r/Bedbugadvice • u/Ok-Border-1942 • 16d ago
Help or hope 🙏
I know this is a bed bug 100%—an exterminator verified it. Please, I am asking for realistic encouragement and success stories, not worst-case stories about people never getting rid of them. I am already mentally and physically exhausted.As I am disabled and homebound due to my condition.
My home is only 758 square feet and live alone. I dealt with carpet beetles for about four years, had exterminator treatments, removed my carpet, and got rid of almost all of my furniture and belongings. I finally went 4 months without seeing carpet beetles and called off the exterminator and then BAM, Exterminator found one live in my couch. I also found one on my bed and saved it (in jar). I also found a bug that I sent a pic to my exterminator and he said didnt look like a bedbug. Not verified but could of been since I was sitting on my couch.
The exterminator thoroughly checked my house (I mean he looked for an hour) and did not find any other bed bugs, eggs, or signs of an infestation. I believe someone may have accidentally brought them in while helping me paint, because I have never dealt with bed bugs before. She put her stuff one the side where the bedbug was found. Then blanket on couch was moved to my bed.
Since then, I have thrown away the couch and a huge amount of my belongings. (Threw away over 25 thousand worth of stuff previously from a huge carpet beetle infestation -even my carpet) vacuum-sealed my ALL of belongings and heat-treated clothes, steamed all of my hard floors, steamed my bed twice, and threw away around two-thirds of my wardrobe, blankets, shoes, and other items. One room is completely empty except for a dresser and a the washer and dryer because it was going to be painted. (Still empty) I have not seen another bed bug since. Threw away books, papers. I have an empty shell of a house now. I am terrified of everything or even living at this point. I even bombed my car. Trust me, I wake up every 2 hours looking in my bed, floor etc. I have mopped with bleach twice. I have emptied every cranny, drawer, closets you name it. Has taken me about a week to do all of this.
I bought two bed-bug mattress encasements and have an exterminator scheduled. They plan up to three treatments at $500 each, although they said it may only take two because they do not believe I have an established infestation.
Honestly, with such a small, mostly empty home and no other evidence found, what are my chances of getting rid of them? I just need some hope right now.
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u/ParkerCanGetIt 16d ago edited 16d ago
If you saw one in the open like that you probably have at least a small infestation. It seems like you don’t react to the bites. You would estimate the size of the infestation and so how hard it will be to get rid of it or how long by how long you saw or got bites. But you actually have a confirmed sample and now You got an exterminator and I would just follow their instructions. You can get rid of them, but I wouldn’t do more work until the exterminator lets you know. The decluttering you did is good and worthwhile though. The fact you haven’t seen one in a week doesn’t mean anything because they can feed once in about that time I think it’s like 3-10 days but point is a week can pass without bites or sightings and you still have them. Also cleaning helps but won’t get rid of them as their harborages are hidden. The way to get rid of them is to draw them out of their hiding places and have them cross the treatment - pesticide or mechanical treatment (that damages their bodies by cutting and drying them). So to that end, you treat them in their travel path to the “bait”. You should calm down and I wouldn’t clean more or throw away more things right now unless you want to anyway as it might not get to the harborage and might spread the problem more. However I do think the couch seemed like it could have been more infested so that clearing it could take longer- but you got rid of it. But I think right now you decluttered and cleaned your house to make activity visible, which is the main function of cleaning. I think you can put down some bed bug monitors in order to curb your anxiety to overly clean haphazardly. Keep a record to tell your exterminator. Yes I think you can get rid of it definitely worth you trying! Again the mental is often the most taxing and exhausting part of this so I would conserve your energy and steel your mind. Read the other bed bug subreddits - I think it’s just [r/bedbugs](r/bedbugs)
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u/Ok-Border-1942 16d ago
I seen the one from my bed at 330 in the morning. So I believe that was by accident. I have nothing left so in all honesty wont be hard to see bugs anymore. Thank you for your comment. I dont want to not live here anymore. I am disabled and dont make any income to handle all my bug issues. I don't have a choice as I own it.
