Okay, so here’s my situation. My sister and I moved our stuff into an apartment August 1st, and then went back to our mom’s house until this past Sunday when we came back to the apartment for school. The second night here my sister woke up with around 8 bites. We tried to convince ourselves that they were mosquito bites, but I eventually found a bed bug on the underside of my mattress. After that, we were looking around the apartment more, and found a lot of dead bed bugs under the kitchen counter. The carpet in the living room and bedrooms makes it impossible to see anything on the floor, so I don’t have any idea if there’s any signs of them.
We used Raid on the apartment because when we found the first living bug we started freaking out and wanted to do what we could we could until the office opened the next morning. We have not found any living bugs since the first one, nor has my sister received any bites (that she’s noticed). We took the bugs to our building manager yesterday morning, who had them identified as definitely dead bed bugs that were left over from a treatment of the previous tenants. Today, the maintenance people came and used some type of freezing machine on our unit, and we put mattress encasements on our mattresses and our futon. On Tuesday, PCO is supposed to be coming to spray the place.
We’re starting to do laundry tomorrow, and putting everything in totes boxes and ziplock bags. We’re washing and drying everything we can on hot. But there’s some things that cannot be washed. Is drying already dry items sufficient to kill the bugs? We’re both students and don’t have extra money to accidently ruin our belongings.
What about books, movies, calendars, picture frames, dishes, TVs, video game systems, microwaves, laptops, iPads, board games, lamps, curtains, toiletries, etc.? Does absolutely everything have to go in totes? How do we make sure we’re not putting bugs into the containers with our belongings, just to be released when we unpack? How long do we have to live out of plastic bags and tote boxes for?
Also, what are the odds that we took some bugs home with us after we moved in? Our luggage was on the floor for the night and then taken home. I am really worried about having infested my mom’s house, because after seeing how much work it is dealing with a two-bedroom apartment, I can’t even imagine the disaster that would be of our house. We also cannot afford the treatment of a house. At the apartment, the manager is paying for our laundry, the PCO, the tote boxes and anything else we need to be comfortable staying here.
I also read that spraying rubbing alcohol on things will kill bed bugs. Is this true? Would that work on suitcases and other items too large to throw in the washing machine and dryer?
What about plastic items, like laundry hampers? Do we have to do anything special with them? Will the spray the PCO use protect these items? Also, what are the odds of my taking bugs to school with me? Should I just use plastic bags until the unit has been sprayed?
Sorry for the novel, but I start school on Tuesday, and this was supposed to be my last week of freedom, and I’m freaking out. I’m so frustrated with trying to deal with this. I go between excessively researching to crying and back again. I’ve been a little calmer since talking to the building manager, but I just found two dead bugs on the ceiling in my closet, and started freaking out again.