Hello, everyone. All advice appreciated, which will hopefully help me not freak out, which I’m close to doing. This weekend I saw what looked to be bedbugs, called building management (it’s a condo, and jut me in the apt.), and paid for a dog to come investigate. In the interim, I scrubbed, vacuumed, and washed everything I could, and and bagged, sealed and discarded my mattress, just in case. The dog’s conclusion: there are indeed bedbugs in the wooden platform bed frame. They’re nowhere else in my 1-bedroom apartment, thank goodness.
Until we sort out who will pay for treatment (a nightmare that I won’t discuss here because it’s too depressing), I am trying to figure out the best place to sleep and insure that the bugs remain contained to the platform bed. I already spent 2 nights on the living room couch. I know it’s preferable to stay in the room where you found the bugs, but I have no mattress (a new one is on order) and also just had surgery, so would rather not sleep on a sleeping bag in the floor. The dog guy put duct tape over the joints of the frame where he found bugs, which he said would trap them inside. On the advice of an exterminator, I also covered and wrapped the bed in plastic trash bags taped to the frame, with the edges taped to the floor since it was too heavy for me to lift up. On the advice of the dog guy, I also sealed the bedroom door with duct tape on the bottom and sides.
My question: since the infestation is localized to the bed frame, would it be OK for me to sleep on the living room sofa, or would that still increase the risk of the bugs leaving the bedroom? Also, would double-sided tape outside the bedroom door be of help to catch any who do escape? How about spraying the door with rubbing alcohol?