I'm so irritated i don't know what to do... I recently made the mistake to move in one of those fanciful doormen buildings with a staff of 25 and 4 doormen at all times! Apparently my next door neighbors found out about 3 months ago some bed bugs bites. I really don't know them or speak to them but i have all intentions to keep cordial. They started throwing out their expensive furniture and have... [more]
I'm so irritated i don't know what to do...
I recently made the mistake to move in one of those fanciful doormen buildings with a staff of 25 and 4 doormen at all times!
Apparently my next door neighbors found out about 3 months ago some bed bugs bites. I really don't know them or speak to them but i have all intentions to keep cordial. They started throwing out their expensive furniture and have sent out to their neighbors (i hope not only me ) this woman who has a dog who can "smell" the bugs. I made my apartment open to this investigation and sure enough this stupid dog started barking at my closet and at my brand new (2 months) expensive and sleek murphy bed from Italy. Apparently that indicated the presence of bed bugs. That dog even peed in my apartment...Caught off guard i public-ally admitted (in front of my super who was present) that i had bed bugs in a hotel a few months before, but never saw signs of it again! But being that i am overtly attentive (and a bit paranoid myself) i started throwing out every piece of summer wardrobe and luggage that could have been contaminated from that hotel room (i have to say that back in the hotel i was completely covered with bites in the space of two nights and it wasn't even a cheap hotel!, Also i had no idea at the time that the bed bugs "can travel" but never again saw any bites!)
Anyway ....All of the sudden i BECOME the perpetrator.. My neighbor (who seem a very sweet woman, a professor) volunteers reading material and the name of an exterminator that they used and that would set me back $ 1,200.00.
I buy moth balls and go about my life (without my summer clothes)
A week goes by and suddenly i do see a couple of very distinctive bites on my arm..So it's TRUE I HAVE THEM!
I look for other exterminator companies and they all charge this high amount. I DON'T WANT TO SPEND IT OR CAN AFFORD IT. Buy the fumigation device at the Home Depot.
Doesn't work... I keep getting bites (like one a night) I'm getting really depressed
.. Keep buying new sheets every 3 days.. Everything about my place IS BRAND NEW I CANNOT POSSIBLY HAVE BED BUGS! Don't they favor antiques? Old paintings? Velvet drapes? None of that i have! I am a minimalist, just a CLEI murphy bed and 4 Ultra Bellini (plastic chairs) and a Workspace table from DWR... I HAVE A STUDIO APARTMENT FOR GOD"S SAKE!
FINALLY I BUY the mattress cover from Bed Bath and Beyond advertised against bed bugs
I thought ...What a gimmick..BUT IT WORKS! No bites for a whole month!!!!
I am in a good mood again. I smile at my neighbor and talk about jogging
I thought that whole thing was forgotten..I 'm bed bugs free!
This morning my super stopped me in front of the building.
He told me that my neighbors are VERY nervous and demanded via a long letter that they wrote him for my apartment to be inspected again. The building had 3 case of bed bugs (my apt apparently included) and wants to make sure that the problem is eradicated.... .Which means removing the moth balls because they would obscure the smell of the bugs.
I just broke down and told him that i don't have bites anymore, and just cannot afford the expense of an extermination that would cost me so much money (it's a condo and i am responsible for the extermination)...And really wonder what my neighbors reaction would be IF "I " was to express THAT I WAS "NERVOUS" about them!
I kind of find it offensive...Am i getting too oversensitive?
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
And aren't "bed bugs" SOOO two years ago anyway?
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Response by manhattanfox
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 1275
Member since: Sep 2007
I think this was a pandemic incident a few years ago -- regardless of your desire not to spend money -- better safe than sorry and better no to infect a building full of people. I think the bed bug exterminators freeze the bed bugs. Do not write anything. You have nothing to admit. you do not know if it is bed bugs or fleas from a neighbors pet. You should not admit to anything. Allow the building to inspect, but have your own professional come in so that you have an objective read. We are coming into warm weather so this could get worse...
