frozenboxhauler

I sleep on the bathroom floor sometimes
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Lindy

Bed Bug Registry - Check Apartments and Hotels Across North America

Received this in an email -- good for domestic

LeineLodge

I brought these little bastards home about 3 years ago. They are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of on your own. As some others have mentioned, some people do not react to being bitten, thus you will not realize you have a problem until you have a BIG problem. I never showed any bite marks, but my wife got eaten alive.

Signs that you have bed bugs vs. spider or mosquito bites (like we originally thought were the culprit):

-the bite marks look like mosquito bites, but are usually in a line of 2-5 bites

-the rust colored blood marks on the sheets are a dead giveaway. the exterminator didn't even lift the mattress when he saw the sheets. He knew that we had bedbugs.


We tried everything from putting EVERYTHING in the dryer, throwing my old rollaboard away, putting the mattress and boxspring outside for a week in the winter - we live in Wisconsin and supposedly anything below 0 degrees F will kill them, but it didn't. None of this worked. My wife finally got sick of my ineptitude and called several exterminators (Orkin was the worst). We started with mattress encasements and heavy sprays. Finally we went with an independent exterminator specializing in bedbugs. After 3 biweekly treatments we were able to get rid of them. We have them come back once a quarter to spray just for grins.

Prevention is the key as they are very hard to eradicate once you get them in your house. Use the luggage rack in the hotel rooms. Leave the rollaboard in the garage, and take your clothes directly to the washer. Don't put your bag on the floor of a hotel room, this just invites them in.

If you do get them in your house, get aggressive early. You don't want them spreading around your house into the couch, chairs, carpet, etc.

I wouldn't wish these little bastards on anyone. They supposedly don't transmit disease, but will annoy your wife who will, in turn, annoy the crap out of you!

Ferd149

Everything Leine said above. My wife is PARANOID about me bringing them home. STD, no problem..........."bed bugs, your a dead man" <--only a slight exaggeration.

Best one liner I heard on a TV show talking about how to avoid/get rid of the little ba...rds.

"The BAD news is they don't transmit disease". "If they did, there would be more of a priority by chemists, etc to find something that would kill them" (now that DDT is illegal).

acl65pilot

As Buzz stated Home Depot has a spray. It was on sale last month so I stocked up.

Rnav

Try REI or another online camping store. They sell sleeping bag liners that are relatively cheap and keep a barrier between you and the sheets. I use to carry one in my rollerboard. Rolls up into a cola-can size bag. Very light and as soon as you get home throw it in the wash. I also never used the comforter since they never clean those, and the liner helped keep me warm if it was cold.

BigTime

Go out and buy a memory foam mattress. They can live on top, but cannot live inside the foam mattress. Wash your sheets and blankets frequently and you should not have to worry about bringing them home to your bed.

Boomer

Be advised on New York overnights, that feces and blood on the sheets are not necessarily evidence of bed bugs.

80ktsClamp

You guys suck. ACL posted something on my facebook wall about bed bugs last night and then I read this thread right afterwards.

Of course I'm on the downtown NYC layover, so I was tossing and turning freaking out at every little itch that my now paranoid brain created or thought it got.

KC10 FATboy

On my last layover at the short layover hotel at LGA, I found two porno mags underneath the mattress. haha

I'm sorry 80ktsclamp that we freaked you out.