Hi,
I have been reading about BB for two months. Lots of great advice on this forum.Thanks in advance for any answer or help you can give me. I am not very computer literate,so I probably won't be able to post the pictures I have. Darn.
My battle with the bugs started last Thanksgiving. My neighbor one floor above my unit on the opposite side asked me to watch his cat while he visited his parents. I agreed being a good person and a animal lover. I spent long periods of time sitting on the couch playing with the cat.On Friday the day after Thanksgiving I was getting ready to leave and noticed a small bug on his couch. I picked it up and took it into the bathroom to get a better look. I have never seen a bedbug but noticed that the daughters room had a encasement. I went to get my phone to take a picture of the bug but it escaped.
I sat in a kitchen chair the night before in their apt. Skype with my BF. I did get a small bite on my knee and one on my elbow. I decided then to bring the cat to my apt to play and then back there to sleep. Still had to go in to feed water and change the litter. My Property Manager was also out of town. I saw her Monday morning and asked her why we weren't told there were BB in the bldg.She said they got the all clear from her PCO. I told her I saw a bug and had gotten bitten. She told me she would call the PCO and would call me later. I still had the key so the PCO myself and the Manager went to the apt. They were home and livid to find they were back. The couch had several in different stages. They scheduled another spray and told them it wasn't necessary for them to rebag their things. The PCO came and checked my apt. But know now that wasn't going to help at that early stage. The Property manager then called me and told me she had some spray that she bought from the pest people to use in the hall. She came over and sprayed quickly most of my baseboards. She also mentioned she was trained to spay. I highly doubt that. She said the PCO helped her measure the amount.
I continued to have bites show up. I immediately ordered encasements and DE. The Property Manager even came over to help me put them on. I surely wasn't going to ask anyone else. I bought a small steamer and steamed my bed frame. It is metal. I didn't have a duster so I did the best I could with the DE. I vacuumed like crazy before I applied it. I took things out of the room lamps etc.
I continued to clean bag my clothes and literally pack up my apt because I was sure she would send someone to spray. The PCO came back on December 3rd and still didn't find anything. Me either. Bites continue as did the cleaning and vacuuming. I found what I thought looked like eggs. I didn't know how to remove them so I ruined them. They were in my dining room chair where I sit for long periods of time. I know I napped on the sofa after leaving that apt. So I thought maybe they are in the couch.
I ordered a thermalstrike and heated everything I could. Meanwhile I had to have surgery. My BF came 1200 miles to spend Xmas with me and help me through surgery. He didn't really think he was getting bit but he did have some marks and got a really bad rash on his back. He stayed a month and although it was great to have him here he didn't take as much care to not to contaminate his belongings. That added extra stress to my already stressed out life. I put all his stuff in the heat box or dryer before he left. I sure hope he didn't take anything back with him. He did talk to the Property Manager and told her to spray. Although it wasn't a bedbug spray.
Oh the PCO did come and check again on January 10th. Told me " you absolutely don't have BB".
Also I did show the Doctor my bites and told her the story she cave me pills for itching and told me it would also take care of the anxiety. She did confirm that they were bites and not a skin condition.
The pest people sprayed on Friday. The Property Manager said she came and made sure he did a good job. She did give me a copy of a flyer that has what he used to spray. It does list BB on it. He also said I don't have BB. The name of the insecticide is Onslaught. Active ingredients are
Esfenvalerate.......6.4% Praalenethrin.....1.6% Piperonyl butoxide.......8.00% other ingredients 84.00% contains petroleum distillates. He is scheduled to come back on Monday February 6.
So by now you are saying why do you think you have bed bugs? I have a few signs but no bugs. I have climb ups on my bed. I just put David Cains passive monitor on my mattress and raid BB traps on different areas of my couch. I found what I thought was BB feces on my encasement on Sat but I didn't have anyway to test it. I also found what I thought could be a casing and fecal in my bed a couple of weeks back. Also my elderly neighbor had to go to a nursing home. His family came to clean his apt out. They threw out almost everything he owned. Stacks and stacks of sealed garbage bags. They were obvious because they were grey. Also we had a could snap and the asshat upstairs had all his furniture and garbage bags of clothes on his deck. I hope he doesn't think that is going to help any. One of the maintenance people who lived in the bldg next to mine left in the middle of the night because his apt was so invested.They had people throwing out lots of mattresses and furniture and moving. Also the Property Manager moved to a different bldg to. Their were people in hazmat suits working in that bldg for days because the infestation was so bad.
The new maintenance person moved from her apt somewhere else because it had BB. He told me she got them from her neighbors. She now lives in our community. How long did she have them before she new. I know for a fact that she painted the apt that I saw the bugs in.
Okay now the questions. I am moving in a few months. I refuse to live in a bldg where the neighbors are being kept in the dark. I think it's criminal. I still have a few months left on my lease but don't know how long to stay. I can't go through this much longer.
I don't want to get rid of the things I've worked so hard to acquire. I'm close to retiring and don't have the money to buy new. I am going to put my stuff in storage and put nuvan strips in the storage unit. What do I do with all the food etc. I'm just taking my clothes shoes cosmetics. The bare necessities. How do I treat my cosmetics jewelry and things like that. Should I assume that everything is invested. I don't want to bring them to my friends house when I move.
Also I work in the service industry. I am in people's homes. I keep my purse coat etc in totes and change into my clothes in the kitchen. I steam my shoes and spray the with alcohol when I walk out the door. Am I doing enough to protect my clients. I make myself sick thinking I might infect their lovely homes...help help help! Is there anyone who could walk me through the pic posting. I really don't have any ideas what URL etc are.