Bedbugs and saltwater aquariums

[Redbird5]

Unfortunately, I have bedbugs in my home mainly in my bedroom.
I've known about them for a week now. The exterminator is coming Saturday morning to evict them.
I have a nano tank that can travel with me to a friend's house during the time that the exterminator is here.
In my vast amount of research through chatgpt, my LFS and BRS chats I have come up with a solid plan.
First I'm going to put a pump connected to a sponge filter in the aquarium outside my apartment. Second I will have plastic painters tarp and an old bed cover over the aquarium. Finally when I get home after the period we have to vacate the premises I will do a 50% water change. I will have charcoal in my filter socks.
Is there anything else I can do?

My nano is 2.5 gallon and I might be able to grab snails, but no fish because I have a midas blenny, yellow coris wrasse, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma and a cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp. They live in a 45g aquarium. I'm not quite as attached to them as my dog, but they're my buddies. I have coral, hammers, montipora, blastos, and a rfa.
It's not feezible to move them.

 

[Fish Fan]

If he has a few minutes, this would be a great question for @Randy Holmes-Farley

I'm following to see what the consensus is.

Best of luck!

 

[slingfox]

It sounds like you have a solid plan. I am not sure how exterminators get rid of bedbugs but when I sprayed all the bedrooms at my prior house the spray used was a liquid. Some of it does evaporate and aerosolize but I don’t believe much gets into the air. The risk of contamination reduces significantly if your aquarium is not in a room that will be strayed. If it is, then I assume the risk is much higher. Once the exterminator leaves you may want to open the windows to your bedroom, turn on a fan directed at the windows, and let the room air out. You could also run a higher amount of carbon in your tank just in case.

 

[Redbird5]

It sounds like you have a solid plan. I am not sure how exterminators get rid of bedbugs but when I sprayed all the bedrooms at my prior house the spray used was a liquid. Some of it does evaporate and aerosolize but I don’t believe much gets into the air. The risk of contamination reduces significantly if your aquarium is not in a room that will be strayed. If it is, then I assume the risk is much higher. Once the exterminator leaves you may want to open the windows to your bedroom, turn on a fan directed at the windows, and let the room air out. You could also run a higher amount of carbon in your tank just in case.

My aquarium is directly under my bedroom and the exterminator said they will spray all over the apartment, well townhouse. The nano tank is in the upstairs across from my bedroom.

I'm taking every precaution I can. The question I forgot to ask last night was how tight do I need to put the covering on the aquarium. Chatgpt says make it loose so air can get in. It also said that if it's too tight it could cause heat pockets in the air in the aquarium, above the water.

 

[Mikreena]

I know this is late, but in case anyone finds this thread, heres what my exterminator told me and seemed to work. with chemical treatments we had to turn off any air pumps for about 4-6 hours and cover the aquarium in a damp towel. just soak it, wring it out, then drape it over. works kinda like an improvised dust/gas mask for the fishies

 

[Redbird5]

I know this is late, but in case anyone finds this thread, heres what my exterminator told me and seemed to work. with chemical treatments we had to turn off any air pumps for about 4-6 hours and cover the aquarium in a damp towel. just soak it, wring it out, then drape it over. works kinda like an improvised dust/gas mask for the fishies

I covered it up with painter's tarp, a sheet and then more painter's tarp. I also put the air pump way outside away from the house. The bed bugs died, but my fish didn't.

 

[EnterName]

Glad it worked out for you and thanks for letting the community know how to deal with these issues.

 

[Redbird5]

Glad it worked out for you and thanks for letting the community know how to deal with these issues.

We've been bedbug free for a couple of months. It's something that I really hope to never experience again. My wife has dealt with them twice, once here and once at her mom's house. They're worse the ich or velvet. Ich and velvet don't cause my skin to crawl.

 

[MC Blowfish]

I'm amazed you were able to get rid of them with spray. We had bed bugs when we lived in an apartment. Big thanks to the hoarders who lived next to us who introduced them. They had to do the heat treatment. At the time, I just had a freshwater tank. That was not fun. I had to keep them overnight in a plastic travel container.

 

[Redbird5]

I'm amazed you were able to get rid of them with spray. We had bed bugs when we lived in an apartment. Big thanks to the hoarders who lived next to us who introduced them. They had to do the heat treatment. At the time, I just had a freshwater tank. That was not fun. I had to keep them overnight in a plastic travel container.

I think we got them early.

 

[Grog]

I'm amazed you were able to get rid of them with spray. We had bed bugs when we lived in an apartment. Big thanks to the hoarders who lived next to us who introduced them. They had to do the heat treatment. At the time, I just had a freshwater tank. That was not fun. I had to keep them overnight in a plastic travel container.

Yeah, we got them when my wife stayed at a very sus hotel on a business trip. Horrible. Exterminators did the heat treatment. Expensive. They sprayed on top of the heat as well.

