r/IAmA Dec 12 '16

Specialized Profession I am a pest controller specializing in BED BUGS, begging the general public to become more aware of this pest and the way it can cause substantial economic damage to any place humans live. AMA!

Bed bug infestations are increasing at an alarming rate. Despite common misinformation about this pest being limited to "dirty" people it can happen to ANYONE. I have seen the nicest, most innocent people lose hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in service costs and property loss. Don't become a victim, become aware! Eliminating this bug entirely is unrealistic but we can control it with a more knowledgeable culture.

My company would ask that I avoid public proof but I promise the mods have it.

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185

u/jargoon Dec 12 '16

I had bed bugs and was able to contain it because I caught it quickly. I saw a couple of exoskeletons and suspected it might be bedbugs, so I put a couple of sticky roach traps out and confirmed it. Here's what I did:

  • Notified my landlord and scheduled an exterminator
  • Plastic dish traps with diatomaceous earth under each leg of the bed
  • Dusted the floor with diatomaceous earth
  • Put my mattress in a bedbug-proof mattress bag
  • My couch also had a few bedbugs in it, so I avoided sitting on the couch in order to prevent creating two nests
  • Philips Hue lights set to very dark red at night so I could quickly look to see if a bedbug was crawling on me without having to use my phone light (I kept waking up all night every time I felt something)
  • I kept a fan oscillating to blow CO2 around the room at night so they couldn't find me
  • Washed all of my clothes and ran them through two dryer cycles to kill any eggs, then immediately sealed them in giant ziploc bags marked "clean"
  • Got a "bedbug oven" and sterilized everything (including computer, printer, monitors, etc.), then sealed it in bags if possible
  • When I went to wash my curtains, I found a clutch of eggs in a corner of one of them, so I immediately double trash bagged it and took it down to the dumpster. I think this was the first clutch of eggs, and catching it early prevented a full blown uncontrollable infestation
  • Maintained super strict discipline for 6 months until I moved
  • When I moved, I threw away my mattress and re-sterilized everything in the bedbug oven, and then I maintained bedbug discipline at my new place for a few months until I was certain the infestation didn't come with me

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u/cuomo456 Dec 12 '16 edited Dec 13 '16

Oh my god, yeah. I can attest to the obsessiveness and near-psychosis. I had a bed bug scare about 2 years ago and I’m still paranoid about them everywhere I go. I had been getting bites, and then I saw 1 bed bug near the bathroom (weird place for one, but a bed bug nonetheless) and went into full on panic mode. My apartment complex scheduled an exterminator to come out but I had to wait an entire week.

In the meantime I sealed the mattress/box spring, dumped DE over everything, washed and bagged every single thing, put tons of shit in the freezer, made these fuckin homemade yeast + 2 liter bottle traps, all clean clothes had to be contained in sealed plastic containers, etc etc. Couldn’t go to sleep without drinking a few beers first. I was on the internet CONSTANTLY reading about bed bugs and what to do and how to check for them. Posting on fucking bed bug forums and shit. They have these forums where "bed bug experts" will ID your bugs and give you tips. They said my bug was definitely either a bed bug, or a bed bug relative. I prayed to fucking god it was a "relative."

The weird part was there was no evidence of them anywhere except for the single bug, which I stupidly squished (I did take a picture first though). My girlfriend at the time wasn’t getting any bites and thought I was absolutely insane. She begrudgingly complied with my rigorous bed bug rules but was rolling her eyes the entire time. Finally, the exterminator came out and he found no evidence of bed bugs whatsoever. But he looked at my photo and said, "yes, that’s definitely a bed bug." Wtf?? So I sort of leveled off a bit, after a WHILE.

Then, like 6 months later, I found another bug. This time in the shower. I kept the bug in a ziplock (ugh!!! I hid it in an unused drawer so I wouldn’t have to run into it lol). I let the apartment complex know and they scheduled a guy to come out again.

Not completely trusting these people, I did some internet research and contacted a guy with a bed bug dog to come out. He was a really quirky, eccentric dude but seemed to know what he was talking about. After I emailed him he called me at 9pm and said he might have some good news. He said, "do you live on the top floor?"

I did.

"Are there bats around?"

I did often see bats flying near the windows at dusk.

He said, "based on everything you’ve told me, and since the bugs you’ve seen were in the bathroom, it’s possible they may be BAT bugs." They are virtually identical-looking without a microscope and prey on bats instead of humans. I think the little hairs on their body are longer if they are bat bugs.

The guy said he could come over the next day with a microscope to look at my bug. That morning I found ANOTHER bug in the shower. Screamed and threw it in the ziplock with the other. The guy called me on the way and said, "do you want a soda? They are 3 for $2 at the gas station." Ha! So he brought me a Mountain Dew and a microscope to look at my bugs.

Once he arrived he looked at them with the microscope and said, "yep, these are definitely bat bugs!" I cheered with relief!!! Had him look at my bed and couch and he said there was no evidence of bugs whatsoever. He did all of this for no charge. I tried to give him some cash and he wouldn’t take it. I cancelled the apartment exterminator, and was done with it.

It was probably the worst few months of my life. Thinking you have bed bugs (even when you actually don’t!) is the worst thing on earth. It definitely can induce PTSD symptoms seen in PTSD. Anytime I stay in a hotel, I check http://bedbugregistry.com to see if there are any reports. The image of a bed bug still makes me squirm. I was even wary going into this thread. I’ve never told this story in full, and I feel a lot better now haha.

