Help my depressed mom has bed bugs and I am out state in school
September 23, 2014 9:29 AM Subscribe
Hi All,
so long story my mom is moving in one month, to a house! And her apartment has bed bugs. She is already depressed-low mood, low energy and anxious. She has bed bugs. Please let me know what I can tell her to do that is 1.easy, 2. low on chemical exposure- thanks!
this is breaking my heart, she is crying and feeling helpless and I am so far away.
Response by poster: Looking for advice..she needs to pack and is afraid she needs to throw things
away.
posted by TRUELOTUS at 9:45 AM on September 23, 2014
away.
posted by TRUELOTUS at 9:45 AM on September 23, 2014
1. OH HAI LANDLORD. (Even if the lease says that the tenant provides extermination services, which would more likely be the case in a stand-alone house, the landlord is still going to want to know.)
2. Food-grade diatomaceous earth may help (but read up on the caveats).
posted by thomas j wise at 9:46 AM on September 23, 2014
2. Food-grade diatomaceous earth may help (but read up on the caveats).
posted by thomas j wise at 9:46 AM on September 23, 2014
She doesn't need to throw out her clothes. Those can be washed and dried at a very hot temperature in the dryer. But she should get the landlord in ASAP with a bedbug dog/exterminator who will give her very detailed instructions on what to do.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:47 AM on September 23, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:47 AM on September 23, 2014 [6 favorites]
Michigan Dept. of Community Health on how to avoid taking bed bugs with you when moving:
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/moving_leave_bed_bugs_behind
posted by de void at 9:49 AM on September 23, 2014
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/moving_leave_bed_bugs_behind
posted by de void at 9:49 AM on September 23, 2014
Bedbugger.com dos and don'ts
Remember to breathe. Your mother will be ok. And you will be ok, too.
posted by aniola at 9:51 AM on September 23, 2014
Remember to breathe. Your mother will be ok. And you will be ok, too.
posted by aniola at 9:51 AM on September 23, 2014
What is her budget? The easiest solution is to pack everything in a moving truck, and then get someone to treat everything in it with vikane gas, or heat if that service is available in her area. This is probably the best course of action for her unless she's broke.
We just moved without doing that, by washing everything that could be washed and packing the rest up with nuvan strips and tossing any furniture we didn't want to deal with. This was neither low effort nor low chemical nor 100% sure to work, but it was cheap.
It is going to be really, really hard for her to move without any treatment at all, unless she wants to throw literally everything but her clothes away. There are non chemical ways of dealing with bbs such as crazy amounts of vacuuming and steaming, but that's super high effort and slow and possibly frustrating, plus unlikely to work in only a month.
posted by geegollygosh at 9:56 AM on September 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
We just moved without doing that, by washing everything that could be washed and packing the rest up with nuvan strips and tossing any furniture we didn't want to deal with. This was neither low effort nor low chemical nor 100% sure to work, but it was cheap.
It is going to be really, really hard for her to move without any treatment at all, unless she wants to throw literally everything but her clothes away. There are non chemical ways of dealing with bbs such as crazy amounts of vacuuming and steaming, but that's super high effort and slow and possibly frustrating, plus unlikely to work in only a month.
posted by geegollygosh at 9:56 AM on September 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
Oh, and don't direct her to the bedbugger.com site if she hasn't already seen it. I am a relatively stable and calm person, and the freaking out on that site's forum gives me hives. It's a great resource, and you should look at it for ideas (maybe post this question there), but it sounds like it would not be good for her to see it.
posted by geegollygosh at 10:04 AM on September 23, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by geegollygosh at 10:04 AM on September 23, 2014 [5 favorites]
It doesn't help with everything else, but she can sleep in a mosquito ("no-see-um") tent if she'd like to stop being bitten immediately. You can just put it on the bed and bring in some sheets. It works great.
posted by zeek321 at 10:05 AM on September 23, 2014
posted by zeek321 at 10:05 AM on September 23, 2014
I moved out of a building with a bedbug infestation, and was terrified about (a) the possibility of bringing bedbugs to the new place, and (b) the financial implications of (a).
I was able to find a mobile heat treatment service in my city. I put everything I owned (including mattress, hundreds of books, all my clothes, etc) into tupperware bins in this big trailer, and they took away the trailer, heated everything, and moved everything to my new place about 36 hours later. 100% effective, $1100, which, 10 months later, I was able to get back from my landlord via the Landlord Tenant Board. (They weren't great with dealing with the bedbugs during the brief period where I lived in their unit.)
Mobile heat treatment. No chucking possessions, no anxiety about transporting the bugs. Perfect.
posted by monkeymonkey at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2014 [16 favorites]
I was able to find a mobile heat treatment service in my city. I put everything I owned (including mattress, hundreds of books, all my clothes, etc) into tupperware bins in this big trailer, and they took away the trailer, heated everything, and moved everything to my new place about 36 hours later. 100% effective, $1100, which, 10 months later, I was able to get back from my landlord via the Landlord Tenant Board. (They weren't great with dealing with the bedbugs during the brief period where I lived in their unit.)
Mobile heat treatment. No chucking possessions, no anxiety about transporting the bugs. Perfect.
posted by monkeymonkey at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2014 [16 favorites]
We had bedbugs last year. First thing to do is laundry all clothing in hot water, and then put everything in completely sealed and taped shut garbage bags. Getting a hot box for other items helped a lot- heat treat, then put in bags. Since time is short, you might also consider getting a storage place, and taking stuff out of it piecemeal for treatment.
