My duplex-neighbor just told me they have BEDBUGS!!

Also the homeowner I'm leasing from has said the connecting wall is "sealed" and he didn't see how they could get from one side to the other. Which is somewhat reassuring, but can't they come in other ways too?! Are they about to spread o'er the land with my neighbor as Patient Zero?!!!?

How many units? They all need to be treated at the same time otherwise you will ping-pong them back and forth for months and months.... Trust me...I'm an entomologist in real life. Also, I'm a top.

Two units, just mine and theirs 🙀

Bad neighbors are like bad sex. You pick up a lot of unwanted things.

The spraying is more or less irrelevant to your potential bed bug problems. Bed bugs live in the walls. They come out at night to feed. Spraying the neighbor's apartment may direct them your way to come feeding, but you're probably already fucked.

The good news is that the entire building needs to be exterminated at one time for it to be effective. Your stupid neighbor just threw away a thousand bucks.

Your future R2

[quote]They all need to be treated at the same time otherwise you will ping-pong them back and forth for months and months....

This.

You may be fucked, OP. Bed bugs will flee their apt during the treatment and enter yours. There is no such thing as a "sealed" wall.

They can't move through a concrete wall.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Burn the whole place to the ground. It's the only reasonable thing to do.

Tying the neighbors to the radiator is optional, of course.

Jesus Christ, OP. I’m sorry.

[quote]How many units? They all need to be treated at the same time otherwise you will ping-pong them back and forth for months and months.... Trust me...I'm an entomologist in real life. Also, I'm a top.

Do you not understand what "duplex" means, genius?

But they do move through cracks and joints, r7.

Op, you need to have your side done at or near the same time as your neighbor. They will flee. Put whatever clothing and bedding you're not using into plastic bins or garbage bags and tie the tops... now,

Also get some Diatomaceous earth and a paint brush and LIGHTLY dust the perimeter of your rooms.

What R12 said. EVERYTHING up off the floor. Get it all out of your bedroom.

Put two sided tape on the legs of your bed frame. When they try to climb up into the bed, they weill get stuck there. NO bed linens can touch the floor.

They primarily live in walls, but they will also live in the binding of books. They will live in any dark protected place.

I would buy a bed bug mattress protector/cover and put it on the mattress asap.

It can't hurt.

Also, investigate heat treaments. They put heaters in your apartment and crank them up for a period of hours. It's effective and saves you from living with the toxins.

Everything r13 said too...and even more horrifying, r13, they can burrow into soft woods and particle board.

One more tip... you can use dry ice to lure them out. They're attracted to carbon dioxide.

Are you renting, OP? In almost any jurisdiction, it is the landlord's responsibility to ensure that the premises are inhabitable.

So just move.

You don't want to know what you'll have to do to pressure the landlord to step up and address this problem.

This thread is making me anxious!!

And I have my own house!

I have a foam mattress, will they get into that??

Get one of those bed bug protectors from mattresses, r20. You'll have peace of mind.

From =for ^

Really? You really ask that,R20?

*rolls eyes*

You are getting excellent advice here and you are ignoring it. A bed bug infestation can become one of the most traumatic experiences of your life. You better start paying attention.

You simply need to insist that they go away.

Go to the store and buy Hot Shot Bedbug and Flea Fogger. There are three cans in a box. I'm told it works very well.

You don't need a full-blown fumigation -- especially if you haven't seen bugs yet.

If you want to take a precaution, spend a hundred bucks or two just to get an exterminator to spray. They have sprays that will deter/kill most bed bugs.

Fumigations are for thousands of bugs who've been colonizing for a long time.

Diatomaceous Earth is composed of fossilized microscopic diatoms which are very sharp to the insects outer body. When parasites and insects such as bed bugs come in contact with the DE it lacerates their exoskeletons and the powder of the DE then absorbs all of their bodily fluids, causing them to dehydrate and die!

I condo unit one floor below me had bed bugs. About 7-8 units had to be sprayed. The renter was thrown out and the condo association sued the owner for the cost. The renter had to throw away her bed and sofa when she moved out.

[QUOTE] But they do move through cracks and joints

In a duplex there should be a concrete wall separating the two units, and then painted drywall. No cracks to crawl through unless you have holes in both the concrete and drywall.

They crawl through the light sockets.

Aw, honey. No. The concrete isn't poured as a seamless box and there are opening for pipes and outlets. These aren't hermetically sealed.

