I have just found a bedbug on my microfiber sectional last night, and was wondering if I am able to spray my sofa with alcohol or any other chemical that can prevent from further more outbreak.
I am a very clean person, and found out that my apartment building is having this issue and was planning on moving out at the end of June. Please help, for I am freaking out that my $1000 sofa I just got a month ago is gonna be ruined.
By Jackie from Batavia, OH
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Here's my story (sorry, it's long), but I think this might help you with your couch if the material can stand up to having Borax sprinkled on it. Also, if you have bedbugs anywhere else in the house, you will have to try this in every room they might be...
I was getting bites and kept checking, but I never did see one, but think we had at least one bedbug in our bed/bedroom. I went online and read that sometimes they select one person (me) and don't bite the other one (my hubby) for some reason. I guess the little b*stards are selective lol. I went online to see what the bites looked like and it described my bites (in a row on the abdomen, thighs, back, and upper legs. Every morning I was waking up to another few bites/clusters. It was a sickening feeling after reading about the horrors of people trying to get rid of bedbugs and not having any success.
Anyways, I decided to try my own tactics before hiring an exterminator to fumigate, etc. First, I bought two cans of household Raid and two boxes of Mule train Borax. (Borax works for killing fleas, so I figured why not bedbugs too?)
I removed all the bedding and washed it in hot water and dried it in a hot dryer. Then I vaccumed every square inch of my carpet, taking extra care to get right to the baseboards and around the legs of all my bedroom furniture. I also vaccumed, then lifted my mattresses and box springs and vaccumed in and around all the edges, wheels, railings, etc.
After that, I wound a scarf over my mouth, wore goggles on my eyes and sprayed every square inch of my carpets and used up both cans of Raid. Yes the smell was horrible and probably not too healthy, but I just kept going until I was done.
I shut the door and left the room undisturbed for about 3-4 hours. Then I shook the Borax carefully out on the entire carpet, between the mattress/boxspring, on the bed rails, around and on the wheels, layed it on THICK along every baseboard, and ESPECIALLY thick on the carpet around the perimeter of our bed to make a barrier between them and our bed. Also thick near any crack or crevass that a bedbug might hide in. I then got a broom and swept the Borax well into the carpet just where my husband and I walk so that we kept it to the minimum of being tracked around. We also both wore slippers to keep it from sticking to our socks or bare feet.
I waited about a week before vaccuming everything all over again, but I never did get another bite, so I think I fixed the dirty little critter from multiplying. (touch wood)
That was two years ago, and I've never had another bite on me. This might not work for a house infested with them, but I truly think I killed the one (or couple) that were in our bedroom. I think if this is to work, you've got to do what I've described as SOON as you can to contain them in one room.
Good luck! Please reply if this helped (or didn't) help you. I might have just gotten lucky by using the Raid alone?
I'm often thrifty so I like the borax approach. My son recently brought bedbugs to my house when he moved from his apartment. We were willing to try anything without health risks. It turns out that diatomaceous earth works well too because it dries out any live bugs. Biting bugs tend to like me too!
I don't think the spray is the greatest idea if you have pets, though. However, getting to know where the bugs like to live is good. Just have a good look at the sofa, top and bottom, with a flashlight and concentrate on the seam and and any cracks. There will be dark spots and little white eggs if there was a bedbug colony on it, and they luckily are easy to spot.
A steamer or iron over the area kills them on contact. Chemicals don't even work as well. Don't be afraid of used furniture because of this. Use your eyes on every inch of the furniture and if you don't see anything, they aren't there. Thy don't go inside foam or anything else dense.
Yea but carpets do. They can pack themselves in the foam and i have had them the size larger than appleseeds. Sicken how i was sitting laying on top of them. I ended up tossing the couch out.
You can buy a small spray bottle for bedbugs. I did, at Lowes hardware for 4.00. Vacuum the mattress and the frame and spray well. Then, buy a mattress cover for bedbugs. I got mine at Walmart, it was $50.00 but worth it. I also bought them for my pillows. They have to stay on for a good year.
I called Orkin. At first they charged me 97 dollars just to tell me that I had bed bugs. They told me it would cost over 11 hundred dollars and they would put a cover on my mattress but in order for them to guarantee their service I would have to get rid of my livingroom furniture. Well, I just bought it in 2009 and that isn't gonna happen.
You do have to wash everything in your house in hot water. Everything that was clean I put in a hot dryer and then bagged them in the bags that your vacuum sucks air out of, they stay in those bags for 3 months.
I didn't have them bad at all. I went to spend the night with my son and came home all eaten up. Good luck to anyone who goes through this.
U'd have to use a water-based bedbug spray so as not to ruin the sofa. HotShot (Home Depot, Lowes, etc) is an excellent spray for this! Get the Gallon Jug (approx. $12.99 USD). If your sofa has cushions, remove the fluff and wash the covers in a washer. Take the HotShot and spray down the fluff (wear a mask-$3.87 for 3).
Spray the Hotshot underneath the sofa (you'll have to remove the dust cover that is attached to the sofa with those furniture staples). Spray the entire sofa then enclose it in a plastic bag (these bags can encase an entire king sized bed! approx. $15.00 @ HomeDepot or Lowes). The buggers will start to come out. After the sofa has dried (approx. 7 -8 hours to dry), you can then apply Sterifab (alcohol based/disinfectant/bedbug killer) all over the sofa and again encase the sofa into a large plastic bag. The entire process will take up to 5 - 7 days depending upon how bad the infestation is and how long it takes the sofa to dry, but trust me they will get the message and not return.
However they will return if you don't repeat this process every 2 to 3 weeks. Bedbugs ONLY survive on human blood, they will do whatever it takes to survive so you have to either do this or get rid of the sofa.
I have always heard that the insect repellents that the average person can obtain won't get rid of bedbugs. I would talk to an exterminator.
Contact the store you bought it at, they can contact the manufacturer for instructions. The only other thing I know with mattresses, etc is BURN to destroy them. Which is sad.
Rottler Pest Control can do a heat treatment for your apartment. It's a pain to get ready for it if you're not a clutterer, but that's better than a full blown outbreak! They do not recommend throwing away any furniture or mattresses, unless it's because of staining issue. (of course, if they're really bad, you may not feel like cleaning up the dead bugs on them...but for not too bad I think that's a monetary relief.-I'd buy a bed bug cover for the mattress and foundation too.) For just ONE bug...your call, but better safe than sorry. Their heat treatment for the apartment...(or maybe just the room you found it in????) should bake ALL the little buggers... but if it came from a neighboring apartment, they'll be back.
IF YOU ARE IN AN MULTI-UNIT DWELLING you need to work with your landlord, since the neighboring units need to be treated as well, and there are typically laws that address how bed bugs need to be addressed. Treating yourself is not recommended, but if I were you I'd call the pest control company your landlord chooses to find out all you can about how YOU play a part in getting your place prepared: the dos and dont's.
There's a lot on the web, too. Using the dryer, freezer, and ziplocks and crevice tool on vacuum............etc. EPA site has details too.
I think that Raid is very toxic to humans and animals and you don't want to sit on anything with that on it. A bed bug can live in a crack of wood without food or water for over a year! I would rap it in plastic and put it out for trash with a sign on it that it has bedbugs so someone won't take it. I heard same thing for mattresses and boxsprings. Would your insurance pay for the damage? I'd call an exterminator.
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