Do You Help Yourself To Furniture Set Out As Trash Or Not Due To........  

Nowadays if I see great looking furniture in the trash, it does make me wonder why the people threw it out...guess I know why now

I knew a woman who used to live around the block from me and said one tenant's apt. was crawling with bedbugs...she had to throw out all her furniture not once, not twice but three times and get all new stuff..she finally sued the landlord about it--she won the case, grabbed the money and moved out

I don't think using a bug bomb or something like it would work here...since I live in an apt building so no place to put it before bringing inside except maybe the street itself
I've heard bedbugs can even be in new furniture...it depends how clean the truck is delivering whatever furniture it is

It's hard to find really good old used furniture nowadays and most newer pieces of furniture aren't even solid wood anymore but that particle board stuff

Before I got my new mattress set two years ago I was really desperate for a new mattress since my old one was so old, and I would often see perfectly new mattresses in the garbage...but knowing about the bedbug infestation most apts have here in my area there was no way I'd bring it home

I am totally naive at times. I have never heard of that particular problem around here, and I worked in Head Start for seven years. What I did experience was head lice, twice. You can actually kill those by dying your hair. I did a little reading about bedbugs after your post and I would probably go buy some diatomaceous earth at the garden center and use eucalyptus oil and mint oil to deal with a light infestation. My queen sized mattress is used but I knew by whom. The article I read actually said brand new mattresses can have bed bugs from storage. Yuck

Yes I've heard perfectly new mattresses (and other furniture) can have bedbugs--even getting them from the trucks they are delivered in

They say that those little hand held steam cleaners are great on small infestations, and there were some tricks about rolled up duct tape as well.

Putting things out in the sun kills both bugs and germs. It works. I would freak if I brought bedbugs home. I can't afford to buy a new bed or a new anything.

I heard getting rid of those critters is really hard to do. Once you have an infestation it's nearly impossible to get rid of them. My one friend whose apt was hit with them had to keep throwing out furniture all the time due to them. Sometimes it gets so bad some people will sue their landlords
Gee how nice they kept telling you it was all in your head...NOT

Problem is, if they cannot eat they can go dormant for about a year or so.

Yes GG, so I heard..yeah Pye can you imagine and thats not all they did to me in that place! Oooo I tell you I won't forget that place too soon!

Even 5Star hotels get bedbugs. They have money to toss out everything in the room, rip up the carpet and fumigate like crazy.

Exactly the point CatLady!

That filthy place would not even let us the residents clean.

It doesn't take money to clean and fumigate..it can be done by the poor also..

And with the amount of donations that place had and the money donations that none of the homeless ever saw as it was pilfered by greedy staff and directors of the place,

believe me, they did not care about bedbugs and the fact that we were all infested with them.

Talk about money being pilfered...there's a place just down the block from me -- it used to be called the Leban Home, now renamed Adult Care Center. It's not a homeless shelter or anything like that but a place for people who have different mental disorders (some very serious and many of the residents are violent)---the staff also takes all their disability benefits and the residents are left with nothing...so many go out on the streets and beg for money. There's no curfew when the residents have to be back in and many wander the streets as late as 4 in the morning...just bet the place is crawling with creepy crawlies too.

Yes Pye, I understand completely..that is exactly the way that shelter is..they try to get you to say you need a payee..I coudn't stand it, they were trying to do that to me too.

I would hate to see the residents that were really bad off mentally not able to fight them on it just for a place to live? And they call that living?

If I ever get in a position to, I would shut those places down..they are simply immoral preying off society's weakest..they should be exposed for this!

Termites! Wow! that is just terrible!
I hope you get into a better place soon.
Hugs!

Yes termites can be another nuisance bug one can get..even cockroaches. Thankfully termites, as far as I know, hasn't been an issue here in my area though--now cockroaches..uh, another issue. One neighbor downstairs moved out and left a lot of furniture...I grabbed a really nice antique type bureau drawer that then allowed me to throw my old one out that looked god-awful tacky. Then discovered it was loaded with cockroaches--took forever to get rid of them
I hope you and your son find a better place to be together real soon

Boric acid powder is cheap and effective against cockroaches. For exploding cockroaches mix powdered sugar with plaster of paris and set out water.

Boric acid isn't safe around pets which is why I've never used it

Diamatacious earth is safe around pets. It works great on cockroaches. They walk in it and then slowly dehydrate to death.

It's kind of a shame. I really do see some great furniture tossed out in the garbage but would never dream of taking anything now due to the infestation problems in my area

Either that or maybe those people are the type that redecorate a lot. I have a friend that gets all new furniture practically every six months...one desk type thing she gave me and I use it to store all my papers and stuff

It's not just upholstered type furniture that can have the bedbugs though. The piece of furniture I saw out on the street as garbage and sprayed painted with the Spanish word for bedbugs was a small entertainment center kind of thing (kind of nice looking too)