Bed bugs - extermination questions

I just found my first bedbug. I live in a 25 unit condo. Two units have reported bedbugs. One with a serious infestation. The other unit had monitors placed by a professional.

The owner found the bugs herself after the professional exterminator did not find any evidence of bedbugs.

After all the neighboring apartments above and below were treated professionally, the second unit stills a jar full of bedugs, mostly dead.

Our building is treating this like individual units' problems, so I'm asking you guys, as pros, if you have any suggestions.

 

The infested units and the surrounding units should be treated thoroughly and have follow-up inspections/treatments.

ALL units should have bed bug proof mattress and box spring encasements on the mattress and boxsprings. ALL beds should have “bed bug moats” underneath every bed leg as a monitor and control device.

Find out what agency governs and regulates pest control in your state and call them to ask if there are regulations concerning renters/landlords and bed bugs. Here in PA it would be the Pa Dept. of Agriculture.

 

That's great info, thank you Bugman
You probably have guessed by now that our condo board is useless. They're barely giving us any information, other than telling us what apartments have been treated.

Do you think a big company like Orkin is the best bet? I don't really trust the exterminator our building usually uses. I actually got a pesticide operator license back in the 80's when I worked at Tropical Plant Rentals. I know a little but not very much.

Anyways, our building's exterminator couldn't identify or properly treat a bug we had on our lawn that was causing white patches. I don't remember what the bug or grass disease was, but I found out what it is and had another company treat it. They didn't do that well either It's a grass disease that comes back, and our next door neighbors didn't treat theirs.

I live in Evanston, a suburb next to Chicago which I'm sure you know how bad the problem is in Chicago. The City of Evanston, won't treat private property.

What is a bedbug moat? I just called Orkin and the guy said he will put out glue things. Is that a bedbug moat?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

Search for bed bug moats as there are quite a variety and strategies.
I do think you should have a medium to large size company when you have buildings that size.

How To Use | The Bed Moat

 

Thanks. I just decided to call Orkin and let them deal with it. What do you think? Is a smaller company better than one of the majors?

 

A year later. We used bedbug dogs. And a really good local pro exterminator. Orkin sucked, lol.

What an ordeal! It took a couple of months of living like hobos, but we got rid of the nasty little biting buggers

We plan on having the dogs once a year just to inspect. Its very affordable. The woman who owns the dog company taught us a lot of things to do we never works have thought of

 

Thanks for the update. Bed bugs are a lot of work and trouble, aren’t they? Since we’ve talked, another product called “Cimexa” as come out. It’s a light weight dust that works well where it is applied. Learn about it and see what you think. It’s cheap, too.

 

My exterminator used Cimexa and a couple of other products. He started with the dust and a spray, then the next time he used something else.

I'd say we only saw about 20 of the little bugs, but I really got bitten up. And here's another tip. I tried all kinds of stuff for the itching, even prescription from my doctor. Nothing worked until I found something called Anti-Itch Continuous Spray. It's generic for something else.

 

Don't do it yourself! One woman in our building self-treated with Cimexa and other stuff, but she didn't pack up, put stuff in the dryer and bag it up, etc. It turned into a horrible infestation. She had bugs on the ceiling even in her kitchen, and she even found some on her pets!

 

I used XXX

They fogged and it worked awesome.