I had a friend that had them in NYC approximately 6 years ago. This is before the recent infestation, so no one actually thought they could be bedbugs. She literally, literally thought she was going insane between the bites and cleaning to get rid of them - nothing worked and we couldn't figure out what it was. She eventually moved out of her apartment, put all her furniture in storage, and moved back to California for a couple of months.

I think she, and all her friends, thought it was a psychological issue rather than a real infestation. I feel badly now about that. Just thought I'd relay this story.

I had bed bugs last year - it was a horrible and costly experience! Apparently I brought them home with me from (are you ready for this??!) THE W HOTEL LAKESHORE in CHICAGO!! You pay $200 a night for a room and they have bed bugs!! a few days after I returned from my trip, I started getting bitten. Lo and behold, my traveling companion also started getting bitten at her residence! It was absolutely miserable. I called the W and they told me that this was such a common occurrance that they don't even bother compensating people anymore, they wouldn't even refund the cost of my stay! Meanwhile, the exterminators informed me that bedbugs can live in your walls for up to a year without feeding, so you have to exterminate for a full year in order to guarantee that the problem won't come back. A little research confirmed that this was in fact true, and so I spent $500 on a year contract with the exterminator. My friend was forced to do the same. After the first treatment, I only got a few more bites, and then the exterminators came back to treat monthly, for a full year. From what I understand, everyone has a different reaction to bedbug bites - some people have no reaction at all, and some people (like me) get huge welts that itch like hell. I will never ever return to the W Lakeshore Chicago, and I'm extra careful about where I set my luggage when I travel now...

Lindsay, who was your exterminator?

I was getting bites a few months ago, but not my fiance.
I found only one bedbug.
I cleaned like crazy and put protectors on the bed.
I haven't been bitten since, but I keep fearing that they might return...

I got bitten when I went backpacking around Europe for a year. No big deal really - you were lucky that you didn't catch something worse sleeping in some of those places.

(In fact, I recall now that I caught a nasty rash in one place in Paris, that had to be treated by antibiotics)

My sister got it bad in Turkey and we have pictures of her wearing leggings, pants, a pajama top, etc, all at once because everything else she owned was at the clears.

I've dealt with bed bugs at my workplace for the last four years (yes, I work in the travel industry). We only just got rid of them *huge sigh of relief* It's a struggle because they're so damn sly, but I'm sure I could answer any questions. And it doesn't matter how much your room cost per night, as bed bugs aren't picky! It has nothing to do with cleanliness and they're not just in your bed!! Check in furniture, baseboards, any little nook or cranny or crack. And the tell tale sign that they're there is tiny specks of blood on your sheets and black stains (their poo!) around their hiding spaces.

Just recovered -- see Wednesday's "Fleas" string. Whadya wanna know?

OOPS!! I post as "claire" not "skigirl" on this site. Forgot!!

Anyway....you still may want to check out Wed's "fleas" string for a bunch of info. There were a couple of us who had to deal with the WHOLLY UNPLEASANT and VERY DISRUPTIVE issue.!

Have them now in Hoboken, NJ. Seems like everyone I talk to has a story. It's a nightmare. Besides the obvious - you live in terror of passing them to your friends.
Thankfully, it seems that our landlord has hired a good exterminator. We'll see.
Regarding hotel stays - the exterminator suggested spraying the underside of the mattress and the drawers of the bedside table with a mixture of alchohol and water - it will make the creatures run so you can see them.
Then get out of the room if they appear. He also said to spray your luggage and yourself down after you check out (regardless of whether you see any)
The alchohol may mark up the finish of your floors and furniture though.

is this a problem mostly in hotels and highly-populated cities like NYC? i have always lived in the midwest (st louis, cincinnati, etc), and i've never ever heard of bedbugs barring the good night wish of "don't let the bedbugs bite."

erin,
NYC is currently facing an epidemic. I can see why this problem would hit hotels and metropolitan areas because of how closely ppl live to one another.

I actually just called my building exterminator (we're in Park Slope, brooklyn) to see if there were any preventative measures that we could take. Sadly his answer was no.

But he gave me insight into how bad the problem was. Basically they've been fielding constant calls from all 5 boroughs for bed bug treatment. And it spreads like wild fire, if 8B gets them one day, 9B will be calling the next (these is an actual quote from him).

I am kind of nervous, my building is bed bug free so far, but it is precariously easy to pick them up from other people or places.

Never had them (knock on wood), but a large apt. building in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood had a major infestation several months ago. Everybody in the building ended up putting our their mattresses,etc. for garbage pickup. Sad.

