes are carried straight from the garage to the washer. Clean clothes are put in a laundry basket with a moth away sachet and the basket is placed in a taped garbage bag for a few days. Now does this really help??? I have no idea … but it makes me feel better.</p>
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<p>You may want to try this, as it’s made just for bed bugs:</p>
<p>[BedBug</a> Central Store | Hot Shot No-Pest Strips](<a href=“http://www.bedbugcentral.com/shop/products.cfm/hot-shot-no-pest-strips]BedBug”>http://www.bedbugcentral.com/shop/products.cfm/hot-shot-no-pest-strips)</p>
<p>Another option for frequent travelers, that I use:</p>
<p>[USBedBugs.com</a> - PackTite Portable Heating Unit for Bed Bug Prevention](<a href=“http://www.usbedbugs.com/PackTite-Portable-Heating-Unit_p_6.html?gclid=COiO78GD06cCFcW8KgodShQA-w]USBedBugs.com”>http://www.usbedbugs.com/PackTite-Portable-Heating-Unit_p_6.html?gclid=COiO78GD06cCFcW8KgodShQA-w)</p>
<p>Thanks toledo, I will be ordering the strips today.</p>
<p>Those heating units are also used by people with infestations to debug objects taht can’t go in the dryer. My D’s friend got one. At the time, they were backlogged about 4 months, but that might have changed since.</p>
<p>Be cautious using the strips. They are quite toxic. I second the packtite recommendation. It is great for travel but it is also invaluable during an infestation in treating non washables such as books, shoes, papers, etc. You can also use it for things that would otherwise have to be dry cleaned. It was a huge money saver in the long run.</p>
<p>Can you microwave non-washable items? Books for instance? Or would they catch fire?</p>
<p>For dustmites, when you have things you can’t wash, you can bag them & freeze for at least 4 hours. That works for things like stuffed animals but not books. Below is one suggestion on how to kill bedbugs in books. You can search the web for more suggestions.</p>
<p>[How</a> to Kill Bed Bugs in Books | eHow.com](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/how_5598680_kill-bed-bugs-books.html]How”>http://www.ehow.com/how_5598680_kill-bed-bugs-books.html)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>knock on wood I have never experienced bedbugs, or have either of the kids ever had lice. yuck, yuck, yuck. I do remember when I lived in the city post college days and the problems with cockroaches. another yuck. Your building may be clean and exterminated, but once you go somewhere else, who knows what you are carrying home.</p>
<p>Well… here I am on the Bed Bug thread. My D was complaining of bites that happened during the night and sure enough I found one on her mattress pad. It looks like the ones on the web 
I have no idea where it came from but with one kid coming home from a dorm, one from an apartment and one that visited a friend in Boston and brought her own bedding back and forth, there are endless theories on the origin. Does anone know of any reputable and effective pest control companies in the Boston area? I saw, online, a company that heats your house to 150 degrees with fans. Does that work? Anyone have experience with a successful extermination in my area? Help!</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d try to save one or more samples of any bug you can find to get a POSITIVE ID so you know exactly what critter(s) you are dealing with, since treatment may vary depending on the pest involved.</p>
<p>My sister was VERY fortunate that she her bedbug infestation was confined to ONE room, her bedroom. The exterminators were able to limit treatment to only her entire bedroom & took care of the problem. The interesting thing (to me) was that only she was bitten & her hubby (who shared the bed) had absolutely no bites. All the bugs stayed on her side of the mattress!</p>
<p>I believe they just used a traditional exterminator, one who claimed to have experience in the matter and had a warranty. She had to get rid of tons of clutter that was all over their bedroom to give the exterminators room to work.</p>
<p>[looking</a> for a good pco in the boston area Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums](<a href=“http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/looking-for-a-good-pco-in-the-boston-area#post-56202]looking”>http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/looking-for-a-good-pco-in-the-boston-area#post-56202)</p>
<p>EPTR - bless you and good luck!</p>
<p>DD was provided housing for a summer internship, woke up the next morning with 75 bites It was the classic 1-2-3 smile of bites that allowed her to immediately figure out what they were. The organisation moved her to another place and treated that one.</p>
<p>Thanks, Everyone. I’ll start with those suggestions. Has anyone heard of the Heat method?</p>
<p>I tried the heat method. It’s supposed to be fairly reliable. If you do it, make sure they seal off the area around the door to the room and use remote temperature probes. Unfortunately, the bugs moved to two other bedrooms in my house, but it may have been because I broke the seal, live in an old plaster-walled house, or because the bed bug sniffing dog missed them in two of our bedrooms before the heat treatment. My sister-in-law runs a hotel and she’s had two cases. She used heat and was successful in both cases.</p>
<p>So I did book a pest control company who supposedly has a good reputation for getting rid of bed bugs. It will cost 600 dollars. Apparently they fog the house and take all of the beds apart and treat everything. When they leave, I have to wash all the linens in hot water and vacuum daily for a week. Does this sound typical? I asked if they come back for follow ups and she seemed pretty confident that we won’t need one when they’re done.</p>
<p>Are you sure she said “fog”? Foggers don’t work and make the problem much worse. You need to get on one of those bed bug sites. You need a crash course before you do anything. Read the FAQs at [bed</a> bug news, information, activism, and support ? Got bed bugs? Bedbugger.com](<a href=“http://www.bedbugger.com%5Dbed”>http://www.bedbugger.com). You have to be careful vacuuming, too. Otherwise, if you suck up a live one, it will eventually crawl out of your vacuum cleaner, if not disposed of properly.</p>
<p>Toledo,
Thank you for the advice. We did do some more investigating and decided to go with another company that takes a more tried and true approach. The will come and inspect and then treat the house. That will be followed by a 21 check and treatment and then another if necessary. We planned on having the canine inspection that the place recommended but, unfortunately my H, in an overzealous moment decided to spray the doorway of my Ds room so that the bugs wouldn’t cross over into the rest of the house (I know, I know). Apparently the pesticide will mess up the dogs sniffer and we would have to postpone that for forty days! So we will probably go for the human inspection. Hoping for some time this week.</p>
<p>But…wanna here something unbelievable?! I had trapped one of the bedbugs in a plastic bowl and put plastic wrap over it with an elastic holding it in place. The bug died pretty quickly three or four days ago. Today, when I got home for work, my D showed me that there are two baby ones in the cup! They hatched from eggs that were attached to the bedbug’s body! My D told me yesterday that she thought there was something attached to the belly of the bedbug but I couldn’t see it (I’m old). But my D was right! Now there are two tiny ones crawling around the cup. I am so incredibly disgusted!</p>