This is kind of a random place to ask, but fuck it.
Staying in La Plata Argentina to learn Spanish. Found a good deal on an AirBNB with solid reviews. The woman who owns it has been a PITA the entire time. I showed up and there were some dirty dishes. She told me that was impossible bc her relatives cleaned. Showed her pictures and she was still in denial lol.
Last night I got no sleep because I was itching. Found little black and brown spots on sheets, according to google it is probably bed bug casings or w/e. I just know the owner of the place is going to deny it and be annoying. AirBNB is notorious for bad customer service, so idk if I would get any refund. Especially since I’m a week in and the stay is until mid January.
I am low on funds… What do y’all think. Should I try and fight the bed bugs? And if you’ve ever dealt with bed bugs, give me the rundown… I don’t have a drier but I was gonna wash everything and dry it outside, then spray RAID…
Or should I use my credit card 😬 on another place I can’t afford… I don’t get paid until January, so I don’t want to do that. But I don’t wanna see these bugs spread like the plague and end up in my shit.
Not sure if you can get it shipped to Argentina, but there is finally a pesticide that reliably works on bedbugs. I talk about it here. https://hexbear.net/comment/4050105 Its called Aprehend, and its a little tricky to apply but after fighting them for years I was able to finally knock them out with one treatment. Lmk if I can help anyone with this, I dealt with them for years. They are a trauma.
But in general, they are almost Impossible to get rid of.
Move, bag up all clothing super tight and thoroughly wash it and dry it over and over. They’re a nighgmare
if you’ve ever dealt with bed bugs, give me the rundown…
You cannot win. I had bedbugs, i fought them for a year and only won by throwing away everything i owned. I don’t hate many things but i hate bedbugs.
if you can sleep thru the night knowing they’re there, do so. By the way, don’t bother trying to move to a different room, they will find you from your CO².
When you leave that dump, take the hottest shower you can stand right before you leave and scrub your hair (ugh im getting ptsd flashbacks from bedbugs in my hair). Change into freshly laundered clothes that you prepared and left outside.
When your arrive back home, don’t bring a thing from your trip inside. First get everything washable (or dryable) to the laundry and put that shit on high heat. What you can’t bear to throw away stays outside until you can cleanse it with heat too. (Black trash bags in the summer sun are enough).
Pray it was enough.
God i hate bedbugs
Bedbugs are a bear to get rid of, you’re not going to successfully get rid of bedbugs in a rental. Period. That being said, you and all of your belongings are now contaminated. High heat will nuke them on your clothing. So here’s what you can do do decontam yourself and not bring them to the next place and not trash everything you own. Take all of your luggage and drop that in a garbage bag. Grab a can of bed bug spray for your shoes and head to a laundromat with some spare plastic bags.
Remove one entire set of clothes. And throw them in a dryer on the highest setting or an hr. Take your shoes off and spray the fuck out of them outside. If you don’t have a good spot to leave them to dry outdoors. Put them in a second bag and take them with you. Take the rest of your cloth belongings and toss them in a dryer on high for at least an hr. Throw away the bag, when the first set of clothes are dry and you’re done handling any cloth that could be contaminated. Check through everything you own and make sure you spray down anything that cant be washed and that you’re not missing any cloth items. Very carefully strip. Put your current clothes in a bag and, tie that fucker up tight. Set the contaminated bags far away from your current clothes and then nuke those in the dryer. This will get rid of them on your luggage and body. Bear in mind those Fuckers jump so be careful with the swaps. I have absolutely done this while homeless/on the road. It sucks but you don’t actually have to throw everything you own away.
This is excellent advice, and I’ve done the same thing traveling, as well as similar things dealing with BBs in apartments.
Minor correction (at least from my understanding): they can’t jump, though they will strategically or accidentally fall from height.
Really pay attention to your contaminated/clean separation. It’s the key both to effective treatment and to your own confidence, that you don’t need to treat something over and over.
Lastly remember that they are not microscopic. You can absolutely see the smallest of them with your naked eye, so if you can inspect something thoroughly (like your suitcase) it doesn’t need to get treated. Open the lining and check between it and the outer shell. Use a paintbrush to brush out crevices and seams you can’t see into. Be extremely thorough, they are very interested in things like pockets and overlapping layers of cloth.
Eggs look like smallish grains of rice. Newborns are clear amber, Adults are the size of an apple seed and deep red.
Uggh. And of course it’s even harder to fix bc I’m in argentina. You can’t just get “bed bug spray”. All I have is RAID, which IDK if that even works with bed bugs.
This transition, if I attempt it, is going to be really fucking hard. I can try and shower first. But I have a laundry that only gets kinda hot and no dryer. I cannot use a laundramat bc I will not have cash until Monday, and even that is hours of walking and waiting in line. It’s like I’m destined for recontamination. idk what to do, this is fuckin me up and I didn’t get any sleep + I am taking finals today.
Plus I have a hard suitcase. Gonna be real fun considering I can’t get bed bug spray. Fuck.
edit: alright, apparently the purple RAID works ok on bed bugs, I am gonna have to try to make this work. Thanks for your advice, you’ve been helpful.
I would wait and suffer till you get the cash for the laundromat. You need your clothes bone dry and hot to the touch, then 20 minutes more.
In the meantime, bag up anything you won’t use. If you can inspect things (like books) you can put them away in a ‘clean’ bag and not worry about them again.
I should also say, I’m not sure what kind of luggage you have, if you have a Hardcase, a hiking backpack, or a cloth military type bag. But you absolutely need to make sure that’s clean before you put them back in. If it can be tossed in a dryer, that’s ideal but if it’s a hardcase or a case with any kind of liner that you can remove you’re going to need to spray the fuck out of it and let it dry, then wipe it out, or Scrub it by hand in a bathroom. Don’t sleep on pockets in that bag, or any of your shoes. This process sucks and you don’t want to have to repeat it or contaminate your next place.
I know you may not have access to a shower in between those loads of laundry but you’re gonna feel a whole lot better if you can at least take a “truckstop bath” between swapping the contam and the heated clothes.
Lastly, any item that you do have to toss. Please, please, sharpie bedbugs on it so nobody pulls it out of the trash and tries to re use.
I took your advice. I will say it was probably correct. But now the lady is using the fact that I threw so much trash away the last day (I was getting rid of infected stuff) as evidence that I actually attracted insects to the place. And Airbnb is buying it. Fuck me.
That is absolutely unhinged. I can’t speak to airbnb policy or offer any advice there, unfortunately. But I will say if you took my advice, that will handle it on your end. I have absolutely gone through the same thing a few times. This is brutal, and I’m sorry you’re going through this.