Hold up, here. He started a “moving company” but he’s using his own residence to “move things in and out of”.

R.ight. Either EST or illegal. Either way, mmm don’t care.

Forget bed bugs. R2, you're a top? Are you hung? Tell us more.

Your landlord has to pay.

OP, you have to have your place treated ASAP. My friend lives in a highrise. Building management found bedbugs in the neighbor's unit and sprayed, then came into my friend's unit to do the same. When they took the faceplate off the electrical outlet on the wall separating his unit from neighbor's, the bugs came out in droves. He spent weeks trying to get rid of them.

[QUOTE] The renter was thrown out

Sounds discriminatory to me. I hope she reported the condo?

R27 these "insects" are MICROSCOPIC. They don't have a body.

Are bedbugs repelled by tea tree oil, R2?

OP, do you feel itchy yet? Are you able to sleep or do you jolt awake thinking about being eaten alive by poisonous insects?

R15 mentions the only way to truly, permanently get rid of them. And yes, they have to do the entire building at the same time. THEN put the mattress & pillow protectors on everything.

Get renters insurance right away if you don't already have it

If the bed bugs come over, your insurance will pay for the extermination and go after your neighbors and/or their exterminators for the money

And tell that bitch of a neighbor that she shouldn't be running that type of business out of her dwelling, that's it's against the law and that you have spoken to your insurance company and they will sue them for the money it costs to exterminate your unit. It's called subrogation

I don't know if it's all completely true, but tell her that. And then call the complex managers and code enforcement and tell them she's running a storage unit/moving company out of her unit and is bringing/spreading bed bugs. I'd write a letter to the newspaper too, because I don't fuck around. When someone fucks with me, I FUCK, RIGHT BACK

Don’t you have an HOA to deal with this? It’s a common wall. What do your bylaws say?

R2 is as obnoxious as that shithead (formerly) regular poster (whose name I won't type because he certainly uses Google Alerts) signing his posts here with his professional credentials after his handle. No one cares.

OP, get NUVAN PRO Strips. They are very, very efficient against bedbugs. Put one (you can cut one up in several pieces) in each bag of clothing or a bag with books.

The strips cannot be legally bought in NY, CA or CT. I had a friend's mother in Jersey buy them for me when my building was infested.

I highly recommend them to anyone who keeps their stuff in a storage space or who is moving stuff across the country.

[quote]Kill Bed Bug Safely And Effectively In Confined Areas

[quote]Treat electronics, shoes, handbags, clothing, toys sealed in an airtight bag with Nuvan ProStrips. Fortunately there is now a product that kills bed bug in difficult to treat items such as electronics. Nuvan Pro-Strips penetrate deep into items treated leaving no place for bed bugs to hide.

yes, I once read that those suckers are attracted to the heat from outlets.

Also OP, if you have access to the roof, bag all your clothing and linens and let them bake in the sun for a day or two. The temperature in the bags has to reach 120 degrees or so. The heat will kill the bugs and the eggs within two hours.

Boil your clothes.

Put your expensive clothes in ziplock bag tape any opening. definitely buy protective covering for your mattress

Bedbugs are to be feared. I've known three people who've had them (NYC and Seattle). All three, after having tried everything to get rid of them, resigned to throwing most of their furniture and possessions away, and sealing the remaining items in plastic bags for two years. It was a life-changing event for each of them. Do not underestimate the insects' ability to travel through tiny cracks in walls or floors of adjacent units in your building.

Every time I travel, I leave my luggage in the bathroom of my hotel room while I carefully inspect the mattress and headboard with a bright LED light. I also carry a large trash bag and, when in doubt, keep my luggage inside of it and leave the bag behind when I leave.

OP - Here's what you need to know:

Adults reach 5 mm- (1/4 inch-) long. Bed bugs are flattened, oval-shaped insects that hide during day and emerge at night to feed on warm-blooded animals. Human bed bug infestations are increasing in frequency in Texas, especially in apartments and hotels where residents come and go, and where the bugs can move from one unit to another.

Nevertheless, they are still relatively uncommon, especially in single-family homes. Bird and bat bugs, relatives of the bed bug, may also be rarely encountered. Bites to humans generally occur only in areas of a structure next to the nesting sites of bats or birds, such as chimney swifts and purple martins.

Bed bug bites are painless but can lead to itching and inflammation, and are sometimes accompanied by series of red blotches on the skin.

