this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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Bedbugs are a bear to get rid of, you're not going to successfully get rid of bedbugs in a rental. Period. That being said, you and all of your belongings are now contaminated. High heat will nuke them on your clothing. So here's what you can do do decontam yourself and not bring them to the next place and not trash everything you own. Take all of your luggage and drop that in a garbage bag. Grab a can of bed bug spray for your shoes and head to a laundromat with some spare plastic bags.
Remove one entire set of clothes. And throw them in a dryer on the highest setting or an hr. Take your shoes off and spray the fuck out of them outside. If you don't have a good spot to leave them to dry outdoors. Put them in a second bag and take them with you. Take the rest of your cloth belongings and toss them in a dryer on high for at least an hr. Throw away the bag, when the first set of clothes are dry and you're done handling any cloth that could be contaminated. Check through everything you own and make sure you spray down anything that cant be washed and that you're not missing any cloth items. Very carefully strip. Put your current clothes in a bag and, tie that fucker up tight. Set the contaminated bags far away from your current clothes and then nuke those in the dryer. This will get rid of them on your luggage and body. Bear in mind those Fuckers jump so be careful with the swaps. I have absolutely done this while homeless/on the road. It sucks but you don't actually have to throw everything you own away.
I should also say, I'm not sure what kind of luggage you have, if you have a Hardcase, a hiking backpack, or a cloth military type bag. But you absolutely need to make sure that's clean before you put them back in. If it can be tossed in a dryer, that's ideal but if it's a hardcase or a case with any kind of liner that you can remove you're going to need to spray the fuck out of it and let it dry, then wipe it out, or Scrub it by hand in a bathroom. Don't sleep on pockets in that bag, or any of your shoes. This process sucks and you don't want to have to repeat it or contaminate your next place.
I know you may not have access to a shower in between those loads of laundry but you're gonna feel a whole lot better if you can at least take a "truckstop bath" between swapping the contam and the heated clothes.
Lastly, any item that you do have to toss. Please, please, sharpie bedbugs on it so nobody pulls it out of the trash and tries to re use.
I took your advice. I will say it was probably correct. But now the lady is using the fact that I threw so much trash away the last day (I was getting rid of infected stuff) as evidence that I actually attracted insects to the place. And Airbnb is buying it. Fuck me.
That is absolutely unhinged. I can't speak to airbnb policy or offer any advice there, unfortunately. But I will say if you took my advice, that will handle it on your end. I have absolutely gone through the same thing a few times. This is brutal, and I'm sorry you're going through this.
Thanks. Honestly, being rid of the bugs is a win, so I'll take it. Hopefully everything else works out.