{"id":430663,"date":"2026-01-22T20:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:11:09","slug":"daylesford-op-shop-may-permanently-close-after-donation-causes-bed-bug-infestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430663\/","title":{"rendered":"Daylesford op shop may permanently close after donation causes bed bug infestation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Daylesford Community Op Shop’s future hangs in the balance after a bed bug infestation from a single donation destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of goods.<\/p>\n

A volunteer opened a bag that seemed to include some type of fabric when she received a nasty shock.<\/p>\n

A swarm of large bed bugs immediately crawled up her arm.<\/p>\n

“She didn’t even get a chance to put her hands in the bag when they ran up her arm,” volunteer Michelle Clifford said.<\/p>\n

“She’s traumatised and has bites everywhere.”\"A<\/p>\n

Bed bugs can survive for long periods without feasting on human blood. (Flickr: Tom Spinker)<\/p>\n

Bed bugs are small, wingless insects that feed on human blood and move quickly when exposed to light.<\/p>\n

“They don’t just bite and fall off,” Ms Clifford said.<\/p>\n

“They stay and then, once they finish gorging, they hide in clothing, bedding, couches \u2014 you name it \u2014 and then they breed.”<\/p>\n

The store closed within minutes of the bag being opened and all staff present were given eucalyptus oil and other remedies to clean their skin.<\/p>\n

Bed bugs feed every five to 10 days, but can survive for months without a blood feed.<\/p>\n

Countless products ‘destroyed’<\/p>\n

Ms Clifford said thousands of dollars’ worth of products had been thrown out and that the cleaning bill had already exceeded $3,000.<\/p>\n

“All items have been removed from the shop \u2026 and so much stock has been destroyed,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We organised washroom services and hazard-clean crews who were all in [hazmat] suits.”<\/p>\n

\"Metal<\/p>\n

There are concerns the financial impact will prove too much to bear. (Supplied: Melissa Jones)<\/p>\n

The infested donation and other donations suspected of infestation were disposed of via a specialist cleaning company.<\/p>\n

Ms Clifford said there were concerns the donation may have been intentional because of the maturity of the parasites that swarmed the volunteer.<\/p>\n

“There were adult [bugs] running up her arm,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If they didn’t know, it would have just been eggs in there that wouldn’t have hatched.<\/p>\n

“I’m trying to remain on the positive side and think they didn’t know, or that they donated it out of desperation, that they didn’t know how to get rid of it.”<\/p>\n

Future uncertain<\/p>\n

Ms Clifford said the store could not reopen until two more deep cleans had been completed, which could take up to 10 days.<\/p>\n

Even then, the shop may not survive the financial impact.<\/p>\n

“We are the only op shop in the shire that is 100 per cent volunteer run and 100 per cent of the profits stays in the community,” Ms Clifford said.<\/p>\n

“There’s not a single person in our community that can’t access low-cost clothing or a voucher system [with us].”<\/p>\n

The shop is running a community barbecue on Sunday to raise funds to stay open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Daylesford Community Op Shop’s future hangs in the balance after a bed bug infestation from a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,225478,142731,225482,225480,225481,225483,105,225479],"class_list":["post-430663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bed-bug-infestation","tag-bed-bugs","tag-daylesford-community-op-shop","tag-get-rid-of-bed-bugs","tag-how-do-you-kill-bed-bugs","tag-ops-shops-daylesford","tag-technology","tag-what-are-bed-bugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}