This could come in handy, OP.

the ordeal gave me a nervous breakdown.

sleeping at nite is difficult, they may be crawling on me...

Bedbug Psychosis could happen, OP.

I got rid of bed bugs in 4 days. It’s been 6 months now (knock wood) and no bugs. You must be thorough. It cost me about $350 because I bought a nice steamer (on sale) and vacuum. I was lucky it happened around Black Friday when there were online sales everywhere and shipping was super fast.

Get diatomaceous earth (food grade) and silica dust. Get a good respiratory mask, plastic goggles, gloves and a duster for insecticide. Get big plastic bags (see through) for clothes and bedding. I got pretty much everything through Amazon exempt the vacuum and steamer (Kohl’s bucks, 30% off, extra $10 off, free shipping).

Put some silica on the floor and vacuum it up. Now any bugs you vacuum up will die in the canister. Vacuum everything. Floors, walls, baseboards, mattress, box spring. All upholstered and wooden furniture, any wicker or rattan wastebaskets, etc.

Wash everything you can in hot water for 60 minutes, dry it on high for 60 minutes. Put all the clean laundry in see-through plastic bags, close them. Anything that can’t be washed in hot water gets steamed. We got some cheap clothes racks at ikea. Hang stuff up and steam.

Put on mash, goggles and gloves, remove all people and pets from a room and puff silica and diatomaceous earth along baseboards, lightly on floors, on light switches and outlets (I didn’t remove them, just puffed the outside). Lightly puff in closets, along heating equipment (I have hot water heat).

Put bed bug guards on all the legs of your beds. Pull beds and furniture away from walls and keep them that way for 3 months. Encase mattresses, box springs and pillows in zippered cases.

We decided to get rid of our mattress and box spring, our dark bedroom furniture and rugs and got white metal bed frame and light colored furniture. We bought all white bed linens. You want to make sure you can see any nymphs, eggs or other signs of bed bugs (black poop, tiny blood smear, shed skins) after you’ve decontaminated the place. Don’t let any people or pets in room for 3 hours after puffing. Vacuum your drawers after you take clothes out to wash. Puff a bit in each drawer,

There are tons of bed bug sites and YouTube videos giving advice. Read/watch them as guides. You’ll learn FAST. Wear extra long shirts with long sleeves, long pants and knee socks to bed. This will help prevent bites on extremities.

The main thing is DO NOT FREAK OUT. You can’t. You have work to do. Take a Friday or Monday off for a long weekend of work.I have a husband who helped, but you can ask a close friend or pay someone to help you do things like laundry and steaming. Turn over all couches and chairs and vacuum — top, sides, back and bottom — then puff.

Vacuum, vacuum vacuum, laundry, puff, puff. Always wear goggles & mask when puffing and keep pets away for several hours or you risk blindness, cataracts and respiratory disease in your & their future.

Jesus Christ r54 it would be easier to move and buy all new shit

Is that pretty screaming woman in the gif actress Nancy Gates?

[quote] Bed bug bites are painless but can lead to itching and inflammation, and are sometimes accompanied by series of red blotches on the skin.

This is partly true. Bed bug bites are painless while they are biting you. It’s later on that they itch and here’s something few people know — 30% of all people never react to bed bug bites. That’s why you might wake up with bites, but your partner doesn’t.

A person who lives alone and doesn’t react to bites can have a terrible infestation by the time they realize there are bugs living in their bed and house.

Another thing — if you are a reactor, you might not react to bites at first. The more you get bitten, the more you react. As time goes on, your new bites become itchier and you’ll eventually feel a slight ache under your skin when you scratch. Your allergy to the bugs saliva is worsening. Some unfortunate people get terrible, weeping welts. Most people don’t, however.

Weirdest thing if all - I still itch sometimes in places where I was bitten. At first I thought I hadn’t been successful at removing the bugs. But I realized that my skin didn’t raise in a bump or turn red — it was just itchy where I’d been bitten before. The re-itch doesn’t last long, but it keeps popping up every once in a while. I thought I was crazy but did some more research and found this is true of many people. You get a “phantom itch.” It gradually lets up as time goes on. So long as you were getting bumps and redness where you were bit and this time you do not get a bump and redness again, you weren’t bitten again.

You’ve got to man up — or woman up — and deal with it. Accept you might get bitten for a few more nights until you finish all your work. I was nervous for 3 months until I finally thought, “I guess this is over,” when I don’t get bit anymore or had any evidence of bugs.

