The night after extermination,something just didn't sit right with me after finding that one bug in the closet. I couldn't sleep,and I had read that bedbugs come out around the 4ish time or just before dawn. I happened to be up and took my little handy flashlight and took a look along the permeters of my room along the carpet edges (carpet is horrible to have if you have a bedbug problem) and look what I found lurking in the night:
Looking to feed, as if he hadn't had enough at this point! He was exposed a bit more but I kind of scared him with my bright light and had to grab my cell phone so I could take a quick snap before he got away and I needed to squash him and end his lavished nights of feeding off of our blood!
Here is a pic of the flashlight I have been using to scope these suckers out:
After this finding, I am so freaked out and I am in complete battle mode and so frightened that we are going to keep being bitten and eaten alive by these bugs. I have no idea where they are hiding and where they came from. What am I suppose to do to keep my family safe?
NO it isn't! We went through all of that just to come home and "think" it was over!
We walked into our smelly house after five hours and examined what had been done. Our entire house took the exterminators less than 30 minutes? I thought it to be strange that they could thorougly spray our entire apartment and furniture? Upon our walk thru after the exterminators left we had noticed they had stored bed frames and mattresses in our walk in closets. Why would they do such a thing? I had no idea,but was trying to stay optimistic and started the unpacking to get everyone as back to "normal" as we could.
I started in the living room so the kids could sit and have quiet time while we put the rest of the house back together. We also had to cover the mattresses with vinyl zip up mattress covers as well as our pillows!
I finally got into my room and started putting plastic bins in my closet after re-assembling my bed along with our toddlers bed who still slept in our room. The toddler mattress was one of the bed bug homes according to the exterminators as they had noticed bedbug droppings on the underside. My toddler didn't have an ordinary vinyl crib mattress but one of those toddler futon mattresses so it was made of fabric and perfect breeding grounds for bedbugs.
I did a thorough look in my walk in closet to make sure there wasn't any bugs or anything in there since the exterminators put the mattresses in there. I saw this tiny black speckle at the celing near the back. I took a small step stool and took a closer look. What do you think I found? You guessed it! A bedbug, and he was still alive! Still, I wanted to stay positive and thought "well,maybe he was dying from the chemicals and it takes some time for them to die"
At that point, I didn't unpack my room. I kept everything out and only used what I needed and nothing more.
After waiting a week we have our extermination appointment set to be in another week. We are now at a total of 4 weeks having this problem along with the month before we knew we had them. A total of 2 months the bedbugs decided to move in with us.
We are still puzzled as to where we got them, but no need on wasting time thinking of that we have to prepare for extermination!
If any of you have had bedbugs, you know what I am saying when I say "prepare". I sure didn't know it was so much work to get ready for extermination. I thought it was a simple appointment, they walk in and do what they do and leave, bugs gone and life goes on.Boy was I wrong! There is so much to do in preparing to get rid of bedbugs!
First is first, I washed and dried all clothing,linens, and even stuffed animals. As soon as they dried,I immediately put them in black bags and sealed them while they were still hot! Bedbugs are very vunerable to heat and cold as I think any bug should be but I still sealed my bags to make sure if there were any eggs,or live bugs left that they wouldn't make it! I also did this to keep them buggers out! I started storing sealed bags in the kitchen as that is what I was advised to do from the first exterminator who found the bedbugs.
The only problem seemed to be in my bedroom which is connected to another apartment so could that have been where the problem started? Who knows? The children of mine that had been bitten are the ones who love to go into my room and watch television away from everyone else along with myself. I do have a baby,who by my surprise had not been bitten.
Everything that was in my room, I kept in my room and the rest of the house went into bags! All kids toys,cd's,dvd's,books.....everything! What a task! You have to really be committed in this if you want to get rid of bedbugs! They can hide in anything and anywhere! Be careful and keep all items that could be infected in that room!
We happened to have a patio so I did put alot of stuff out there since we are now in December and the weather is quite chilly,surely no bug can live through that!
Here is what it looks like all packed up!
You can't see the entirety of the bags,but this is just a quick snapshot. In the end we used approximately 75 big black bags.
Since we lived in an apartment we did some research on tenant/landlord responsibility and rights. I found out that it would be our landlords responsibility to rid of any type of infestation.
I called my management office and explained what had been going on in my apartment. I also spoke with my neighbors to see if they had experienced anything similar,so we could try to fight whatever it was together!
The exterminator was sent out on a Wednesday, I showed him bites and told him we had experienced the itching late in the day and not early morning. He did some looking around in my living room and the walls,then he asked me to show him where we had slept. He flashed his little light,looked in my mattresses. Immediately, he confirmed bedbugs!
Here is an image of the bedbug the exterminator showed me
Here is the casing that wasn't too far away. I used a small magnifying glass and it's still too small to see with the naked eye.
Devastation took over my face and my gut just fell to the floor! Bedbugs? How? Why? Where did they come from? Am I going to have to trash everything?
I just couldn't believe this!
He first showed me a baby bedbug that had just fed, then showed me the casing. This bedbug was found on my ceiling above my bed and nothing was on my mattress at all! He explained the procedure in preparing for the extermination and I just couldn't believe what a nuisance these tiny little blood suckers could be! He did say that we have caught it in the early stages so it shouldn't take much to get rid of them (yeah right!)
That day, after the exterminator left I had a good cry then I pulled myself together and prepared to fight!
We are just an ordinary family trying to live each day as it comes and enjoy lifes journey!
We are a family that keeps our house clean. (we all say that, don't we?)
In October of 2010 we started our battle with bedbugs!
I am here to tell you my families story and share any tips that may be helpful to you and your families in helping rid of these pests!
I say no matter the size of infestation, whether big or small...either way we are all traumatized in some sort of way from these blood sucking "vampire bugs"!
Follow me in our journey with battling the bedbugs................