This is what my mom used to say to me each night after she tucked me in and was closing my bedroom door:

Good Night!
Sleep tight.
Don't let the bed bugs bite.
If they do,
grab a shoe
and smack them 'til they're black and blue!

Anyway, just the talk of bedbugs makes me itchy and scared shitless. Anyone know how to keep them away? Can I surround the entrance of my apartment with garlic or something?

There was an article that I read not long ago (linked to from Gothamist) that told the story of families in NYC who were rubbing their children with gasoline before they went to bed in order to keep the bed bugs away...

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/06/30/mattress_gasoli.php

I'm going on a trip soon-- is there anything I can do to avoid picking them up?

Regarding the spray-- does it stain clothes? Do you spray down the exterior of your suitcase or the entire interior as well?

Wow. Here is a list of some bed bug infested buildings:

http://bedbugblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/known-bedbug-infestations.html

Sally, this site might have the answers to your questions.

I had them about 5-6 years ago and it has become a HUGE problem in NYC. It took me well over a year to get rid of them and I did so much research I feel like a professional on the topic by now.
One hint - they HATE the smell of lavender.

Sally, I have done a considerable amount of traveling here in the states and abroad. When I check into a room I always pull the bed sheets up off of the mattress and run my finger along the seems at the edge of the mattress ticking to see if there is an infestation. I also remove the pillow cases and check the seams on the pillows. I have yet to find any. I am not sure what I would do if I did as some of my trips have been "package tours". I have had travel companions who thought I was a bit "over cautious" when they see me do this but I really do not want to bring any unwanted parasites home with me.

I had bedbugs 3 years ago in Park Slope. My roommates got me a used mattress. I was complaining to someone at work about mosquito's biting me at night when she asked whether they bit me in a straight line. In fact, strangely enough, they had. She said I probably had bedbugs. I had never seen them and when I looked at photos online I was horrified. I went home and set my alarm for 2 in the morning. when it went off, I flipped on the lights and threw back the sheets. Sure enough, I could see some engorged little bugs creeping away from where I had been sleeping. I followed them with my eyes and saw they were headed for the seams of the mattress. I ripped the seam open, and about 30 of them came out. I totally freaked out (I hate bugs), put the mattress outside with a sign on it, and slept on the kitchen table. I know, wierd, but I felt totally vulnerable in the bedroom. Then I threw out everything I could (including furniture), washed the rest in VERY hot water, and bought a new bed. I put double stick tape on the legs of the bed so they would get stuck climbing up (this actually worked). I caulked all of the cracks in the walls. After that, I didn't see any, but I still sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and turn on the lights, and I live in a completely different apartment with all different stuff.
telltale signs you have them (or how to tell you haven't gotten rid of them):
1. bites are in a line
2. tiny spots of blood on the sheets
3. sweep your room and look closely at the dust - bedbugs molt, and you may be able to see little semi-transparent "carcasses" which are actually moltings
4. If you have an infestation, your room may have a slightly sweet, musty odor
5. look at the seams of your mattress. This is where they like to congregate
6. try the double-stick tape trick and see if you catch any
they can live for up to 8 months without food. I feel that the only way to really get rid of them, is to move.
also, if you've had them, be very careful not to spread them. check yourself and your luggage before going into someones home.

http://www.bed-bug.net/

for whatever it's worth they sell a crushed marine life shell product for prevention, say it cuts the buggers and dehydrates them and is otherwise safe to larger beings

i just went around taping up my exposed outlets in a fit of paranoia

I need to stop reading these posts and comments! They make me crazy with paranoia.

A friend of mine had them recently in a Greenpoint apartment and they managed to spread to her car and even her parents house in Connecticut.

I remember when my place got infested with fleas last summer, I was just about ready to move back to San Francisco, so I can only begin to imagine the misery of a bedbug infestation.

a friend had them... twice! and she's ocd about cleanliness. it's her neighbors that are the problem not her. yup, she's gunning to move...

Our insfestation was bad, and I feel very sorry for the ones of you who've had them more than once. As a positive note they don't transmit any disease other than delusional parasitosis.

i studied abroad in cape town, sa, and one of the first things my roommates said to me was, "had a problem with the bedbugs yet?" i was shocked because i really did just think they were in that nursery rhyme. well, i was fine for the first four and half months i was there, and then got them the last few weeks i was there. i started waking up with upwards of 30 to 40 tiny bites in patches all over my body. i never did get rid of them (after a week or so i just moved into a new room), but luckily managed to not bring any of them back with me. my friend had them the whole time we were there and she is the most anally clean person i know. i never actually saw them though, although i think that is because i never tried waking up in the middle of the night to catch them. (sort of an out of sight, out of mind, mentality.)

ugh!!! we had them in my house and justified ripping up the hideous carpet and getting a new mattress, now we dont have em and i love how fresh smelling the air is now that we dont have ancient carpet holding odors like a bank....