Anyone can bring them into your residence. You can pick them up in theaters, on buses, at concerts, on trains, in stores. They’re not crawling around everywhere, but if you do get them, it doesn’t mean the last person who visited your place brought them in.

If you can’t do it yourself, you probably need to pay for heat treatment which is a few thousand dollars. But you can get portable heaters to use on things like shoes, purses, briefcases from bed bug supply sites.

I wouldn't use a puffer for the diatomaceous earth. A paint brush works better. You really need a light dusting or it won't work and puffers can put too much out if you aren't used to using them.

[quote] it would be easier to move and buy all new shit

When I realized it was too cold outside to be getting mosquito bites at night is when I thought, “Could it be bed bugs? Naaaah.” I checked my bed - nothing. My husband and I sleep in separate rooms because I snore, but sometimes ay night I lie in his room and watch tv. After a week, I got bitten again and said, “I’m gonna check his bed.”

I immediately found a bed bug. Let me tell you, when you find a live, red bug in a bed and it scurries away from you, you grab it and fresh red blood explodes between your fingers, you’re going to start reading up on bedbugs immediately and start the extermination ASAP.

I have pretty bad arthritis but I worked my ass off lifting, vacuuming, moving furniture. I took pain meds left over from dentist prescriptions and bought robaxin from Canada (it’s otc).

Get a cat, or two.They love to eat bedbugs.

No lie...get a live chicken, no less than 3 but no more than 7 cloves of garlic, the stalk from 2 brussels sprouts and the skins of 15.5 white grapes...

[QUOTE] Aw, honey. No. The concrete isn't poured as a seamless box and there are opening for pipes and outlets. These aren't hermetically sealed.

Uh...that's why you cover all the outlets on that wall with blue tape before the treatment begins on the other side.

This is what I want you to do-run a quick 5k, sweat it out then take an 8 minute nap. Wake up, do a shot of ecanachia, and then jump right into an ice bath. Immediately after that suck on sone ice. Hips and then urinate as hard and fast as you can. Then eat a full onion, rub that onion underneath your armpits, any kind of gland, any kind of mucal cavity, okay? It's called cellular confusion. And then you just gotta veg.

they can still crawl into your apt under the door

It doesn't work, r62. Especially if they are already in the walls. You can keep coming back at me, but I guarantee I have way more experience with this than you.

How do you know they are already in the walls?

R66 He listens closely with a teeny tiny glass

Dogs, r66. Not kidding.

[quote]No lie...get a live chicken, no less than 3 but no more than 7 cloves of garlic, the stalk from 2 brussels sprouts and the skins of 15.5 white grapes...

Don't do this, Op. I've seen this movie. It doesn't end well for the chicken.

R58 is right. You can use a paintbrush or even a large makeup brush. I used a puffer because Ive used one before and know how to use it. If you don't want to do that, then get a paint brush or large makeup blush

Good luck OP! check back when you have the chance and update us!

OP here. I called Terminix to come do an inspection tomorrow and put down preventative stuff, hopefully, just in case. The landlord (through the management company) said he'd pay for the inspection and hopefully he will pay for the other as well.

I've got dark sheets but I have ordered white ones from Amazon and pillow and mattress covers, based on what you guys said in this thread.

I do have a cat!

I keep thinking back to the woman coming over to tell me. She practically was accusing me of having them first, even though she and her husband have people in and out of their house a lot and whatever is going on with his "moving company". I noticed she did not offer to pay, and in retrospect, I think she was only telling me because the pest control people said the bugs would move to my side when they treated, and then back again to their side once their treatment wore off. Otherwise I doubt she would have said anything.

And yes I am trying to sleep and keep getting phantom tickles. Gah!!

I told the leasing management company about it so we will see if their lease gets renewed. At least the husband can move them himself if they have to go 😬

It will all work out OP. Don't listen to the drama queens here.

Yes, it really will work out, OP. But not without enormous cost to you physically, mentally, and emotionally. Listen to the drama queens here! They KNOW!!!

Relax OP. It’s no big deal. I once had to stay at a cheap motel for work for two weeks and would score a couple of bed bug bites every night. Slept like a baby. Think of yourself as a nursing mother.

OP did you get your problem resolved yet?

She dead, R42

so sprays etc don't kill, they jus make em move on to the next apt?

