Bed Bugs: some tips for you all Post Reply

[jorigby]

I never write on here but I wanted to share my experience with bed bugs to help out anyone of you who may have them (and you may not know that you have). You may itch reading this, however it may save you stress and financial loss some time in the future. I have heard from the bug treatment people that bed bugs are up 200% in London, a result of us travelling more frequently.

I have a loft bedroom for my au pair. The previous one left in August. She used to sleep at friends every weekend. I don't really know where she slept but I wish I had been more vigilant about what she was bringing back. As I stripped the bed I saw a lone bed bug. I killed it and spent the next week checking the mattress, and was overjoyed not to find anymore. This was a massive mistake!

Rule number 1: if you find a bed bug, then there are a lot more behind the scenes.

My next au pair arrived in late August. No bites reported. All seemed good.

Rule number 2: Around 20% of us have no reaction to their bites

She went home at Christmas, leaving the room empty for 10 days. She had been home about one hour when she noticed bed bugs crawling on the bed. They had sensed the heat and were coming out on mass.

I called a pest control company. They treated the room. Didn't leave me any instructions so I hoovered up for two hours. I called them the next day to book the second treatment, only to hear that I shouldn't have hoovered. I called out a second company as I had no confidence they had done a good job.

Rule 3: put this number in your phone now. If you spot a bed bug then you need these people on your side. They are the kings of killing bed bugs. 02088 193 173. The Bed Bug Hunters. Don't bother googling for solutions/info just call them in.

The guy from Bed Bug Hunters spent one hour checking my house for signs. They do not live in your mattress. They live in the wooden bed frame or divan. They live under the bed. So if you are checking your sheets and lifting up your mattress thinking 'nothing here', then get someone to help you lift the bed up and check the wooden slats and frame with a torch.

He also advised me to destroy the bed frame. Again, they don't like living in mattresses, they need dark corners. Mattress was fine. Bed frame cost £600 last year from MADE, and I spent yesterday unscrewing it and wrapping it in cling film.

Rule 4: NEVER carry ANYTHING from the infested room through the house. Wrap it all up in plastic or clingfilm so nothing drops out and starts the living hell again!

Rule 5: Metal beds are best for spare rooms or rooms where the occupant sleeps away regularly. Bed bugs struggle to get up metal so it is a deterrent.

The entire episode has wiped me out financially for a few months. It has cost me over £1000 to treat the room, replace the bed and buy new bedding.

I have made it a rule to check every bed each month by lifting it up and seeing what lies beneath. If you can face it, google bed bug casings and faeces. It is more likely you will see these if you have an infestation than seeing a live bug. I will also be doing the same in every hotel bed I stay in.

As an extra piece of watch out: I bought a rug from West Elm. It arrived on Friday. We were lying on it playing, and you couldn't make this up, Bug Bingo, when I saw that it was crawling with fleas. It is now wrapped back up in the back garden waiting for them to take it away. Check what is coming into your house!

I now have to wait 12 months to know if I am bug free, a bed bug egg can lay dormant for all that time. I really wouldn't wish this on anyone so please do check your beds regularly. Advise your teenagers to do the same when they sleep at friend's houses or go on school trips away.

Don't let the bed bugs bite!

[jorigby]

Absolutely right. Keep suitcases off the bed! Check Air BnB beds out before you get in. Don't rely on reading a bad review, it isn't obvious to everyone that they have been bitten. A good hotel will get rooms inspected regularly using specially trained sniffer dogs.

[leapyearbaby]

My friend had a problem with bugs. I'm not exaggerating when I say it drove him mad. He had his bedroom treated. To no avail. Moved into the living room sofa bed. They moved on too. He eventually moved out and left most of his belonging. He was one who was aware of bites and reacted badly. He got ill with sleep deprivation.

He never knew the source. But a few possibles. They seemed to appear not long after his sister in law visited from a long haul trip. Mucho luggage. He gave her his room when she stayed. But his commute took him through Gatwick rail station. Another risk. And finally his next door flat had a very raid turnover for years then lay vacant and unlet. The timing of the vacancy fit. Did bugs chase tenants away each time? Did they move through to him due to starvation?

All just bloody awful. I never set foot in that flat again the second he discovered them. He'd wake. Throw covers back and shine a torch and they were on him. Horrific.

Behind his bed was quite old fashioned build up cupboards and a ledge/headboard etc. Wall to wall. Copious amounts of hiding spaces.

His whole experience has made me beyond phobic.

[jorigby]

How awful. The bed was taken away today, all wrapped in cling film. I really hope that is the end of it. Did he manage to get rid of them in the end?

[leapyearbaby]

No. He moved out. He told the property agents but they still showed it!'

Never rent a property by the bottom exit from crystal palace park!

[Continental]

@petal.

I have never heard any of my 'continental' friends having bed bugs problems whereas I have heard a lot about it in the UK. Maybe the Brits are taking them to the 'Continent' when you go there on holidays?

Never in my life I have had problems in Spain, Italy or France. On the other hand, 20 years ago when I was looking for rental accommodation in London, bed bugs would be have been the least of your worries in some of the flats.

Please try to be a bit less disrespectful with the 'continent'. It already has a terrible opinion of the English, not helped by Brexit or the way some behave while on holidays.

Instead of being so polite and formal when you talk, you should try and be a bit less rude and unkind in your meaning, specially when referring to other countries or even full 'continents'.

[yourgardenroom]

We had a minor infestation to one bed after a trip to the US 3 years ago, luckily we have wooden floors and after two weekends away where I fumigated everything especially at floor level, with pet flea spray- apparently they like to hide in the skirting gaps during the day and crawl up the bed legs at night. if you have a bed which has just legs in contact with the floor then smooth sided shallow plastic bowls under the feet are one way to stop them from climbing up the legs infesting a new bed. Then a new bed and matress and we were clear. that was three years ago.
God can you imagine if we got like the US where they are constantly having to fumigate...
JJ