How To Clean My Poorest Barn Couch?

Bed bugs in my couch?

• About 2-3 weeks ago, I started waking up and noticing red, itchy bumps on my skin. I approached my husband and told him that I think we might have bed bugs but he didn't have any bites so we checked all around our mattress and every possible crevice we could think of in the bedroom and there was nothing. I'm a smoker and we don't smoke in the apartment because we have a baby,I just assumed that maybe I got ate up outside. The bites still kept coming. Not very bad bites, Just some itchy bumps about 2-3 in one area here and there. I figured, hey maybe the cats have fleas, I checked them over real well and didn't see anything. Then one night, my husband and I are talking with eachother and FINALLY I spot a bug on him. I looked at it and it was flat and round. Kind of reddish brown. More brown than red. I had never seen a bed bug so I looked up pictures and it was pretty similar. The next day I felt fine. No itching. So I just thought maybe it was just the one bug. But they popped back up again and my husband found another one on him while he was sitting on the couch and killed it instantly. At this point, we called our landlord and he came over with a flash light and did an inspection. He didn't find anything so there wasn't any action taken. Meanwhile, I've still got bites. About 2 nights ago, I noticed that my cats were chasing something. And surprise surprise! It was ANOTHER one crawling away on my couch. And then it hit me. My husband works a 2nd shift job and gets home pretty late at night. I play Mommy all day and then about 9 or 10 when the little falls out for the night, I sleep until he gets home. I ALWAYS take my naps on the couch. The 3 times we saw one, they were all on the couch. I'm the only one that sleeps on the couch and I'm the only one getting bit. Today, I pretty much ripped my couch apart trying to find something and vaccuming. I didn't see any actually on the couch but I have this little hand vaccum so I was shoving it into every crack and crevice I could force it to fit into. I took the covers off the couch cushions. Vaccumed the covers, the cushions, and the pillows. At the end of this, my mother came over to drop the baby off as she had her earlier in the day and her and I both inspected the remnants in the hand vaccuum. There was one for sure that we both saw that was crawling around in the filth but it was white. And I may have seen another one in it as well. I dumped it outside, But my suspicions are, they are only on the couch. My husband and I haven't been sitting on our couch the past couple nights. We do during the day though. But at night, we are immediately in the bedroom and away from the living room. Could they strictly be in my couch? Can I just throw out my couch and clean all my fabrics in hot water? My landlord won't do anything until he has proof that we have them and I've called exterminators and paying them to come out and spray our apartment multiple times is way over our budget and unrealistic. What do I do? And if we know that we have them, is there a chance that they will move into other people's apartments and could move back into our place again? Around the time that I started noticing bites, we had new neighbors move in right beside us. Could they have brought them?

• Answer:

  We have been having similar problem . Both me and my son have been getting bites in the night and a couple of times i saw the bug just waiting patiently at the corner of the duvet!!!! ( of course i killed those ones) . I think the best thing I have done out of all the things is basically this: First i put double sided sticky tape around the edge of the mattress, over about 5 days 6 of them were stuck on there, apart from the satisfaction of seeing them dead it also showed which direction they were coming from or going to ( some of them already had blood in them when they were stuck so its not great for preventing bites). Then when you have this clue as to their home area get a really bright light( do this in the day when they are gone to their own beds) and inspect all the crevices around( i know it sounds like you have done a bit of this already) But they must be living somewhere! In my sons brand new Ikea bed I found them in one of the bolt holes all nestled comfortably- look for the little biro black dots- where you see a lot of those - that is where they are hiding- they can make themselves so flat they can fit in tiny cracks. I basically bunged up the hole in a panic with blue tak and then sealed it further with a hot glue gun. Near my bed although I had already looked a few times and hoovered eventually i found them under the lip of the skirting board .And i did the same again- except i also squirted nearby crevices with the hot glue gun - and a couple more dashed out. I really think this is a good way to do it because then you find the whole family.And I dont want to use pesticides.