Cynthia::

Marie from Florida is a GENIUS!!! A bed bug hitched a ride back home with me after I visited family in the south. I can’t afford to hire a pest control company, and don’t want to use anything toxic because I have asthma and have 3 pets in the house. When I finally found where those evil suckers were hiding, I used the Dawn dish detergent mix she posted, and it worked instantly! I’ve killed the one adult hitchhiker and a dozen or so nymphs, and I’m now working on caulking every tiny crevice in the furniture, etc. and washing all the clothes and linens in the room. Now that I know how to kill them without endangering me or my pets, I’m confident I can win this war.

John G.::

Dottie, first of all, I am sorry you are going through this. If you have time you should scroll down and read some of the entries I have made and others as well. We pretty much cover everything. You can treat your bed and frame but some people who wrote on here tell us that they found the headquarters odf these bugs elsewhere, such as under an end table.

Some claim the bugs don’t like to travel more then 8 feet from their feeding spot, whether it is a couch, chair or bed. This may explain why sometimes they are bothering someone in one area of a home. Others have claimed they can wonder around much further. I have personally seen one in our bathroom along the edge of the tub. I wouldn’t know if migrated from my neighbors restroom or my bedroom.

When I distributed Diatemaceous Earth on the bed and box spring I found one a few days later on the ceiling above my bed. I think it was dieing of dehydration. I do not believe the bugs will lay eggs on anything that is movable, such as shoes or clothing. I think they prefer a stationary object that has a food source, such as a bed or couch.

Most chemicals, if not all, do not kill the egg larvae. Washing and then drying on high heat will kill eggs and bugs effectively. The best way to kill bugs hiding in areas of your box spring and bed is to use steam. I used a garment steamer from Costco ($40) that did wonders for me. It steamed up in areas I couldn’t reach with chemicals. It’s some work but so worth it. If you have a wood frame bed you HAVE to disassemble it and steam everywhere. Focus on cracks and where pieces of wood overlap each other.

I suggest you remove the screen cover of your box spring(s) and treat the underside of the box springs with DE, steam, or chemical. I suggest steam.This is the spot I feel adult bugs hide. Remove the plastic tufts at the corners of your box springs. They have staples so be careful. I find that the babies and juveniles hang here. Clean them with hot water and seal in a bag until the game is over. Just don’t give them anywhere to hide while you attack this. I found eggs and all sorts of bugs on the box spring screen so just get rid of it. Replace it later sometime.

It’s a pain but not anything compared to living in Hell. Pull your bed away from furniture and walls. Practice not letting anything, such has a blanket, touch the bed and floor at the same time. Use a smaller blanket if you have to. Finally, apply double stick (mounting tape) around ALL support blocks and legs of bed. This will keep the ones off that try to crawl up your bed. Be sure to remove the plastic peel of the tape (usually green) after you wrap it around. The tape does wonders! You HAVE to tape!! Always inspect the seams of the mattress and pillows. I don’t like the idea you cut your mattress. You should apply packing tape where the cut is to prevent them from going into or out of your mattress. Leave a light on near where you sleep. They don’t like light.

John G.::

Tana, the food grade DE is safer for inhalation of I believe. DE is a problem for our lungs, similar to asbestos. I heard it could possibly be a carcinogen so be sure to use food grade. I am not sure but I think food grade is probably more refined then non- food grade. Use a good dust mask.

If you had spread a non-food grade DEaround I would suggest you vacuum it up with a vacuum cleaner that uses a hepa filtration system and then reapply food grade. You could have just steamed your bed frame.

Adults crawl around and hide in dark crevices during the day. They lay their eggs in a certain spot. I also had seen adults in my wood frame. The only eggs I ever saw were on the bottom side of my box spring. They could have been on my mattress too but I steamed everything anyway. The ones you see on your ceiling are probably dieing from dehydration (DE) or chemical. Both applications are a slow death. Collect them and kill them anyway. Expect to see babies as the cycle of eggs hatch. Keep up what you are doing and they will die before they can lay eggs. That’s the idea!

Ray Eugene Roney::

I know this isn’t practical and even if it would work but more of a open for comment thought …But Does anyone have any idea if say you placed an infested bed or couch in a pressure chamber and increased the pressure would this be an effective way to kill all the bugs and leave the furniture still intact and if the pressure would have to be so great as to kill the bugs that the furniture would sustain damage would lowering or raising the temperature combined with pressure increase the effectivness of eradication I just want to air this for discussion as a possible solution to having to throw everything out I have seen on tv some of these pressure chambers they were quite large and could fit a whole room of belongings as well as clothing and could treat everything in one shot if this found to be viable Hello Bug Lab/ Bill Nye the science guy type people could we get some answers??? Anyway just thinking out loud Please don’t be to harsh in your response to my “what if”

michelle::

Regarding a comment about DE (diatomaceous earth)… You do NOT want to “put it all over your mattress”, for several reasons.

First, inhaling DE powder can cause microscopic cuts that can affect breathing and damage lungs or sensitive nasal membranes. Instead, put it in areas near your bed and furniture that is unlikely to be disturbed.

Next, moisture (such as sweat) can decrease the effectiveness of the DE.

Do your research before using any pest control method, and know how to use it correctly and safely.

Jinxie::

Myself, my husband and our 2 children moved into a large apartment in a very old building in November. A month or so ago, my 9 year old noticed she had some itchy red bites, we thought they were flea bites. (We have 2 dogs and several pet rats). The animals, especially the dogs were scratching like crazy.

We checked each and every animal over multiple times, and with me being in the veterinary care field, I know what to look for. So I was very surprised to find absolutely no sign of fleas or any other parasite on any of our pets, or in their sleeping areas. We bathed them anyway, washed all bedding in hot water, cleaned with bleach thoroughly, just to be sure.

