<p>S brought home a ton of clothes for me to wash over break. Five rooms on his floor had to be evacuated due to bed bugs. They're recommending the rest of the students wash any clothing that's been on the floor. Do I need to use hot water? Any advice here? I thought these things happened in the the south, not here in the frigid north.</p>
<p>If there were bed bugs in his bedding, I'm afraid there may be bed bugs in his room. Let's be hopeful there are not bed bugs in his stuff. A hot dryer will kill bedbugs in laundry but back at the dorm, if they have gotten into his room, I think the school will need a professional exterminator to get them out. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think you should take everything to a laundromat. Wash in hot water and dry until the clothes are well cooked.
Bed bugs are back and some rather posh hotels in NYC have been infected.</p>
<p>Here is some information from my university on bedbugs, including how to wash bedding. It's not a cleanliness issue. If bedbugs have been found in the dorm, make sure the university has brought in pest control because they will spread very quickly. </p>
<p><a href="http://housing.usc.edu/Forms/bedbugs.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://housing.usc.edu/Forms/bedbugs.pdf</a></p>
<p>I'd suggest using bleach in the wash as it should kill other stuff too.</p>
<p>We had a hotel in the city with repeated bedbug problems over 18 months. They can be very hard to eradicate and one should treat all of the surrounding rooms including above and below.</p>
<p>Several of my D's friends have gone through hell over bedbugs. Don't keep the luggage in the house--they hide in the seams and come out. In fact, don't keep anything from his dorm in your house. D's friends would keep a set of clothes which were for wearing home only, tied up in plastic.</p>
<p>She has had several friends who have had to move, and throw out much of what they own--fumigating did not work. Bedbugs hide in furniture. They can be dormant for ages.</p>
<p>She hasn't had them yet, but they are so prevalent in apartments in urban areas that it's a constant worry for her.</p>
<p>We came back from vacation and I started to have nasty insect bites that I thought were from bedbugs. We spent an entire Sunday cleaning luggage and at the laundromat with dozens of loads of laundry. On Monday, my W talked with exterminators. Believe me you do not want bedbugs. They started to talked about major expenses including PODS for temporary storage and fumigation. Fortunately, we did not have any bedbugs and it was all a false alarm. Next time we go on vacation and return from vacation we will take precautions and we will not bring any items into our house until we are sure it is safe.</p>
<p>The washing has started. I closely examined his bed sheets and don't see anything so he may be o.k. I told him not to take his suitcase up to his room. That laundromat idea sounds like the safest idea. I'll have him look over his featherbed carefully, when he gets back to school. I hope the school is using this break to take care of the problem, but wouldn't they have had to tell the kids about the use of insectisides? My son has a bottom shelf full of food. Unfortunately, the dorm rooms all have wall-to-wall carpeting so it could be difficult.
Any more tips? You guys are great!!!</p>
<p>Hi Toledo,
Heard about bedbug stories too and when son went off last year, I bought a vinyl zippered mattress protector that was the first thing put on bed. He covered it with regular mattress pad (quilted one) so the vinyl wasn't right next to sheet. They never had a problem at school that I am aware of, but thought an ounce of protection was good. Not sure if your son already had vinyl one on bed, but I'd send him back with new one just in case.</p>
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Next time we go on vacation and return from vacation we will take precautions and we will not bring any items into our house until we are sure it is safe.
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<p>^^A very smart idea! I always quarantine our luggage when we come back from vacations. You never know who else might have roomed with you. Once we saw a roach crawling out of a vent in our rental car. Yeah, I was driving through a very narrow one-way bridge when the bugger came out. :eek: Thank goodness, I've taken a lot of biology classes in college so I'm not afraid of mice and bugs.</p>
<p>Sapling's dorm laundry goes from the front door straight into the wasing machine.</p>
<p>Toledo-I'm so sorry. I live in an apartment building with 7 units that got infested about three years ago, it was just exhausting and frustrating. The bugs are tenacious, they can live for up to a year without a bloodmeal, they can migrate through walls and live basically anywhere. My downstairs neighbor was the epicenter-the bugs rapidly spread up to our unit and the one below, though no where near the numbers of that unit. It took about six months to rid the building since every unit needed to be inspected and treated. We had monthly treatments that involved emptying every single dresser drawer and closet in the building, moving all furniture away from walls, etc. We also had to leave the building for many hours after it was treated. We lived out of plastic boxes and garbage bags longer than I want to remember. The only way to tackle the problem is aggressively and professionally.
FYI-I live a couple of blocks from BU, one of the dorms has been infested there this semester. It's a big issue in the neighborhood. Allston-Brighton even has a bedbug taskforce that does alot of community education. Move out time around here is a nightmare with students discarding dressers, mattresses, etc. on the streets. The taskforce actually tries to get stickers put on these discards or deface them so no one picks them up and possibly end up with bedbugs. ugh.</p>
<p>Here's a good article for anyone interested:</p>
<p>Thanks for all the tips. It looks like Bed, Bath & Beyond has an XL twin mattress protector for $65. It could be money will spent. So if I understand these bugs right, I don't have to worry about the carpet. My S and his roommate don't have any upholstered items in his room, other than mattresses</p>
<p>Wouldn't want bed bugs, heard they are from old beds.</p>
<p>Bedbugs lay eggs in the wood baseboards of rooms and in the seams of luggage. Two years ago my Son's friends had to have their laptops destroyed because the college pest control workers found they were infested with eggs. While a mattress protector will prevent investation of the mattress it will not prevent infestation of the room. Do not let the clothes or luggage in your house until inspected carefully for eggs also. Also we were told that bagging things as is done with a lice infestation does not work for bedbugs because, as an earlier poster stated, bedbugs can survive in a dormant state for over a year. It is a very difficult problem and requires professionals to deal with it.</p>
<p>My son thinks he might have them. He says he's getting bitten the last several nights. I am washing sheets now and I don't see an bugs on them.</p>