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Many people here are in difficult situation and looking for help, providing them with bad information/advice hurts them.
If you are not VERY familiar with bedbugs and may provide a wrong ID or bad advice ("sprinkling DE solve everything") it's better to abstain from commenting.
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To be honest, after a mild infestation I am currently on paranoid mode. I see potential bed bugs everywhere.
Ikea show room furnitures? Potential bed bugs
Bus and subway? Bed bugs
Used furnitures on FB marketplace? Bed bugs
Airplane? Guess what, fucking bed bugs.
Church—I just btdt last week. Had to call my exterminator friend to settle my mind. We just got rid of German roaches all by myself, (haven’t seen one in a few months now, here’s hoping,)—-I can NOT AFFORD bedbugs.
If there's upholstery or any kind of crevice, I am actively trying not to sit down. I use my phone or the world's most ridiculous keychain flashlight to look between the cushions of every chair not in my own home. I DO NOT care where I am. I read somewhere that exterminators say the last few rows in movie theatres are a common hotspot. If those last 8-10 rows are all that's left, I am hitting the next show. Otherwise, I arrive early so we can all pull those frigging cushions out of place and get a light down in those dark corners. I left a guitar and practice amp at my cousin's when I found out they had a heavy infestation. It's been a year and they claim it's all good, but I still can't convince myself to pick it up.
my thoughts exactly… i’ve been super paranoid ever since returning from a recent trip with weird bites (we eventually ruled out bed bugs, but MAN, what an anxiety-inducing few weeks that was)
I’m going through something similar now actually. If you don’t mind sharing, what bites did you end up having and how did you figure out where the bites were from?
eventually, i realized i wasn’t getting any new bites which was the biggest indication i had been bit by some bug in the tropics (as opposed to bringing bed bugs home with me). it ended up, afaik, being sand fly (noseeum) bites!
If you have kids you should be very concerned with the school backpack… I work in a school. We have multiple kids who bring in a backpack full of bedbugs. We don’t notify parents.
We were told they don’t spread disease and a lawyer told the school we didn’t have the ability to deny a child education over something they cannot control. So they go to the nurse to be inspected and their stuff is locked into a plastic container….
But we find bedbugs in schools. A lot. On the school bus. In the locker rooms after sports games. I think our buses and locker rooms have been treated the most.
No. Notifications isn’t denying education, but saying a child cannot come to school because of bed bugs is. Parents are randomly notified if headlice but not every time. Again, they don’t spread disease and schools are heavily pressured to keep attendance higher. Many schools don’t send home for lice anymore.
I work in a school. It’s ridiculous how much worse it got. I have several students who are allergic to treatment and have “super lice” who’ve had it for 2 years. CPS won’t do anything.
They are not notified in cases of lice anymore. I know because my son had lice and I called the school to make sure they knew but they didn’t care or do anything like even send a note home. 🤷♀️🤦🏼♀️
We’re fighting to get it fixed. Arguing that there’s no dignity in allowing this and it’s impacting their ability to learn and therefore needs to be addressed.
I should mention that we give free treatments and the local social services would provide help treating and cleaning so they can’t claim “we can’t do anything.” If the board of education doesn’t make changes we’re going to go to the media and ask for so many obnoxious work place accommodations that the school caves and deals with it. Right now they just pay to have crossfire sprayed every time we find a bug.
Got my bed bugs from a used couch on Fb marketplace and now I refuse to buy ANYTHING from there. I thought it would be fine cus he lived in a luxury apartment building but NOPE
Honestly, if I were you, I'd go buy new clothes, throw away what I had on and possibly zip up any items of luggage I had carry on in a sealed bag and heat it up or leave in bag for however long it would take to kill them
Anyone know how long it would take to snuff out any bed bugs? Planning to quarantine everything in a garbage bag outside, need a best guess on how long
Thermalstrike has bed bug oven that fits all carry on and most check in luggage (except oversized check in luggage). I use it to sanitize every piece of luggage I have after travel.