I experienced this horror when I lived in NYC, long story short I purchased some end tables, schlepped them back to my apartment and within a week I started noticing bites; usually two or three at a time in the same 3 inch radius on my arms and chest. I heard the horror stories from coworkers and immediately freaked out, a day or two later I saw one of those fuckers on my bed scurrying underneath the pillow, fat fucker (whom probably just fed) easily noticeable from the fact I had white sheets. I threw away those end tables, vacuumed multiple times a day, did hot water laundry every other day and bought a 5 lb bag of Diatomaceous Earth and spread that everywhere, oh and got a bed bug bed mattress case. I have never experienced such a level of anxiety as knowing I was dealing with a bed bug situation. If you have been googling those fuckers you know just how bad and impossible to get rid of them really are. I nipped it in the bud early on, but still spent the next year freaking out every time I had a body pimple or mosquito bite/spider bite, they really do a mental fuck on you.

Get a bag of Diatomaceous earth along with a duster and dust the entire floorboard perimeter of your side of the duplex, any cracks/crevices that share a wall with the neighbors, don't forget the outlets; dust that shit in there good as that will probably be the first place they can enter, this is assuming you have hardwood floors (as I did at the time.)

Hopefully it's confined to their side of the unit, if not and you have been exposed (I'd hire a company that has a bed bug sniffing dog to confirm) I'd get the fuck out of there as soon as possible, throw away anything that cant be washed/heated, document everything and sue them later on. Good luck OP.

im going thru this shit now,,,,i sleep with rubber bands round my wrists to keep em from crawlin up my pj sleeves, and bands round my ankles. I pull long socks on up to my knees, I put a turtleneck over my top part. I may move , but ive lived here for 18 yrs in this fab apt.

true horror....have done sprays, will try the d earth 2morrow

hve done more laundry loads than I can count.

Silica works faster than DE. Make sure to wear mask & safety glasses. Remove pets from room. Don't put silica/DE in pet beds it can cause blindness & lung problems.

Bed bugs don't live on pets like fleas do. Bedbugs prefer humans. They'll bite pets if they can't find a human.

Vacuum a lot and make sure to vacuum up some DE or silica so any bugs you vacuum up will die in the canister/bag.

If you've got s mattress and a boxspring, you re going to have to take both off your bed and cebck the bottom and corners of both. I got a new bedfrane with slats and threw my box spring away to make it easier to check the bed. Dusted all the slats. Top, bottom, sides.

I dread summer because I know I'll get outdoor bug bites and it will freak me out.

I don't know about where you live, so check your tenant laws. The landlord may be legally responsible for the cost of extermination.

Is your neighbor Courtney Love or Lindsey Lohan

OP, all I can say is...

Diatomaceous earth and Silicia are both effective but can also enter your lungs and cause damage there (maybe even cancer). I would be really careful with that stuff. If you treat a whole room/floor with it, you will definitely inhale some of it bc it will be mixed with the dust and air. Maybe heat treatment and intense cleaning are better options. An Airbnb guest brought them into my old apartment and I decided to move. Dealing with bed bugs is so stressful. I did throw away a lot of stuff and washed all my clothes with hot water (American washing machines are often too cold to kill them though!) before I brought them to my new apartment. The rest like books went in the freezer for at least 24h. I still have a lot of stuff in the basement in plastic boxes and I'm still afraid to bring that stuff upstairs after 15 months. Last summer (3 months after I moved) I had three bites in a row and I was terrified for weeks. But thankfully it was only mosquitoe bites I got after a hot summer night with open windows. Bed bugs are fucking terrifying and will fuck you up emotionally.

Btw: I never saw any bugs in my old apartment and I searched everywhere in that room. They are usually very well hidden. If you start to see them out in the open, you really, really have a problem. They also stayed only in that room and did not move to other parts of the apartment even after the room was empty for over a month. I read on other boards that is usually the case and other rooms are only affected if you move furniture or clothes out of that room.

Bitch you need to call Roscoe !

[quote] I did throw away a lot of stuff and washed all my clothes with hot water (American washing machines are often too cold to kill them though!)

You can drown them by washing on a long cycle. If you live in a place with a laundry room or use a laundromat, just keep your clothes in the washer when the wash is over and then pay for another wash cycle. An hour ought to drown them.

Don't worry about multiple wash cycles, or wash at all. The heat from the dryer will kill them, Just throw your dry clothes into the dryer on high for 30 minutes, and any bedbugs will be dead. Wash stuff if you like, for your own peace of mind, but it's the dryer that works the quickest and the most effectively.