Good luck
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
Well the inspection is covered by the management..But not the extermination (which i think it should be as well)
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Response by manhattanfox
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 1275
Member since: Sep 2007
depends on the source -- if you brought the plague -- you may have liability. i suggest you have your own independent inspection and extermination, if necessary -- so that the building cannot throw it on you. BUT NO admission of liability -- especially in writing...
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
And why would i have brought the plague? And who's to say that the bites on my arms in my hotel room 9 months ago were caused by bed bugs? Just because a dog barked at my closet, bed and peed? Is that any proof? That's what makes me irritated!
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
I meant who's to say that i have brought the 'plague'
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Response by jess
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 142
Member since: Jan 2006
If you do have bed bugs, it's better to deal with it sooner rather than later. Bed bugs are a horror to deal with and if you are in a large building with MANY apartments, it's a huge disaster waiting to happen. I wouldn't take it personally, I'm sure it's the 3 cases making them nervous... and they need to know for sure that the problem is eradicated.
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Response by khd
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 215
Member since: Feb 2008
Bed bugs are notorious and travel in luggage. If you were in a hotel that was infested, they could have got into your suitcase, not your clothes. They like to live in furniture (head boards, bed frames, mattresses) and only come out at night (you literally have to pull furniture apart to find them they hide so well). They are NOT known to carry any diseases, but the point of plague (brought up by fox) is just to set an example that had you brought an infectious disease in with you, you COULD be liable (plague is transmitted by flea bites). Fortunately, BB are just a nuisance and not known to kill.
If you live in a high end condo with such fancy furniture you keep going on about, I would shell out the $$$ to FUMIGATE the bejesus out of your place, and suggest the same for your neighbors. As an aside, we are currently looking at a co-op that had 2 units out of ~200 that had bed bugs and I was told by a broker that it is not uncommon for this NOT to be advertised because of the stigma associated with it.
Bed bugs are not "2 years ago", they are here and will continue to come here as people travel over seas and bring them back, unfortunately. Manhattan hotels (cheap and pricey) have also been infested. Good luck.
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
Thanks guys
My whole point was that i was hurt by the super mentioning my neighbors being "very nervous" and writing "a long letter" because i thought that that whole thing was resolved being that i never saw any evidence besides a few bites and a few barks...
And how accurate are those dogs anyway? In any case at least now i feel that i shouldn't see this necessarily as a personal attack...I will be open to a new inspection
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
ANYWAY that hotel is the CHELSEA INN at 46 west 17th street. It's infested with mice (one managed to get in my luggage and rip apart a sealed bag of Angelina's chocolate from Paris that i had brought for my boss as present) and bed bugs.
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Response by khd
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 215
Member since: Feb 2008
The dog story sounds like crap. Never heard of such a thing.
Don't take it personally, supers aren't known for their PR skills.
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
The whole thing was pretty low tec believe me ... A dog barking at a closet.....Isn't it easy to instruct a dog to do that, than say "you need a $ 1,200 extermination to resolve YOUR PROBLEM, give me your credit card?
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Response by drdrd
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 1905
Member since: Apr 2007
Bed bugs are HORRENDOUS !!! & I'm getting nervous just thinking about them. Luckily I've had no personal experience with them but in your position, I'd make myself an expert on them because they are notoriously difficult to deal with. I wonder if they're contained but multiplying INSIDE that mattress cover? Getting your own exterminator may be a good idea, I think, because then you'll know that you're not just being scapegoated by your neighbors. This is an awful situation & I wish you the best but deal with this problem ASAP.
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Response by Jazzman
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 781
Member since: Feb 2009
doyourownpestcontrol.com
I had bed bugs - the exterminator accidentally left a can of his spray behind. IntruderHPX which I found online. It's legal to buy in NY. The company actually now has newer sprays that are more specific for bed bug issues, including bed bug kits.
Good luck. Just remember that bed bug bites are annoying, like mosquito bites, but unlike mosquitos bed buts are not known to transmit any diseases.
