Bedbugs: What do I do?

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Bedbugs: What do I do?

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Mom has bedbugs. I haven't heard from the care company yet, but I assume they'll pause services. I havent been active in mom's life since early summer (see prev posts). I do not want to go care for her and bring these things home. They're only in her recliner that I know of. Her bed is a plastic hospital mattress on a metal frame and it's fine. I could throw out the recliner but it was so expensive.

How can I find emergency respite for my mom?

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Some assisted living facilities have rooms for a temporary stay, primarily so caregivers can go on vacation. Call to see if any facilities nearby have a room available.

Good luck!

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If you are lucky, send M in with freshly washed clothes in a plastic garbage bag, not with a suitcase. The bug(gers) can get into the joints.

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This product kills bed bugs. Also local Wal-Mart's sell bed bug sprays too.

https://www.naturalginesis.com/kleen-green-enzymes-concentrate/

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I looked up your site reference, which says that the product works in “removing and eliminating dirt, germs, bacteria, odors and pests including bed bugs, lice, scabies, crabs, fleas, mites and more, naturally!” The problem with bed bugs is that they hide – under peeling wallpaper, in wooden furniture joints etc. The contact with miracle ‘KleenGreen’ would need to be pretty good to fix them, even if a bug would die if squirted directly.

I met bedbugs in India 50 years ago, where they had single beds with a simple wooden framework, held together with a rope mesh sling that did duty as a mattress support (actually nice and cool in hot weather). For bed bug removal, the whole thing was taken to bits to get at the bugs in the joints. The rope was dunked and the frame parts were fired. Then it could all be reassembled. I have some doubts as to whether a natural surface spray would be as effective.

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Bed bugs are the most insidious parasites. Does your mom have bites? Bites are not generally a health issue but it could indicate how bad the situation is.

If it were me I would call a professional exterminator who has proven experience in eliminating bed bugs and ask them what you should do. These professionals typically use very high heat to eliminate an infestation. It's expensive, like hundreds per room in my area, unfortunately but I have heard that the high heat is the only solution. Bed bugs are a major problem in many areas. Even Paris, France is dealing with a citywide infestation.

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High heat IS NOT the best or only solution.

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If you think they are only in the recliner, get it outside quick. You may be able to take it to a pest company for treatment, without doing the whole house. And with luck the house should still OK to live in.

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You’re going to need a professional exterminator. It’s rare that bedbugs would only be in her recliner. Ask an exterminator for a free appraisal of the situation.

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moms place sprayed the chair and that brand had powder form as well, then tightly wrapped the chair with industrial thick black plastic sheeting, and left it outside in sun for a few days….you have to make sure every inch of that chair is wrapped in that plastic.. you csn find it at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
I remember that worked. It’s been a few years.. what brand chair? I’m thinking of getting something for DH. Thinking about trying to find a used one, but since you mentioned bedbugs.. not do sure..
I talk with this gentleman who travels a lot. He puts his suitcase directly into the bathtub when he gets home and removes the contents as he’s checking for bedbugs.
I don’t travel much, so never occurred to me to go that..
how big are bedbugs? I don’t know if I ever met one.

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You say you are not active in contact with your mother. This is no time to undo that.

So who IS active. Because this is their problem.

It will be difficult to impossible to find respite for someone bringing in things infested with the eggs of bedbugs, which her things ALL will be from clothing on.

The house needs treatment and this is fumigation and may be needing to be done TWICE. Bedbugs can infest EVERYWHERE and typically between carpets and floorboards. They will be in every crack and crevice. This is a total nightmare.

To me you are either in or out with Mom but back and forth isn't going to work, especially in crisis situations such as this. Report to APS if you like, but my advice is to stay away lest you have the SAME problem. My neighbor rented her home out while she was in Europe through Airbnb and the result was a nightmare of bedbugs.

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I would order 20#s of food grade diatomateous earth and get it sprinkled around her house. Every place on the recliner, turning it over to get hidden areas, other furniture, her bedroom, around all the base boards, just everywhere. This will look terribly messy, don't worry, it is completely harmless, it is what is put in our grains to stop bugs.

Then you leave it. This will deal with the bedbugs problem but, it takes time. It is more effective then a professional exterminator and pennies comparatively. Not to mention it is completely safe for humans and animals.

Unfortunately, we are living in a world that this problem is here to stay. Learning to treat the problem without expensive, dangerous bug sprays is vital to keep out homes safe.

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The diatamatious earth (food grade), online remedies and even alcohol are only DETERANTS. These will not eradicate them. Every female lays 10 or more eggs daily. If she's got them in the recliner chances she has them in other places of her house. The only way to be sure to eliminate them for good is a reliable exterminator. It's expensive, but believe me, if you've got them that's the only way. I know first hand.