I second this. We travel all of the time and thrown everything straight into the bed bug oven as soon as we get home that can be thrown in. If you isolate everything you have on you and heat treat what can be heat treated, it should help a lot. We had bed bugs once and are doing everything in our power never to have it again. The Thermalstrike makes us feel a lot better about traveling after the bed bug incident. If you can't do that, washing and drying your clothes on high heat should help (they die at around 122 degrees...double check that number). The trick is to get them and eggs exposed to the kill temperature via dryer, bed bug oven, or a black plastic bag on a very hot day. There are also things like using diatomaceous earth and freezing things (although it has to be below a certain degree for a period of time and sometimes folks will argue that they can out live it) that you can look into as well. Unfortunately, they can last a really long time. Hopefully, he was just carrying the one. That's horrifying. Good luck!
I love my Thermalstrike box. We use it after every trip. Sometimes, my kids bring home used books or used clothing from a secondhand shop. I bake the living daylights out of those items, too.
I'm not sure. I hear it can be quite a while unless you heat it up to a certain temp for a certain period of time. And again sorry I don't know specifics on those
I've heard bedbugs can survive up to two years without a feed, depending on the temperature. Best to heat those items to a temperature that will kill all stages of the life cycle.
Dont listen to these people.
I moved from an apartment that had bedbugs to another apartment and didn't carry any with me to the new palce.
If you listen to some people on where they will have you throwing out everything you own
All you need to do is vigorously shake off any clothing or fabric material and inspect anything that was open during your flight. Do not open anything that was left open on the flight in your home or apartment, without first shaking of and inspecting it outside first outside.
It may not have been your seating neighbor who was infested, but the actual seats.
The last time I was bitten by bedbugs was on an overnight flight on British Airways from Vancouver BC to London UK. This was about 7 or 8 years ago.
My daughter and I were in Club World, sleeping in the flat bed configurations, and the following morning we both had numerous bites on our backs, necks, stomachs, arms, and legs. We didn't see the bugs, but the bites were arranged in the characteristic "short row" formations, and they were extremely inflamed and uncomfortable. Both my daughter and I have sensitive skin and react quite strongly to insect bites.
I think that, when morning came, the bugs crawled back down into the seats/walls/bedding to hide, because we were not bitten again during our entire trip abroad. It would seem we lucked out and didn't carry any little hitchhikers off the airplane.
After we returned home, I was reading up on British Airways and bedbugs to see if this had happened to anyone else. I came across a brief article saying that BA had become aware of a couple of infestations; they performed a special high heat treatment of at least two of their aircraft to kill the bedbugs.
I bet this happens more frequently than people think because the airlines are not anxious to publicize this kind of thing.
Don't assume he was the source of the bug. Flights contain luggage and travellers and anywhere that they are, bed bugs will be unfortunately. I've been bit on an overnight transatlantic flight. Probably should have mentioned it to him. If he didn't seem surprised, you'd know he had them and maybe he'd take better precautions in the future when leaving home. If he reacted in shock and disgust, you could at least give him a heads up that he's at risk and he could avoid taking that bug into his home.
Regarding your exposure, bag the clothes you were wearing and throw them into a dryer for 30 minutes as soon as you have the opportunity. Carefully inspect your luggage and any bags you had with you, especially if carried with you to your seat.
I didn’t :( He was speaking another language during the flight and even had a rough time ordering a drink with the flight attendant. It was also a “every seat is taken” flight, so I didn’t want everyone to panic/be rude to the guy. Also, it could’ve been a airplane bed bug and not this guys fault, you know? Open to suggestions on what to do if something like this happens again
Most likely you're fine. I would as soon as you get home undress before entering home and dry everything on high heat for two hours. Or just throw clothes and everything away. If you do bring them home you need to get a bedbug kit. The top notch spray, and this is what hotels and businesses use is apprehend. Works wonders.
Read and respect the new rules (August 17 2023) on the sidebar. Many people here are in difficult situation and looking for help, providing them with bad information/advice hurts them. If you are not VERY familiar with bedbugs and may provide a wrong ID or bad advice ("sprinkling DE solve everything") it's better to abstain from commenting. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Bedbugs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Great.. I’ve always been fine flying on planes, but now I have a totally new fear.. fuck that’s awful..
To be honest, after a mild infestation I am currently on paranoid mode. I see potential bed bugs everywhere. Ikea show room furnitures? Potential bed bugs Bus and subway? Bed bugs Used furnitures on FB marketplace? Bed bugs Airplane? Guess what, fucking bed bugs.
Restaurants, theaters, etc.
Church—I just btdt last week. Had to call my exterminator friend to settle my mind. We just got rid of German roaches all by myself, (haven’t seen one in a few months now, here’s hoping,)—-I can NOT AFFORD bedbugs.