Yeah, I've been in a hostel in London that had one. It was horrible. My brother and I spent the night in the toilet, trying to avoid being bitten.

And unfortunately, I caught the bug and brought it home after a camp a few years back and it was horrible!!! I was bitten constantly for months! One method that rid the dreaded bugs that worked for me was, I don't know what it's called exactly but airline companies spray a disinfantant cum insecticide onto the seats before/after the plane takes off. That spray kills them and keeps them away! You have to constantly re-apply it to everything though, the beds, sheets, pillows and even the walls. But for the peace of mind you get when you sleep, definately worth it.

And don't jump up and down on the beds thinking that would shake them off, it just encourages more bed bugs to surface. eeeeeugh. nasty buggers.

Edwardo,

Can you tell us exactly how you use the lavender?

We had them at my work -- a residential center -- and it was horrible. It took over a year and nine exterminations to get rid of them.

My roommate garbage-picked a bedstand a couple years ago that was invested. All three of us got horribly bitten and I couldn't sleep. I'd turn on the light at 4am and they'd be all over me and my bed. Exterminators came again and again, but it continued. I started sleeping in the bathtub with the sides of the tub vaselined up...to no avail! The bites continued. I eventually threw out everything I owned and moved back with my parents with only the clothes on my back. Extreme, I know--but worth it for the peace of mind.

I beg ANYONE who has bedbugs: when you throw your furniture away at the curb--please write BUGS in big letters to keep anyone from picking up your furniture. I know it may feel embarrassing, but you'll save others!

Shelley,
can you help me with the sleestaks?
they are born from pop culture and will not give back my A/V equipment .

if you experiance any fear! please.
illegally pirate and share 'invasion of the body snatchers' (B&W version).

was so involved with ICU, i forgot to mention colloidal silver.
the fact is so old buy stock.

I just recently discovered them in my apt in Boro Park, it took me a while to figure out something was wrong. But once I started piecing together the clues (itchiness, old mattress, welts, etc.) I figured it out. I'll be throwing out my bed tonight!

I live in the greater Boston area and we've had bedbugs up here for years, but no one talks about them. My building has been treated and treated, yet the bedbugs won't go away. They just hide in the wall voids and come back. I don't know how to move without throwing everything I own--absolutely everything--out. My infestation just isn't controlled. Bedbugs will come with me if I move. That's how they came into my building. The lack of support is bad, too. People think if you have bedbugs you did something wrong (weren't clean, are poor, stayed at a cheap hotel, etc.) or they are afraid that they might get them from you (possibly true if you stay at their house overnight). There is a support group on Yahoo you can join that has been a tremendous help:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/bedbugger/

My daughter is a student and lives in Clearwater Fl. She suffered for 3 months from what she thought was hives. She went to 3 different emergency rooms and not one doctor could identify the problem. We saw a story on TV about bed bugs and called our daughter immediately. Sure enough, when they lifted the mattress they found them. Very long story short, she got rid of most of her furniture, all clothing was dry cleaned, her pets had to be bathed by a veterinarian. We had to fight her landlords to let her out of her lease. After calls to the health department and the local news the apartment building agreed to cancel her lease. Every bit of what she owned that could not be dry cleaned was then put into a small moving trailer and the pest control company had to tent it and spray a poisionous gas inside, where it had to set, locked, for 3 days. All this time with yellow tape and warning signs. Fortunately the extermination was sucessfully and she is without the bugs. This was extremely costly, the pest control alone was over $1000.00. We had to incur the costs of moving, her furniture had to be replaced, the medical bills, vet bills, etc. I sympathize with anyone who has to go through this ordeal. What I find to be most disturbing is the fact that apartment building continues to rent without taking care of the problem. It is unfortunate for those people who cannot afford to take the necessary steps to get out of apartments like these and a shame that they are held hostage by landlords and management companies.

This is seriously out of hand in NYC. According to the recent NYTimes stories, the city's 311 service says 4500 people reported bedbugs via the city housing complaints hotline last year. But most people call their super or landlord when they have pest issues--NOT the city. Many of us would not make a formal complaint to the city unless the landlord was unresponsive. So the statistics are 4500 cases last year, but I'd multiply that by 10 (conservatively) or 20 (less conservatively) to 45,000 - 90,000. It could be much higher. And it grows daily. We need the city to take some steps to force landlords to treat entire buildings (not just infested units) and a public education campaign, including big orange "warning bedbugs" stickers for infested mattresses / furniture (like they have in San Fran and Boston).