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Call APS and ask how this can be handled. Mom needs to be somewhere safe. I would also consider placing her now.

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Call a professional exterminator immediately. All the home remedies only deter. Those things lay eggs daily. After you've called the exterminator, do all you can to find out who brought them in. It's also possible mom may have gone to an appointment and brought them home, Bus seats are notorious.

Don't think you'll take her somewhere to have the home treated, you're guilty of spreading them.

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My mother had this problem in her home, denied it to me (I am out of state) but learned about it on a visit to her. The problem grew exponentially. Bedbugs can live up to a year without a host to draw blood from. I called the State of NC Bed Bug agency. Get a professional exterminator immediately!! No substitute for this. The care agency will NOT continue in her home

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Diatameaceous Earth sprinkled all Over everything , wipe down what ever you can with 91% alcohol ( Plastic or chair ) High heat for cushions . Throw out what you can . Recliner's are tough I Left my expensive one behind and my Mattress at a building where we were Infested . I would throw out suit cases and Pillows , blankets and rugs . Honestly they are hard to get rid of . Even with the Poison . The ER Doctors will tell you get rid of everything . They come Out at Night and suck on your Blood and then hide . They will leave Blood droppings on your sheets and a rash and Bubbles on your upper arms and toes . I had to Pick bed bug heads out of my toes .

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Also, does your mother live in a detached home or an attached home or apartment? Bed bugs can, and do, move with ease between adjacent walls. In some places there are laws that make the tenants responsible; other places require the owner to rectify the problem. The worst case in attached dwellings is that your problem becomes someone else's and then you become responsible for your place and others places. Really. It can be that bad.

Bed bugs are the most insidious parasites. The exist only to feed off of blood. They can hide so well that you wouldn't believe it! You may not know you have an infestation until it's well underway. That's why I said to check for bites. Some people are immune. Take care of the issue asap.

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Lisa, When the bedbug problem occurred next door to me (we are divided by their wall, a a sidewalk, a fence, our sidewalk and another wall, they told me and said that I could consider putting up a line of defense just "in case" of diatomaceous earth. Which I did. Don't know if it worked, but we didn't get an infestation at all. They however, had a true time of it. It was a nightmare for them and the end of their airbnb rentals when they go to Europe half the year.

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I have posted this before but momma had bed bugs in assisted living and it was horrible. I live out of state so when the facility called me to tell me about it we had to move momma to a vacant room, spray her apartment, throw away all bed linens, and either wash or put her clothes in the dryer on high heat. Mind you I did this at least three or four times and every time I did the facility charged momma an extra $400.00 and something to spray. Then later I found out that my brother was bringing them in because he had them at his house. Then I found out my sister and neice had them too at their houses. Nobody told me. So with medical POA I banned all of them from coming into mommas apartment. Didn't work because bro was sneaking pass through the lobby up to mommas apartment. Facility has him on camera. The last time momma got bed bugs from bro and the facility called me to drive five hrs over there to come clean it up I said no bro can clean it up and I will not be charged the $400.00 to spray. You can charge bro. The money we spent was unbelieveable! We had to buy a new couch too!

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Read my posts. You did the right thing. You were stuck the first time, and when you found out where they came from you did the right thing again by stopping their visitations. If the facility let him slip through, that just became their problem. Now that you know where they came from and now the facillity knows, he can be sued in small claims court. If he's such a sneak, likely it would be like squeezing blood from a turnip.

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Your mother has a hell of a problem on her hand. I had never experienced bedbugs until my family and I went on vacation to Ocean City, Maryland and the hotel room was infested with bedbugs. The first night we spent in the hotel we did not know that it had bedbugs until we woke up the next morning around 6:00 am with bites on our legs and arms and blood on the bed linings. Upon checking the mattresses and beds, there were bedbugs in the crevices. We immediately got showered and dressed and reported the problem to the front desk and they sent someone to check the room. We immediately checked out and went home even though the room was booked by us for five nights. The hotel reimbursed our money for the stay. When we got back to our state, we had to throw away the suitcases and all of our clothing in the dumpster as I was not going to take a chance to have those bugs in my house.

You need to have an exterminator come into your mother’s place and fumigate it. The exterminator will explain whether you should throw away your mother’s recliner, etc.

Good luck in getting rid of these bedbugs.

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"we had to throw away the suitcases and all of our clothing"

You didn't need to throw away the clothing. If you put them in the dryer on high heat for like 30 minutes it should eliminate any possibility of live bugs.

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I've replied to this problem earlier as well as some who have given home remedies. Some may well have been Google remedies and are NOT efficient for dealing with bedbugs period.

