How can my daughter leave bed bugs at home?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>A relative brought some bedbugs over while visiting. I don’t think we will be able to eliminate them all by the time my daughter leaves for school. She’s going to college just a few weeks. How can she avoid bringing them with her? I’ve looked and looked online, but I haven’t found anything useful. I don’t want this to be shameful for her, but -more than that- I don’t want her to share them with everyone in the dorms.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>buy new bedding for the dorm. Wash all clothing in hot water, and then put it immediately into plastic bags before packing. Don’t but it on any cloth furniture or beds or rugs.</p>

3

<p>Take NO bed linens from your house…none. Get new, inexpensive ones once you get to the college town. Ditto towels. </p>

<p>Take clothes to a laundromat. Wash and then pack to take to the college. Do not bring them back in your house.</p>

<p>Most important…get these out of your house…or you will continually be facing this issue.</p>

4

<p>I’m sorry, but I don’t believe this post. This is like Blair-Witch-Project-Videos for parents of college students, especially parents-of-incoming-freshmen. Yet another thing to fear: Roommates bearing bedbugs. Not buying it.</p>

5

<p>I haven’t had an inspector come over yet, so I can’t tell you with 100% certainty it’s bed bugs. However, it certainly seems to be. Do you think I’m wrong or just “trolling” the forum? I don’t mean to be.</p>

<p>To everyone else: thanks for the advice!</p>

6

<p>A Temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes or more is supposed to kill all stages of bed bugs AND their eggs. If you live somewhere where the weather is 90+ and sunny – how about just packing up the car with all her college gear and leaving it sitting in the sun for a few hours? </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/pdffiles/bb-heat1.pdf”>http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/pdffiles/bb-heat1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.weather.com/activities/driving/slideshow/hot_car.html?page=2&scheme=image-horiz-plain.css”>http://www.weather.com/activities/driving/slideshow/hot_car.html?page=2&scheme=image-horiz-plain.css&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>I don’t know if the OP is for real or not, but this was our situation four years ago. As soon as we got to the dorm, we headed right to the laundry room and washed EVERYTHING. More importantly, we dried EVERYTHING in a hot dryer for 30 minutes; shoes, purses, and all. We bought mattress casings for my daughter and her roommate, not telling the roommate anything, other than bed bugs are a problem in that college town (which was also very true.) We sprayed the suitcases and a few items that couldn’t go in the dryer with rubbing alcohol, making sure to saturate all cracks. We were lucky in that the bugs were not able to hitch a ride to her new room.</p>

8

<p>This is a valid concern. I like the idea of leaving everything in a hot enclosed car in the summer sun for a few days, in addition to all of the other ideas offered. The experts recommend putting everything in the dryer for long periods of time, and then immediately sealing them into heavy duty plastic bags. Those heavy duty plastic bags can also be useful in the future to make sure you don’t pick up bed bugs from other people, including in hotels. </p>

<p>Also, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum and immediately dispose of the vacuum bags outside. </p>

9

<p>Been there. Three years and three thousand dollars ago. You have my deepest sympathies.</p>