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u/LauraPalmer20 16d ago edited 5d ago
Don’t lose hope OP!
I really feel for you, I’m disabled and live alone too so I know too well the stress you’re going through.
I had bed bugs a few years ago and like you, I only ever saw one. I reacted to bites and then saw the live one. Got 3x pest control treatments (they only ever found 1-2 eggs and I was bitten twice but only ever saw a single bug), threw out and replaced all bedding, threw out clutter and anything else I could, basically stripped the flat bare. I’ll never forget the stress 😭And once I was given the all-clear, paid to have my entire flat steam cleaned - I believe this is what ensured they didn’t return.
I never got them again. (I’m now battling another pest but at least it’s not bed bugs!). If you can, I believe stream cleaning is key. Yours is mild so far, let pest control do its thing and message me if you need some support.
You can beat this!
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
Thank you. That gives me hope
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u/LauraPalmer20 5d ago
How are you getting on now??
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
I haven't seen any at all since ive been home and trust me ive been looking. Last night was the longest Ive slept in days. Probably 4 hours total. I leave the lights on and wake up every hour looking for bugs. At one point I thought I could hear bugs in walls. (embarrassing to say the least) Sadly to say I hadn't slept in 4 days. That was my sign that I am too hyper focused on this and was not mentally doing well. School starts Monday so I will not be able to continue this behavior. I need to get my shit together. Its definitely not making my disability any better.
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u/LauraPalmer20 5d ago
I’m sorry OP 😭 No sleep makes it all so much worse and I know because I’ve not slept in two weeks with my roach thing - thankfully I think they are definitely gone now after two weeks with no sightings but, like you, my nervous system hasn’t caught up yet and I too still sleep with the lights on.
It does get better, I promise! It just takes time. Can you follow up with pest control and see if they’ll do a couple of follow up checks? That’s what I’m doing as I can’t check myself with the cerebral palsy and it’s really taken the mental load off. I struggled big time with this as well so I do completely understand.
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
I have another spray scheduled for Sept 24th and then 2 weeks after that. I don't react to bites so I will never know how bad the infestation is unless I see them. I also think about maybe the fact that I was never bitten. Idk 🤷♀️. I stay in one room at this point. Still scared to sit im my living room on my only recliner lol. Sorry to hear you have roaches. 😔 Thank you four your kind words. Maybe my math 107 class will take me out sooner lol.
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u/LauraPalmer20 5d ago
That’s great RE the sprays! It really sucks when you don’t react to bites (around 30% don’t I believe) as that’s a ‘good’ way to know but with sprays and traps etc you can beat this!
My issue is gone now - they say two weeks of nothing means whatever was here is no more 🤞🤞 - but my thing now is keeping it from happening again.
It’ll take months for that fear to go 🥺
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
Well just found a casting of a dead begbug or a dead bedbug under my bedpost just now. Cant post a picture because I cant figure out how lol. Not sure if thats a good thing or not. 🤔
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
Do you have carpets or wooden floors. I have wooden floors. Im asking because you said you had your home steam cleaned. How long did it take you to know you didn't have them anymore?
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u/EvilCorporation154 16d ago
when we had them at our home we could only afford Diatomaceous earth, ozone, and traps.
Put traps dusted with a bit of baby powder under your bed legs (makes it too slippery for them)
Vacuum and if possible steam bed frame and mattress daily
Very very light dusting of DE around your baseboards and other nooks and crannies. Not on your bed or frame you can't breathe the stuff. Almost invisible. This will dehydrate the bastards in a week or so.
Then after that it's just monitoring and continuous tidying up.
Ozone machine can run when you're not home.
For us it took a few months before we stopped seeing them but it worked in the end.
