people who haven't had bedbugs really, seriously do not understand how horrible it is, and why you can't just put your shit on the curb after an infestation, not even with a warning sign.
why not even with a warning sign? because a lot of people who haven't had bedbugs don't know just how bad it is and how much it fucking sucks to deal with an infestation, and they will take things home and end up with an infestation, and that home could be an apartment building with many units, and then every unit in that apartment building, whatever it is, ends up infested, and those people can carry the infestation to other places, like pubs, or public transportation, and before you know it YOU have an infestation again because one way or another those bedbugs made their way back to you.
they don't just live in your bed. they get in the walls. they get into your books. they get into your furniture. they'll get into your tool box. they will get into any little crevice and breed like fuck and all it takes is ONE. just one egg, or one bug, and it's all over. that's not a joke, it's super fucken serious.
to prepare for extermination here's what you will have to do:
take all of your clothes out of closets and drawers, ALL, not some, not just what you feel like, ALL. ALL capital A-L-L. take ALL of your clothes and books out of closets, shelves, dressers, every piece of furniture you own, and either put it in trash bags to be sealed for up to two years, or send it to the landfill in those trash bags. that's everything you enjoy, everything you wear, all of your bed sheets, everything in your home made of cloth.
you need *some* clothes, so you'll have to wash some amount of what you wear or sleep in, in hot water, and then put it in the dryer on the hottest setting for as long as possible, twice for best results. this will cost you, you'll get a nasty electrical or gas bill, depending on how your dryer and hot water are heated. when you clean the lint trap in the dryer, if your infestation is bad enough, you will see dead bugs in it. put that lint in a sealed bag and put it in the outside trash immediately.
check all furniture for bedbugs, their shit, and their eggs. shit and eggs will be all over any place they've been hiding and breeding. clean what you can with a vacuum cleaner, then empty your vacuum's dust container outside, NOT INSIDE, into a bag that you seal and put in the trash, OUTSIDE TRASH, NOT INSIDE. you may be able to use hot water and soap to clean up some of their mess, but you may also be stuck with discarding furniture if you can't be absolutely certain there is no bed bug anything stuck to it. remember: one bug, or one egg, and it's over. you can't even see the nymphs once they hatch, so don't take chances. once they hatch, they will fuck each other and breed. they are that disgusting.
you can't just spray pesticide because these fuckers are adaptive just like cockroaches. choose the wrong pesticide, use it the wrong way, and now you've got bed bugs that are harder to kill. the only thing guaranteed to kill them is sustained heat above 40C (104F), or the exterminator's pesticide if and only if you've done enough of everything right.
DO NOT TAKE CHANCES. DO NOT GUESS.
you can buy a special oven for items like clothes, but not everything will fit inside of it, and not everything can withstand the heat. you may have to throw out cherished items. you can't donate them, they have to go to the landfill or be destroyed.
some exterminators will use heat instead of pesticide. this will guarantee that the infestation is killed, every last bug and egg.
it's a very bad idea to invite anyone to your house or go out to anyone's house or any indoor public place, if you have an infestation. you could also carry bugs or eggs onto public transportation, so you've got to make sure your clothes are free of bugs and their eggs before you leave the house. if you do it anyways, if you take chances, you will spread it. it's not a maybe, it's a certainty. no one but the people you live with can help you because outside help will also spread the bugs.
imagine having a virus that will bite you and keep you awake at night. now you're sleep deprived and need to do the equivalent of packing up to move house but you're not going anywhere. it's emotionally, physically distressing and very isolating. if you're allergic to their bites, it's even worse. you will feel like you want to rip your skin off. it's not a lot different from quarantine. if you've caught covid and absolutely hated what you had to do, you will hate this even more.
if the exterminator uses pesticide, you may need multiple treatments, so get ready to keep everything sealed up, and repeatedly cleanse what you can't seal in a trash bag, more often than you might usually do that. you'll have this pile of trash bags full of your stuff that you can't open. it will take up space and remind you, every day, of just how fucking awful the whole experience is.
it is a waking nightmare that you can't even wish on your worst enemy because it can come right back to you.
tldr; avoid bed bugs. never EVER take risks with bed bugs. if you have seen a bed bug on you at any time, anywhere, take every precaution to make sure they can't breed at all.
