I just went through an infestation last summer. They can move between apartment units. They like to hide in the AC outlets and also can crawl through the AC heating vents.
It took three visits from the exterminator and allot time and work on my part to get rid of them.
1. Treat your bed. You can buy mattress covers that will seal in the bedbugs for $50 at Walmart Target. Get two since most bedbugs love to hide in the box springs. Wash your headboard and endboard with Murphys Oil soap. Wash all bedding and make sure you dry it on hot setting four 2 hours. Pull the bed away from the wall. Place metal bottle lids on the bottom of the bed frame posts. This will keep the bugs from crawling up from the floor.
2. Clean all wood furniture with Murphys oil soap and be very thorough. Bedbugs love to hide where its dark. They will attach themselves to a bottom of dresser drawers.
3. Wash down the baseboards and have the carpet steamed cleaned. Also take the time to apply extra steam near the baseboards. They love to hide under the carpet near the track strip. I used a steam iron and wet towel along the baseboards to kill them off.
4. Now you need to inspect your living room furniture. If youre infected there. You will have to decide how much your time is worth saving your furniture. I was lucky. Since I live in Las Vegas. I was able to seal my sectional in plastic sheeting and place it in the hot sun when it was 110 and let it set for two days.
I found a couple of good forum threads after a Google search that was really helpful. One was at Something Awful.
In addition to what Raincity has stated; you can purchase a powder that they will track back to thenests and kill them. the powder needs to be spread whereever they will be traveling.
My daughter inherited an infestation after visiting her inlaws. She ended up tossing all her bedroom stuff; then asked me to replace it for her.
She located a powder online that was eco-friendly and used it with no problems afterwards. It was about $50 for a 2-3 room application - guarenteed results.
Oil and heat will kill them where they are accessible to you.
Do you remember the name of this powder offhand?
I think they crawl up walls, not through them :^D
I imagine it's just a new infestation. They have to eat. They weren't just hanging out inside the walls starving to death, and hoping someone would set them free :^D
Do you remember the name of this powder offhand?
The only powder I learned that works is boric acid and diatomaceous earth. I passed on the boric acid since I have a cat and did not want the powder getting on his paws. The only place I could find diatomaceous earth locally was at a local nursery and they only sold it in 10 pound bags. Extreme heat and cold is only sure fire way to kill them. At the resort where I work. They use a portable furnace to treat infected rooms. They toss the mattress and box springs. Then use the portable furnace to heat the room to 140 degrees for four hours and treat the residing rooms the same way.
Ok... at least now I'm on the right track. Next stop I'll be heading to walmart for dry ice, and a catfood dish. I looked around online and found several different powders, so I'll try and order some and see how it performs.
It sounds like a gigantic pain in the rear to create a circle of powder around my bed but it will be better than constantly getting bit up every night.
The only powder I learned that works is boric acid and diatomaceous earth. I passed on the boric acid since I have a cat and did not want the powder getting on his paws. The only place I could find diatomaceous earth locally was at a local nursery and they only sold it in 10 pound bags. Extreme heat and cold is only sure fire way to kill them. At the resort where I work. They use a portable furnace to treat infected rooms. They toss the mattress and box springs. Then use the portable furnace to heat the room to 140 degrees for four hours and treat the residing rooms the same way.
Yeah, I know of a place that treated them by using a large pan of water with a heating element. They would put it in the middle of the room with a small CO2 tank emitting gas and turn it on. Leave it for a week and you'd have hundreds of dead bugs floating in near-boiling water.
Wow... sounds pretty weird, I don't know if the landlord would allow that though.
Actually this sounds promising. I'm looking to tackle this from a DIY perspective; any ideas on where I could get a cheap heating element? I'm going to pick up the dry ice on my way home today along with the 1/3 gallon container to let the CO2 leak out from.
I was thinking some more about it, and realized that when my wife and I first moved into the apt we had a few bites here and there. It wasn't the crazy amount she has now (literally 30 - 40 bite marks starting from her ankle all the way to her chest), but we did have a few here and there.
I'm thinking now they must have been there all along and just started breeding. I need to get this under control quickly before it becomes a full fledged infestation.
www.begbugpowder.comIn addition to what Raincity has stated; you can purchase a powder that they will track back to the nests and kill them. the powder needs to be spread wherever they will be traveling.
My daughter inherited an infestation after visiting her inlaws. She ended up tossing all her bedroom stuff; then asked me to replace it for her.
She located a powder online that was eco-friendly and used it with no problems afterwords. It was about $50 for a 2-3 room application - guaranteed results.
Oil and heat will kill them where they are accessible to you.
Do you remember the name of this powder offhand?
Yeah, I know of a place that treated them by using a large pan of water with a heating element. They would put it in the middle of the room with a small CO2 tank emitting gas and turn it on. Leave it for a week and you'd have hundreds of dead bugs floating in near-boiling water.