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Response by kylewest
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 4455
Member since: Aug 2007
The whole thread is making me itch and the OP's mingling responsible/neighborly/hygienic behavior with financial and emotional hangups is making me itch even more. Moth balls? Honestly. This is disgusting. Get the problem dealt with. Enough with the b.s. and denial.
Another argument in favor of coops. This gets dealt with immediately in a coop without this ridiculous excuse making and foot dragging.
Seriously, though, seven7, if you do have bedbugs (and it certainly sounds as though you do) then it is indeed your responsibility to have them properly removed. Whining about the expense is no excuse to sit around and do nothing. If you were my neighbor I'd be pissed too. The longer you let it go, the worse the infestation will become, likely spreading to surrounding apartments.
Suck it up and get rid of those critters once and for all.
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Response by ootin
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 210
Member since: Jul 2008
I would recommend to all people that when buying a new mattress, as soon as it is delivered you cover it with a microfiber cover that doesn't allow bedbugs in (or out, but the mattress is new). National Allergy Supply is where I've bought mine. It is NOT plastic - the mattress does "breathe" just that bed bugs don't get in. Its also a good way to keep the mattress just one more layer extra clean.
Even if you have an existing mattress (of course you do) I'd recommend covering it now - might as well and again, it'll keep the bed bugs that are in, in and eventually they'll go beddy-bye.
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
Ok you guys have convinced me. I guess i have bed bugs living INSIDE the BB&B mattress cover. It's a shame because i did buy the mattress in February and it's still inside plastic (it's a specially sized mattress by Dixie foam to fit the european size murphy bed that also came in February) but there is a small rip in the plastic and i guess the bugs made their home somewhere there. So i will throw the mattress out before the extermination
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
It kind of all make sense now...The dog barked at the murphy bed AND at the closet where i used to keep the areobed i used to sleep on for the 3 months that i was waiting for the murphy bed to be delivered
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Response by Squid
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 1399
Member since: Sep 2008
Seven, you should still have an expert check your apartment. If there are bedbugs, they may well be living in your furniture (including the murphy bed) as well as in the mattress. Tossing the mattress and getting a new one without a full extermination won't get rid of the bedbugs. It definitely sounds like you may have transported the bugs home in your luggage after staying in the infested hotel room you described. If that's the case, EVERYTHING needs to be fumigated.
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
And you want to know WHY i had to stay in a hotel? Because the Management company would take FOREVER to review my condo application and my closing was delayed 2 weeks while in between apartments..Pretty sad...
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Response by Craquelin
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 32
Member since: Apr 2007
khd..."If you were in a hotel that was infested, they could have got into your suitcase, 'not your clothes'." That would be one pretty smart Bed Bug to say...."Hey, that's a pants cuff...no I don't think I'll go there..." How many parties do you just go and throw your coat on the bed?....yes....they are more than happy to climb on and take the ride home with you, also, they move easily from apartment to apartment through cracks in walls and floors.
Since we can't (and for good reason) use toxic pesticides anymore, bed bugs have made a huge comeback...avoidance is the best protection...and seven7 CALL AN EXTERMINATOR instead of buying all those sheets!
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Response by drdrd
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 1905
Member since: Apr 2007
SEVEN, throw it away? Throw it away? Ask the effen exterminator before you throw everything away. You don't know; I don't know; hopefully the exterminator knows but geez - calm down & get some knowledgeable professional help from someone who KNOWS.... I think that a good washing with HOT water may have saved your summer wardrobe. Perhaps the exterminator can save the mattress.
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Response by khd
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 215
Member since: Feb 2008
Craquelin: I should have said, "not necessarily your clothes". No need to be a smart-ass.
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Response by seven7
almost 16 years ago
Posts: 161
Member since: Aug 2008
Thank you everyone for helping me putting things in prospective. I was/ am still a little in denial..I am just inexperienced with bed bugs...And it seem so impossible for me the have them (i've never seen not even one!) plus there is a lot of work ahead! (dry cleaning, vacuuming, emptying out drawers...) and i'm really not happy to do that ! But i will...
i read your story and would love to talk to you regrading a documentary I am casting for national network. If your interested in telling your story and sharing your experience, please email me at
puja. seth@optomenusa.com
'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
And aren't "bed bugs" SOOO two years ago anyway?
