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Originally Posted by Aurelius710
I had the dubious pleasure of dealing with my father and my cousin over the course of the weekend. Both of them wanted to assert their "dominance" and/or blame me for their troubles.
My parent's house has a recurrence of bed bugs. Nasty little buggers, as I well know. My father called me to list his troubles as a set of grievances against me. I have not been to their house for six months. I cannot be the cause, as he seems to dementedly think. Also, it's become apparent that he cannot tackle the problem on his own, but he stubbornly refuses to involve an expert because (and I quote) "they'll fleece ya!" Pest control is expensive, but at this point, he's spent thousands more (he replaces furniture willy-nilly) because of his ego. But sure, blame me for your problems.
The kicker? I'm at a point where I'm going to need financial help very, very soon. I still have two weeks before I can get back to work. Dad won't help, even though he has the means, and I can't even get a face to face to ask my mom. He's restricted access in the name of his ineffective DIY pest control.
I'll play the dutiful son and give him the name of a guy I know that does extremely effective bed bug pest control. I can only lead Dad to water. It's up to him to go for it.
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I know quite a bit about bed bugs, having had them and discussed them with the pest control guy and done a lot of my own research. If your parents have a bad infestation it can be almost impossible to get rid of. Generally pest control has to come TWICE and spray everything including sofas and beds (linens must be washed separately and tumble dried, and non-washable cushions must be put in a hot dryer for 20 minutes.
The second visit is to get the eggs that had not hatched when they first visited.
Throwing out furniture is needless and useless. They generally don't live in the bed but the edges of the floor/baseboards around the bed. Although with a wooden bed frame they are more likely to live in it.
One thing that helped my peace of mind was to saturate that area with DE (diatomaceous earth), a physical insecticide that will dry them out and kill them. I did this AFTER the pest control spraying though Also you can put the feet of the bed in metal dishes (we used jam jar lids) full of DE to stop them climbing up the legs. Also the bed should be at least a foot away from the wall so they can't climb the wall to get onto the bed.
If your father can afford pest control he should certainly do that - the expense is worth it. I couldn't sleep properly knowing those bugs were in our apartment.
If you have any questions, it's fine to PM me.
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About your financial situation - I have been there many times and my heart goes out to you. I hope you can ask your mom. This forum also has some kind of fundraising but I don't know much about that.
Also if your father is keeping people away because of the bugs, that is ridiculous. The bugs normally don't even come out if the lights are on.
Big hugs to you
p.s. DE is available in garden supply stores. It looks and feels like talc but is sharp at a microscopic level. It's safe for humans and animals once it's laid down (historically they would mix it with grains to kill bugs in the grain, so it's even safe to eat), but should not be inhaled so if he uses it should wear a mask when applying