What to do when bringing home bed bugs from a Market Force Theater check?
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Wash and dry everything in hot water and a super hot dryer. Get some 90% rubbing alcohol and put it in a spray bottle. Spray your cloth covered furniture and bedding with it. If you can get Diatomaceous Earth, shake it also on your bed and furniture. Use food grade if you have pets.
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If you have brought them home, don't bring them into the house. Immediately isolate your clothing in a plastic bag to be washed separately from anything else and then bag it and keep it isolated in a sealed plastic bag for a while to make sure you didn't have eggs that were not killed as well.
We got them when they were brought home in a gym bag from a locker at the gym. We tried all sorts of sprays and suggestions and finally got them under control by isolating things we could that had showed infestation in sealed plastic bags and spraying walls, baseboards, carpeting and furniture with Bayer Home Pest and Germ. In about a week we will be 'celebrating' 10 months of being bug free after having fought eruptions of them for nearly a year.
We got them when they were brought home in a gym bag from a locker at the gym. We tried all sorts of sprays and suggestions and finally got them under control by isolating things we could that had showed infestation in sealed plastic bags and spraying walls, baseboards, carpeting and furniture with Bayer Home Pest and Germ. In about a week we will be 'celebrating' 10 months of being bug free after having fought eruptions of them for nearly a year.
Thinking about this a little more, I would notify the theater if you are reasonably sure where in the theater you got them. I would let them know when and where I was at the theater but I would not reveal that I was there on a theater check or anything else. You will also want to check your car and spray it with the Bayer just in case they got off of you and into the car's upholstery.
Awful! Sorry you had to get the bed bugs. I always worry when I go to a hotel.
@shopper8 wrote:
Awful! Sorry you had to get the bed bugs. I always worry when I go to a hotel.
You could sleep in your garment bag.
(It's a Big Bang Theory thing.)
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu
You might want to get some pillow and mattress covers that are bed bug proof just to be on the safe side. My son brought them home from a hotel he stayed at for his job. I used food grade Diatomaceous Earth everywhere. It is a pain because you should not inhale it, and it gets on you and in your hair. I also sprayed with the alcohol mixed with water. That worked for awhile, but they came back and I had to do it again.
Yes, we got the mattress and box spring covers off of Amazon at a better price than available locally. We put sprayers in the 90% bottles of alcohol from the drugstore--that did stop the ones you hit but didn't do anything for those not receiving a direct hit. The diatomaceous earth did not do anything for us so we carefully encased the bottom of bed legs in plastic bags and set them in bowls of soapy water so that there could be no transit from bed to carpet or carpet to bed. The water 'trick' showed there was active transit as many drowned in the soapy water, so we kept the water full. We went through round after round of spraying with stuff you never want to breathe, the pest control guys would do nothing with the furniture so that was being policed and sprayed regularly. We finally only got real relief with the Bayer product, which was NOT what Home Depot or Lowes recommended because it doesn't have BEDBUGS in big letters on the front of the container, but rather in the little list of things it controls.
I will have to remember the Bayer product. I bought some pine product, and it helped but it smelled awful.
When isolating and storing things: remember that bed bugs can live for up to 18 months without feeding. Don't open those bags until a full 18 months has passed.
Also if the stragglers you brought home have already made it to your bed, your best bet is an exterminator who specializes in bed bug treatment. It's expensive but the only way to completely get rid of an infestation.
Also if the stragglers you brought home have already made it to your bed, your best bet is an exterminator who specializes in bed bug treatment. It's expensive but the only way to completely get rid of an infestation.
Co-operative Extension here indicated 6 months without spotting one in a home that was occupied in would indicate they had been eradicated. With vacation homes they can live 12 months without feeding if the environment is kept cool and dry. The exterminator we spoke with said about the same thing.
I know that you can't reveal the actual company's name, but so that many of us can avoid the devastation of an infestation, can you please share the city and state that this happened in?
Bed bugs are actually very common in movie theaters.
I have also gotten out of movie theater (a shop) and was scratching my legs like crazy. I lifted up my pant legs, and had bites all over my legs. They are common in hotels, libraries. public transit like trains, busses and taxis. They are also found in gyms and locker rooms.
Where ever they are, people "take them home" with them every day. They are very difficult to get rid of. They have even found bed bugs inside the pages of library books. (the ones you check out and take home).
I have also gotten out of movie theater (a shop) and was scratching my legs like crazy. I lifted up my pant legs, and had bites all over my legs. They are common in hotels, libraries. public transit like trains, busses and taxis. They are also found in gyms and locker rooms.
Where ever they are, people "take them home" with them every day. They are very difficult to get rid of. They have even found bed bugs inside the pages of library books. (the ones you check out and take home).
@InformedShopper, the company is Market Force, it is already in the thread topic.
It is possible to get rid of them yourself without hiring a company. I know because I have done it. But I think that I caught them early and I was meticulous about the process of removing them from my home. It was difficult and irritating, but cost way less than hiring a pro.
@breestjon, Sorry for the confusion. I already knew the name of the MSC. That wasn't what I was after. What I was stating, is that the shopper couldn't tell us the name of the theatre that they found the bed bugs in. I was asking if they could narrow it down to at least the city and state to hopefully make it possible to avoid them. Thank you so much.
Informed, the real issue is that bedbugs exist in a large number of theaters. The one that the OP visited may have had exterminators in and there is now no issue. As someone pointed out, they can exist in libraries where a borrower of a book might have had an infestation and the bugs got into the book binding to lay eggs. The absence of DDT has made many pests such as lice and bedbugs re-emerge as real problems. If I had known about the threat and what to look out for, I certainly would have been able to nip them in the bud at my house rather than making it a whole house extermination zone for quite some time. By the time I knew what was happening they were in the mattress and box spring, curtains, drawers, furniture, the carpet and even nesting behind the baseboards. They had already been tracked from his room to the living room and computer room. My significant other pulled his own sheets for the laundry basket and I foolishly assumed the little specs on them were dirt from working in the yard and taking his showers in the morning.
diatomaceous earth - put it everywhere. Safe for pets to lick, food companies add it to food. Could be worse -- I picked up lice at one theatre.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2015 06:07PM by Kr.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2015 06:07PM by Kr.
This reminds me of fleas and the infestation. They get into everything. They lay eggs, They are very difficult to eradicate....
I've dealt with the devastation of having them before, so I know all the facts about them all too well. I know the in's and out's of how you can get them, and where they can be. They can be literally anywhere and everywhere. It is unbelievably painstaking and expensive to get rid of them for good. It was over 5 years ago and I'm still traumatized by it now. That's why I'm trying so hard to avoid going to places where I know they've definitely been spotted. I appreciate everyone's effort in at least mentioning the city and state of theaters where they are having issues. Maybe we can help each other out by giving each other warnings. Thank you.
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