I think this was a pandemic incident a few years ago -- regardless of your desire not to spend money -- better safe than sorry and better no to infect a building full of people. I think the bed bug exterminators freeze the bed bugs. Do not write anything. You have nothing to admit. you do not know if it is bed bugs or fleas from a neighbors pet. You should not admit to anything. Allow the building to inspect, but have your own professional come in so that you have an objective read. We are coming into warm weather so this could get worse...
Good luck
Well the inspection is covered by the management..But not the extermination (which i think it should be as well)
depends on the source -- if you brought the plague -- you may have liability. i suggest you have your own independent inspection and extermination, if necessary -- so that the building cannot throw it on you. BUT NO admission of liability -- especially in writing...
And why would i have brought the plague? And who's to say that the bites on my arms in my hotel room 9 months ago were caused by bed bugs? Just because a dog barked at my closet, bed and peed? Is that any proof? That's what makes me irritated!
I meant who's to say that i have brought the 'plague'
If you do have bed bugs, it's better to deal with it sooner rather than later. Bed bugs are a horror to deal with and if you are in a large building with MANY apartments, it's a huge disaster waiting to happen. I wouldn't take it personally, I'm sure it's the 3 cases making them nervous... and they need to know for sure that the problem is eradicated.
Bed bugs are notorious and travel in luggage. If you were in a hotel that was infested, they could have got into your suitcase, not your clothes. They like to live in furniture (head boards, bed frames, mattresses) and only come out at night (you literally have to pull furniture apart to find them they hide so well). They are NOT known to carry any diseases, but the point of plague (brought up by fox) is just to set an example that had you brought an infectious disease in with you, you COULD be liable (plague is transmitted by flea bites). Fortunately, BB are just a nuisance and not known to kill.
If you live in a high end condo with such fancy furniture you keep going on about, I would shell out the $$$ to FUMIGATE the bejesus out of your place, and suggest the same for your neighbors. As an aside, we are currently looking at a co-op that had 2 units out of ~200 that had bed bugs and I was told by a broker that it is not uncommon for this NOT to be advertised because of the stigma associated with it.
Bed bugs are not "2 years ago", they are here and will continue to come here as people travel over seas and bring them back, unfortunately. Manhattan hotels (cheap and pricey) have also been infested. Good luck.
Thanks guys
My whole point was that i was hurt by the super mentioning my neighbors being "very nervous" and writing "a long letter" because i thought that that whole thing was resolved being that i never saw any evidence besides a few bites and a few barks...
And how accurate are those dogs anyway? In any case at least now i feel that i shouldn't see this necessarily as a personal attack...I will be open to a new inspection
ANYWAY that hotel is the CHELSEA INN at 46 west 17th street. It's infested with mice (one managed to get in my luggage and rip apart a sealed bag of Angelina's chocolate from Paris that i had brought for my boss as present) and bed bugs.
The dog story sounds like crap. Never heard of such a thing.
Don't take it personally, supers aren't known for their PR skills.
The whole thing was pretty low tec believe me ... A dog barking at a closet.....Isn't it easy to instruct a dog to do that, than say "you need a $ 1,200 extermination to resolve YOUR PROBLEM, give me your credit card?
Bed bugs are HORRENDOUS !!! & I'm getting nervous just thinking about them. Luckily I've had no personal experience with them but in your position, I'd make myself an expert on them because they are notoriously difficult to deal with. I wonder if they're contained but multiplying INSIDE that mattress cover? Getting your own exterminator may be a good idea, I think, because then you'll know that you're not just being scapegoated by your neighbors. This is an awful situation & I wish you the best but deal with this problem ASAP.
doyourownpestcontrol.com
I had bed bugs - the exterminator accidentally left a can of his spray behind. IntruderHPX which I found online. It's legal to buy in NY. The company actually now has newer sprays that are more specific for bed bug issues, including bed bug kits.