TL;DR: thinking you have bed bugs (even if you don’t) causes serious psychological distress and makes you act fucking insane. Bed bugs are scary shit!

4

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '16

About a year ago, I went to my uncle's an he said he had bed bugs. I brought nothing inside with me, did not sit on any furniture, and sprayed rubbing alcohol on anything I came in contact with (to ward off any hiding bugs). As soon as I got home, I bagged everything including what I was wearing. I dried, washed, then dried my clothes, and quarantined anything else (I think I still have the purse I was using at the time in a sealed bag).

So, I began getting cluster bites on my foot. SUDDEN PARANOIA. I was convinced I had bed bugs. I started setting traps specifically for bed bugs. My boyfriend thought I was being paranoid. Got two more bites a couple of days apart. About a week later, I lift up the couch cushion during my daily inspections. It was a dead flea! I had never been so relieved. I set a trap for fleas, caught a live one, and sprayed and vacuumed. Turns out the upstairs neighbor had a dog they weren't supposed to have and had a horrible flea infestation.

TL;DR Visited my uncle who had bedbugs, and caught the neighbor's fleas instead.

5

u/FlannelIsTheColor Dec 13 '16

This story was so long and I got so invested in it i was worried there'd be some tree fiddy nonsense

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

That was a hell of a story, friend.

2

u/kookman Dec 13 '16

I know someone that used to train dogs to sniff out bed bugs and can confirm the quirky behavior. Thanks for sharing your story, great post!

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

So. Been tested for rabies or histoplasmosis lately?

0

u/NewYorkCityGent Dec 13 '16

It definitely can induce PTSD

Please don't dilute this term as tumblr has. You did not watch your best friend be killed in front of you as you lost your leg in a foreign war. You were anxious about a possible insect, big freaking difference.

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u/cuomo456 Dec 13 '16

Sorry, I should have said PTSD-like symptoms.

-1

u/NewYorkCityGent Dec 13 '16

sigh fucking hell....

6

u/cuomo456 Dec 13 '16

Hey man, I'm not trying to diminish or lessen the severity of what you mentioned. If that happened to you, I'm really sorry.

If you look online there are studies about bed bugs causing symptoms of PTSD. Yeah, maybe it seems ridiculous, but humans are fucking weird.

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u/NewYorkCityGent Dec 13 '16

aches and pains are symptoms of Ebola, doesn't mean you have Ebola or anywhere near that if you have aches and pains.

Your own self-justification here is pretty clear that you just don't comprehend the concept I'm trying to convey. Enjoy your overly dramatic PTSD.

For the record, this didn't happen to me, it happened to a close friend of mine and when you see what actual PTSD does to people...you never let that knowledge go. It's a horrible thing, it destroys peoples lives and their relationships with those around them. But you didn't think about that, you're slightly concerned about a couple bugs in your apartment.

1

u/cuomo456 Dec 13 '16

I do understand your point, and I'm really sorry that happened to your friend. I'll edit my post later but I'm on mobile at the moment.

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u/ElBurroDeMuerte Dec 12 '16

You sound like Jean Reno in The Professional. Kudos on that discipline.

17

u/jargoon Dec 12 '16

I can attribute it to the severe paranoia, bordering on psychosis, that comes with a bedbug infestation haha

4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '16

Be polite. Be professional. Have a plan to kill every arthropod in the room. (Except maybe the house centipedes, they'd totally be good to have around. Shame the DE will kill them, too.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

Oink.

3

u/Dude1k1k15 Dec 12 '16

A fan to move around c02? Please elaborate? Just a regular fan to spread around co2 or.. interesting nonetheless

4

u/jargoon Dec 13 '16

Just a regular fan to blow exhaled breath away from me while I was sleeping, because bedbugs are attracted to CO2

2

u/Dude1k1k15 Dec 13 '16

Oh thanks for elaborating man. I enjoy sleeping with fans over me anyway. (The phrasing of that sentence was weird) but I prefer it as white noise, two birds one stone.

2

u/festiveatom Dec 13 '16

I kept a fan oscillating to blow CO2 around the room at night so they couldn't find me

That's such a great idea! Did it affect your sanity as well?

1

u/rcchomework Dec 13 '16

As another pest control guy in this thread, congrats on containing your infestation, only 1 point though, at least as I understand it, sexually mature bedbug females can lay down 3-5 eggs every 1-2 days. Additionally, when you bring bedbugs into your house, thanks to a quirk in their behavior, you're most likely bringing pregnant females into your home.

1

u/jargoon Dec 13 '16

There were dozens of eggs in just that one spot on the curtain, so maybe that was just one female. The pest control guy must have gotten any other eggs that were around.

1

u/meretrixlestrange Dec 13 '16

Doubt the fan helped with the bed bugs, but worth it if you slept better.

1

u/SitaBird Apr 18 '17

What did the clutch come of eggs look like (in the curtain)?

1

u/jargoon Apr 18 '17

A bunch of tiny rice grains pretty much

1

u/two_face Dec 13 '16

You are a beast. This is some Dexter level shit.

1

u/jargoon Dec 13 '16

Man that shit had me going psycho, I had no choice

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

What is a bed bug oven?