Exterminators (who now called themselves "pest control professionals" or "PCPs" as if they are PhDs) will tell you they're all over your house if one room has them. Turned out not to be true in my case. They were only in my husband's bedroom. But because I'd read these "PCP" sites, I did my whole house. Three floors. Every piece of laundry that could be washed. Every surface that could be vacuumed, scrubbed, sprayed. It was tiring, but at least I never saw them again after 3-4 days. And I didn't need any dogs or $3,000 heat treatments.

Ps - there are clothes that can't be dried on high or they'll be destroyed. If you can't steam them, you can drown them.

R87 Read that you need at least 140 degrees to kill them. They often survive if the temperature is lower than that. Never heard that you could drown them. Good tip, but I will never have Airbnb or other guests again and I freeze/wash all my clothes after a vacation. I did a combination of freezing and washing. First I put all my clothes in the freezer for 24h and then washed them on the highest temperature. I'm not even sure I had any in my room. I hope they were only in that Airbnb guest's room and stayed there. My brother lives in Texas and got bed bugs after an old college friend visited him for a weekend. He had stayed in a hotel in NYC before his visit but still refused to help with the bills and said he was not responsible. After my brother's experience with bed bugs I decided I did not want to deal with them and moved out of the apartment.

^ My brother also said the bugs were only in the guest room and their bed room and all other parts of the house were not affected. They cleaned all their clothes, got rid of the carpet and furniture or cleaned/sealed it. Pest control sprayed the whole room but after two weeks they were back. After an expensive heat treatment they were finally all dead.

Insecticide does not work. Bedbugs are highly resistant to insecticide. It has to be sprayed right on them and since most bedbugs are hiding out of sight in walls or bedframes/ bedside tables, chests of drawers, etc, they won't die.

You know where they live to hide? In screws/fasteners. Purses, suitcases, wood furniture, bedframes....all have screws/fasteners. They also hide in the ridges of the bottom of your shoes. I can easily see 7 adult bedbugs in this one little screw.

Try again

im having a total breakdown over it, im old and have bad back, but bagging up all clothes etc I don't use, and washing thehell out of the rest. manager is spraying, and have traps, hope it works, spraying once a week.

hard to sleep in my new bed, as theyr there in morn when I awake, near me,

I may hve to just move.

Step one: Present Hole. Step two: Bed bugs leave in disgust.

Don’t sleep with your mattress/box spring on the floor. Buy a bed frame and put the legs of the bed frame on top of these. The traps have smooth plastic on the inner side & bed bugs can’t grasp smooth plastic, so they can’t climb up smooth plastic. Make sure you don’t let dust build up on th3 plastic or the BBs will get a footing.

[quote] still have a lot of stuff in the basement in plastic boxes and I'm still afraid to bring that stuff upstairs after 15 months.

Look up my suggestion upthread to buy NUVAN strips. They're ideal for stuff that's stored in boxes and plastic bags. The strips are fairly large, so you can cut them up and put a smaller piece in each box. There is no smell.

Move all of your furniture away from walls. Bedbugs can’t jump or fly, but they can crawl up walls, so if you have bedside tables or bed or other furniture up against wall, they’ll climb onto it. Bedbugs can climb up walls onto ceiling and drop onto bed, but that’s making it more difficult for them, so make it more difficult, ok?

Shiny sheets are more difficult for them to climb on, so sateen might be better for you. Silk is very difficult for them to get a hold on.

Don’t buy quilted zippered pillow covers. Buy the shiniest, sleekest, slidey-ist pillow protectors you can get. High quality silk is best, but I’ve bought Sealy zipped covers from Kohl’s online and they are a bit shiny.

Get rid of any bedskirts. Bed bugs love them.

Get rid of those long curtains you see in the decor mags that puddle onto the floor. They are a bed bug highway.

If you keep things under your bed for storage — winter clothes/shoes in summer, eg — get a closed plastic box. Dust a little DE/silica on the edge of the box lock with a brush.

Try to keep wicker storage away from beds, too, like toy boxes or other storage boxes. People sometimes store extra linen in wicker boxes. Sometimes people keep benches up against the foot on the bed. Move them so they do not touch the bed

[quote] as theyr there in morn when I awake, near me,

Keep a vacuum by your bed. Can be a hand vac or a regular vac. As soon as you wake up, vac your bed and all around the bed to catch as many as you can. Make sure you’ve vac’d up some DE/silica inside the vac so that it will kill any bugs you catch.