Good luck. Just remember that bed bug bites are annoying, like mosquito bites, but unlike mosquitos bed buts are not known to transmit any diseases.
The whole thread is making me itch and the OP's mingling responsible/neighborly/hygienic behavior with financial and emotional hangups is making me itch even more. Moth balls? Honestly. This is disgusting. Get the problem dealt with. Enough with the b.s. and denial.
Another argument in favor of coops. This gets dealt with immediately in a coop without this ridiculous excuse making and foot dragging.
Don't knock the bedbug-sniffing dog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3e8rhT_hAw
Seriously, though, seven7, if you do have bedbugs (and it certainly sounds as though you do) then it is indeed your responsibility to have them properly removed. Whining about the expense is no excuse to sit around and do nothing. If you were my neighbor I'd be pissed too. The longer you let it go, the worse the infestation will become, likely spreading to surrounding apartments.
Suck it up and get rid of those critters once and for all.
I would recommend to all people that when buying a new mattress, as soon as it is delivered you cover it with a microfiber cover that doesn't allow bedbugs in (or out, but the mattress is new). National Allergy Supply is where I've bought mine. It is NOT plastic - the mattress does "breathe" just that bed bugs don't get in. Its also a good way to keep the mattress just one more layer extra clean.
Even if you have an existing mattress (of course you do) I'd recommend covering it now - might as well and again, it'll keep the bed bugs that are in, in and eventually they'll go beddy-bye.
Ok you guys have convinced me. I guess i have bed bugs living INSIDE the BB&B mattress cover. It's a shame because i did buy the mattress in February and it's still inside plastic (it's a specially sized mattress by Dixie foam to fit the european size murphy bed that also came in February) but there is a small rip in the plastic and i guess the bugs made their home somewhere there. So i will throw the mattress out before the extermination
It kind of all make sense now...The dog barked at the murphy bed AND at the closet where i used to keep the areobed i used to sleep on for the 3 months that i was waiting for the murphy bed to be delivered
Seven, you should still have an expert check your apartment. If there are bedbugs, they may well be living in your furniture (including the murphy bed) as well as in the mattress. Tossing the mattress and getting a new one without a full extermination won't get rid of the bedbugs. It definitely sounds like you may have transported the bugs home in your luggage after staying in the infested hotel room you described. If that's the case, EVERYTHING needs to be fumigated.
And you want to know WHY i had to stay in a hotel? Because the Management company would take FOREVER to review my condo application and my closing was delayed 2 weeks while in between apartments..Pretty sad...
khd..."If you were in a hotel that was infested, they could have got into your suitcase, 'not your clothes'." That would be one pretty smart Bed Bug to say...."Hey, that's a pants cuff...no I don't think I'll go there..." How many parties do you just go and throw your coat on the bed?....yes....they are more than happy to climb on and take the ride home with you, also, they move easily from apartment to apartment through cracks in walls and floors.
Since we can't (and for good reason) use toxic pesticides anymore, bed bugs have made a huge comeback...avoidance is the best protection...and seven7 CALL AN EXTERMINATOR instead of buying all those sheets!
SEVEN, throw it away? Throw it away? Ask the effen exterminator before you throw everything away. You don't know; I don't know; hopefully the exterminator knows but geez - calm down & get some knowledgeable professional help from someone who KNOWS.... I think that a good washing with HOT water may have saved your summer wardrobe. Perhaps the exterminator can save the mattress.
Craquelin: I should have said, "not necessarily your clothes". No need to be a smart-ass.
Thank you everyone for helping me putting things in prospective. I was/ am still a little in denial..I am just inexperienced with bed bugs...And it seem so impossible for me the have them (i've never seen not even one!) plus there is a lot of work ahead! (dry cleaning, vacuuming, emptying out drawers...) and i'm really not happy to do that ! But i will...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/realestate/23cov.html?hpw
i read your story and would love to talk to you regrading a documentary I am casting for national network. If your interested in telling your story and sharing your experience, please email me at
puja. seth@optomenusa.com