Second Hand Dolls and Bed Bugs?

[teresat]

They are being spread in colleges because of backpacks on beds then the backpacks touching other things.

[stopxmotion]

What I don't understand is how homes are getting infested from people supposedly picking them up on their clothes or bags from other locations. Wouldn't this require multiple bugs hitchhiking on you?

Unless they are trashy/dirty, how does someone not notice that? 

[aellos]

Bed Begs don't like plastic I thought? Maybe their clothes though.

*shivers* I hate being in a line of work that sometimes has to deal with bed bugs. I remember lice as a child, and I have a psychosis against crawly parasite bugs.

[Lon-san]

I worked at a Goodwill here in Ohio for a number of years.  We sterilize all our dolls/textiles/etc with wicked powerful cleaner to prevent any possible germ or parasite contamination. 

Bed bugs are not small though, you would likely see them on a doll or notice damage to the fabric for some other insects.  Extreme heat does well killing them.  Not sure about cold if it kills them or just sends them into a dormant state.  Always better safe though!

Good to hear it. I have no idea what my local stores do to combat it. I should probably ask. I wanted to ask in the store but I was worried they would have an issue with it being mentioned around customers.

You're more likely to bring one home on your clothes when you go to the store. They aren't deadly though, just creepy. I see those infested shows on tv and everybody treats them wrong and stupidly. An exterminator spraying around the perameter of the room won't do anything.
Here's my attack plan. If you have them, first start going to bed camping style (with mosquito spray on). Then buy lots of diatomaceous earth and bug spray. Start with one room and remove everything but big furniture. Start drying clothing and textiles you can in dryer. Put diatomaceous earth on entire floor and leave it sit for as long as you like before you vacuum, although you should wear a mask to avoid breathing it in if you let it sit while you do the rest of the work. This stuff scratches the exoskeleton on bugs and allows them to dehydrate or take in pesticides faster, but its harmless to mammals. Then once the room is clear spray down couches or matresses fully with bug spray and let dry. Spray walls top to bottom left to right. Put bug spray in bucket and take a rag and gloves and start wiping down dresser pulling out each drawer and wiping all around them. Throw some diatomaceous earth in the drawers if you want, it won't hurt your clothes except to get powder on them. As you bring stuff back into the room, wipe whatever you can top to bottom with the bug spray. Even most paper can be wiped with a lightly damp cloth without ruining it. Got a bucket of legos or something like that, throw them in bleach water. Mix them all around so there are no air pockets in them where a bug could hide. Go room to room and go through everything with a fine tooth comb, or more like a bucket and a few spray bottles of bug spray and diatomaceous earth. I'd win, I'm persistant.

One technique I've seen that seems to work is using steamer to cook them. They are resistant to sprays but can't survive the heat. I've even heard of pest people blocking up a house, removing meltables and turning the heat up really high to cook them that way.

What I don't understand is how homes are getting infested from people supposedly picking them up on their clothes or bags from other locations. Wouldn't this require multiple bugs hitchhiking on you?

Unless they are trashy/dirty, how does someone not notice that? 

I would assume it's them hiding, breeding and then you can only notice them when it's a big problem and you wake up with blood. With the way they are spreading, it can't be that many dirty people, right?

*shivers* I hate being in a line of work that sometimes has to deal with bed bugs. I remember lice as a child, and I have a psychosis against crawly parasite bugs.

Brr. Yeah. There would be a big scare every now and then when I was a kid and suddenly every little piece of dandruff was OMIGOSH LICE. It totally wasn't but everybody was worried.
And yet I was totally rude for not sharing my brush on picture day. 

[kaoskat]

What I don't understand is how homes are getting infested from people supposedly picking them up on their clothes or bags from other locations. Wouldn't this require multiple bugs hitchhiking on you?

Unless they are trashy/dirty, how does someone not notice that? 

It wouldn't require multiple bugs. It would require one sexually mature female with eggs. She hides in a bag or a fold in your clothing, then hops off when you stop moving. She then hides in a suitable living space in your home and lays her eggs. Then they hatch/grow/breed and bingo, infestation.

[StoryDreamer]

When you travel don't use cloth suitcases. Use plastic or metal ones. I've gone multiple places with my plastic suitcase and never got bed bugs - I've been to cincinnati and NYC with no problem and both are high bed bug places!

[dinobuzz]

This topic does make my skin crawl! Between these little suckers and lice....I'm always paraniod in getting them into our home! Extreme heat is about the only true way to kill the bed bugs.....it just takes one female to lay a batch of eggs and the infestation begins! Yeah, you're more than likely to get them from being somewhere where they're hanging out than from a plastic toy.
 
Hotels are my biggest fear....so many of them these days carry them since there's a ban on the pesticide that, at one time, controlled the issue, so many places have them now! My husband & son are going away on a hockey tournament and are staying in a hotel....I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it! I told my hubby to check in between the matteresses as soon as he gets in the room. I'll be washing all their stuff as soon as they walk in the door! Geez.....I gotta start thinking about something else now! 