The bites continued, but nowhere did we find a flea or anything else. We were getting perplexed and a bit frustrated, thinking some kind of allergy as only my daughter and some of the animals seemed affected. then my 9 year old brought home head lice from school, and we were caught up trying to get those out of our hair and home, and thought they may be the problem, although I wasn’t sure why my child was being bitten on her arms if it was lice, and after they were eradicated, the bites continued.

My 3 year old woke up crying a couple weeks ago, saying that a \little buddy\ (Our term for the lice) was crawling over him and biting him. I looked, saw nothing, assumed it was a nightmare and hushed him back to sleep. Then suddenly 3 days ago, we noticed he had huge red welt like marks in groups on his neck, the next morning they were on his arm and his back.

We knew we had some sort of problem then, and so set to looking online after making a doctor’s appt for him. Boom, we saw bedbug bites and knew what we were dealing with. After much shuddering and \ick, eww, yuck\ing, we began to tear the house apart. We tossed out box springs, carefully checked mattresses, and are still in the process after sending our kids to their grandparents for a few nights. (Where my mom promptly was bitten 3 times in a line on her butt). So far, we have found only 2 live adults, but many, many stains and matter and skins. I’m terrified to go to sleep!

The 20th load of laundry is in the dryer, as many cracks and crevices as I could manage so far have been sprayed with alcohol and smeared thickly with petroleum jelly. I have taken the dressers apart, sprayed them all with alcohol and set the drawers on bags outside on the balcony in minus temps. The alcohol and petroleum jelly, plus the hot washing and drying and obsessive cleaning is all that can be done at the moment due to a very limited budget.

Next payday, we are going out to get some of the products mentioned here. Professional control is not an option, and our landlord is a jerk. Moving is not even remotely an option either, no matter how necessary it may become, we just can’t afford it.

My question here is, can we control the pests and keep them out of our place if the other apartments have them? We have learned that they do, and also that the landlord KNEW about this problem and did nothing but have his \cleaning ladies\ (crack addicted prostitutes he uses as cheap labour) in to smear some cheap cleaning products and muck around. (They did such a fine job myself and my husband had to spend almost a week here cleaning before we would even consider moving our stuff and our kids in here.)

So please, if anyone can tell me how best to prevent them from getting back in here from the filthy neighbors place after we get rid of them in ours, I’d be very grateful for the advice. Sadly, not everyone can afford a professional exterminator, or to move, no matter how bad things get. And no, my landlord will do nothing.

Thanks for allowing me to vent, and for any advice you folks may have. The tips on here have been very helpful to me so far, thank you!

Chad::

It’s going on three months since I first found my bedbug problem. I’ve been working on my place trying to be rid of these things and everything seems to be going well. However, I did experience new bites just the other night. So right now, I’m starting the treating process over again.

I’m not giving up hope yet! The problem with these are that they may have laid eggs who knows where. So continue treating about every two-three weeks. If you kill the adults, you will be bite free for a while until the babies hatch and continue the growth cycle. So, just keep mindful that you need to continue to treat and check things every-so-often. I’m sleeping better over-all. The extreme paranoia that I allowed myself to enter has somewhat lessened since I’ve come to terms with the fact that this will be a work in progress.

Since finding my problem December 4th, I have heard countless news stories on these things. I never realized the scope of these things until now.

Best of luck to everyone and your personal battles of trying to be free of bedbugs! Thank you for this site also! And thank you for your time, Bed Bug Girl – you have my sincere gratitude. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t come across your site and all the helpful tips and hints. Thank you!

j. hensler::

i recently pick up a very nive couch set for my living room which is a bi-yearly event being military. this set, however, came complete with bed bugs, and did not spot them till the furniture was in the house!

I really liked the set and have never dealt with these type of pests before. i first pulled them out to the balcony and removed all the under fabric. i purchased some eco pest spray from a save-a-lot and soaked the couches. while the root beer scent from the spray was quite intense, it seemed to drop them on the spot.

Still not totally convinced, i left them outside and let mother nature finish them off. the cold front of Colorado that just moved threw had a low of -30 and high of -10 for three days. it seems the most natural solutions are the best if you’re in the right regions. such as the lady above using the Florida heat to cook them in there own skins. after i was sure they were dead by close inspection, not skimping on the cleaning was the best idea. get in every little nook and crannie and all up in the inside of the furniture with vacuums and cleaners. hope this can be of some help to others! fight the war on pests!

Autumn::

I recently found out the bugs i been dealing with are bed bugs and am not sure what to do. I am embarrassed to go to the management company Cause i have no clue how or when we came into contact with them. I know they have a exterminator that sprays once a month for roaches and ants so i was wondering do you think they would be able to treat for the bed bugs? An is it the management companies job to treat that apt or is it mine as the tenant? I have thrown out all my couches and chairs mattresses and we use air mattresses not to sleep. I need to get rid of these as i have two small children and they have complained about itching. What would your advice be?

Bill::

Was wondering is the DE safe to use around pets? Just have seen a couple of Bugs already been cleaning and spraying is there any spray that will kill the eggs as well or when drie?

just wanting to sleep::

ok i understand that a lot of people are having this problem i woke up one night to my 4 year old crying went over to her and she seemed fine she talks in her sleep a lot so didn’t think much about it went back to sleep. A couple days later felt something got up and found them on my bed have not been able to sleep at night in my house since i sent her to go live with her dad till i can move he tells me that he is going to call cps! My question is, can i get in trouble for having them and can i move without throwing everything away?

Bed Bug Girl::

Hello Teemu,

Sorry to hear you are going through this, but with your attitude, I’m confident you’ll win the battle! The best way to tell if you have more is setting a bed bug trap. I’ve documented how to build one for less than $10, see the link to my page at the top right of this page.

Once you know for sure, you can continue the bed bug treatment and you’ll know if it’s working!

bugginout::

I thought it would be better to carry on my rant over here from the “how to treat bed bug bite” forum.

This will be part four.

I’m not going to be naive enough to believe I have solved my problem with one day…but I do feel today has been productive with me very aggressively laying down the law.