If bedbugs are known to be in one spot in the home, likely they are in other places. I'd bet if you lifted the mattress and looked at the frame of the you're going to find them. They will get into the walls. You can't just treat one spot, you have to treat the entire home. Bedbugs have made a big comeback since WWII.

A good, honest, reliable exterminator who treats for bed bugs MUST be called. Not all exterminators spray or treat for bed bugs. I do say reliable, because it may take more than one treatment to completely eradicate them. Once the home is sprayed with all switch plates and wall plug covers remmoved, it may well need to be heat treated. That's the least expensive way. Tenting is a whole other story and extremely expensive.

I've dealt with them so I know now how to get rid of them. All from a friend of our daughters we didn't know had them who stayed with us only 1 night. That's all it takes.

IF she lives in an apartment with adjacent walls, neighbors should be notified. If you're in and out of the home, besure to strip and launder in the hottest water possible to kill them or you're going to have them also.

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I've replied to this problem earlier as well as some who have given home remedies. Some may well have been Google remedies and are NOT efficient for dealing with bedbugs period.

If bedbugs are known to be in one spot in the home, likely they are in other places. I'd bet if you lifted the mattress and looked at the frame of the you're going to find them. They will get into the walls. You can't just treat one spot, you have to treat the entire home. Bedbugs have made a big comeback since WWII.

A good, honest, reliable exterminator who treats for bed bugs MUST be called. Not all exterminators spray or treat for bed bugs. I do say reliable, because it may take more than one treatment to completely eradicate them. Once the home is sprayed with all switch plates and wall plug covers remmoved, it may well need to be heat treated. That's the least expensive way. Tenting is a whole other story and extremely expensive. If tenting is done, make sure they know what they're doing. We had one tent our 2 story home and only treat the downstairs. We had them back 2 more times, then they just plain disappeared.

I've dealt with them so I know now how to get rid of them. All from a friend of our daughters we didn't know had them who stayed with us only 1 night. That's all it takes.

IF she lives in an apartment with adjacent walls, neighbors should be notified. If you're in and out of the home, besure to strip and launder in the hottest water possible to kill them or you're going to have them also.

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Update:
Mom's apartment was vacuumed, sprayed, and cleaned. We didn't find too many. The ones we did find were young but who knows how many there are. I washed all of her dirty linens in hot water and dried hot. Luckily her bed is in a wrap and frame is metal (hospital bed). Not good bb habitat.

DSS is having new power recliner delivered Monday which is a blessing. We are throwing out the old ones. They're kinda gross anyways.

This is probably not the last time she gets them let's be real..not if theyre in the walls. APS is doing an investigation on the building. I think the building needs a yearly treatment of apprehend which is a fungal spore that kills bed bugs as it spreads through the whole colony but they'll need pressure from the state to do that because anybody with bed bugs can spread them to public transit, movie theaters, offices. We'll end up like Paris!

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Who did the spraying? A professional extermination company I hope!

What state do you live in? There are some states that require the landlord to rectify the problem. Other states makes the tenant responsible. If the bed bugs spread to adjacent apartments the tenant that started the infestation will be responsible for those apartments! That can be thousands of dollars.

Having bed bugs is typically a major, very unpleasant, time consuming, expensive life event.

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I hate to tell you but bed bugs don’t stay confined to one piece of furniture- the recliner has more of them but they’re travelled bugs they begin to spread out to other areas, including behind picture frames, clothing, shoes, slippers socks drawers etc- in other words the solution isn’t unfortunately to treat or throw the recliner away, the entire room needs to be treated involving bagging up all clothing bedding etc- edit to say I posted before seeing the update, yes they get in the walls and crevices in buildings / housing complexes there
are companies that deal with that and the entire building often times they will have to tent to fumigate

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Call an extermination company, maybe they can perform their services in her yard?

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Buy an industrial use Steam Cleaner and spray, bag, wash, HOT dry EVERYTHING! Steam all nooks and crannies!
Then do it again and again!
Costs less on the long run than pros! Powders, sprays etc are a waste of $$
Put the $$ into a steam cleaner…so you can repeat treating the area and you have it for many other uses!
They use these steam cleaners in hotels…Vapor’s-D65-AV
Good Luck 😊

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aj6044: Use a professional extermination company as you'll have to be careful for reinfestation.

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It is not clear to me where your mother is located.
Is she residing at a facility?
That they need to manage getting rid of the BBugs?

In any case, someone needs to handle this ASAP.
They also can travel in-between buildings / walls.

Ask a professional before you toss out anything.
And clarify where she is. If not in your home and in a facility, they should - and may legally be required - to take full financial responsibility.

I am saddened that you and your mom need to go through this.
Life is hard enough.

Gena / Touch Matters

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Get a pest control company appointment. Do whatever they suggest.

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