Bed Bugs & the Hot Box

We had bed bugs last year. Have you ever had them? If not, consider yourself very lucky! They are AWFUL! And extremely difficult to get rid of.  I just realized that I didn't take many pictures when we had them.  The kids were playing with the camera as they prepped their room.  They also took some pictures of some art they decided to get rid of.

Rosie's art project from 5th grade - they had a painter spend a few weeks at their school teaching technique

Emmie's SWAP Bandanna - had SWAPS from the 90th GS Sing-a-long

Rosie's paper mache (notice the spray bottle next to it? It's full of rubbing alcohol which kills bed bugs)

The children decided to get rid of anything that might have the bed bugs (YAY!).  It wasn't much of a fight to downsize all our junk.  We used tons of black trash bags & took many trips to the dumpster.  We even got rid of all of our beds except Essie & Rosie's bed (it had a bed bug cover on it). It is in the background of one of the other pictures the kids took.

Corner of bed, I can see 8 bed bugs on it (dead) and their feces, YUCK!

We did remove the bed bug cover & wash it before the house was treated.  We have since gotten rid of the bed. (this was October 2011)

Here are some pictures of our living room in February 2011 (we think we got the bedbugs in April 2011).  My Mom had come over after I was in the hospital (Summer 2010) & helped me to get our home in order.  When we were finally done, I took some pictures to send to Paul.

The is the sofa I eventually slept on - the boxes behind are storage

The love seat is where Paul often slept. The sun room behind eventually became Monica's "bedroom"

 

The preparations to have out home exterminated was AWFUL!  We had to go through everything we owned that was in infected areas (everywhere except the kitchen, bathroom, and certain items in the walk-in master room closet).  We did take the opportunity to clean out under the sinks and most of the items in the master closet only leaving items that were in boxes and had been for over a year.

To prep our house we had to bag up everything in black trash bags.  It was recommended that we dispose of our living room furniture (we did). Everything had to be disassembled and put in the center of the room.  The carpet had to be lifted from the floor so they could treat under the walls & under the carpet.  There had to be a space about 3 feet from each wall.  We had to remove all the wall plates (and most we still have not put back).  We had to take all material items (clothes, curtains, towels, etc) out of the house the day of treatment (and there were 3 days of treatment).  We spent a lot of time at the local laundromats washing & drying everything we owned.  After the first treatment, we started keeping the material items in the cars.  Anything that came into the house was put in ziploc bags.  It was crazy!  During the time between treatments whenever someone took clothes off they were put directly into the washing machine.  I washed everything on hot and dried it for about 2 hours on hot.  As soon as it was done, I folded each item and put it into a ziploc bag.  I still have some of my clothes in ziploc bags. 

I took some pictures of our house before the first treatment.  The treatments are a week apart, where are we supposed to be during the time between treatments?  It was crazy!




Living Room

Living Room & Dining Room (from sun room)

Sun room & part of living room

2nd bedroom

Master bedroom (notice clean bedbug cover on the bed)

Master bedroom

We ended up spending a few weekends in local hotels.  I just couldn't see us spending the weekend in a home where there was nothing to do, and nowhere to go.  The treatments were in October and November so the kids were in school.  They were such troopers!

We are done, Thank Goodness!  We have finally finished "hot boxing" everything.  A Hot Box is just that.  It is a box that has a heater inside of it.  You put items into it (on a shelf) and zip is closed and turn the heat on.  There is a sensor that you put in the middle of the items.  Once the temperature in the box reaches 120 degrees and sits there for an hour, you can remove the items.  The heat will kill any stage of bedbug from egg to adult.

Now we are attempting to get the house put back together. We were given a couch by a member of our congregation and a futon from my sister, Tammy.  Our living room is now usable but not at all what I would prefer.  We still have a bunch of stuff just in boxes (when we took it from the hot box, we put it in boxes to go through later).  Once it is done (if ever), I will post some pictures (I havent' taken any yet). We were given beds for the children and bought one for us from another member of our congregation.  I did take a picture of Emmie's room since we just finished it.  She comes home tonight! The black item on the right is the corner of the hot box.

I hope you aren't reading this because you have bedbugs.  They are AWFUL!  We think we got them in April 2011.  We realized what they were in June 2011.  My lovely husband really thought we could get rid of them ourselves.  Emmie & I had scoured the web and were doubtful but willing to try anything.  In the end, we called an exterminator in August.  It took us a long time to get the house prepped, we even put treatment off at least once because we weren't going to be ready.  In the end, it took 3 treatments (they thought it would only take 2).  The bedbugs that started in the 2nd bedroom ended up in both bedrooms, the living room, the sun room and the dining room.  I'm just glad they are gone!