Bought the DE/Mother Earth powder and have caked it into all the nooks and crannies in the floor boards in my room and my spare room. I’ve taken extra care in corners and the seams all around both rooms and sockets have been caked and covered.

I decided to spread some outside in my hallway. In my haste to get rid of my bed and boxspring I overlooked precautions and just dragged them out. Thought it would be wise to do the outside of my apartment. Fortunately there is no carpeting at all in my apartment.

I continued to throw things out. Also on the fortunate side I’ve never been much of a clutter bug so parting with things isn’t all that bad to me. Cleaned out the shelves in my kitchen. Threw away the toaster, a vidalia onion chopper and a hand held mixer, all of my spices. All have gotten a little old and yellowed. The shelves are completely bare now and theyve been liverally sprayed down with the Raid. I was expecting this to potentially flush a few out but so far nothing has stirred.

Also cleaned underneath my bathroom sink. Found a dead cockroach but again…no sign of bed bugs. Area was also sprayed.

Also threw away my shower curtain and got a new clear one.

I bought bed bug proof mattress covers. One for the spare box spring and one for the mattress itself. Once again I re~inspected everything. All systems go. No signs of eggs, nymphs,adults,blood,fecal matter or stains. Non the less I once again sprayed everything down with the Raid spray and then sprinkled the mother earth powder into the box spring and in the seams of the mattress before sealing them up.

I also bought a large bottle of lice killing shampoo and i feel nice and creepy crawley free.

I did not know what to expect when i woke up this morning. I was expecting to find anywhere from one or two crawling up my wall to die to night of the living creeps with dozens or hundreds swarming all over my walls. I was happy to find none of the sort…but then shocked to find one crawling in my kitchen sink. I’m guessing this one was trying to evacuate and got stuck. I have spent a good four or five hours actively trying to find them with not a one in sight.

Instead of putting my clothes into the hamper untill enough pile up to launder I am going to start throwing them away…when it comes down to me having just about nothing left ill start buying new packs of underwear and some basic items i can juggle with the intent of throwing even those away till further notice.

I am going to be doing this every day/two to three days untill further notice.

bugginout::

If you’re waking up with bed bug bites it isn’t a nice mattress.

Get rid of it!!!

Part the Fifth:

I feel gypped with my mattress covers. They cost me 110 for the pair. The KMart version would have been 40. Bought a new vacuum cleaner to help with this. 60 more bucks out the window. Scoped steamers. I noted three different models each one promising to rid bed bugs and dust mites ranging in price from 25 to 40 to 90 from K Mart. Also despite the fact the expensive mattress cover is the same exact thing s the expensive box frame cover they were different prices. God bless people trying to take advantage of misfortune…

Came home and found a nymph on the wall and after much detective work a second one was also squished. Thats it. I really DE bombed my spare room despite the fact it has appeared to be “safe”…not a thing was out of sorts there. I was expecting to find maybe a few adults on the walls trying to get away from my room. I did a sweep of the walls and the ceiling…especially over my bed. I’m hoping the little nymphs I did not find are in the opening throes of dehydration preventing them from breeding.

While its been a few weeks since I received my series of bites…they are still with me and have been a pain in the ass. The hot water treatment does feel good, and like I said…Gold Bonds medicated soothes…I discovered that the best thing for them has been the lice shampoo. Last night I slathered it all over myself…waited the ten minutes and after i got out of the shower i realized its the best my skin has felt in weeks…it got rid of the itch and flaring/swelling. it calmed my skin down. First time I used a special shampoo I went the premium route…19.99…this time knowing there would be many repeat performances i got the 8.99 rite aid brand.

Also I have a few thoughts…could i cover the stuff with a clear plastic or say a plastic drop cloth to keep it from contacting bare feet?

I don’t want to sound psycho…I understand the caution and risk involved but would say getting a blowtorch and quickly sweeping you walls and the nooks and crannies of your room help…also would a sun lamp help in any way?

bugginout::

*using a couple of large clear plastic tablecloth covers and clear vinyl shower curtains to cover all the de I’ve sprinkled turned out to be a great idea. I’ve even tailored things so that I’ve taped them a few inches up the wall as well. I feel more comfortable walking around now. only regret is i need about three or four more. wish i picked them up on the way home.

had a truly nightmarish experience last night. woke up around 3:30 am and thought I was in the clear. don’t be fooled into thinking your pets are safe. one fed on my cats paw causing her to bleed. my new 110 dollar bed bug mattress covers now have bright red paw prints all over them. I’ve been dusting her with flea powder and brushing her down with a nit brush. tried to create a safe zone in the bathroom for her and as stubborn as cats are she seems to be getting it. from 330 to 430 i found two crawling up my wall. I’ve also liberally sprinkled DE under the few pieces of furniture I did not throw away that are on the other side of my room.

bought the 35 dollar steam cleaner to go over what I’m going to wear tomorrow.

i also picked up another spray…this one is called Black jack. All my cabinets are still empty and there has been absolute zero activity in those areas..but i figured I’d spray them down too. also sprayed my walls, outlets and light fixtures.

haven’t seen any since i woke up early this morning…no signs of any nymph activity or adults. once again i tried causing a ruckus…rapping on walls and floor boards. nothing at all in my spare room…

hope that means something good is happening.

Maria::

It started more than one year ago, I was bit on the couch by a mysterious insect. I didn’t pay much attention to it. It escalated only 5 weeks ago after finding a bedbug in my bed and my following action.

My attempt to clean the spots with a steamer only caused them to run and to scatter through the entire house, but that at least made me clear what I was dealing with: tens of thousands of bedbugs. They were everywhere, especially the youngsters who are not yet clever in hiding. I even saw them crawling on the counter in the kitchen. Although I have only seen two living adults, the amount of adult dead bodies found in the first weeks was overwhelming.