[Cool.Breeze]

UHHHHG now I'm paranoid about an old school Glo Worm doll I bought from the Sally Ann last weekend Dx I didn't see anything on it and it's super clean, but now I kinda wanna inspect it a bit better O__o I buy far too many 2nd hand plush, but haven't experienced bed bugs from any..... YET >.<

[Elisto]

I'm actually an entomologist, and although parasites aren't my specialty, I do know a bit about them. Bed Bugs resemble small apple seeds, so if they're on a toy, you'd likely see it. And if the toy has been in an attic for years, they're not likely to be on it because bed bugs tend to stay around beds, unless there's a bad infestation. You usually get them from putting things on infested beds and then taking that home, or from buying infested furniture. Heat kills them (I'm generally a no-pesticde person, though, so you may want to read up on it and decide for yourself what's best), and I've heard about people just taking a hair dryer to all the cracks and crevices around a bed that has them. Generally they're in places like the space between the headboard and wall, or along the mattress seams.

The diatomaceous earth to kill bugs is something that's effectiveness is a bit uncertain. It can't hurt since it's just ground up fossils, but I don't think it's actually cutting the insect cuticle since insects wouldn't exist if they were that fragile around abrasive dirt...I've heard that it does absorbs moisture though and that's how it dehydrates bugs, but bed bugs are extremely durable (not to scare anyone further, but they can live a really long time without eating, unfortunately). If it works for some people, though, then that's good.

One somewhat positive thing about bed bugs though is that they don't carry any diseases, so at least you don't have to worry about getting sick from them. But I doubt second-hand toys are a common way to transmit them, especially if you clean the toys right away.

[dinobuzz]

Great info~thanks!

[lemontwist]

Bed bugs can't survive temperatures above 120 - 160 degrees f. Or so I've been told. In severe cases, people have to bring these like heated pipe things throughout homes and heat the whole place to 160 degrees for a period of time. I can't imagine that, I'd be worried about my things spontaneously combusting! haha. I would think boiling items would do the trick, but you risk having them fall apart or whatever depending on the material.

However I've never encountered any sort of bugs at thrift stores. Seriously, go dig around and take some peeks! I bet you won't even find an ant, dead or alive. They keep the stores surprisingly clean of bugs and other gross stuff, despite how it can sometimes look with all the old worn out stuff. If you ever do find any gross bugs like that, let the thrift store know so they can make sure it didn't spread to other items in the store!

I've been buying almost anything and everything from thrift stores almost my whole life and the worst I've encountered is a whole lot of dust and, potentially, dust mites. Which only bother you if you have allergies to them. They don't bite or anything.

[HavACrumpet452]

Those infested shows take like the worst cases and the stupidest people. They give up far too easily. Plus exterminators just spray around the edges of the room, which works for crap. When my mom has her house sprayed for spiders on the outside, her exterminator sprays down the entire house as far up as the hose can get.

[babystarz]

How long would it take to just starve them out? I know they can survive in bedding for a while, but not indefinitely, so maybe the most gentle way to get rid of them is to put the toy in a sealed plastic bag for a month or two to quarantine it and make sure any potential bugs die. This works for lice anyway


To add to what others are saying though, second hand toys are not known for carrying bedbugs. Bedbugs like live bodies and blood, so they hang out where people stay - hotels, couches, blankets, mattresses... but not generally second hand goods unless they're not being properly screened. And most second hand stores are decently stringent about their screening. I'm sure they're on the alert about bedbugs, so they know what to look for. The bugs leave telltale "rust speck" spots of blood on things, for example. Pretty hard to miss if you know what you're looking for.

[Elisto]

How long would it take to just starve them out? I know they can survive in bedding for a while, but not indefinitely, so maybe the most gentle way to get rid of them is to put the toy in a sealed plastic bag for a month or two to quarantine it and make sure any potential bugs die. This works for lice anyway

Unfortunately....they can live up to a year without eating. Like I said, I didn't want to scare anyone...

But a lot of what everyone is saying here is true as far as I know...sensitive to high temperatures, pesticides need to be applied where they are (not along baseboards), not too difficult to identify, only one pregnant female is needed to get them...I've not heard that they don't like plastic, so I don't know about that, only that they like small spaces to hide in around where we spend a lot of time at night.

They're unpleasant certainly, but I suspect roaches are still much more common given how everyone I know has had to deal with them at some point, but not bed bugs.

[HavACrumpet452]

I don't have that much faith in thrift stores. I bought ponies in a bag once and got home and opened it up to the strong smell of cat pee. It took forever to clean them and wait for the smell to go away. They put cat pee ponies in a bag to give to little kids. How nice. Imagine if some little kid had played with unclean toys with cat pee and gotten sick.