When wrapping bug infested furniture the standard answer is to use plastic bags. In some cases large garbage bags are excellent solutions. But when wrapping larger furniture the mattress and sofa bags may not be very helpful.
I purchased two cases of mattress and sofa bags 5 years ago and I detest using them – the bags just sit in my garage mostly unused. The problem is that the bags are very slippery and often do not fit very well. I have found that I can encase a mattress or sofa with these bags very nicely in the suite but then it is impossible grip the items for carrying. The plastic just moves around resulting in numerous drops. The more often the plastic moves around and the more often the item is dropped the more likely the plastic will tear. In the end I think more bugs will fall off a couch into the hallway with a plastic bag approach than with no bag. If there is no bag at least the couch is not dropped as often. Mattresses wrapped in bags are marginally better because they are less cumbersome.
A much better solution is shrink-wrapping the furniture and mattresses. We use 18 inch shrink wrap applied with a steel applicator handle. Simply overlap the layers of shrink wrap until the entire piece is covered. You can even stop the shrink wrap application in mid stroke and continue the other direction by pressing one layer of wrap into previous one. The wrap sticks to itself very nicely and lends itself to complete coverings. If you are really concerned about bugs falling out of the areas where the wrap is overlapped you can make a second wrap at 90 degrees to the first wrap. If you wrap a mattress in this fashion it is actually air tight. If you have an air bubble after wrapping and want to get the air out of this bag you have to poke a hole in it.
The best part of the shrink wrap is that it offers an excellent grip for carrying. The wrap practically sticks to your hands. This leads to fewer drops in the hallway. Another advantage is that you do not need specific bags for any project. The shrink wrapper can do just about any job. Furthermore the cost is less than half of a custom made bag. One ten dollar roll of wrap can encase at least 10 mattresses. Every landlord should have one of these tools.
If someone wants about 90 sofa bags they can buy them from me – $5 bucks takes the lot.