When I filled the bath with hot water and threw cloths, bedclothes or curtains in it, hundreds of the insects floated dead through the water, cooked and in bits and peaces. It made me feel sick, knowing that they had all lived from my body. Through the wet partially translucent quilt I saw thousands of them in neat lines likes soldiers along the edges. I threw the quilt away and tried not to think or feel anymore.

Now I don’t see them anymore, but I am still bit on a daily base so the bedbugs are still there. I hate them intensely; they are ruining my life. I thought I had made my bed bugfree but yesterday I still discovered four hidden holes in the hollow iron tubes of my mesh frame that I must have overlooked. I sealed them with thick glue, examined every other cm2 of the frame with the help of a hand mirror and if the mattress cover does what it claims to do, at least my bed should be 100% safe now. So there is some progress, compared to 5 weeks ago. :-)

bugginout::

Another day spent vacuuming up then laying down fresh DE, cleaning, doing laundry and keeping it in the dryer for two hours. I threw away a ton of books and a few things i had been holding onto~was going to get rid of them anyway…now i’m glad they are out of the house.

I got a second mattress cover…this one was cheap…4.99 and i like it more than the expensive one. The expensive one is still on…the mattress is now double bagged and ever since i started using this spare twin bed of mine i finally have some bed sheets.

Things I’ve added to my arsenal:

Don’t know if it will help but I’ve read that lavender acts like a “force field” against these things…so I picked up some lavender scented fabric softener and dryer sheets.

I already threw the can out…can’t remember the brand name but i liked the topical insect repellent i sprayed on me and my bed last night…what i didn’t like is the 6.99 can ran out real fast. I’ve also taken to sprinkling flea powder under and around my cats “safe house” (the bathroom) and under her littler box.

I finally caught another one…just a few minutes ago. For the past week I’ve slept with and kept all the lights on in my place at all times. Banging on walls didn’t seem to flush any out so I decided to try to create “Dusk conditions”: I turned off my lights and no sooner than i did one started crawling up my wall…so they are still with me. this one must have been hungry. wasn’t blood gorged like the first and smaller too.

I am not going to fall asleep with the lights off.

and im going to steam the ceiling over my bed. again before i do that…

Maria::

I thought for a long time that I only needed to walk on boots with tape or glue around the ankles to prevent them from climbing up, but that proved not to be true. I don’t know what exactly happens. Can bedbugs walk through insect glue? Is double sided carpet tape not sticky enough? Wonder animals? Or do I just not understand them? Also, a thick layer of DE powder on boots doesn’t scare them off. Anyway, I never caught a bug in glue or tape.

I’ve searched for logical explanations but can’t find them. Freshly showered, with clean sterile cloths, wearing boots with double sided tape or/and glue, just doing some homework, not touching anything for a longer time and after a few hours I can count the new bites.

What we need is better understanding for what the animal is capable of, or even better, a simple detection tool; that would be all. A thing with a chip, batteries, sensors and usb, showing us with 99,9% certainty on the computer display where they’re hiding. Then we just need some steam and the job is done. And this humiliating debilitating nightmare will over.

What would keep them from inventing and selling the gadget? Maybe some geek lad in India will be my absolute hero?

bugginout::

Signs of life…very sorry if im upsetting anybody by posting here so much. This site has been a big help and writing all this down really helps me keep it together.

Maria…my heart goes out to you. The idea of having to protect yourself from these things while you’re awake and active must be terrifying.

Once again I have to stress that whatever it is I am going through it seems very mild in comparison to what Maria and other posters are going through.

Since my last posting I have received no new bites, no new sighting of anything, not an adult, not a nymph, no eggs, no dead bodies or husks and no fecal matter. Of course I’ve also had almost no sleep since then as well so who knows…I may be completely mad. I have been using all that time not sleeping cleaning, inspecting, looking and treating.

I continue to fight these things diligently…

I feel much more organized now too.

Gotta tell you…the idea to drop clear plastic vinyl shower curtains to cover the DE in my bedroom has been a godsend. I’ve yet to see anyone offer up this advice on any website I’ve visited so I’m feeling extra clever I came up with this by myself. If this is a big no~no I would appreciate the warning but I think its helping lots. First of all it just makes it that much easier to be able to keep the DE down where it needs to do its thing while keeping it away from you. It makes it that much harder for the little buggers to crawl up from the floor boards onto you and your bed. I know it isn’t an airtight barrier so they can get around it but they’ll be easier to spot and as an added bonus I’m hoping to crunch a few between overlapping layers. In a couple of weeks from now when I get my new bed in and feel comfortable moving closer to the wall the mattress will not only be encased in allergen covers…the bed will be resting on a very secure thick plastic mat.

I’ve also caulked and sealed all the outlets, switches and especially light fixtures all over my place.

I firmly believe that bed bugs will attack you from above. I experienced it when I got my first bites. Like many people I thought it was spiders dropping from my ceiling. They do resemble spiders..but don’t be fooled. It makes sense. If you’re a pregnant momma and you want your babies to survive would you put them in a spot where they have to crawl miles for their first meal or would you place them in such a way that all they have to do is roll over? When you find them climbing up a wall they are doing so with the intent of positioning themselves over you.

I’m also very fortunate in that I’m quite adept at using the hand steamer. I know how to handle it to its effectiveness and I have been steaming the hell out of everything…especially my bed and clothes. O actyually love it. I’ve been wanting to get one for myself for ages…

Seeing as I’ve been denying them their food source I am expecting to experience some backlash. I’ve seen others write of a calm before the storm period. I hope this isn’t it for me. I’ve been terrified that they’ll turn to my cat to feed. I’m certain what happened to me last week was me interrupting one feeding on my cats paw. It broke contact, she bled and that was the one i found scampering up my wall. It makes sense. The only traces of fecal matter I have found in all this were three pin head sized spots left behind my kitty’s assailant…

but that also leads me to ask the question…if you encase a mattress that does have adults living in them and they try to come up to the surface to feed…they find they cant get through…you go to roll over in your sleep. Could that cause them to pop and bleed out? I ask this because it was an awful lot of blood and my cat seemed to just stop bleeding instantaneously. It was like a small blood bomb went off and then immediately stopped. Nothing of the sort has happened since and my cat seems to be fine. I should take a picture of what the mattress looks like. She doesn’t seem to mind the flea powder I dust onto her and shes getting lots of extra careful brushings and inspection. she hasnt got a scratch on her.

