Bed Bugs in my Airbnb...

[Isaac Schaefer]

I just found out that one of my Airbnbs has Bed Bugs. One of the few negatives of new guests almost every night.... 

I am getting quotes to have a pest control company do a full extermination (looks like $2,200 minimum), but I am just curious if anyone here on BP has personally resolved a Bed Bug situation themselves? Any product you recommend? Should I not waste my time and just pay for the experts to do it right? Anything you can tell me based off of your experience would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!

[Karen F.]

This is really tough to deal with, because the only way to know that they're really gone is to have someone sleeping in there, with traps under the bed legs, and no bedbugs getting into the traps.  You can get a wealth of information on a website called bedbugger.com

First of all, is your unit a freestanding one, or is it in a multi?  If it's in a multi, they're likely in other units - so treating yours will have little effect, since they will just spread into your unit from the neighboring ones again.  If it's in a multi, you have to speak with the condo association and they must inspect every unit, and come up with a comprehensive eradication plan.

To get rid of them, you have to get rid of clutter (which I'm sure isn't an issue in an air bnb unit).  You need to encase the boxspring and mattress and pillows in bedbug-proof covers.  You need to move the bed away from all walls, and have sheets and blankets not touching the floors, so that the only way into the bed is by climbing up the legs.  You put climbups under all the legs (on top of plywood squares if you have carpet, so they won't crack), and monitor the climbups for bedbugs coming and going.  You put all the bedlinens through the dryer frequently - heat kills them.  You can steam treat the mattress with a steamer before putting on the covers.  You can run the pillows through the dryer.  Steam treat any furniture that's near the bed, too, and the baseboards near the bed.  Move the bed away from everything else.  They want to set up right near the bed, since they want to be as close to the food source as possible.  You can get a sniffer dog in to identify where they are, and have an exterminator experienced in bed bug treatments come and treat several times.  You can prove to yourself that they're gone by having the sniffer dog come back to check the unit, and by someone being in there sleeping in the bed, and the climbups don't have any further evidence of bedbug activity.

As you can see, there is absolutely NO way to accomplish this while it's an airbnb.  You cannot rent this thing out as an airbnb until you know absolutely for sure that it's cleared of bedbugs and their eggs - and if it's in a multi, that the entire building is cleared.  Having the exterminator come in once, twice, thrice, whatever does NOT guarantee that they're gone.  Only having live bait (a human being) sleeping in the bed nightly, and no evidence of bugs in the climbups, and a clear sniffer dog test, can assure you that they're gone - and that's only if it's a freestanding unit.  Otherwise, you'd have to meet the same criteria simultaneously for every unit in the building.

This is a horrible nightmare, but honestly, if I found out that I'd picked up bedbugs and brought them home from an airbnb with a past history of bedbugs, that had been concealed, I'd sue airbnb and the owner.  You just cannot put this back on the airbnb market until you that sniffer dog says the entire building is clear of them.