The cost to eradicate bed bugs
Jeanine knows someone who is having a costly ordeal with getting rid of bed bugs. At this point, I think he’s spent over a thousand dollars and he’s not even sure they’re completely gone from his apartment.
I’ve heard a few horror stories, but my perception had the problem confined to modest apartment buildings in New York City. Apparently that’s not the case. In April, the EPA called the first-ever bed bug summit because the country is experiencing its biggest outbreak since World War II.
When infestation is detected, people often will do whatever it takes to eradicate them. This, of course, is a breeding ground for fraud.
The New York Times recently reported that it’s not unusual for people to spend up to $5,000 to get rid of the critters. The article focused on what the afflicted can do to avoid getting bed bugs in the first place as well as getting taken to the cleaners by dishonest exterminators.
Spending money on prevention seems like the smart thing to do. Experts agree that mattress and box spring encasements are the best protection. The good ones, like these from Protect-A-Bed start upwards of $100:
Bedding encasements are essential to bed bugs protection and management. Mattress encasements are especially useful in the prevention of bed bugs before an infestation even occurs. When you encase your mattress and box spring, you cut off the food source to the bed bugs in the mattress and box spring, which will eventually lead to their death. This does not eliminate the infestation, as bed bugs will breed anywhere in the house. However, it does make it much easier to spot bed bugs on the mattress when the look for a blood meal, which in turn makes eradication more painless.
Also, mattress and box spring encasements help prevent the spread of bed bugs to other areas of the home. Mattress and box spring encasements are easy, cost-efficient and extremely effective methods of controlling, preventing and eliminating bed bugs. However, the encasements must be scientifically proven to work. If not, they will be ineffective.
Also, the New York Times article warns that tossing out stuff is typically a needless expense and shouldn’t be the first response:
‘œNothing kills bed bugs and their eggs better than high temperatures,’ said Mr. Bloom, ‘œso the dryer is your new best friend.’
Bedding, clothes, stuffed animals, backpacks and anything else you can fit into the clothes dryer can be decontaminated by 20 minutes on the high setting. Carry the items to the dryer in a cloth laundry bag that you can throw into the machine. If you use a plastic bag, discard it immediately; bed bugs or eggs might be lurking.
Have any Queercents readers been affected by bed bugs? How much did it cost to get rid of them? Also, with the rise in reported cases, is it worth the cost to buy a bedding encasement as a prevention method?
Photo credit: Flickr.
I got bedbugs once, yep. It was awful. I was living in Brooklyn and working in a bookstore, barely scraping by, so I tried a few things people suggested to get rid of them, but nothing worked. I ended up putting my bed, a desk I’d had since I was a little kid, and most of my stuff out on the curb and moving to a different apartment.
So I guess I don’t actually know what it costs to get rid of ’em. I do still have nightmares about the little monsters, though, and panic whenever I see any kind of little spot on my sheets.
Oh, geez. I haven’t had a problem with bedbugs, but I have had a problem with fleas. The lawn at the apartment I had in Long Beach was infested with fleas. The landlord refused to hire an exterminator – he said that the fleas would just come back again (which is why he should have hired a regular bug service). So despite my best efforts to spray and powder the carpets and furniture, we couldn’t get rid of the fleas because someone would track them in on their clothes/shoes every time they came in the house. I ended up ditching EVERYTHING when I left that apartment. Argh!
Shudder. I had them, they came back from a trip to NY in my suitcase. Here’s what I learned:
They can’t chew through things, so a sealed, taped plastic bag is an effective quarantine.
They can’t opt to not bite you. I can’t remember their life cycle, but basically you know your infestation is over when you’ve got though a hatching cycle and no one is bitten. If they were around, they’d let you know.
Also, they and their eggs are washed away effectively. Freezing overnight also kills eggs and live bugs. Additionally, Diatomaceous earth will kill them and it’s non-toxic for you and your pets and kids. I sprinkled it on the floors for weeks and walked around with dusty socks. Then I vaccuumed every 4 days (something about catching them in their hatching cycle – basically, trying to suction them up before they bit and became fertile) and started all over again.
They must bite you before they lay eggs. So, you get rid of them by breaking the breeding cycle. Here’s how we survived, total cost about $500 in garbage bags, fleece covers and a lot of laundry:
Wash everything you have all at once at a laundromat. Label and seal everything but the clothes you need immediately. Now that you’ve cleaned stuff, put it away. Tape the bags closed and double bag to prevent tears. Bedbugs can’t chew into something or out of it, so this stuff is effectively quarantined.
What can’t be washed, like furniture, can usually be rinsed. Eggs can live in furniture and you can hose it down. Steam cleaning also works on most things.
Freeze what can’t be rinsed. This includes books, where they hide and lay eggs.
Get Diatomaceous earth from the hardware store (under ‘natural pest control’) and sprinkle it along baseboards and cracks in the wall where they hide. We coated the insides of furniture and the base of the bookshelf. We coated the underside of our mattress and boxspring. Then we sealed cracks in the wall with caulking.
Monitor your bites. Look up the lifecycle and figure out how many bugs you probably have a which stage. Young ones can’t lay eggs until they bite you. We’d get just one or two bites a week for quite a while as we whittled the numbers down. You have finally won when you go about a month with no bites.
To prevent getting them:
1. Wash everything you bring into your home.
2. Freeze everything else. We only get furniture in winter and leave it outside for a day or two.
Good luck.
oh, I forgot to add – after you’ve vaccuumed, put the bag in the freezer, the garbage or outside in winter to kill anything you’ve taken up – otherwise they just crawl right back out again.
Also, be freezer I mean a deep freeze. If you’re using a regular fridge, you should probably leave items in for several days.
Hello all I just want to put this out there that heat is the best way to kill these little pests. I work for a company that uses heat to do structural pasteurization, in other words we heat the entire house up to 140°+ (which is higher than the the thermal kill point for bedbugs) for an hour or more (though they can only withstand that heat for less than 15 min) This has been the ONLY way to kill them with a 100% success rate since they are becoming resistant to chemicals.
Check out the website moldybugs.com plenty of information on pests and the heat process used to kill them
140 degree centigrade or Fahrenheit ?
@ Dr. Laaly
140☼ farenheit