I really went overboard with the DE at first…i think I have a handle on it now. I’ve caked it between all the floorboards in both my rooms and theres a fine layer of dust instead of clumps of it that i initially scattered….what can i say? I was panicked. I’ll be vacuuming it up in four or five more days. I’m going to re cake in between my floor boards again..but this time I plan to seal it in with a more permanent floor board seal.

I can’t say if the spray treatments I’ve used thus far have been successful but tonight I bought “JT Eaton” bed bug spray (pyrethrin for short) and we’ll see what happens. this stuff feels powerful and it also feels easy to spray. I managed to really get it into the seams of both my rooms without getting it into them. i like that. Like I described earlier I’ve drawn my plastic floor coverings a few inches up off the floor onto the wall and taped things into place. The bed bug spray and De is under several layers of clear plastic and i’m safely atop the plastic in my encased and freshly steamed space.

the cat it locked in the bathroom.

If all goes well I plan on getting 6 whole hours of sleep tonight!

Good luck maria…hope some of this helps. I think you should try covering your floor in plastic sheets just to get you a break!

I regret tossing my mattress so hastily. I’m beginning to believe that any infestation I had was limited to my bed and the few adults i found were strays that didn’t get the chance to nest elsewhere. If this is true this means that I may have this thing beat back in a few more weeks…

Maria::

bugginout – thank you. People have been so harsh and cruel to me that now someone is kind to me I nearly start to cry. Well actually tears are in my eyes.
Please continue posting, your reports are always interesting to read.

John G. – you could very well be right that there is a delay in time between the actual bites and the bite marks starting to show up. This morning, twelve hours ago I had no new bite marks and now I’m covered with new bites. At least 15 new ones. I’m not very allergic but they blood and burn a bit. Some are five of six in a row and look like scratches from a cat.

Good news, I found bugs hiding under the steel meshes between the bed frame. I had no idea that they would be hiding in such places, but to be sure I started to steam those areas. And suddenly I saw one, hiding under a mesh. He was already dead. To be quite sure that they would all be killed I threw boiling water over all the meshes. So if there won’t be new bite marks your theory is right.

bugginout::

Ahhh…you just made things a little more clear for me in the regards that that “things are crawling over me that aren’t there” feeling is actually delayed responses to already placed bites!

No new bites for me yet…but I did catch one crawling up my wall just as I was finally turning in around 1:30 am this morning. This one was not blood gorged and didn’t pop blood when i squished it.

I didn’t notice how flat these things can really get till last night. their bodies are like little balloons.

did my thing.

hoping to get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight!

bugginout::

I wish I could afford to get this taken care of professionally but if I had that kind of money to spare I would already be living in a nicer apartment than this one. I found out another co worker had a serious problem with these things. Cost her “thousands”. I’m trying to figure out what I’m spending “doing it myself” versus “professionally” and I just wish it was easy to get answers. Nobody will offer up a hard figure and it seems the pc industry is just as blood thirsty as the little buggers.

The JT Eaton DE powder and Pyro spray costs 4.99 and 9.99 at my super market. I’ve seen the exact same products cost double and triple in various hardware/home stores and through exterminating companies. With those kind of mark ups on products so simple you’re dealing with people eager to take advantage of you.

You’re also going to want to “double bag” your mattress. The expensive one for your bed and then the cheaper, snugger version to protect the expensive mattress covers. These things are weak.

Whats driving me crazy is the not knowing what kind of problem I’m dealing with. At this point It appears things were centered on my bed. I’ve found two live bugs over the past four days and about 6 or seven total since this all started about six weeks ago, no eggs or dead bodies. The only traces of fecal matter i have found were a few dots left behind by those few I caught (it was in the spots where i picked them off the wall with bathroom tissue). No new bites, existing bites are troubling me less and less (they still look nasty tho), cats area looks fine. No little spots of blood on my bed. I’ve experienced nothing even close to some of the videos and pictures I’ve seen. no swarms of little nymphs coming at me… i think I’ve found three in total weeks ago.

Still I need to be vigilant for a few more weeks. I’m denying them their food source, I’ve yet to turn the lights off in my place at all. it’s always that moment you let your guard down…

John G.::

Wondering, it only takes a few bugs to do all this to your body. Just keep killing them one at a time and you will win. There wasn’t that many biting me and my wife but it was a battle that went on for months. Have you applied the double stick mounting tape to the bed legs?

Maria::

Is there a good, comfortable way to prevent bedbugs from climbing up to you while you’re walking?
I guess desperate, very hungry bedbugs will try this?
All things I tried didn’t work out so very well. With tape around shoes they often stick together, and rat glue is dripping to the floor finally. Some material where cheap shoes are made of denaturalizes the rat glue into a kind of grease.

John G.::

Bugginout, you need to have a small magnifying glass. You can clearly see the small bugs even if they have lint on them. Babies are very small. I saw one on someone elses bed ( not my place) that was so small I couldn’t believe it. Maybe half the size of a small ant!! It was crawling around the mattress seem because I disturbed it. I had someone else witness it crawling around and then I killed it and then I was just wondering where all the rest were, or where the Mother was! I steamed for them and I was hoping I didn’t bring any home with me.

buggin’out::

i used all sorts of topical anti itch creams. The gold Bonds medicated brand seemed to work best for me and I used neosporin to help with healing.

Luckily I have no new bites…but should that happen I’m going to try calamine lotion.

I haven’t read anything to the contrary but a little dab of neosporin followed by a band aid to cover the bite and leaving it alone will speed up the healing lots…buts it is going to take time.

