all of your gummy bears will melt

Hey Nez - would you mind posting a trip report on the aftermath of your thermal treatment? Could be educational for all of us.

I do recall reading on some forum (the 2p2 for bed bugs) that someone who underwent a thermal treatment - basically her stuff was unscathed, save for some warping of plastic CD cases. Hm, actually I can't remember exactly what this person said about her electronics....

I teach in a district where a good percentage of the students are on free or reduced lunch meaning they are somewhat poor. Last year I found bed bugs in my classroom at least 20 times. By the end of the year the kids didn't even flinch when they saw one. Someone would grab a Kleenex and kill it. Luckily I didn't bring any home (knocks on wood for next year).

lol don't knock too hard, might disturb some peacefully resting bed bugs.

Yup, will do for sure.

Interesting. I know a lot about bed bugs but somehow wasn't able to put two and two together, I really think there are bedbugs in the laundry room of my apartment building. I didn't think they would hang out there because I see them sometimes during the day (although I am more likely to find them hanging out inside a washing machine and have found them in dryers after the drying cycle meaning either they aren't bedbugs or the dryers are weak).

But if they do come out during the day sometimes, pretty sure they are bedbugs. Moving in a week, my apartment is right next to the laundry room, should I just dump all my furniture? If thermal treatments work, I'd rather just gamble I don't have them and get a thermal treatment, seems cheaper than replacing everything.

Yeah - that is really weird if these are bed bugs - standard dryer heat gets well above the recommend temp to kill bed bugs and their eggs (hence the many washing/drying of clothes for a fresh, guaranteed non-infected set to wear about so you don't transmit to others).

Bed bugs are nocturnal, so I guess I don't follow? Oh n/m I understand now:

I don't think bed bugs are all that active during the daytime, are primarily nocturnal and hate light. But if you were to disturb their sleeping/resting area, they would of course move about. But it's uncommon to see them during the day I believe.

Are you getting any bites? I mean this doesn't really sound like bed bugs in the laundry room based on your description - if anything they'd be near where you sleep - bed bugs are lazy creatures and typically find hiding places near their hosts so they don't have to crawl that far.

If you really see them crawling around, just capture one and see if it appears to be a bed bug. You can go to an area entomologist to confirm. Or really even look online - bed bugs have a very distinct appearance - very flat, brown ridged back etc.

If it is bed bugs, not sure what I'd do if I was moving soon. Would have to think about it.

Thanks, dude and good luck! Thermal treatment from all the stuff I've read really seems like a great option. Heat kills!

Sorry maybe I missed this - but where do you live?

MD - just occurred to me - I believe baby cockroaches can look alot like bed bugs. Random shot in the dark, but thought it might be worth mentioning to you.

Also - if you're renting - the laws are a bit gray on this (perhaps a lawyer can qualify) but you can make a pretty good argument under the "Warrant of Habitability" that if you suspect bed bugs your landlord will pay for an inspection. And most landlords will pay for both inspection and extermination (again, think this is a gray legal area of enforceability in LA).

But really - any non idiotic landlord should pay for everything and get the process going because if they don't treat the problem early, it will get really difficult to eradicate them.

And as a courtesy/the right thing to do for your landlord and other tenants, you may want to alert the landlord to your suspicions although from your description, doesn't sound like bed bugs to me but who knows.

I live in Plano, TX. Texas has been seeing a big increase in bed bugs in general.

The University of Texas at Dallas dorms have had an outbreak of them which is like three miles from our house. But they obviously don't spread like that, they need to be transported by people/furniture/luggage or whatever.

I have read that the Disney resorts/hotels are thoroughly infested.

I can't imagine candles would do too well. 140F is fairly warm

Ugh, I'll use my anti one time plz thanks.

Big ****ing LOL @ UT-Dallas being infested. Is it the new dorms of the ridiculously ****tastic apartments?

Ah, makes sense considering how much travel occurs through Dallas/Ft-Worth area.

