How to get rid of bed bugs??

I have a problem & need help finding a solution..

We have a bedroom in our home that is my brother's - but he's away for school, and only comes home for a couple days per quarter. Occassionally we have overnight guests who stayed there.

We never noticed there was a problem until my cousin (visiting from France!!) stayed there for a week. She got bitten all over her body with mosquitos like bites. Then for the last two times my brother came home, he was also bitten all over! But there was other guests who stayed in the room in between these two times but they didn't get bitten. It didn't happen to the other two bedrooms in the house. My mom even slept in my brother's room one day before he came home, thinking that whatever that bites him will bite her first, but nothing happened to my mom. Sure enough the next day my brother came home and was bitten all over!! My brother refused to sleep in his room during Spring break last week.. Seeing him sleeping on the sofa really breaks my heart

Tomorrow, my uncle and his wife will visit us from New York. They want to stay at my house, but I'm afraid they're going to get red bites all over their bodies!

Do you know of anything I can do to get rid of this problem fast?? The mattress was brandnew. We bought it about 1 1/2 year ago, but it only been slept on about 30 times total..

I want my brother to feel safe when he comes home again, and need to feel confident about having guests over. HELP?
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:) Gosh I dont know.. I am trying to think of some Old Country things to do.. Ok try diluting Bleach & water & sponge & soak the whole mattress down & then put a fan on to dry.. Or you might just spray good with lysol or something like that.. Good Luck.. I think this calls for a M&M's pic please..

Are you sure that the mattress you bought was new. There was a thing on 20/20 or 60 minutes about bed bugs about a year ago. There is a whole industry that is buying used mattresses and recovering them and selling them as new. They are mostly infested with bed bugs.

I would say DO NOT USE BLEACH PERIOD. Buy or rent a Remediation strength
OZONE generator and put in that room for a couple of days with the door closed. It will kill what ever is in the room, bed bugs fleas, or Mold.

http://www.maxblasterusa.com/

http://www.air-purifiers-superstore....ial_grade.html

:) Yup I remember that about a year ago.. Cause I thought how so nasty to sleep on a recovered mattress.. Ok how come you would not use Bleach?? Would it be too powerfull for the breathing??

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Originally Posted by kokopup

Are you sure that the mattress you bought was new. There was a thing on 20/20 or 60 minutes about bed bugs about a year ago. There is a whole industry that is buying used mattresses and recovering them and selling them as new. They are mostly infested with bed bugs.

I would say DO NOT USE BLEACH PERIOD. Buy or rent a Remediation strength
OZONE generator and put in that room for a couple of days with the door closed. It will kill what ever is in the room, bed bugs fleas, or Mold.

http://www.maxblasterusa.com/

http://www.air-purifiers-superstore....ial_grade.html

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Ozone will kill everything that bleach will kill and will not cause skin and lung irritations that bleach will cause. Ozone is O3 and is mainly used to kill mold.

It is used by hotels to get the smoke odor out of rooms. Car dealer use it to remove odor from cars. It is the best thing for killing and eliminating the odor of mold. It will kill any pet odor in a house.

Bleach should ONLY be used on your clothes in the laundry or maybe kill mold OUTSIDE where there is a lot of air movement. Bleach indoors is bad news. Mixed with some other household
cleaners can be Deadly.

If Ozone is used at remediation strength it will kill all insects in a closed room, bed bug included.

Wash everythign possible in HOT water. Anything that cannot be washed must be put in plastic bags and secured to be airtight. That will take care of sheets, pillows, mattress, etc. The carpet in the room will be your toughest problem.

Apparently, my step daughter has them in her new apartment and she's going through the same thing. Thank goodness they haven't made the leap form there to here yet!

:) Oh ok I understand now.. Now I wash my sheets & bedding in Diluted Bleach cause the babies sometimes have throw ups.. Now I make sure its not too strong for the breathing afterwards.. Now is Ozone a Liquid or is it a Spray?? I will have to look for it..

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Originally Posted by kokopup

Ozone will kill everything that bleach will kill and will not cause skin and lung irritations that bleach will cause. Ozone is O3 and is mainly used to kill mold.

It is used by hotels to get the smoke odor out of rooms. Car dealer use it to remove odor from cars. It is the best thing for killing and eliminating the odor of mold. It will kill any pet odor in a house.

Bleach should ONLY be used on your clothes in the laundry or maybe kill mold OUTSIDE where there is a lot of air movement. Bleach indoors is bad news. Mixed with some other household
cleaners can be Deadly.

