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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.
This is excellent advice, and I’ve done the same thing traveling, as well as similar things dealing with BBs in apartments.
Minor correction (at least from my understanding): they can’t jump, though they will strategically or accidentally fall from height.
Really pay attention to your contaminated/clean separation. It’s the key both to effective treatment and to your own confidence, that you don’t need to treat something over and over.
Lastly remember that they are not microscopic. You can absolutely see the smallest of them with your naked eye, so if you can inspect something thoroughly (like your suitcase) it doesn’t need to get treated. Open the lining and check between it and the outer shell. Use a paintbrush to brush out crevices and seams you can’t see into. Be extremely thorough, they are very interested in things like pockets and overlapping layers of cloth.
Eggs look like smallish grains of rice. Newborns are clear amber, Adults are the size of an apple seed and deep red.
Amber.
I don’t think I understand this bit but I like it
Uggh. And of course it's even harder to fix bc I'm in argentina. You can't just get "bed bug spray". All I have is RAID, which IDK if that even works with bed bugs.
This transition, if I attempt it, is going to be really fucking hard. I can try and shower first. But I have a laundry that only gets kinda hot and no dryer. I cannot use a laundramat bc I will not have cash until Monday, and even that is hours of walking and waiting in line. It's like I'm destined for recontamination. idk what to do, this is fuckin me up and I didn't get any sleep + I am taking finals today.
Plus I have a hard suitcase. Gonna be real fun considering I can't get bed bug spray. Fuck.
edit: alright, apparently the purple RAID works ok on bed bugs, I am gonna have to try to make this work. Thanks for your advice, you've been helpful.
I would wait and suffer till you get the cash for the laundromat. You need your clothes bone dry and hot to the touch, then 20 minutes more.
In the meantime, bag up anything you won’t use. If you can inspect things (like books) you can put them away in a ‘clean’ bag and not worry about them again.
That's what I'm thinking. I made it this long...
Bedbug bites are always in a line. Take photos of the bites and the sheet before you move. You will not beat the be bugs. They are worse than cockroaches. The longer you stay there the more likely you'll bring them with you.
They’re not always in a line, they’re often in a line. I’ve had plenty of single bites and some clusters. They tend to be in lines where your body contacts the bed.
I'm not too familiar with bed bugs but I've heard they are a pain to get rid of and tend to catch a ride on suit cases/bags to the next location.
I saw a video ages ago of a guy getting rid of bed bugs and he basically just used some tape and went under every single crease and crevice of the mattress and frame till he got all of them. Looked very laborious.
If it was me I'd run as far as I can. Last thing you want is to take bed bugs back with you.
The insidius thing about bedbugs is that they aren't just in beds. Clothes, people, carpeting, cracks in the wall, baseboards, electric sockets. If there's enough where you can clearly see them along the edges of beds. It's too late, they're already everywhere else.
Also read that they are resistant to insecticides as well. What horrible things they are.
Yeah, largely because they don’t have chewing mouthparts (so can’t eat the poison) and don’t lick their feet, so won’t pick it up from there. You have to directly spray a bug to kill it, there’s no residual effect. Diatomaceous Earth works as a residual, as it gets in their joints, cuts them up, and dehydrates them.
There are neurotoxins that are kind of effective, like temprid, but it takes multiple treatments over months to like maybe work
I swear by diatomaceous earth but it only works on things with a hard carapace or body. It does not work well on pests with soft bodies like ticks and bed bugs.
DE works, it dehydrates them. But in my experience it helps to control them, it doesn't knock them out completely
Move, bag up all clothing super tight and thoroughly wash it and dry it over and over. They're a nighgmare
Not sure if you can get it shipped to Argentina, but there is finally a pesticide that reliably works on bedbugs. I talk about it here. https://hexbear.net/comment/4050105 Its called Aprehend, and its a little tricky to apply but after fighting them for years I was able to finally knock them out with one treatment. Lmk if I can help anyone with this, I dealt with them for years. They are a trauma.
But in general, they are almost Impossible to get rid of.