I also really recommend getting a professional in to deal with the bugs. This is something the apartment management should pay for.
posted by happyroach at 10:32 AM on September 23, 2014
I also really recommend getting a professional in to deal with the bugs. This is something the apartment management should pay for.
posted by happyroach at 10:32 AM on September 23, 2014
Regarding the Nuvan strips mentioned above, I've heard that they are VERY dangerous...this comes from a pest control company that deals with bed bugs They said they very very rarely use them because they are so toxic. I don't have any personal experience with the whole bed bug issue, but since I work in residential property management I've heard about it so I just wanted to pass that info along. Here's an article about it.
posted by Shadow Boxer at 11:55 AM on September 23, 2014
posted by Shadow Boxer at 11:55 AM on September 23, 2014
OK, so I have done this while I was depressed. It's extremely annoying, but doable.
1. Call the landlord. It's their job to do amelioration. Attempts at self-amelioration inevitably fail and just spread bedbugs to every other apartment.
2. Run *all* fabrics through the dryer on high *first.* Then wash and dry them normally. Immediately place the items in double garbage bags, sealed tightly, not to be opened until after amelioration is complete. Anything that is not needed immediately can be just left in bags.
3. Buy bedbug proof mattress and pillow covers. Cover the items.
4. Do everything pest guy tells you to do. This may include moving furniture away from walls, packing things in clear tubs, etc.
5. YMMV, but I eventually got rid of my couch, which was ancient anyway and the only fabric piece of furniture in my apt. that wasn't a bed. It was just too difficult to cover because it had an odd shape.
posted by xyzzy at 2:16 PM on September 23, 2014
1. Call the landlord. It's their job to do amelioration. Attempts at self-amelioration inevitably fail and just spread bedbugs to every other apartment.
2. Run *all* fabrics through the dryer on high *first.* Then wash and dry them normally. Immediately place the items in double garbage bags, sealed tightly, not to be opened until after amelioration is complete. Anything that is not needed immediately can be just left in bags.
3. Buy bedbug proof mattress and pillow covers. Cover the items.
4. Do everything pest guy tells you to do. This may include moving furniture away from walls, packing things in clear tubs, etc.
5. YMMV, but I eventually got rid of my couch, which was ancient anyway and the only fabric piece of furniture in my apt. that wasn't a bed. It was just too difficult to cover because it had an odd shape.
posted by xyzzy at 2:16 PM on September 23, 2014
The state or city your mom is in would help as landlord responsibilities vary. In Chicago it is the landlords responsibility to pay for treatment provided the tenant follows all the instructions that a exterminator gives her.
Honestly the best bet would be using a friend or other local resource (task rabbit?) To help Her with the cleaning and laundry before the apartment is sprayed. It is a ton of work. Expecting someone with depression to handle it may not lead to the best outcomes. I work with mental illness and housing and seen people abandon everything and just sleep on the floor in a new apartment with a few clothes they managed to wash. It is just that stressful for some people and they couldn't deal with doing any more than that.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:29 PM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Honestly the best bet would be using a friend or other local resource (task rabbit?) To help Her with the cleaning and laundry before the apartment is sprayed. It is a ton of work. Expecting someone with depression to handle it may not lead to the best outcomes. I work with mental illness and housing and seen people abandon everything and just sleep on the floor in a new apartment with a few clothes they managed to wash. It is just that stressful for some people and they couldn't deal with doing any more than that.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:29 PM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
You can get cheap moving plastic rolls (the giant rolls of shrinkwrap plastic) and cover mattresses and furniture with that effectively. One giant roll and duct tape covered five mattresses and a couch for us, and was kinda fun to do. We also got a small steamer (Karcher home steam cleaner - about US$200?) at a hardware store and steam every day, then every other day - the tiny nozzle attachment meant we could just blast crevices and it was surprisingly easy and took about 30 minutes each time for a 3 bedroom apartment. We had pets and small kids so didn't want to use poison after the first poison attempt by a professional did nothing. Steaming worked so well when we did it systematically over several weeks. For clothes, hot water works and it's best to bag everything that isn't needed - we used plastic stacking bins and duct taped around them so it looked tidier than piles of black garbage bags and we could still see the stuff inside.
The worst for us was picture frames - we ended up having to reframe some things and ditch the frames themselves because we couldn't steam them without damaging the pictures.
So basically: store what she can away in bedbug proof containers (sealed so the bedbugs in there can't get out, and the stuff can't get infected either), then steam what's outside. Seal up what she can to minimize work.
Reassure her that she doesn't need to clean everything at once. A little bit every day works better and is more managable.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:00 PM on September 23, 2014
The worst for us was picture frames - we ended up having to reframe some things and ditch the frames themselves because we couldn't steam them without damaging the pictures.
So basically: store what she can away in bedbug proof containers (sealed so the bedbugs in there can't get out, and the stuff can't get infected either), then steam what's outside. Seal up what she can to minimize work.
Reassure her that she doesn't need to clean everything at once. A little bit every day works better and is more managable.
posted by viggorlijah at 10:00 PM on September 23, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
Then landlord STAT.
posted by zizzle at 9:31 AM on September 23, 2014 [1 favorite]