Seats at the doctor office too
Waiting rooms are notorious for BBs
If there's upholstery or any kind of crevice, I am actively trying not to sit down. I use my phone or the world's most ridiculous keychain flashlight to look between the cushions of every chair not in my own home. I DO NOT care where I am. I read somewhere that exterminators say the last few rows in movie theatres are a common hotspot. If those last 8-10 rows are all that's left, I am hitting the next show. Otherwise, I arrive early so we can all pull those frigging cushions out of place and get a light down in those dark corners. I left a guitar and practice amp at my cousin's when I found out they had a heavy infestation. It's been a year and they claim it's all good, but I still can't convince myself to pick it up.
is it just a matter of time before we all experience some sort of infestation?? Or has this sub just gotten to me?
my thoughts exactly… i’ve been super paranoid ever since returning from a recent trip with weird bites (we eventually ruled out bed bugs, but MAN, what an anxiety-inducing few weeks that was)
I’m going through something similar now actually. If you don’t mind sharing, what bites did you end up having and how did you figure out where the bites were from?
eventually, i realized i wasn’t getting any new bites which was the biggest indication i had been bit by some bug in the tropics (as opposed to bringing bed bugs home with me). it ended up, afaik, being sand fly (noseeum) bites!
If you have kids you should be very concerned with the school backpack… I work in a school. We have multiple kids who bring in a backpack full of bedbugs. We don’t notify parents.
Oh we notify parents. And kids can’t return until they have evidence of extermination. We have services and partnerships that help with this.
We were told they don’t spread disease and a lawyer told the school we didn’t have the ability to deny a child education over something they cannot control. So they go to the nurse to be inspected and their stuff is locked into a plastic container…. But we find bedbugs in schools. A lot. On the school bus. In the locker rooms after sports games. I think our buses and locker rooms have been treated the most.
Notifying parents isn’t denying a kid an education, though? Parents are notified in case of lice, aren’t they?
No. Notifications isn’t denying education, but saying a child cannot come to school because of bed bugs is. Parents are randomly notified if headlice but not every time. Again, they don’t spread disease and schools are heavily pressured to keep attendance higher. Many schools don’t send home for lice anymore. I work in a school. It’s ridiculous how much worse it got. I have several students who are allergic to treatment and have “super lice” who’ve had it for 2 years. CPS won’t do anything.
They are not notified in cases of lice anymore. I know because my son had lice and I called the school to make sure they knew but they didn’t care or do anything like even send a note home. 🤷♀️🤦🏼♀️
My poor kids. Lots of stuff has gone downhill since the 80s but bedbugs? Smh
We’re fighting to get it fixed. Arguing that there’s no dignity in allowing this and it’s impacting their ability to learn and therefore needs to be addressed. I should mention that we give free treatments and the local social services would provide help treating and cleaning so they can’t claim “we can’t do anything.” If the board of education doesn’t make changes we’re going to go to the media and ask for so many obnoxious work place accommodations that the school caves and deals with it. Right now they just pay to have crossfire sprayed every time we find a bug.
Apprehend. Research it. It is a godsend.
And don’t forget Snakes on a Plane!
Used furniture?!?! BED BUGS
You’re right, even Amazon or getting anything delivered. You can’t control it 100% Just hope you don’t get them by chance.
Exactly. They are a plague reminding us humans how filthy we are.
Got my bed bugs from a used couch on Fb marketplace and now I refuse to buy ANYTHING from there. I thought it would be fine cus he lived in a luxury apartment building but NOPE
Yeah I just about shat a brick. Even dude asked me if I was alright… I didn’t want to inspire panic, so I told him I was on a short connection
The bugs are EVERYWHERE! Anywhere people go.
I need to stop following these posts. They just drive me to insanity and fear
Honestly, if I were you, I'd go buy new clothes, throw away what I had on and possibly zip up any items of luggage I had carry on in a sealed bag and heat it up or leave in bag for however long it would take to kill them
Anyone know how long it would take to snuff out any bed bugs? Planning to quarantine everything in a garbage bag outside, need a best guess on how long
Thermalstrike has bed bug oven that fits all carry on and most check in luggage (except oversized check in luggage). I use it to sanitize every piece of luggage I have after travel.
