Phoned the regie (livit.ch) and they sent a guy with a dog to come and check as we weren't 100% sure if it was really bed bugs. He found one pretty quickly after checking under the bed.
Now we'll have to have the ScanBug.ch company come and spray the place down (studio apartment).
Has anyone had them before? What did you have to do?
It looks like we'll need to freeze our bed mattress, couch mattress ? and possibly the clothes?
I've noticed some neighbours wash their bed sheets as 90.C the other week so I'm wondering if it's because one of the other apartments is infected and has spread...
The guy said it looks like it's just the start, as there was not much that he found, just the one living bed bug that went under the bed frame - it was almost at adult size... I'm hoping it was just that one and that it was a baby brought in or something
The thread is about bedbugs, not your nightly habits.
Apparently 60'C is fine to kill bedbug according to this:
It's not necessary and it's a waste of energy.
I'm sure most people don't inspect their laundry with a UV light either.
In the olden days people happily sprayed everything with DDT ... end of problem.
In the animal kingdom they just build a new nest/move to a new cave/hole in the ground.
In fact, the rural indigenous people of Africa would just burn everything and start again, all fresh and new - a few twigs and mud and grass made a house.
Now life is more complicated. And expensive. And sometimes civilization can become a pain in the posterior
But seriously ..... where and how does one get ride of a bed-bug ridden mattress? Say nothing and leave it out with some stickers for pick-up?
I wash all my bed linen at 60°C as that's what's recommended. I've never examined them with a UV light afterwards though.
Not sure what the inspecting is about. UV light does kill bed bugs and a lot critters, which is why people use vacuum cleaners etc with a UV lamp integrated in them. The alternative is to hang sheets outside, in daylight... quite tough when you live in an apartment though.
the article suggests heating above 45 deg C. It states that most bugs are immune to insecticides. Maybe try killing them with a steam iron on the mattress, and a steam cleaner for the bed frame, the walls & floor, getting steam into the cracks.
Quote: an hour at a temperature of 45 °C (113 °F) or over, or two hours at less than −17 °C (1 °F) kills them; [[23]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug#cite_note-Dog2012-23) a domestic clothes drier or steam kills bedbugs. [[24]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug#cite_note-birc.org-24) Starving them is difficult as they can survive without eating for 100 to 300 days, depending on temperature.
I don't know how practical it would be though, you need sustained exposure and primary mortality is seen in eggs and nymphs. Those can be well buried in the frame. Also, with a much higher mortality rate in the 10+seconds of exposure class (less for eggs), I'm not sure the quick fly-by of a vacuum is enough either.
Were you on holiday recently?
Or were some of your neighbors?
I didn't say I wash my sheets at 90C. Just that there are some people in the world who do. So the neighbor who was washing at 90 C was perhaps doing so as he/she regularly does, and it wasn't an indication or proof that said neighbor had bedbugs as well (which I thought the OP was suggesting).
Monthly and 60° is fine, but if you only change for every season, then 90° is probably best.
I was referring to Meerkat007 who implied it was standard practice which seemed a bit of a waste of energy.
I take a shower once a month whether I need it or not.