Hi all!!
I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my husband, and about a month and a half ago we spotted bed bugs. We've heard the horror stories, but we were optimistic and thought we could tackle this. We called an exterminator who was referred to us by a friend. He works freelance. He came the next day and we saw two bugs on the bed frame alive. He recommended us to throw the frame away, which we immediately did (he helped). The mattress seemed fine, because we already had a good bed bug cover.
That same day he sprayed chemicals. I put all the clothes that I have been regularly using into sealed bags and dried them. However, we did not take all the clothes... and he didn't say it was necessary. For that night we slept on the couch. Three days later I had a bite on my arm, a few days later two on my back, and one on my leg. My husband didn't have any reaction. and he was the one being severely bitten before the treatment. The exterminator came back, but a week after we found a live bug walking on our mattress (which btw is on the floor, since we threw away the frame). We called him again and he came back the next day to treat the apartment again. But the following day we found a very little one walking on our couch (first time we see them on the living room). Just now I saw another dead one next to the couch. I'm just falling into despair and thinking we will never get rid of this freaking bugs.
I've been reading a lot, and apparently the heat treatment is the most effective one. But there are two drawbacks:
1) it is incredibly expensive! The quotes I got ranged between $2900 and 5500 for a 500 sq ft apartment.
2) I've read some failure stories for this treatment as well... 8O
So, my question is, do you know any reliable company that took care of this issue for good in the NYC area? I am hesitant on spending all this money if there is a minimal chance of failure. On the other hand, maybe we are able to get rid of them with a more traditional treatment.
What are your thoughts?? Thanks so much!!!!!