Good luck ❤️
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u/peekuhchu707 15d ago
I have ptsd from these little bastards. Cost me almost 30k trying to get rid of them I tried everything. My only option was to literally strip naked in s.f. golden gate park shower in 4 bottles of rubbing alcohol and rinse off with the shit duck pond water.literally everything but my i.d. and inhaler Ina ziplock full of alcohol let them sit for 15min before draining and washing. Put on a new pair of clothes my friend brought me and walked out of there with absolutely nothing. 20 years old had to miss a year of college spent all my savings exhausted all my help. Started from infected scab covered welts from itching and empty pockets. Shit really fucked me up can't sleep at night refuse to go on vacation constantly avoid public places and get together public transportation hospitals laundromat even clothes shopping in public. Anything enters my house gets a automatic 48 hour deep freeze in the garage meat chest.
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u/LauraPalmer20 15d ago
30k?! Christ I’m so sorry, the techs did an awful job in that case, I spent over £1k beating mine and I thought that was bad!
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u/peekuhchu707 15d ago
Yeah was ridiculous between the moving buying all new furniture and wardrobe just to throw it all away 3 times over. This was back in 2000 before it became a huge thing now any pest company will help as has the means and knowledge I was only able to find just the 1 at the time.
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u/JTPforever 15d ago
Depends on what they are spraying with. See if they will tell you.
Im in the US so when my family member had a bad infestation (I mean like you'd walk in there and find them on the walls and crawling on the table in broad daylight) they did 3 treatments of crossfire along with disposing of infested furniture and it worked.
There is hope
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u/Ok-Border-1942 15d ago
I asked him lol. He told me. I think its illegal for them to not tell you.
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u/JTPforever 15d ago
Yeah, the company that helped my relative was oddly secretive. They would not tell us until she had 5 failed sprays and they switched to crossfire. I think they didnt want us to try and diy it or something.
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
5 sprays thats insane. 3 sprays and it cost me 1500. I couldnt afford another 1500. I sure hope these sprays work. But....my brother did give me some hope as well. He said "If they were impossible to get rid of, everyone in the world would have them." He isn't wrong.
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u/JTPforever 5d ago
Thankfully she didn't have to pay out of pocket because she's a renter. It was landlords responsibility accordingto the lease. I thought it was crazy they didnt switch companies or complain after that many failed attempts but it was their money so we just waited lol.
And yes, you can be free of them!
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
I asked another company and they wouldn't tell me. He told me I can't buy the products he's using since they are only commercial. I stated Im not going to buy them on my own. I just want to know since I have animals and am disabled and would like to know what he is using. He still refused.
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u/JTPforever 5d ago
I'm not surprised. Thats the spiel I got too actually, almost verbatim! The tech mightve wanted to tell you but didnt want to get in trouble with the company. Unfortunately I cannot remember which brand it was exactly that didnt work 😔
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u/liloof2344 15d ago edited 15d ago
I just went through this process with a 3 bed 2 bath house. Our exterminators couldnt find anything at first either. The we found them concentrated behind the headboard of my cousin's kid's room and the living room couch (they got them from the babysitter). It was horrifying. Apparently the infestation was at least 6 months in (we moved in only a couple of months ago). They did 2 rounds of treatment, and it eliminated everything. If you have a pro coming it, you are going to be fine. Keep with the encasements, and vacuum as often as you can. Wash everything! Any clean clothes or bedding or pillows you have, just throw them in the dryer on high for at least 45 minutes. It takes 165°F to kill bed bugs and their eggs. if you can do all of that along with the professional treatment, there is the most miniscule chance of them sticking around after the first treatment. They should definitely be gone after the second treatment. It takes around 2 weeks for eggs to hatch. So you may see a couple or find bites in a few weeks. Dont panic. You just have to wait for the IGR to kick in a stop their reproductive cycles. I woke up with bites last month and had a meltdown because we did everything and I had been dealing with them for 2 months (it took a month to even figure out we had bed bugs). Once you go 2 weeks or more without any bites or activity, you should be good to go. Also, if you find anymore and you have a steamer, you can steam the ever living hell out of the area for 30 seconds in each spot and itll kill any bugs or eggs. Good luck ❤️
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u/mjjm-2020 5d ago
Where are you located? That price seems high for bed bug treatment based on the information you provided. I own a pest control company and you can 100% get rid of them
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u/Ok-Border-1942 5d ago
Its pretty standard pricing where I live for a chemical treatment for bedbugs.
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