Thrift Store Shoppers: How Do You Combat Bedbugs?

I love buying clothes at Good Will, Salvation Army, and some local resale places, but after a trip to said places yesterday, I started worrying about bedbugs when I found a bite on my abdomen early this morning.

I don't buy second hand furniture because of my fear of bedbugs, but I'd never even thought of them being brought in via clothing.

Do you pay bedbugs mind when you thrift shop? Ever had them? What, if anything do you do to protect yourself from them?

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bedbugger.com/2007/05/18/bed-bug-laundry/
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shouldn't washing the clothes befor use get rid of any bugs?

these fucking things will be the end of me

i hallucinate them everywhere

russia send DDT

Why didn't you wash your clothes before wearing them?

>Do you pay bedbugs mind when you thrift shop?
Now I do

I often don't. I realize that it's dumb, but I used to be comfortable just wearing shit that looks and smells immaculate. Some shit is dry clean only, and I've not wanted to fuck it up (I have to go to the laundromat, no customization of washing/drying cycles for me).

I know it's too late for me if I brought them into my home yesterday, but I ran all the garments I bought through a dryer for two 30 minute cycles today and I've got all the shit quarantined on the porch until I'm confident the bite on me isn't a bedbug's.

I hope I didn't fuck up, but if I haven't, I'll probably be pretty religious about bringing trash bags to seal shit in directly from the shop in my car, then take it directly to the laundromat before taking it home from now on. This bite on my abdomen + reading horror stories via google searching has put the fear of god into me.

>bedbugger.com/2007/05/18/bed-bug-laundry/

I'm half way through this article and it is filling me with hope for the future should I ever get infested.
It also makes me realize it's utterly retarded not to run your secondhand shit through high heat for 5-20 minutes before putting it away for good.

Is thrifting popular on Veeky Forums or is it looked down upon?

Well that's your fault for being lazy. I hope you learned your lesson.

Reminder that their eggs are tiny and extremely hard to spot if you aren't looking for them.

Even if the bugs aren't there, you never know about the eggs.
Just saying.

So do you shop second hand? If so, what's your protocol?

I don't have a laundry dryer in my apartment and it's too expensive to use the building one. But i have very hot tap water, it's around 60 celsius. I dump everything in hot water when i come home.

>Tfw I think I got fleas from an op shop
Wash your clothes user, I've been scratching non-stop for about 2 weeks now

Then what? Line dry in your bathroom?
Oh Jesus. I'm so sorry.

fleas are easy to kill stupid. roll up your pant legs inside and don't wear socks. walk around and look at your feet -- you'll see them jumping up on you. they don't jump high, maybe only 6 or so inches. but they're fast, it's like they blink in and out of existence to beginners. no matter, walk around and see where they jump on you the most. they're also probably in your bed sheets since i can easily assume you don't check your feet or legs before getting into bed.

get a water bottle and keep it near you at all times. when you see fleas jump on you, pinch grab them and drop them into the water bottle. they drown after a few days. or if you're close to a bathroom, walk to the toilet and put your foot over the toilet bowl and scrape off the fleas from your leg/foot into the water. they'll just fall right in.

as you do this, just lay down some hartz flea powder before leaving for work. vacuuming daily is also very important

you have absolutely no excuse to have fleas anywhere on you above the knee. if you do, you either are doing nothing to prevent them or don't know about them to begin with. i personally have a water bottle with a gigantic, roughly 3 inches wide, 2 inches tall blob of fleas that have stuck together beneath the surface of the water. i rarely even see 1 on me a week now, but they still pop up from time to time. i keep the problem in check without even needing to put powder down anymore.

Cheers user. Yeah, I originally thought they were bed bugs, but they haven't affected any of my flatmates so far so now I'm pretty sure they're fleas. That's why I haven't been onto it

yeah you should see my flea bottle. try it. after about a month you'll be surprised how many of the little fuckers you dropped in there. wait 2 months and a cloud of flea decomposition forms around the flea pile in the water. for some reason, as the fleas sink over time, they all clump together as if they were becoming one

DO NOT KEEP THE BOTTLE ON YOUR DESK OR ANY TABLE. KEEP IT ON THE FLOOR. LABEL IT DO NOT DRINK. you have been warned

The 60 c hot water should kill them, no?

>Then what? Line dry in your bathroom?
yes lol

yeah man i just got done dealing with fleas that my slag roommate brought in. vacuum (under furniture and under your couch cushions,) wash your sheets, treat your pets with flea meds. empty the bag out after you vacuum so they dont crawl out
my friend recommended a 50/50 mixture of salt and borax to sprinkle on the carpet, leave for a few days then vacuum up but you'll need a shop vac if you want to get all of it up. the salt supposedly dehydrates the eggs and the borax i think has the same effect as diatomaceous earth
fleas will primarily bite you on your legs, you'll look fucked up.
you can also set up traps with a plate of water with dish soap in it, with one of those battery powered tea candles in the middle to attract them. make sure it's low enough that they can actually jump in though.

Fleas ain't shit. They are easy to get rid of.

BEDBUGS MANG! These things are hell.

>my friend recommended a 50/50 mixture of salt and borax to sprinkle on the carpet,
it works but dont do this in humid climates or if your interior gets humid at all. if you arent sure then get a dehumidifier otherwise your carpet is gonna need to get removed. everything else works too but the plate of water with dish soap in it takes too long. the best defense is good offense. i used to run raound the house in my underwear hoping to pick up as many fleas on my feet and legs as humanly possible before dunking them in a tub of water

It's even more disappointing to see fallen Asian girls than fallen white girls.
There's enough dysfunction among whites that it's normalized and expected.

also you are never really "done" dealing with fleas. there will always be a straggler. sometimes they play dead for weeks at a time too before they blitzkrieg you when you let your guard (pant legs) down and the mess starts all over again

>girl

Will they get in my clothes?

hmm fleas sound like hell too. i was thinking about lice.

but can you pick up fleas from second hand stores?