If Ozone is used at remediation strength it will kill all insects in a closed room, bed bug included.

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The room flloor is laminated wood, not carpet. I washed all the bedding twice before my brother come home the last time.. but it still happened :(

Now that I know bed bugs do not only live on the bed/mattress, I plan to clean everywhere else, too - like the bed frames, windows, closets... Hopefully it'll help.

Do you have any ideas why it'd bite some people but not the others? I can only hope it won't bite my uncle & aunt - otherwise we'd be soooooo embarrassed! I am tempted to ask them to stay at the hotel, but my parents really want them to stay at our house. Plus, they told me that a new bed in my house is supposed to be much cleaner than a bed in a hotel..

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Originally post by lvpets2002
Oh ok I understand now.. Now I wash my sheets & bedding in Diluted Bleach cause the babies sometimes have throw ups.. Now I make sure its not too strong for the breathing afterwards.. Now is Ozone a Liquid or is it a Spray?? I will have to look for it..

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If you look at the links on my post you will see that Ozone is a gas that is put out by this machine you rent or buy. If you use one that puts out Remediation strength that's in excess of 7200 mghr then I guarantee you
that after a day or two of running the machine in a closed room whatever is biting will be dead.

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Originally post by M&M's Mommy
Do you have any ideas why it'd bite some people but not the others? I can only hope it won't bite my uncle & aunt - otherwise we'd be soooooo embarrassed! I am tempted to ask them to stay at the hotel, but my parents really want them to stay at our house. Plus, they told me that a new bed in my house is supposed to be much cleaner than a bed in a hotel..

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The same reason some people are bitten by mosquitos and some aren't. Your
bodies give off odors that repell some insects. it can be a diet thing or a medication thing. Some people just repell insects and others attract them. I attract them. If I am around you are almost certain not to be bitten.:D

Call an exterminator. Get rid of the mattress, probably the sheets too and have the room steam cleaned. You may still have problems after that.
I've never had that problem but have read a lot about it.

Can you let your aunt and uncle sleep in your bed and you use your brother's bed?

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Originally Posted by Moesha

Can you let your aunt and uncle sleep in your bed and you use your brother's bed?

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I don't think they would agree to that. If I come to someone's house, I wouldn't want to take up their master bedroom and have them sleep in their guest bedroom :).

I offered to book a hotel room for them, but my parents and they insisted on staying at our house. I have no problems with that except I'm so insecure about the room right now.. I will have to tell them the truth and lets them decide. This way, if they choose to sleep in there and got bitten, they can't blame me :( - but regardless of whether they're staying or not, I need to get rid of these bugs!! I'm concerned about my brother coming home for the Summer. It's his home/room, and I want him to feel safe in it. Plus, I don't want him to sleep on the sofa :(

Those pesky little creatures can get in EVERYTHING, even visitors luggage and they take them home. I saw a thing on TV where hotels are having real problems with them, they are in the walls, the furniture, carpet, EVERYTHING!!! One lady took them home in her luggage and they had to go in and completely strip the walls out and everything.

Back when I saw that report, they were nearly impossiable to get rid of. I never heard of this

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If you look at the links on my post you will see that Ozone is a gas that is put out by this machine you rent or buy. If you use one that puts out Remediation strength that's in excess of 7200 mghr then I guarantee you
that after a day or two of running the machine in a closed room whatever is biting will be dead.

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If that works, they have made big advances since the last I heard of them.

I would warn the visitors that you have them, could be bitten, and possiably having a bad reaction to them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kokopup

Buy or rent a Remediation strength OZONE generator and
put in that room for a couple of days with the door closed.
It will kill what ever is in the room, bed bugs fleas, or Mold.

http://www.maxblasterusa.com/

http://www.air-purifiers-superstore....ial_grade.html

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I'd suggest some reading or Google.com searches on the use of Ozone
to eliminate Bed Bugs. The reports on using Ozone seem to be "mixed" at best.
See >>>

http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/ozone-experiment

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Originally Posted by M&M's Mommy

I don't think they would agree to that. If I come to someone's house, I wouldn't want to take up their master bedroom and have them sleep in their guest bedroom :).