Sadly the best course of action to take for any kind of bug bite or skin irritation it to not scratch it. the more you scratch the worse it will get.

John G.::

Bugginout, I am very happy for you. I know how you feel because even though I cleared my place some months ago I am always worried that they will reappear. The amount of stress these infestations bring to people is outrageous. Stay on guard and use that double stick tape. Mine is still on and I won’t take it off.

innocent victim::

Is it possible, until bed bugs are controlled or exterminated, to apply rubbing alcohol to skin as a resouce for repelling the evil creatures from biting?

buggin’out::

well i am off to go buy a small chunk of dry ice. found a place close by that carries it.
going to build bed bug girls bed bug trap to see.
Fortunately all i spotted was that one little bugger on my wall. No new bites.

“Off Deep Woods” spray claims to repel bed bugs. The main ingredient is “deet”. The first time i used it i went overboard and wasted the can in one night. the second one lasted me about a week. If me not getting any new bites is an indication of the products success i would use this over rubbing alchohol. I think one alchohol evaporates it becomes ineffective.

The two products I feel that have helped me the most are JT Eatons DE and Bed Bug Spray. I got mine at my supermarket for 4.99 and 8.99 respectively. Be careful when using these. You want to get these products into your walls and seams of your home…not inside it if that makes sense. lso be careful where you buy them~I’ve seen these products cost double and triple in other stores all banking on bed bug panic.

Get yourself a nice 9×12 heavy duty plastic tarp. mine cost 3.50 at my hardware store. lay it down in your room after youve done the DE/Spray thing and rest your mattress on this in the middle of your room after giving it a sound cleaning. i think this has given me the most peace of mind since all this started. as i stated previoulsy~it keeps the DE and any bug spray your using under you without coming into contact with it and it will make the little buggers that much harder to get to you with the added benefit of being able to spot them easier.

this is my only day off this week and once again its fighting bed bugs.

Liz::

Personally, I think the best way to kill bedbugs is the bug spray called raid, it’s cheap an kills them instantly. Don’t apply to your skin and read the directions!

Maria::

buggin’out is right; it’s not difficult to kill bed bugs, even dish water kills them, and better than EPA approved pyrethroid spray. :)

I have 10 new bites on my right arm, like tiny thin scratches, and the only thing I did was sorting laundry with my bare hands. Maybe I should wear gloves or use a stick.

I wrapped my whole bed, except the mattress (which has a cover) in vinyl shower curtains and wrapped new tape around the legs. I also taped the ceiling. I had already talcum powder puffed against it, but maybe this was not enough to prevent them from walking against the ceiling.

I had to remove most of the DE because of respiration problems, but it is still on places like baseboards (and behind them), under carpets, around legs of furniture and around the birdcage. The old canary bird is still very lively, so they haven’t found him yet. DE is a good carpet cleaner. My strategy to get rid of the bedbugs is starvation but unfortunately, I see no progress yet.

My eye sight is very poor so I’m in desperate need of an operation but I hoped to get rid of the bedbugs before the operation. This will not succeed because I need a magnifier for everything so I think I’ll make work of the operation first.

Sorry for my poor English, I’m not used to speak the language in daily life.

buggin’out::

There’s a tons of info here on how to look for bed bugs. I would give your mattress and box spring an inspection.

It’s a tough call to make but I think your mom yelling at you now is going to be a lot easier to handle than later if this becomes a bigger problem for you and your family. Show her this website so she can get some basic information. It’ll be a lot easier for you to handle this problem with your family then without. the sooner the better.

I don’t think bedbugs will bite when your active. Its not in their nature. They come out to feed when its dark and you’re in a deep sleep. As John G. pointed out a bb’s bite can take up to two weeks to manifest.

I’ll bet whats happening to you are reactions to bites you received while asleep. This means you to need to keep reinforcing your sleep space as off limits to these guys. If you see an insect that is nocturnal and only feeds on sleeping hosts out in broad daylight/bright light looking for a meal something is off. I wish I had something better to offer up to you Maria.

All I can say is don’t stop.

Maria::

buggin’out: maybe it’s the alarm pheromones making them so courageous and active. After all we are their only pray and enemy; their existence fully depend on us.

Yesterday I found another harborage: the garderobe, a combined piece of furniture in the hall next to the door where you put on your coat and shoes, look in the mirror and comb your hair before you leave. They were hidden between the clutter in a drawer, moved very slowly and didn’t attempt to run away, so I had time to fill the steamer while they were waiting for their death. I found only young ones, first, second and third stage instars. Some had blood in them.

I also bought a new cheap bed and placed the legs in saucers filled with water with a drop of detergent. Soap should break the surface tension of water so the bugs will sink helpless to the bottom and not be able to drift to the shore, theoretically.

Before assembling the new bed I disassembled the old bed and sealed the pieces in plastic. For better times.

Liz::

Hi Krystal,

What pest control company did you use?

John G.::

Bugginout, I don’t recall ever saying a bite could take 2 weeks to show up. I have actually been explaining that they show up rather fast and I have proof of that with my experience at home. Everybody agrees that people can have different reactions to the fact that some don’t show any effects at all from bites.

Maria::

The only time I saw a bed bug stuck in tape was when it jumped from my cloths accidentally in the middle on a piece of tape. But that is because of the increased impact when something falls.

Bed bug bite victim::

Can Raid flying insect killer(Blue bottle @ walmart)/ Hot shot spray(@ Lowe) kills Bed bugs???

Plz suggest which one is better. We’ve done PCO treatment but still we think we need one as precautionary!

I can suggest one thing if you can’t sleep on mattress and if you’re afraid to get bitten then use Air bed!

They can’t climb up on air bed. Air bed are 101% protective! We’re happy with our air bed at least we can sleep without getting bitten/scratching!

buggin’out::

Sorry if i misread any of your posts john…could have sworn i read that somewhere.

i never bothered with using sticky tape. just doesn’t seem like it would be effective to me and its probably one of the most expensive things out there (40 bucks for a roll of bed bug fighting tape!).