I isolated the tank during the treatment, I build a temp 2x4 framing wall around my system, and stapled plastic sheeting around it. I wasn't taking chances.

The only cool thing about the bedbug experience was the exterminator brought a trained bedbug detecting dog out to search the house. Kind of like a drug dog but for bedbugs. Thing was spotting them everywhere. Crazy to watch.

Bedbugs are the worst. We travel a lot and now I'm fastidious about cooking all my clothes and bags after a trip. (We are in Texas, so leave the luggage in the car in the summer for a day. No bedbugs.) Also, I check under mattresses every time. Total paranoia now.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

Save yourself some money, I am not sure how much the pest control company charges you.
Get a sprayer like this, and these 2 medicines. They are available online. No licence needed. Anyone can buy.
https://www.solutionsstores.com/

1st one makes them sterile so they cannot reproduce, 2nd kills them and eggs.
1 good spray of your house and furniture every 3 months in the begining and once every 6 months after you rid them, will keep them away for good.

 

[Redbird5]

Yeah, we got them when my wife stayed at a very sus hotel on a business trip. Horrible. Exterminators did the heat treatment. Expensive. They sprayed on top of the heat as well.

I isolated the tank during the treatment, I build a temp 2x4 framing wall around my system, and stapled plastic sheeting around it. I wasn't taking chances.

The only cool thing about the bedbug experience was the exterminator brought a trained bedbug detecting dog out to search the house. Kind of like a drug dog but for bedbugs. Thing was spotting them everywhere. Crazy to watch.

Bedbugs are the worst. We travel a lot and now I'm fastidious about cooking all my clothes and bags after a trip. (We are in Texas, so leave the luggage in the car in the summer for a day. No bedbugs.) Also, I check under mattresses every time. Total paranoia now.

Anyone who has had them is paranoid about them. Yick.

 

[MC Blowfish]

Yeah, we got them when my wife stayed at a very sus hotel on a business trip. Horrible. Exterminators did the heat treatment. Expensive. They sprayed on top of the heat as well.

I isolated the tank during the treatment, I build a temp 2x4 framing wall around my system, and stapled plastic sheeting around it. I wasn't taking chances.

The only cool thing about the bedbug experience was the exterminator brought a trained bedbug detecting dog out to search the house. Kind of like a drug dog but for bedbugs. Thing was spotting them everywhere. Crazy to watch.

Bedbugs are the worst. We travel a lot and now I'm fastidious about cooking all my clothes and bags after a trip. (We are in Texas, so leave the luggage in the car in the summer for a day. No bedbugs.) Also, I check under mattresses every time. Total paranoia now.

I'm the same. Every single time, we've traveled. I always check the mattresses.

 

[MC Blowfish]

I think we got them early.

That's good. My wife had all of these bumps on her. We thought it was some reaction to a beauty product she was using as I didn't have any bumps, nor did our son.

By the time we realized we had them, they had infested our living room couches.

 

[slingfox]

Save yourself some money, I am not sure how much the pest control company charges you.
Get a sprayer like this, and these 2 medicines. They are available online. No licence needed. Anyone can buy.
https://www.solutionsstores.com/

1st one makes them sterile so they cannot reproduce, 2nd kills them and eggs.
1 good spray of your house and furniture every 3 months in the begining and once every 6 months after you rid them, will keep them away for good.

Agreed. Bedbugs are actually quite easy to get rid of and treat DIY. There are much more problematic pests where an exterminator in highly advisable but bedbugs is not one of them.

 

[slingfox]

Yeah, we got them when my wife stayed at a very sus hotel on a business trip. Horrible. Exterminators did the heat treatment. Expensive. They sprayed on top of the heat as well.

I isolated the tank during the treatment, I build a temp 2x4 framing wall around my system, and stapled plastic sheeting around it. I wasn't taking chances.

The only cool thing about the bedbug experience was the exterminator brought a trained bedbug detecting dog out to search the house. Kind of like a drug dog but for bedbugs. Thing was spotting them everywhere. Crazy to watch.

Bedbugs are the worst. We travel a lot and now I'm fastidious about cooking all my clothes and bags after a trip. (We are in Texas, so leave the luggage in the car in the summer for a day. No bedbugs.) Also, I check under mattresses every time. Total paranoia now.

You should be skeptical about those bed bug detecting dogs. Such dogs are often used as an upsell tactic. There is a certification body for those dogs called NESDCA but most of the dogs used by exterminators are non-credentialed and therefore have a very high false positive rate.

I could bring my dog to any house and have it bark on command via how I handle it (ie, when near a couch, bed, opening in the wall, etc). Not very difficult to do.

 

[Grog]

You should be skeptical about those bed bug detecting dogs. Such dogs are often used as an upsell tactic.

Totally not a gimmick. The dog keyed in on bugs in some strange places. He found them inside a pair of over the ear headphones. It wasn't random that the dog went across the room to those headphones.