I suspect I have bedbugs

Deadbeat

Deadbeat

Deadbeat

Soldato
Joined
26 May 2009
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I'm not sure, though. I can't find anything remotely like the horror pics you get of bugs 4 - 5 mm long hiding in the creases of the mattress, nor have I seen any reddish-brown stains anywhere on my bedding, but for a good hour or so after I retire at night my bed is itchy as hell and I'm sure I can feel the crawly little buggers. I'm also getting itchy bites on my scalp and chest. Blasting all my sheets on a 90C wash helped for one night, but certainly hasn't cured the problem.

Has anybody had much success with the home remedy kits - powders or foggers they can recommend? It's a somewhat decent mattress, but I've had it for a few years and it's nothing that can't be replaced with a £200 jobbie in the perennial furniture sales, and the quilt & pillows aren't anything special either. I'm on a metal frame with wooden slats, so do the slats need treating with anything before replacing my mattress? Would it be betteer to swap out the whole set rather than hire pest control?
 
Buy a carpet cleaner, and do the carpet & mattress with it?
Wash your whole bedding, including pillows?
Also dust down your room?
????
Profit!
 
It's all laminate flooring, so not much of a worry there, and I don't know if you can wash the pillows I have in the machine - I doubt I could fit my quilt in there, though I'm tempted to try with the boil wash again (including pillows and quilt, regardless of whether I should or not) and blitz my mattress up, down and along the sides with carpet cleaner and my ridiculously high-powered hoover before coating the entire thing in a layer of bug spray, heedless of the personal safety risk. It's getting really annoying, now.
 
My housemate had them... Was a major ballache.


Firstly, they leave little red marks on your skin, obviously itchy, they were kind of in lines too as they crawled across you...

Most were small, i.e. 1mm but the some would grow and if they had been feeding they were bigger and darker coloured.

Luckily, we had a good landlord. He took the bed (not just mattress) away, and got some guys in to professionally clean the carpet. He also put all his clothes bedding etc in a deep freeze for a few days after washing them all on hot.

But.. after buying housemate a new bed, they came back. So the whole house got carpets shampood, smoke bomb thing was put in housemates room, and he got another new bed.

That fixed it...
 
Hoover the mattress.
Seriously, we have a dyson and I emptied it before hoovering the mattress with the nozzle and I was astounded at the skin cells that were in the hopper at the end......after hoovering for about 10 mins there was at least an inch of dust in the bottom....mattress was only about 3 years old :eek:
 
You can't get rid of them by washing your sheets. The bugs hide in the bed nooks and crannies. You have to stip the bed naked and fumigate it which is a royal pain.

In case your bed is cheap you should just get all the clothing and blast it at max temp in the washer, throw away the bed, scrub every corner near/around the bed and fumigate corners etc. Buy new bed.

You should probably make changes to your lifestyle to avoid getting them again, obviously something is amiss hygiene wise :))
 
Some councils, mine included, will treat premises for bed bugs for free as they are considered a public health concern (like mice). It's worth asking. :)
 
We had bed bugs in my first year of uni (university accommodation). The students had to be sent home while the whole floor was fumigated because they didn't have alternative temporary rooms.

If you get them, you're pretty screwed as they can be *everywhere*. :eek:
 
You can buy a pesticide "bomb" for about £20, most pest controllers will use one of those first but charge you many times the price.

When it has been let off you need to keep the room clear for a few days, then hoover and apply bug spray in the other nooks and crannies.

You mattress may well need replacing too.
 
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