Bed bugs and hoarders

[xVallx]

My family's house is infested with bed bugs!! I just found this out last night when my younger brother came forward about the problem which he doesn't even remember when he started finding them. They cultivated in his bedroom. His mattress and box spring are covered in them crawling around everywhere and there are blood stains, bug excrement, and bug corpses all over it. He doesn't use bed sheets so he was perfectly fine and dandy living in his own filth.

I go back to my rented house in Ottawa on Monday morning, so I am putting all my sheets in the dryer and shrink wrapping them to be put away until the holidays and putting all the clothes I brought home into the dryer after steaming them to pack away so that I don't take any back home.

I'm so disgusted with my family's household. My father is a hoarder and the trait has been passed down to my brothers because they are fine with stacks of possessions, garbage and clutter in their rooms and throughout the house. I have no idea how they plan on getting rid of these bed bugs but I don't plan on living here after college. I'll probably but all of my belongings into storage until I find a place of my own.

I've been checking the couches and I have found 1 live bug under a cushion and 1 dead one. I have found 1 live one in my bed here, and I have red marks on my arm which I thought was a rash but I'm starting to think that they're bites, so the bed bugs are obviously spreading.

Have you or family/friends experienced bed bugs question If so, how did they get rid of them completely question
How would hoarders get rid of bed bugs if there's piles of stuff that they can be hiding in question

[Raven Winter]

How would hoarders get rid of bed bugs if there's piles of stuff that they can be hiding in question
By getting rid of all of their s**t.

In other words, those bugs are there to stay.

[spacekitten]

You'll need to do more than put your clothes in the dryer. I think you have to get to near-boiling temperatures to kill all the eggs.

I have thankfully never experienced bed bugs, but my college had a rash of them my first year. They brought in a laundry service that basically boiled/bleached the crap out of everyone's clothes (if you had dry clean only clothes, they had to be shrink-wrapped and sent home) and they replaced all mattresses. The worst part was that the bugs were capable of jumping from backpack to backpack in crowded lecture halls, so they had to put the whole school, even commuters like myself, on alert.

[Blackrose_Knight]

emotion_puke

[TlRA MlSU]

My boyfriend's old mattress had tons of them that feasted on us in our sleep... so horrible.
Leave all your belongings in a hot car. Heat kills them... they're really hard to kill and if you saw 2-3 bed bugs.... there's probably hundreds of them.

[Luna Legend]

My brother & his girlfriend accidentally brought bed bugs into our house after traveling a lot last year. Our infestation was nowhere near as bad as what you're describing (it was really only confined to the two upstairs beds), but it was still icky.

We got a bed bug cleaning kit, some preventative sprays, and bed bug-proof mattress and pillow cases for all the beds. All blankets/pillows/stuffed animals were dried on the hottest cycle in the dryer. We also completely cleaned both rooms and vacuumed them thoroughly. I ended up with a new mattress altogether, but that was mostly because I had been overdue for one anyway.

They haven't been back since, but I'm always careful to look for signs.

I'm not sure how to help with the hoarding situation, since that's not something I've experienced. But if it's a known problem in your family, maybe therapy could help? Hoarding tendencies are a subset of OCD, so maybe a professional could find a way to clear up some of the clutter.

[Jacque De Molay]

I try to keep my bed clean in case someone comes over. I don't like having guests sleep on the couch, they need to know they're loved so they sleep in my bed.

[uralxium]

oh man wtf?!
emotion_puke

that's disgusting.
my parents aren't the tidiest of people,
but they aren't *that* bad.
ugh the only way they could get rid of them is a massive clear out imo.

[quayla666]

ANYTHING YOU BRING BACK WITH YOU WILL BE CONTAMINATED! PERIOD! NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WASH IT, ETC, IT IS SCREWED!

With that being said, ground cat litter, OR, ground seashells are THE BEST WAY to get rid of them, chemical free, and quicker than anything. The reason being is that when they run through it, it scratches up their exoskeleton, and causes them to air out, and die. The reason why I know if this, is because my ex roommates had it at their house. I tossed nearly everything I had, because they can get into anything really. But, if you need to keep your furniture, or whatever, just do a thick circle of this stuff around the objects.. And do it lining EVERY wall around your whole place. Also, your brother isn't the only one that has them, because they travel through the whole house.

[Moogle Voodoo]

Put all your belongings in a hot car.

Any clothing you have has to be washed and dried in high heat.

I would suggest you leave that house ASAP

[Little Dead Soldier]

They have to get rid of everything and wash everything like clothes and toys in boiling hot water.

[ectogasm]

You never get rid of them