Definitely increases your risk when having a huge outbreak near where you shop, eat out, etc. etc. Stupid college kids take them from their dorm rooms to wherever it is they go out to. Though it sounds like your bed was the culprit

I'd imagine that college campuses are huge potential breeding grounds of bed bug infestation - off the top of my head I've read Stanford and Columbia had issues. I'm sure many more have in the past couple years.

I know in NYC, the most paranoid of bed bugs people will refuse to sit on NYC subway benches because they are made of wood.

Brian-

The bed bug outbreak was from a couple years ago, they say that its under wraps now. I was just using that as an example of local outbreak that has been seen in the Dallas area

Yep, Disney paying off guests to keep quiet about bedbugs

It's a mouse conspiracy. Sounds like a new character is in order.

Had them back in 2004. I was sharing a sweet 3 bedroom in manhattan with 1 female and 1 male roommate.

At first we thought it was the females fault. She was a super hot dominican girl, that would party and every now and then bring a guy home or she would sleet
wp somewhere else. She had been living with us for 2 months when the bugs were discovered.

The other roommate was a 6 foot 4 300 pound black dude who never ever would even let us peek into his room. At this point we had been sharing the place for 6 months.

We called terminex (not the best choice). The sprayed everything. Even the guys room. And when then lifted his mattress. BED BUGS galore. What a pig. We all left the apartment for a week. When I came back it seemed like all was great. 1 week later more bugs. We tried to clean again. No luck. In the end we all had to move out. Throw out furniture and put the rest in storage wrapped in shrink wrap.

Moral of the story. Slutty women carry crabs not bed bugs.

Hah, but that was from several years ago. I think now though, for luxury hotels that can afford it, the trend is not to hide and pay people off, but attack the problem head on as it's become so commonplace to have a bed bug infestation.

Several hotels in SF make it public that they have a monthly inspection with bed bug dogs, for example. I'm sure many in NYC tout this type of proactive service as well to prove to guests they are on top of any potential problems.

Although, I doubt guest services is instructed to disclose to guests that they have had a bed bug problem in the past, or an on-going one.

Sorry to be posting so much, I guess I just am recalling things I read about the bed bug but:

Bed bugs have a typical life span of around 11 months, and can actually survive for up to a year without feeding.

So, if for some reason, you should choose to get the eff out of your infested home, and move, but keep infested valuables in storage (wrapped in shrink wrap of in a ziploc bag) for a while - you would need to wait for more than a year to ensure the f'in bed bugs are totally dead before retrieving your items.

A friend of mine can't go to the movies anymore because his wife is terrified of them. I used to be in the "people are over reacting about them in NYC" camp, but more and more people I hear are getting them. These little ****ers are absurd.

Godammit that 'Jan 11' threw me off, thought it was this year.

Do you think the city is getting it under control? I know Bloomberg has made alot of announcements about educating exterminators, getting actions plans in place etc. But it just seems like a very difficult thing to manage in a city like New York that is very apartment heavy with tons of public transport.

Definitely I'm sure there is a lot of overreacting about bed bugs (most people I know in NYC have never had an issue) - but it's definitely not a problem to ignore if you live in a hotspot area, and something to be very aware of.

After educating myself on the horrors of bed bugs, I wondered if I moved back to NYC if I would modify my normal behavior (like going to movie theaters and stuff). I seriously am not sure - I mean I'd hope I wouldn't, but who knows getting bed bugs is a huge pain in the ass, and can be very, very costly!

I really had no idea there was any government/bloomberg action plan before this thread so I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Although now that pokers done maybe I'll get myself a bed bug dog and profit!

The wood from the plastic tree?

Thanks for all the info Al, although you ruined my plans tonight. Was gonna see "Horrible Bosses" with my girlfriend but I checked that site you posted and the theater we were going to had 3 posts about bed bugs in the last 2 weeks. Once I told her that, the night was over!

Haha I guess I'm referring to the older benches with wood as the seat part? IDK - I just know what I heard man.

I hope you're not being serious - not that I ruined your plans, but that a movie theater actually had 3 reported incidents about bed bugs in the past 2 weeks! God, NYC sucks wth why does anyone live there? Expensive, horrible weather, and bed bugs galore!