piece of crap. It was thin fabric and some sort of paper-like material that ripped the moment we put it on our bed. So we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond way out on Touhy and got a vinyl mattress cover that is keeping them enclosed. We also sprayed the mattress with bedbug spray from Target before we enclosed it the first time.

We completely took apart our bed, frame and all (its solid wood) and found just two small infestations of a couple bugs and excrement. We vacuumed all that with a shop vac and sprayed it all down with the spray. Then we bagged up all of the clothes in our dressers (which didn't seem to be infested) and kept them enclosed until we knew we had the problem under control.

We sent the letter to our landlord and the exterminator came 2 days later and sprayed the perimeter of each room with a good amount of commercial bedbug spray. He told us to caulk all of the gaps between the woodwork and the wood flooring to keep bugs from coming in through the walls. The landlord provided us with the supplies to caulk our bedroom and we did so. Then we went out and bought a bunch of caulk and are caulking the rest of our apartment. We have 50% of the apartment done and it seems that our infestation is at bay. We also bought our own gallon of bedbug spray at Home Depot and continue to spray down our bedroom once a week. Also, the exterminator is coming more frequently (2-3x a month).

We still have a lot of laundry to do, but it has been a few days since we have seen a bedbug around here. We also continue to spray our couch with the chemicals even though we have not found any bugs there, we just don't want that investment to go down the toilet.

My advice: 1) call 311 and report it, multiple times if needed; 2) tell your building manager/landlord IN WRITING, by law they have 14 days to get an exterminator in your unit at no cost to you; 3) Go to a bedding store and encase your mattress, whether clean or infested, in a zippered vinyl mattress cover to stop the bugs from spreading; 4) Go to Home Depot and buy a gallon of BedBug spray for $10 and spray the perimeter of each room in your house, and wherever the infestation is.