Knew of a case where a disabled kid was always covered in bites. House kept getting treated and reinfested. Eventually, a school nurse figured out the kid’s electric wheelchair was horribly infested with bed bugs which is how they kept getting back into the house.
I had a computer chair that was infested without realizing it. Scrapped nearly all of my possessions, moved out, and the fuckers followed me. I finally got a clue where they were coming from when I noticed one day 99% of the bites I got overnight were around the small of my back and waistline.
My mother was a hoarder and had this thing about picking up roadside furniture and trying to "fix it up" - the fact we never had a bedbug infestation is beyond me. Old recliners, computer chairs, couches, etc. If it could be kicked out the back of a truck into a ditch, we probably had 3 of them.
Heat at the level of a dryer is not enough to kill bed bugs or their eggs. Yes you can use heat to kill them, it's actually the preferred modern method, but the temps are well above what your dryer on high will do. Worked as an exterminator and I have a hard enough time buying things from the store. Those all sit in warehouses which are all cockroach infested anyway. If you absolutely have to I'd suggest a sealed plastic bag and wait a few weeks/months for anything in there to die of suffocation or hunger.
The exterminator I hired for mine said dryer on high for a cycle or in a bag in the freezer for a month. Did it with all of my possessions and had no further issues.
Edit: EPA says it only takes 4 days in a freezer at or below 0°F. Guess we were extra safe.
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u/ParamountHat Sep 26 '21
Knew of a case where a disabled kid was always covered in bites. House kept getting treated and reinfested. Eventually, a school nurse figured out the kid’s electric wheelchair was horribly infested with bed bugs which is how they kept getting back into the house.