My story goes as follows:
On 9/19 a neighbor told me that a tenant in the her building (which is the building next to mine) had bed bugs. I immediately texted my landlord because one of the tenants in my building is always going into the tenant with the BBs apartment. The landlord told me that I was the furthest apartment from the infested lady and not to worry YET. I had been getting bites throughout the month but everyone blew me off saying it was mosquito bites. Fast forward to 10/11, my husband and I fell asleep on the couch watching movies. When I woke up later that night and went into bedroom, I felt something drop off my shirt and on to my arm. I pulled it off, looked at it and immediately thought it was BB. I had never seen a live one but because of my previous suspicions, I had a good feeling it was one. I put it in a jar, woke my husband up, who had no idea what it was. That night I barely slept and had a flashlight with me all night. The next day we went and we bought Raid bedbug killer and sprayed it all over the bed, couch, baseboard heaters, and any cracks and crevices. We saw nothing but I started heating and bagging up exposed clothes and sheets (we have a very small apartment with ONE closet). The exterminator came two days later to check for an infestation because again, no one believed we had a major problem. He found a nest in the couch. He threw down some powder and said he would be back within 2 weeks to do a full job. That same day my husband I bought another spray, this time from an actual exterminating place and sprayed the crap out of the couch and I literally plucked every BB I saw out of the couch, popped them and disposed of them. My husband, who normally slept on the couch because of his snoring immediately moved back into the bedroom although I begged him not too because eventually they would be in the bedroom as well (if they were not already). He refused saying there was no way he would sleep on chemicals and on a couch where we saw lots of bugs. Over the couple of days we found random bugs (some dead, some alive) on the couch and disposed of them. After 3 days we saw nothing but I was still getting bit up. I believe I have a delayed reaction to the bites but no idea how long I take to react so by the time I saw the bites I assumed they were in the bedroom as well. Over the next week and half, I steamed the couch with a handheld steamer which I now realize was probably not hot enough, took everything out of the drawers and put in plastic bags after heating them, moved all the clutter that was in boxes under my bed to either the garbage or to plastic bins and just waited for PCO. He came on 10/28 inspected couch, baseboard and bed (which is not a traditional bed but just a piece of wood on six legs that my husband built) and said he did not see anything. I was skeptical. Two days later my arm was bit up pretty bad and we found a BB on the bed as well as a dead one on the couch and another one on the floor about 2 feet from the couch. This was at about 4:30PM. I called the PCO and he said this was good as they were disturbed and coming out at odd times for them. On 11/2 my husband woke up at around 4AM and found a LOT on the couch. We killed the ones we saw, pulled the sheets off the couch and heated then washed them and vacuumed. Yes at 4AM! I called PCO again and he talked me through it saying we had to be patient, it can be a lengthy process and that it may take more time for us because we already had an "established" problem. I have now found out that two apartments next door have/had an infestation as well as the neighbor two floors below me (the one I was initially worried about bringing them in). There are 6 units in my building and I live on the 3rd floor in the back. The lady directly below me said she had some bites on her arm and when the PCO treated her he said he only found one live bug and one dead one. The apartment below hers is the one that had a major problem. The PCO is scheduled to come again on 11/11.
I guess my questions are this:
-My PCO said it's hard to always find them because we have so much stuff in our apartment - dressers, tvs, etc. There is no where I can put this stuff so he said he is just treating the entire apartment as if there was a problem everywhere. I assume this is good?
-My sister had BBs on three SEPARATE occasions. She said she hasn't had a problem since sealing and caulking any cracks/holes. Should this be done when we're in the middle of treatment or after?
-We did not remove contents of closet because the one closet we have is in our daughter's bedroom and the PCO said he sees no evidence in her room, the bathroom and the kitchen. I know some PCOs say EVERYTHING needs to come out but ours asked us just to remove clothes out of dresser drawers, which we did (it took FOREVER). Is this OK?
-What are my rights? I expressed my concerns to the landlord about a month before we found a BB. Does that count for anything? Also our PCO is someone who thinks beds and couches SHOULD be thrown out, esp couches because they are harder to treat. If it gets that bad and we have to get a new couch (obviously not until problem is resolved), are we responsible for paying for it?
-How long does or can this process take? The PCO said it can sometimes take up to 5 treatments. If they are spaced 2 weeks apart, that would be 2 1/2 months or more of living out of plastic bags. I don't sleep well as it is - always with a flashlight and just started downing 2 Benadryl each night to get some sleep.
Guess I just need to hear some success stories. I scour the internet daily and just find horrible stories about how BB ruined peoples' lives, how they lasted for 10 months or more. I will literally go crazy. Neither my husband nor I are patient people so this is driving us mad.