BEDBUGS, Nooooo

So, we have bedbugs. :C

The apartment landlord is sending an exterminator tomorrow. We've been washing and bagging up everything we can, but I'm really worried about Cuzco.

I was originally planning on just bringing him to work with me. The info sheet we were given told us to keep out of the apartment for 4 hours post-treatment.

But I'm getting more anxious about it as time goes on. We have not been told what is being used in our apartment.

The infestation doesn't seem all that bad. I've only found bugs actually on the bed, and not a whole ton of them either. There's no sign of them anywhere outside the bedroom. So I guess that's good.

But I am really worried about bringing Cuzco back into the apartment after the exterminator's been in there.

Has anybody had experience with this? I'm not sure I'll be able to get in touch with the exterminator AND a vet in time to figure out what should be done.
I can try to board him at the local bird store (which is a great place), but they want advance reservations... and I wouldn't know how long to leave him there.

I'm getting really concerned... this whole ordeal has been such a stressful, gross mess. I'm also just scared that we won't be able to get rid of them... But mostly I'm scared of Cuzco being harmed. I wanted to get some diotomaceous earth to try to help safeguard against the bugs, but since THAT too is a respiratory irritant, I'm worried about putting it down at all. Maybe some vaseline and double-sided tape?

I just really need to find out what to do to keep Cuzco safe...

Update: bird shop recommended keeping him out of there for 2 days, so we're bringing him over for boarding this evening. :C Gonna miss him and worry about him!!

As far as I know, there are only two effective treatments for bed bugs. Heat treatment (heating the house up to 120° F or hotter for several hours) or chemical treatment. Either one requires evacuating the home for several hours. Heat treatment requires removing potentially flammable items and items that would easily be damaged by heat (i.e. posters and pictures, food, etc). The chemical treatment doesn't require removing anything other than cloth like items from the home as long as you don't have any food out.


*ALWAYS* dry your clothes/linens first, then wash and dry them. If you wash first then dry, your clothes may not get hot enough to kill the bugs, and you may just reinfect yourself.




It's been 5 days, so I hope things went smoothly and the bugs are gone!

Well, we found out after the treatment that the exterminators are coming back every week for the next 3 weeks as well. So they're coming today. Cuzco will be boarded for several days every time just to make sure he's safe.

We bought some bed bug-proof covers for our mattress and box spring, and I'm going to look into adding a bit of diatomaceous earth where I feel it's safe enough.

The first round definitely didn't kill them. My partner caught one of the bugs ON HIS FACE this morning. It's truly disgusting. These things are SO difficult to get rid of...

Thankfully they don't seem to have spread beyond our bed, and almost certainly not the bedroom. But we are basically living out of trash bags at the moment and spending so much time and money on laundry and anti-bedbug measures.

Needless to say, I also am missing Cuzco a lot. He's settling in well despite everything and has picked up target training and clicker training no problem. He's quickly learned to turn around and to wave his foot. He is such an eager little learner. And he's been very bold and curious about new people, which is good as well. I built him a PVC stand with sisal rope and have been working on training him to go there to poop as well... with some success.

I just miss him over the weekends. The last time he boarded he came back with a new sound and was remarkably better at holding stuff with his foot... AND he suddenly started using his sleep tent! So weird, I wonder how much he learned from watching the other birds?

He's such a brave little guy... This is a rough time, but he's taking it pretty well. He didn't lose any weight on his last stay and didn't seem to be holding a grudge.

There is another treatment and that's freezing them, instantly dead

Yup, you just have to make sure everything gets cold enough for long enough.

I have a number of things that I'm having to rotate through the freezer right now (stuffed animals and faux fur for crafts, yarn, a dry-clean only coat, etc)... Tedious!

I finally got some diatomaceous earth yesterday and applied it in the bedroom. I vacuumed up the excess today and am hoping that it helps catch any stragglers. Cuzco gets to come home today, so I'll be watching for any signs of respiratory distress from him, but I think now that most of the DE is cleaned up, and the stuff that is still applied has settled, he should be alright.

Found at least 4 of the stupid things crawling around while I was applying the powder, though! We're hoping that the reason we're finding them wandering around more is they're just trying to escape the spray the exterminators put down... just stragglers.

Eeeeyuch. I hope none of you ever have to deal with these bugs. They are truly vile. They are true bugs, related to shield, assassin, and stink bugs... and you can definitely smell it. There's also just something truly distressing about getting into your bed knowing insects are going to crawl on you and bite you while you sleep. My partner caught one on his FACE one morning last week. ;-;

Actually freezing has been found ineffective. It DE, chemicals, or heat that's it.