Still feeling super lucky. I haven’t seen any new bed bugs since 4/19 and overall it was the only one since 4/9. I think I’m lucking out in that the problem was limited to my mattress/boxspring and since removing those i dealt with strays that have yet to nest.

This wouldn’t bother me so much if the bites weren’t so horrific.

Oh for the days of fighting cockroaches…

Maria::

Hmm, since about five days they seem gone. I get no new bites anymore. Sometimes I think I see a bug, but just like buggin’out it turns out to be a piece of a little seed or a plant fiber.

Maria::

Sadly this turned out to be a fata morgana. Two days ago I decided to use my couch again, so I placed its legs in saucers. I only sat there for less than a minute, and 24 hours later new bite marks appeared on my ankles, back and arms. There is not the slighted doubt that these are really bite marks because of the typical pattern.

So the illusion is gone and the nightmare is back. Three weeks ago I started spraying the house with Imidacloprid, a kind of synthetic nicotine which is poisonous to bed bugs (at least one study stated that it was effective). I first tried it while using my old infested bed, sprayed every detail of the bed and the next day I found at least 7 dead bugs, some before and some after feeding. So I was really exited and I applied it three times, everywhere, on all floors, furniture, in closets, against walls, in a 2x dosis. But I never found a dead bed bug since then. If the bed bugs have to walk through the wet stuff, they die (I don’t know if they all die or only a few), but although it claims to be a residual insecticide, it doesn’t seem to kill them anymore after drying up.

Because I really want to sit on my own couch again, I consider to cover it with a bed bug safe mattress cover, and I’m still trying to find out what to do with the legs (whether I should cut holes in it for the legs or cover the legs).

buggin’out::

I’m at a point where I think I’m okay. Got my new bed in, haven’t seen any traces of anything, did a little repainting,finally starting to use my cabinets and dresser again…

This has definitely changed how i go about doing things. bed bugs are clearly a problem in my neighborhood so while i’m getting back to some semblance of normal i’ll always be sleeping with one eye open.

These things would be much lass a problem if the bites weren’t so bad. There is no way I’d be able to go into work if i had them anywhere visible or on my face working a sales job. Its my biggest nightmare. While my bites have pretty much all but healed away i still have several dark spots and small scabs waiting to go away and i was bit months ago.

The bugs that i caught crawling up my wall matched up with bed bugs perfectly. The first few i caught had recently fed and were blood bloated. The last one i caught was not and was paper thin.

I don’t know what to tell you Maria…it sounds like you have a serious problem if you’re finding upwards of seven dead bed bugs in one fell swoop. Thats about as many as I found over the course of three months. No clue what to tell you. At this point I would turn to family for help. try my two tricks (the plastic tarp over your floor and fogging DE deep into all your walls via electrical outlets).

I figured between having to buy a new bed, a vacuum cleaner, a steamer, the money i’ve wasted on DE and pyrethene and new clothes this has set me back about 600 bucks that could have been used better elsewhere.

I don’t want to go through this again.

DanMontreal::

I don’t know if it’s already been suggested but i found that bedbugs can’t climb up glass. So to prevent bugs from spreading to other furnature and to trap any crawling down the leg of my bed i put jars over the legs.

John G.::

Maria, so you realize the bugs are in your couch! They are in my ex-wifes couch over at her place. I am certain. I have the key to her house because of our young boys. I took a nap on the couch one time and I got nailed. My boys often play video games while sitting on this couch and they were getting bites. When I examined their bed I only found one baby.

Maria::

John, to tell you the truth: I have no idea where they come from, but no matter what I do, they manage to bite me. It seems all so unreal. I have no answer anymore to the problem at the moment, because I don’t understand how they reach me. My strategie is isolation and starvation but they always manage to break through the barriers. I would be so relieved if I found out how!

It seems very difficult to me to fight bugs in your home while the children are bringing them in again via an infested house.

Buggin’out: congratulations! All you efforts are finally rewarded. You can live a normal life again. And thanks for your kind words.

buggin’out::

Things haven’t gone back to 100% normal. I’ve been keeping things in check and will continue to do so for a few more weeks. I haven’t turned any of the lights off in my apartment since this started and was gifted this week with a 230 con ed bill! thank you bed bugs!

I did find another bug a few days ago. This one was on the floor back up in my spare room and dead from DE. Got to see what this stuff does first hand and it pretty much does dry them out. petrified even so if you’re going to use DE to get rid of these things use it well and wisely much in the way I described below: you don’t want to kick up dust or have it anywhere in the open. You want to get it into the seams and cracks and within the walls as deep as possible and then seal everything up with caulk. I was even thinking attaching some rubber tubing to the end of a DE bottle will allow you to really get it deep within your wall. From there you just have to give it time to work while doing all the other things you need to do (steam your mattress and clothes,vaccuum and clean, de clutter and search).

John G.::

Bugginout, I sort of work in the power industry and I can tell you that lights are very inexpensive. Machinery that use electricity are your big draws that raise your kilowatt usage(bill). These are refrigerators, washers and dryers, dish washers,etc . The biggest draw on powerfor a home is an air conditioning unit. Running these only for a few hours a day will raise your bill dramatically. Just be mindful of these things and don’t crowd your refrigerator with too much stuff. This causes it to turn on more often. If you are really concerned about the lights be sure you are using low wattage bulbs, such as a 30 watt bulb.

buggin’out::

hi john! thanks for the words. i live in new york city. i take every precaution imaginable to keep the lowest possible con ed bill~at its best my monthly average is about 140. it’s life in the big city~no space, hi utility bills and bed bugs! the cool kids life!

hopefully i am still on the tail end but i sadly seem to have developed a secondary problem that usually comes with bed bugs and it’s still a little unidentified.

