I have bed bugs. They are gross, how do I get rid of them?

Take the mattress out into the garden pour some petrol over it and set it on fire. Then go and get a new bed.

you actually need to call some kind of exterminator. these things are hard to get rid of and spread easily. they had to close down an entire dorm at my college because of it.

@Lightlyseared, Are you crazy? Petrol might as well be gold now.

Lightlyseared isn’t crazy at all. The solution mentioned is the only one available.

The bugs are living inside the mattress, and you will never get them to leave, except when you lay on that bed and they come out to feed on you.

The first answer contains your best-possible solution. Follow it.

@lkidkyle my univesity didn’t bother to close down the dorm we just collected the things to disect in class. They’d give up trying to get rid of them years ago.

It won’t do you any good to wash your sheets or the surrounding area. Your mattress will have to be fumagated or gotten rid of. The mattress should be taken care of as soon as possible, it’s no laughing matter. The bed bugs can cause you serious illness/blood diseases, especially to family pets and smaller children. Either way, if you have bed bugs they also can be in your carpet and furniture, I’d get a professinal pest controller, plus get a new mattress.

@randy petrol isn’t as expensive as most bottled water.

This has become a MAJOR problem especially in cities (including 4 star hotels) over the last few years. My daughter’s 12 unit building had 3 outbreaks in 2006/2007. Evidently someone brought in a chair they found on the street and eventually got bedbugs. The apt was professionally debugged including getting rid of all the soft furnishings.

A few months later they were not only back but also in the apts on either side. That time the professionals not only cleaned out the apts but fumigated them with a gas that required the whole building be vacated for 2 days.

Then in August of 2007 the bedbugs were in all the apts on all 4 floors on one side of the building. We had been told that bedbugs could not travel through walls but my daughter and her roommate never brought in any used furnishings or clothing. On the third go-round the building had to be vacated for weeks. All the soft furnishings in the affected apartments were destroyed. All of the hard furnishings were put in freezer storage for a week, all the carpets were removed and lino installed. The apts and wall spaces were gassed. When my daughter came to me she brought all her clothes in plastic bags and they went straight to the laundromat for multiple washings. When she walked in my apt, I made her strip down immediatle and step into the shower until those clothes were washed, too.

When she moved home the building management had made a rule that all mattresses must have full plastic covers and no used furniture is allowed unless it has been professionally sanitized. So far it’s been a year and no new outbreaks

@galileogirl – yikes! that’s terrible. i feel bad for your daughter to have to go through all that :(

an exterminator told me that bedbugs are the hardest bug to get rid of (which was a surprise – i would have thought roaches). he said roaches are second, fleas are third. i would definitely not want to have some chemicals sprayed on my bed and then be sleeping on it. get rid of the bed, call an exterminator, and then buy a new bed. good luck.

But they can be in the cracks of the furniture and my daughter’s furniture is wicker. Hence the freezer for furniture, tv, clock radio, dvd’s etc.

@JackAdams, thank you for the insomnia. Ha!

In any case that’s sound advice – I actually have to replace both my mattress and bed frame anyways so will do so now. I probably can’t fumigate due to my living situation so will just have to hope that replacing the bed does it.

Also will get a plastic cover for the new mattress…

Thanks a lot for all your responses! I’ll let you know how it goes!

And for those that are lucky enough to not have experienced bed bugs I’d strongly recommend you get plastic mattress covers to avoid the risk of an infestation. You’ve read here how much trouble they can be.

@artificialard: When you get your new mattress, please invite AstroChuck over to your place, so he can personally rip off that tag that reads, “DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW,” because he has already publicly posted that that is something he really enjoys doing, for some reason.