I offered to book a hotel room for them, but my parents and they insisted on staying at our house. I have no problems with that except I'm so insecure about the room right now.. I will have to tell them the truth and lets them decide. This way, if they choose to sleep in there and got bitten, they can't blame me :( - but regardless of whether they're staying or not, I need to get rid of these bugs!! I'm concerned about my brother coming home for the Summer. It's his home/room, and I want him to feel safe in it. Plus, I don't want him to sleep on the sofa :(

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As a quick fix, you could get a plastic cover for the mattress, then put a mattress pad, then the sheets and blankets over that. Then after their visit, you can work on more permanent remedies.

:) Now there is a idea.. Now I have a mattress pad & then a plastic cover over my bed.. I do this so if the babies have throw ups on the bed then the mattress is not soaked..

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Originally Posted by Karen

As a quick fix, you could get a plastic cover for the mattress, then put a mattress pad, then the sheets and blankets over that. Then after their visit, you can work on more permanent remedies.

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This is interesting.

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originally post by Cinder & Smoke
I'd suggest some reading or Google.com searches on the use of Ozone
to eliminate Bed Bugs. The reports on using Ozone seem to be "mixed" at best.
See >>>

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You are aware that for any position you can find the Naysayer for that position. I have been using Ozone for various remediation task for about 15 years. I have not had personal experience with bed bugs but I have with fleas, dust mites, pet odor, mold odor and the list goes on. The ozone generator should be a standard for pet owners.

I had a basement with extreme mold problems when I lived in Tennessee. I rented a ozone generator then to correct my mold problem. The Mold and odor was eliminated along with more bugs than I thought could live in a basement. I had little bugger on their back everywhere. I have since used my personal unite to rid my finished basement of a flea infestation. I keep one running on low to eliminate odors 24/7. If you have a unit that also has a ion generator it can blacken paint. If you buy or rent a unit make sure it does not also contain an ion generator. Ozone alone will not effect paint or rubber that was suggested by that article.

I am a retired engineer and worked around equipment that naturally gave off ozone because of the nature of high voltage power equipment. There was never any ill effects caused by ozone on this equipment. They were all painted and all had rubber gasket doors.

Low output units are good for odor elimination but to correct insect and mold issues you need a 7200 mghr+ unit.

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Originally Posted by kokopup

Low output units are good for odor elimination but to correct insect and mold issues you need a 7200 mghr+ unit.

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I'll check out this Ozone generator option this weekend. In the mean time, I'll go with what Karen has suggested..

I'll be praying & wishing & crossing fingers that my uncle and aunt don't wake up tomorrow morning with bumpy red bites all over *shudder*

I have dealt with this problem professionally. IMO, you need the services of a 'real' exterminator. If these are bedbugs, they are horribly difficult to get rid of and there are sheets put out by the local health department that detail the long list of things you must do to remove the problem.

I just saw a segment about bed bugs on Fox TV. Apparently, bed bugs have become a real issue again to the point where there's actually a govt. summit, believe it or not. The dr. talking about it said that a professional exterminator is needed, that we can't do it ourselves; although he did not mention ozone, I'd certainly give it a whirl unless you're pressed for time. He also said that some people have an allergic reaction to the bites and can scratch until the sores become infected, leaving you open to MRSA. That scared me. He said that he doesn't want to alarm anyone but that bed bugs are not to be taken lightly.

Geez, am I itchy now!

I was attacked once while staying at a very nice hotel. It was not a pleasant experience!!! :eek: I was afraid we had brought them home with us, but fortunately didn't.
I hear they are extremely difficult to get rid of, since they get in every seam, stitch and tiny crevasse in the box spring and mattress.

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Originally Posted by pomtzu

I hear they are extremely difficult to get rid of, since they get in every seam, stitch and tiny crevasse in the box spring and mattress.

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Not only that, this dr. said that they can live for a year w/out a food source but since humans are the food source, they just keep thriving. Eeeew!

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Originally Posted by Medusa

Not only that, this dr. said that they can live for a year w/out a food source but since humans are the food source, they just keep thriving. Eeeew!

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That's comforting to know!! :eek:

I'm checking my crew when they get back from vacation to make sure no one has bites. If so, they can all stay in the garage till the suitcases are fumigated!!! :p

No bites so far. *knocks on wood* My aunt & uncle will stay for 3 more nights. Lets hope they won't get bitten for their entire stay.

I washed all the bedding twice & thoroughly cleaned the bed frame with the All-purposes cleaner solution - but that was it. I haven't had a chance to go get the plastic cover for the mattress or rent the Ozone generator..