How Handle Bedbugs

nope. Nope.

No, I don't.

Someone posted about a month ago that she came home and had three bumps on her arm so she had her home tented and fumigated because on another trip she saw a bedbug and had the house fumigated. She sounds as obsessed as your friends who stick stuff in the freezer and are afraid to unpack. So my suggestion is when you get home, take off your clothes outside and make a bonfire with all your luggage and clothing and decontaminate yourself and family with DDT...just to be safe.

There are many misconceptions about Bed Bugs. Whenever I need to read about getting rid of any bug, animal or critter, I go to BugSpray.com. They're the internet's largest seller of professional pest control items, animal traps and whatever it takes to rid yourself of unwanted pests.

And on Bed Bugs, please read the following for the way to handle them: http://www.bugspray.com/article/bedbugs.html

There's no reason to tent any house for any insect--even brown recluse spiders.

What a great website! I liked their advice on getting rid of pantry moths, which used to infest my kitchen, when I had a big kitchen back in Wisconsin. Here in NYC we have other issues. :)

Thanks for the posting.

Pam

When returning from Europe, we leave our suitcases with their contents in our laundry room, unpack everything and wash everything that is washable in hot water and use a hairdryer on hot to go over our suitcases. We leave the suitcases down in our laundry room until we need to use them again. Anything that is not washable goes into plastic tubs with sealable lids until we need them again. Never had a problem in Europe/Washington but had a bad infestation in Hawaii in my apartment.

I don't set my bag on any surface where bedbugs might be hiding (anything carpeted or upholstered). I'll set it on the dresser, on a shelf, on a seat (that isn't upholstered), hang it by a hook, or - worst case - set it on a tile floor. If there are bedbugs, which I've yet to encounter, I want them to stay where they are and not hitch a ride in my bag.

Why woud you want to handle a bedbug? Just squash the thing and step away.

I found a bedbug in a hotel in good ol' Chicago, but I've never found a bug in Europe or in any other hotel in this country. Cold does not kill bedbugs. Heat does. 20 minutes in a dryer will kill them on clothing, bedding, or anything else. I attended a bedbug seminar in Chicago a few weeks ago and listened to a bedbug expert. She said if a product isn't specifically designed to kill bedbugs, it will not work. There are lots of myths out there, such as putting dryer sheets under your mattress to keep bugs away.

They're hard to get rid of for several reasons: siblings can breed with each other; bugs can survive on only ONE meal per year; and there just aren't very many ways to kill them.

where ever I go I pull up the fitted sheet and look,, if I see no bugs.. good.. lol

I do nothing else but usually keep my suitcase off upolstered things or beds.

I used to do nothing but keep my bag off the floor, the bed, the luggage rack, etc. and only place it on a desk, dresser, or whatever. I may have even pulled back the fitted sheet for a quick look. Then, a family member had a bed bug issue in a dorm room while studying abroad. That spooked me a bit, and I started taking a few additional minor precautions, such as looking b/n the mattress and box springs, checking the stitched corners of the mattress, and just generally doing a more thorough overview. I didn’t like doing this…god knows what you’ll find other than bed bugs…nasty. Plus, this was time consuming, and I always got hotter than hell doing it. I then learned that you’ll almost never see bed bugs this way, even when they’re present, because they most often live in the box spring itself, and who’s going to actually get on their hands and knees with a flashlight (or completely tear the bed apart, lifting up the box spring for an inspection, etc.)? Not me. Now, I’m back to not doing very much & just taking my chances. I do my best with reviews…when bed bugs are mentioned, I scratch the place off of my list. I’m actually a little more concerned about picking them up from the overhead bin during flights. Still, when I come home late at night, I take my bags upstairs like usual and don’t worry about it. There’s no way I’m doing laundry and separating crap in the garage at midnight after 23 hours of traveling home. I’m a little freaked out at the thought of an infestation, but I try to keep things in perspective.