We have them in Jersey City on the second floor. I am paranoid trying to trace how they came. I want to get rid of them but I don't know which exterminator to call. AmyG, which did your landlord use in Hoboken? We want to keep them from going to the first floor and hopefully get rid of them forever.
Please help with the name of a good exterminator.

Someone asked about a product one could safely spray on the mattress, that product is called Steri-fab and could be bought online. works good but only kills on contact because it leaves no residual. That's why it's safe. Don't forget to wait 20 minutes for it to dry before putting the sheets back on.
When i travel I always take a small but strong flashlight like a maglight with me and a magnifying glass kept in mind your not only looking for bedbugs but also for the droppings and the cast skins from molting and since there translucent looking are hard to see. And don't just check the mattress and head board but the box spring as well. I've done jobs where the mattress had nothing, not a one, no stains nothing and the box spring was littered. Happy hunting.

In Bayonne, NJ we used Brownstone Pest Control he was very good. We had used someone else before, one of those that advertise often. What we got was someone way to young and you could tell had little experience with bedbugs. Brownstone was way better and the owner does all the bedbug jobs himself and the price was fair.

Check out a freelance article I wrote last fall for THIS OLD HOUSE entitled "Bed Bugs!" Lots of good suggestions from experts on the subject.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/interiors/gallery/0,25895,1548781,00.html

-D

Okay, there is a lot of information out there about bed bugs and unfortunately much of it is anecdotal and is not rooted in science or the real world of bed bugs. There is so much incorrect or misleading information out there it is amazing. First, bed bugs have NOTHING to do with sanitary habits of anyone. Some of the finest homes, cleanest apartments, and million dollar hotels have had bed bug infestations; including the Plaza Hotel and the Helmsley Place in NYC have had them. Second, ask any entomologist, Bed Bugs are resistant to DDT; here in the US and everywhere; and there is NO scientific evidence that any “over the counter/mail order natural spray” can do anything more than plain old detergent and water. And don’t try the alcohol & water method; it seems to be the modern version of the old turpentine method which got people ill or simply started fires. Of all the treatments out there that really works is calling a knowledgeable professional who uses manual removal with a vacuum and the use of HEAT or FREEZING works best, (best if a combo of both). Plus if they follow-up a bed bug treatment with precautionary mattress and box spring covers, PLUS an ActiveGUARD mattress and box spring liner is a very good investment; in both keeping any straggling bed bugs out of a bed AND it gives people a well deserved “peace of mind. To those people who call for bringing DDT back….. DDT is NOT effective on Bed Bugs. Not in the US, and not anywhere. So, before screaming for DDT and talking about cleanliness – educate yourselves. People have got to realize that Bed Bugs are going to spread in the US like the flu does, and if you’re not extremely careful, you’re going to get them. But don’t go crazy that bed bugs are going to get you ill; Bed Bugs are NOT A VECTOR of disease and DO NOT spread any diseases. Bottom line bed bugs are simply disgusting and cause more emotional and financial distress than physical. Nobody want them and they’re tough and laborious to get rid of, plus they carry a stigma and social taboo, that as soon as more people get over it, the sooner the rest of us will be able to deal with the problem by educating people to identify bed bugs and call a professional who knows what they are doing. And if you want to go to the government for help, stop asking for DDT ask about – LAMDA CYHALOTHRIN. And checkout new disclosure laws, like the NYS Bed Bug Infestation Disclosure Law passed in August 2010; the more everybody knows the better armed we’ll be knowing what to look for. And if you have a Bed Bug problem call an experienced professional who has dealt with bed bug removal and treatments before. A great one in the greater NY area that I have seen in operation on several occasions is Knockout Pest Control in New York. They use Certified Bed Bug dogs to pinpoint areas of infestation, (which is probably the best way to detect the location of bed bugs AND to make sure that there are no bed bugs), and they use green methods of manual removal, and a combination of freezing and heat treatments, and they suggest pro-active methods that really work BETTER than the pesticides currently available, AND I don’t have to worry about my kids and pets after an experienced pest control tech leaves after using these green methods . You can learn more by visiting Cornell University’s Agricultural and Life Sciences site – http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=836 and check out the hour seminar on “The battle against Bed Bugs”. It’s truly worth the time to watch…..since most of us will run into bed bugs someday; and sooner than you might think.
The Bug PHD

If you have problems whit plagues or bugs in New Jersey, check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFSq6I6-CtE