Bed Bugs in Used Furniture

Here is a great example of why you should not bring used furniture into your home without first making sure it isn’t infested. Bed bugs in used furniture can lead to a complete infestation of the home as Leah123 explains. I have listed Leah123′s story below and would like to thank her for taking the time to submit her story and pictures! By the way, you can click on the thumbnail to see the full picture.

Several months ago we were given a chair and around the same time my husband bought a used bed at a yard sale. Around May I think I was in the chair watching TV and saw a bug I had never seen before crawl out. Over the next few weeks I saw them maybe one or two is all, hadn’t a clue what they were.

My husband also noticed some specked spots on the bed he had bought and put in guest room and he sprayed it w/raid or something. Well next thing we know we have bites between our thighs that itch and welt. Then in next few weeks I see more and more on the chair I mentioned. I found this site and bought a steamer and steamed the chair like crazy, took it apart and thought I got it good but I think my steamer isn’t top of the line, it was 39$ at walmart.

bed bugs in used furniture on headboard
A few weeks ago one of our kids fell asleep in the chair then went to my bed to lie down. I went up 30 minutes later, turned on the light and there were 5 on pillow around her! I thought they attached to her and went up on her pajamas! Then I remembered reading a post here about dots on wooden headboard and realized my wooden headboard has those unique wooden markings…yeah….so I go in the dark with flashlight and there’s 3 hiding in cracks of headboard!

I made bleach/dawn/water mixture (I think its supposed to be alcohol, but this works on contact too) and killed them, also took razor blade and ran through cracks and it came out with blood on it! So during the last few days I put Vaseline smeared on headboard and caught a few trying to get to me lol….they got stuck trying!

picture of bed bug feces on mattress with casting shells and fecal matter
About 3 nights ago I did that and was reading this site in the dark in my bed and guess what? Like 5 came 1 at a time at me, and I just happened to be reading the story of a dim light attracting them, go figure!! So tonight I took mattress and box springs off and to my dismay I found them, several on boxsprings, mattresses, etc!!!!

I sprayed a ton of the bleach mixture all any used furniture, my headboard, everything in fact! They were even in the slats of bed…it sucks!!!! I probably found and killed 50, after only seeing 20 total for months in either the chair, the guest bed and now here!! Tomorrow I’m getting DE (Bed Bug Dust) and showing them whose boss!

Update:
Thanks for posting this, and what’s amazing is I didn’t know there was a nymph in the pic of the one on my headboard, eww!! Tonight I tried to puff DE around the baseboards, headboards, box spring, mattress etc and also did the bleach solution again.

I’ve not been sleeping in there or going in my room for a few days really. I need help figuring out how to get the DE out of the bag and into the puffer thing without making a mess, I tried rolling up a piece of construction paper…and I tried a funnel but its like it was too thick and wouldn’t flow into the bottle? So I’ve gotta finish tomorrow.

Thanks for posting my story..oh btw I rechecked all furniture everywhere else in my home and all seems ok, and the chair is nothing but ashes now, just dealing with my bed and hopefully that will be it. I only found about 5 alive tonight.

Also, an extremely helpful tool is a sticky lint roller!! Great for those bed slats that had tiny eggs and nymphs on them and also good for the crevices in the bed frame and seams on mattress after the dawn/alcohol/water spray….hope this helps someone!

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