I have bed bugs and my room has been sprayed once, is this enough?
By Martin Beattie from London
We have been dealing with bedbugs for nearly 6 weeks, and are finally getting on top of the problem. We have not thrown everything out, we have not gotten rid of our mattresses, initially, we did. It didn't help. We replaced them, bought enclosure "bags" from Walmart, and Rid (lice bedding spray) from Walmart.
Then, we bought caulk to most closely match the colors in the room. I used Liquid Nails for the nail holes, but my husband was mad (it was easier for me than the caulking gun). I found that Clorox Cleaning Spray with Bleach (you want the bleach, I wanted a name I knew) kills the suckers on contact. We are on bottle 3. Buy a few large plastic totes/tubs that will support your miscellaneous items, your books, papers, etc.
Here is what we have done: remove everything you can from one room at a time. You cannot effectively treat the entire house in one fell swoop. Pack up one room, remove stuff from off the wall (I ended up throwing out some wood picture frames and keeping the pictures), if the item is large, trash bag it and duct tape it securely. Remove curtains, all material, and take immediately to washer/dryer. If clean already, then simply dry for 20-30 minutes on high.
Immediately remove it from dryer and seal it in tub/tote or remove to off-site location in trash bags. Vacuum all surfaces. Pull drawers out and set on floor, if bed frame is on floor use plastic dishes and water/mineral oil/whatever you want. Anything liquid seems to work to surround legs. If mattress sits on wooden frame, like our captains bed, get rid of it and go to a wooden leg or metal legged frame like a Hollywood which is what we went to. Once the room is vacuumed, take time to vacuum the rest of house, then get rid of the vacuum bag to an outside dumpster.
Return to the room with your Clorox cleaning spray. Spray all surfaces. We found what looked like mold at the old wooden window (we live in a house, we don't have the option of relocating), and turns out that is where the infestation was. We sprayed all over the bedroom, along the baseboard, the windows (top, bottom, inside, etc), the doorways (the jamb, all trim where it connected to the wall, etc.), the walls all around the room (we do not have carpeting in the house, this would have added to our nightmare).
Before daylight, we opened the bedroom door, armed with our Clorox, and sprayed anything we saw that moved, and then sprayed again all surfaces. During the next 2 days, we caulked all cracks, crevices, nail holes, baseboard areas, around outlet plates, etc. We could see the dead bugs still stuck to the wall.
The next morning, we washed the entire room with Magic Erase and hot water (we wore gloves). We then shut up the room, closed the door, lights off, and waited a few hours. We entered the room, blinded the buggers, and sprayed the ones we saw, watching to see if they headed anywhere in particular to hide. We sprayed the places around where they were, and left again for the night.
This past week, we started on my daughter's room, doing the same thing. If there is something I don't care if I keep, I pitched it. If there is something sentimental, I have packed it away. My room looks bare, her room looks bare, my living room is full of totes/tubs. There have not been any sightings in my living room or kitchen, so we are "living" there.
My daughter and I have seen 2 in her room today. It is now caulked, sprayed (her futon got sprayed with the RID then promptly enclosed in a Queen size "bag"), and has been left bare. We will continue to clean, having caulked the bedrooms, hallways, bathroom, hall closet, etc. while doing the rest of the 2 rooms.
I have a bath towel covering some of the window. My shelves have been caulked to the wall, my room smells "clean". I have not cried today. We will leave my daughter's room and ours bare for the rest of the month. We did bedbug foggers from Lowes and they don't work. We used bug spray that contains permethrin, it didn't work. The Clorox kills on contact and the caulk has them sealed in the walls hopefully to die, but this isn't a one-time application situation. We will be monitoring our rooms for weeks to come. If your neighbors have them, be extra secure about sealing the baseboard and nail holes in the shared walls. You can survive this. (09/13/2009)
By Lisa
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