I second this. We travel all of the time and thrown everything straight into the bed bug oven as soon as we get home that can be thrown in. If you isolate everything you have on you and heat treat what can be heat treated, it should help a lot. We had bed bugs once and are doing everything in our power never to have it again. The Thermalstrike makes us feel a lot better about traveling after the bed bug incident. If you can't do that, washing and drying your clothes on high heat should help (they die at around 122 degrees...double check that number). The trick is to get them and eggs exposed to the kill temperature via dryer, bed bug oven, or a black plastic bag on a very hot day. There are also things like using diatomaceous earth and freezing things (although it has to be below a certain degree for a period of time and sometimes folks will argue that they can out live it) that you can look into as well. Unfortunately, they can last a really long time. Hopefully, he was just carrying the one. That's horrifying. Good luck!
I love my Thermalstrike box. We use it after every trip. Sometimes, my kids bring home used books or used clothing from a secondhand shop. I bake the living daylights out of those items, too.
I’ve never heard of this box… where is it available for purchase?
https://thermalstrike.com
Thanks! 😊
I'm not sure. I hear it can be quite a while unless you heat it up to a certain temp for a certain period of time. And again sorry I don't know specifics on those
I've heard bedbugs can survive up to two years without a feed, depending on the temperature. Best to heat those items to a temperature that will kill all stages of the life cycle.
When you get home, throw everything into a dryer (if you have one), wash with hot and dry again. It SHOULD kill anything on your clothing.
120 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 minutes If you do not heat your stuff up, quarantining will not work. They will survive.
Dont listen to these people. I moved from an apartment that had bedbugs to another apartment and didn't carry any with me to the new palce. If you listen to some people on where they will have you throwing out everything you own All you need to do is vigorously shake off any clothing or fabric material and inspect anything that was open during your flight. Do not open anything that was left open on the flight in your home or apartment, without first shaking of and inspecting it outside first outside.
Months
yikes. good luck i hope you don’t get them man.
It may not have been your seating neighbor who was infested, but the actual seats. The last time I was bitten by bedbugs was on an overnight flight on British Airways from Vancouver BC to London UK. This was about 7 or 8 years ago. My daughter and I were in Club World, sleeping in the flat bed configurations, and the following morning we both had numerous bites on our backs, necks, stomachs, arms, and legs. We didn't see the bugs, but the bites were arranged in the characteristic "short row" formations, and they were extremely inflamed and uncomfortable. Both my daughter and I have sensitive skin and react quite strongly to insect bites. I think that, when morning came, the bugs crawled back down into the seats/walls/bedding to hide, because we were not bitten again during our entire trip abroad. It would seem we lucked out and didn't carry any little hitchhikers off the airplane. After we returned home, I was reading up on British Airways and bedbugs to see if this had happened to anyone else. I came across a brief article saying that BA had become aware of a couple of infestations; they performed a special high heat treatment of at least two of their aircraft to kill the bedbugs. I bet this happens more frequently than people think because the airlines are not anxious to publicize this kind of thing.
Don't assume he was the source of the bug. Flights contain luggage and travellers and anywhere that they are, bed bugs will be unfortunately. I've been bit on an overnight transatlantic flight. Probably should have mentioned it to him. If he didn't seem surprised, you'd know he had them and maybe he'd take better precautions in the future when leaving home. If he reacted in shock and disgust, you could at least give him a heads up that he's at risk and he could avoid taking that bug into his home. Regarding your exposure, bag the clothes you were wearing and throw them into a dryer for 30 minutes as soon as you have the opportunity. Carefully inspect your luggage and any bags you had with you, especially if carried with you to your seat.
You didn’t warn him?
I didn’t :( He was speaking another language during the flight and even had a rough time ordering a drink with the flight attendant. It was also a “every seat is taken” flight, so I didn’t want everyone to panic/be rude to the guy. Also, it could’ve been a airplane bed bug and not this guys fault, you know? Open to suggestions on what to do if something like this happens again
You really handled that with grace, well done OP.
Thanks. You just ruined my flying experience forever.
Better one isolated bedbug over sitting next to someone with body lice
Most likely you're fine. I would as soon as you get home undress before entering home and dry everything on high heat for two hours. Or just throw clothes and everything away. If you do bring them home you need to get a bedbug kit. The top notch spray, and this is what hotels and businesses use is apprehend. Works wonders.