Bedbugs/extermination. Need advice

[nelloyello11]

Hi,
I am currently on vacation and we just received a call from our landlord and our downstairs neighbors thinks there are bedbugs in her apartment. So he is having the entire building treated. We will not be getting home until very early Tues morning, and the exterminator said nothing living can be in the apartment from 10am-7pm that day. We are trying to find a place to move them to for a day.
Does anyone have any advice as far as longer term issues due to extermination? How soon can I bring them back in to the house? Do I need to worry about fumes staying in my clothes and getting into their little lungs later on?
I am so worried about having to move them around and possibly bringing them in too soon, etc. Unfortunately, I think the neighbor is a little crazy and is is all for nothing, but I have no control over any of it.
Any suggestions or experience will be greatly appreciated!

[cindy]

You need to contact the landlord to get the label and the MSDS label for the pestiside they are using. By law they are required to give that to you. You need to find out if there is any residual ingredients and the most important thing is to make sure the company is completely licensed to do this. You are paying rent and you do have a say, especially if you have any allergies or a chemical sensitivity.

[nelloyello11]

Fortunately, we were able to get the landlord to postpone the exterminator a few days so we didn't have to come back from vacation a day early. Hopefully once we get home, I can get more specific info from him and go from there.

[nelloyello11]

The pesticide they are using is Pyrethrin, which is naturally derived from chrysanthemums. From what I have found on it, it is only minimally toxic to birds and is actually a major component of treatments for red mites. So that makes me feel better.
We have plans to move them to my boyfriend's brother's house for a day, even though the exterminator says it will be safe in 8 hours.
But two nights away from home.... My house will be so strange without them...

[nelloyello11]

Tomorrow was supposed to be the big day. We got up early and got them into a smaller cage to move them out for a day and a half.... Only to find out half an hour before we were supposed to be leaving to take them to their sitter, that it has been postponed til Thursday, hugely inconvenient to me and to my babies, since that's an extra day in a smaller cage (We didn't want to stress them out more by catching them and moving them back to their flight, only to do it all again tomorrow night)... And Thursday is my day off, which I now have to spend away from home...ugh....

I plan on removing all of their food, etc from my house and storing it in my car for a couple days, and covering their flight cage with plastic, to minimize the chance anything gets in/on it. Then I will clean it again Thursday night or Friday before they come home.

I am also concerned for my turtle, so he is going to the sitter with them. I am completely draining his tank and covering it with plastic wrap. Scrubbing it out, etc, before refilling it...

This is all so frustrating, such a hassle, for bedbugs that probably don't even exist in her apartment, much less, in ours!

If anyone has any other suggestions as to what I can do to protect my birds and turtle, I would appreciate it.

@Cindy- thanks for the MSDS suggestion. He will be leaving it for me when he does our apartment.

[cindy]

Good luck Nelissa.

[nelloyello11]

Thank you Cindy. And please thank your hubby too!

[cindy]

You're welcome...will do.

[Meep]

I hope everything goes well for you and your babies!

I once had a bed bug scare after a trip, years ago. I developed some bites and it resulted in a lot of frantic research and concern that I might have brought them back home. It was a Lot of stress and a lot of precautions.

One concern; from everything I have read, Pyrethrin will not eradicate them. Not even close. It takes much nastier chemicals. I hope it works. Don't stress about it, but keep it in the back of your mind that this may not be done.

[nelloyello11]

I am not worried about eradicating them, as we do not actually have any evidence that we have them. The lady downstairs from us *thinks* she has them, but I am even doubtful of that, as she is sort of a hypochondriac who craves attention...
I guess my landlord just wants to do our unit as a precautionary measure. The fact that we don't have any reason to believe there is an infestation in our apartment is what makes the whole thing so frustrating! Grrrrrr

[cindy]

An easy way to tell if using a hotel is to pull the shets down from the head of the bed, pull the bed away fro the headboard and examine the folds near the binding of the mattress. They usually go to folds, creases to hide during the day. You can do the same at home.

Does the lady down stairs have pets...if so maybe she has fleas and is denial....

[nelloyello11]

Does the lady down stairs have pets...if so maybe she has fleas and is denial....

My thoughts exactly. She has two cats and I think she foolishly believes that just because they are indoor cats, that they can't get fleas!

[cindy]

If she has a really bad population of fleas they will feed in any food/blood source, that includes humans.

[nelloyello11]

Well the exterminator came today, and lo and behold.... found absolutely NO evidence of bedbugs in our apartment! Big surprise!
So he did some sort of steam/alcohol-based treatment as a preventive measure which poses no risk to humans or animals.
What a relief to have it over and done with! My babies will be returning home tomorrow morning. Thank god- It is too quiet in my house!

[Jossi]

Thats nice to hear!