When we had fleas as a kid, my mom would put a short bowl of hot soapy water on the floor with a table lamp next to it. The heat of the lamp and water attracted the fleas, they'd jump into the water and not be able to jump out thanks to the soap causing surface tension on the water. This killed lots of fleas.
Plus flea powder on the carpet and lots of vaccuuming. A vet told me you should never put a flea collar on your pet b/c you're putting a ring of poison around their head, but you can cut a flea collar up and vaccuum it up to better protect your vaccuum.
Shower a lot, too.

yes. you can put your clothes in the freezer but thats too slow. just wash your clothes and hang them up when you take them off. dont be a slob, and dont forget to shake them out ruthlessly before hanging them up.

wash your bed sheets too. once those are clean you can put clothes on your bed without them jumping onto your clothes. i first realized i had a flea problem when fleas were jumping off of my clothes onto the signed papers in front of me. it is fucking embarrassing

I had dogs and never had fleas. Also had a cat for 20 years, but he was never outside, only on the balcony.

yeah i had to wash all mine and put them in a plastic tub because i kept finding flea shit all over them. i had to throw out my plastic bag hoard too because it had shit in it.

it's possible they could be lurking or still have eggs on the clothes but honestly i think theyd probably get knocked off unless they were fully saturated with them

listen to this guys mom

I don't see why not. Garments brought in from infested homes (think some condemed hoarder house having its shit donated by people who think they're doing good by donating all their fucked up grandpa's shit) could harbor eggs. Infected garment gets thrown in a pile with good garments from other houses, infecting them, hung on a rack infecting things beside it, then any one of those infected garmets or furniture is brought to your house.

I read while researching the bed bugs that scabies outbreaks have been traced back to thrift store purchases. Fuck man.

what is the medical term for vagina? you are it

Yeah scabbies originate from skanky hoes

Fuck you, dude, that's solid flea advice.

You were basically asking for it. Idiot.

Couldn't you just put the clothes in the microwave for a few seconds? I bet that would kill the bugs.

Yeah, I fucked up, just wondering if other people take measures against BB and if so what they do. Do you do anything?

>teehee all girls are traps
I know you want to find validation for your degenerate fetish, but it would be better if you just kys

thanks for ruining thrifting for me

>depressed enough to insert "muh degeneracy" in every thread
>telling other people kys

Holy shit. I've seen those fucking things on my bed several times for at least 4 years, but my dad kept telling me it was nothing serious so i didn't care. It might explain why i have all those red marks on my back. I'm fucked.

Run it immediately at high heat with some vinegar. Even Lysol makes laundry sterilizer if you're that paranoid. Never had bedbugs, lice, etc in my life, nor knew anyone with them and almost all of my clothes are from thrift shops or garage sales.

>Gets rejected by every female
>Depression and desperation ensue
>Eventually turns to dick because there's just nothing left
>Everything has a dick now
You are truly a lost cause, please do the right thing and play in traffic.

>>Gets rejected by every female
>>Depression and desperation ensue
>>Eventually turns to /pol/ because there's just nothing left
>>Everything is degenerate now

really makes u think

>LABEL IT DO NOT DRINK
jesus fuck user don't you fucking tell me that you drank decomposed flea water

Do American thrift shops not disinfect their stuff??? My clothes smell like chemicals even after washing.

Also go to a dollar store and buy 4 cheap plastic dog dishes and stick each leg of your bed in them and wrap duct tape around the leg so that the possible bugs will get stuck to it or in the bowl when they try to climb into your bed, also if I were you I'd throw out or wash and dry your sheets and covers 2 or 3 times and look under the mattress to find that SoB cause believe me once you have them they're hard to get rid of and you end up having to throw half your shit away and be vigilant about cleaning and drying and quarantining every single day, it's a fucking pain in the ass and you're always 2nd guessing as to whether they're gone and every bite you get from a mosquito or spider or whatever, it's fucking hell, not to mention getting bit and itching EVERY SINGLE DAY AND NIGHT, I'd rather they bring back DDT so bed bugs wouldn't be such a huge problem like they are now

Also I don't thrift shop clothes anymore, and am paranoid because of BB's after having them and finally gotten rid of them

1)because shit is usually overpriced now
2) the quality is shit
For the same price you're spending on a stretched out or shrunk shitty old used t-shirt or jeans you can go online or to your local clothes shop and get the same thing or better BRAND NEW for only a couple bucks more, without the fear and wonder of if you'll bring in these fuckin bastards

>TDLR: thrift shopping was worth it 10-20yrs ago when DDT was regularly killing most bed bugs and used clothes were very cheap,
But with thrifting hipster culture and no DDT to kill these fuckin bed bugs, it's just not worth the money and risk buying used anymore..

Or how about you just wash things properly like someone who isn't mentally disabled?
I've gotten $300-600+ sweaters at Goodwill and etc. Same with jeans and etc of good quality for dirt cheap, never more than $12 for anything.

Sorry that experience gave you a lingering delusional parasitosis episode, but take a breather.

I'm fucking sweating as I read your post.
I fucked up bad but I swear to be a better person in the future a la
if I get through this with no bugs.
Whatever bit me coulda been anything...hopefully anything other than a bedbug.