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I have to live in a dormitory, and I found out, that there are bedbugs here. I reported it to the administration, but they do not care about my problem. They know, that we have no other place to live.

Fortunately I am finally able to move to a flat, but I am afraid that I will contaminate it if I just move there. How should I transfer my belongings ( clothes, microwave, computer, etc... ) without transfering the bugs too?

I can't find where the bugs are, I just found some walking on my bed, and I have many itchy bites.

Edit

I can not leave everything there. I have a desktop computer, electronics and dishes in cardboard boxes. Those are too valuable for me. But if I have to, I will leave behind my traveling suitcases and clothes.

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  • Focus your attention on your bed and bedding above all else. A trick from the tropics: enclose your mattress in heavy plastic, with strong tape covering all joins. You can often get a heavy plastic bag free from a furniture store.
    – aparente001
    Aug 26, 2018 at 12:38

3 Answers 3

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The only certain way is to transfer nothing but your own person. Shower with a new towel that hasn't ever been in the infested area, and put on clothing that's new in the store packaging (ideally airtight, but most clothing packages aren't), then leave without passing through the infested area, leaving everything behind.

This is obviously impractical, but fortunately bedbugs don't tend to hang out in places like computers and microwaves. It's probably sufficient to leave/destroy any bedding materials and launder all clothing (with a very hot drier cycle, to kill eggs). You may also want to fumigate clothing with one of the more powerful insecticides, but given the level of resistance shown by bedbugs in recent years, this may be a wasted step.

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One suggestion is to microwave anything that can be microwaved, including clothes and bedding (if you can find a microwave that's big enough!). Just be sure to avoid placing anything in the microwave that includes metal, such as pants with zippers, shirts with metal buttons, and shoes with metal eyelets / heels / shoelace tags / etc. Place a small glass of water in the microwave along with your items. Microwave for about 30 seconds. Any bedbugs or bedbug eggs will be killed. After microwaving, transfer immediately to a plastic bag you can seal, so new bedbugs in your dormitory don't crawl onto your items after they've been microwaved.

Obviously this won't work for many of your items. Either they won't fit in a microwave or they contain metal. As Zeiss Ikon said, the only certain way is to transfer nothing but your own person, so many items may not be safe to bring with you.

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You can freeze your clothes and other things (no electronic devices). This article proposes -18°C. But you should keep the objects for 4 days at this temperature. Here are some other methods mentioned, like washing and drying in a laundry.

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