Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I moved to a new apartment that was apparently infested. We were bitten within days of moving. Also, they left their "signatures" all around our mattress encasement, black feces dotted the sides and undersides of our encasement and blood stains on our sheet. After complaining to the landlord, the infestation was confirmed by the bedbug sniffing dog hired by them. It is the law in NYC that once an infestation was discovered the landlord must proactively act to eradicate the infestation regardless who brought them in but a lot of landlords and tenants preferred to keep it quiet and treat each apartment individually. In other words, they are in constant denial in order to avoid the high cost of eradication (around $1700 in NYC) until the whole building is totally infested. The bedbugs can do without a blood meal for a month and will start feeding once someone moved into the apartment. Once they have regular blood meal, they will start breeding and in a short period of time, the whole apartment and the surrounding ones will definitely be infested. Trying to fight the landlord to do what is their job and the draconian preparation to get us ready for the treatment/sealing of the apartment, the Climbup was the next best thing that we could use. We already encased the mattress and box spring before moving into the apartment so our bed is already protected. After the bedbugs were discovered, we stripped and washed our beddings/linens in hot water and create a safe "island" for our bed, together with the Climbups we placed on each of the bed legs. Nothing should be hanging from the bed that would create a bridge for the bugs to climb and feed on us while sleeping. We moved the bed away from any walls, night tables, electrical cables that might be used by the bugs to climb. Within days, we found some nymphs (young bed bugs on the outer rings of the Climbup, unfortunately no adults. We now know that the bugs were probably already hiding under the floor boards that were cracked and open all around our bedroom. Until we find a new place to move to, we religiously check the Climbups daily for any new bugs trapped in them. The bedbug specialists advised that daily we spray 91% alcohol on the bed, under the bed, on the floor, on any openings on the floors of our apartments to kill not only the bugs on contact but also their eggs. The alcohol (must be 91%) is the most effective and the safest way one can kill bedbugs, albeit temporarily. Note, it takes more than a week to kill the trapped bugs (I know, I watched) so my advice to all of you is to buy DE (diatomacious earth ??(spelling) powder and use it in the outer and outside rings of the Climbups as well as any cracks and openings you can find in your apartment to desiccate the bugs upon contact with this powder. Yes, this powder will speed up their demise by drying them out. There is a special pump you can buy with this powder to facilitate this task. Eventually, I had to gas (with Vicane gas, done by the expert, off site) all my belongings before I moved to my new place in order not to travel with any bugs or eggs since bedbugs are notorious hitchhikers. This is a nightmarish scenario but if one wants to get rid of them, this is the final step in order to do it efficiently and we did it. P.S. If you want to be extra sure, you must hire the bedbug sniffing dog before you move and every few months to prevent this pesky critters from re-invading your apartment. We also placed new Climb Ups on each foot of our bed in this new place as a preventive measure. September 24, 2011: a follow up. After the high expense of moving again (twice in just six weeks) and gassing every piece of my earthly belongings, we moved to a cleaner and bug-free apartment (so far) . Other than inviting a few chosen individuals, we do not entertain at home. We go out to entertain. We pay attention to our outer clothings, bags, suitcases and shoes after coming home from a public events (theatres, hotels, concert halls, offices) to check for any hitchhikers. We have a spray bottle filled with 91% alcohol at the ready by the door that we use to spray everything that we wear and carry before entering our apartment. One has to be constantly vigilant as NYC buildings are more than 50% infested and the thought of going through another nightmarish (as well as very expensive) scenario of infestation and expensive eradication is enough to drive us bonkers. Constant vigilant preventive measures are the only thing we could do to prevent re-infestation. According to the bedbug exterminators who came to our old apartment with the a bed bug sniffing dog, tourists increased the infestation problems in NYC while our Mayor love to invite more tourists to come in (and bringing more bed bugs, of course) and spend their money (even if it does not help the locals like us). Going back to the tourists, the experts told us that tourists from two countries are notorious carriers of bed bugs: South Asian countries and France. I am quoting the bed bug experts' words only so don't yell at me.