about a week ago my scalp starting itching insanely out of control. i used a lice shampoo a few months back when i first starting treating for bed bugs and it seemed to make me feel better. i posted previously it took the effect of helping my bites subside and stop burning. this time it only seemed to make matters worse. googling around it seems that a lot of people treating for bed bugs go through this.

much like not being able to afford a professional exterminator i really can’t handle a random doctor bill.

one thing that i found that was common in treating almost all itchy scalp conditions ranging from mites and lice to dandruff and acne was tea tree oil so i figured to try some. one ounce of pharmaceutical grade tea tree oil was 9.99 at CVS and i really wish i tried this stuff back when i first got my bed bug bites.

after just one night whatever problem i seemed to be having has subsided by about 80%. It feels wonderful. kind of has a menthol/eucalyptus/pine scent. The out of control itching is all but gone and the bumps i was getting have shrunk.

i found many websites that explain the various uses of the stuff and for some of us who are currently dealing with bad bed bug bites and beyond this might be a very useful item to keep on hand!

i’m self diagnosing myself with “scalp acne”. seems to look like and fit what i’m going through to a tee…so the plan is to keep using the tea tree oil for the next few days and if it looks like something more i’m heading to the doctor on my next day off…

hope you guys have found some relief!

Maria::

All in vain. Yesterday in the middle of the night I saw a bed bug crawling over my headboard. Escaped from either my bed bottom or mattress. All day long the creatures have nothing else to do than scrutinizing the encasement for a tiny flaw and if they find one, the entire family goes through.

Then they can reach you but you can’t reach them anymore. That’s the problem.

It is useless to try to find the flaw. I’ve tried it so many times and never found it. Rolls of duct tape as reinforcement but they are laughing at you.

buggin’out::

i wish there was a way i could help you maria. not a fun thing to go through.i can think of lots of quick fixes but they’d all cost cash. bite the bullet and ask some family for help or see if you can pay a couple of local school kids a little bit of cash to help you move some stuff out or clean. if you can afford it give up sleeping on the bed and get yourself a temporary air mattress to rest on. even though i read it isnt smart to move your sleeping space when fighting these things my first priority is to avoid getting bit.

i’m still ultra paranoid that they may come back.

it may not be much…but try going to sleep with your lights on…in fact if you don’t have one get a really bright light bulb. it may not be the best way to go to sleep but these things hate light. if its bright ebough it may hold them back a little if they’re waiting for the lights to dim.

Bed Bug Girl::

Hello Jaffar,

DE is short for Diatomaceous Earth (also called Bed Bug Dust) and is soft rock that when crushed into a powder, can be used to kill bed bugs. You want Food Grade DE, NOT the DE used in swimming pools! You can pick it up at your local pest control store, feed and supply store or cheap on eBay (see my page on Bed Bug Dust).

Christie F::

I wanted to say thanks you for everything this website has offered. For the past 6 weeks i was getting bit by something and never knew what it was. went to the derm and doctor still they idnt know anything spent all kinds of money. . .SUCKED!! recently i found a bug and finally figured out it was a bed bug EWWWWW freaked me out. . so stressed to the max i found this website and to my relief found so much information. you guys are great!!! so far i vacuumed my whole house up and down, put matress zippered covers on which i found at wal-mart for really cheap (9.95) on all my beds and futon downstairs, put borox and salt all over the floors, hot shot spray everywhere and even rubbing alcohol everywhere. i went last nite with no bites . . .hopefully it worked. . . i did put ALL pillows in the dryer and bagged any clothes up that were by the bed in a bag. . the question is when can i take them out? this has been one of the worst things to happen we have kids that travel back and forth from their moms house to ours and i am scared they are going back and forth. i am freaked out this stuff sux. also i cant find that DE stuff anywhere. any suggestions i have asked home dept and cant find it at wal-mart. . . once again thanks for all the help on this site. . i sat and read every single post from the beginning. please help with this insane issue.

Bed Bug Girl::

Look at my bed bug dust section, there is a ton of food grade Diatomaceous Earth which is often sold as bug dust.

Mother of three and so tired!!::

hello everyone..so im new to this bed bug thing..i didn’t even know that they really ex-sited..i already paid 300.00 to an exterminator that said he was 100% guaranteed..but he wasn’t ..the same night i found more crawling and biting my 3 year old son all over!!!!! so now what should i do!!!!!!!!!! im so lost and so uncomfortabe!!! and im i feel so alone!!!

David::

I tried foggers, do not wast your money it did not work, try alcohol, this does work

SoTired::

Sad to report that bed (or chair) legs placed in bowls filled with a water/detergent solution don’t isolate you from the bed bugs.

I thought I was safe sitting in my chair, the legs placed in four tupperware boxes filled with water and a spoonful of detergent. Although I never caught anything I believed in it. But yesterday evening I noticed an orange brown thingy floating on the surface. It didn’t move, just floated around. I pushed it under water with a pen but immediately it came back to the surface.

I forgot about it and a few hours later when I looked again the thingy, probably third or fourth stage nymph, had escaped.

So what to do now. Mineral oil? Is there proof that this will work? Or shall I fill it with a lambda-cyhalothrin solution right away? Big chance that it will survive that as well…

TJ::

I came up with inexpensive heat treatment idea, which I’m going to try next hot and sunny day.
1) Bag clothing, bedding, stuffed animals and so on, and keep them in a car.
2) Park the car in a sunny spot.
I hope this help… I wish I could do mattress too….

John G.::

HelpBugs, don’t bother throwing things away unless they are torn or in otherwise bad condition. Tears and holes in mattresses are a lost cause but if it is in good condition fight in place. As long as you can keep them from feeding then you will eventually break the cycle of life. They need to ingest blood to survive. If you have an animal, such a s a dog or cat you will need to consider what to do to keep this animal from being a source of nutrition for these bugs. Apply plenty of double stick tape to all legs and blocks supporting beds and any other items you are suspicious of. Keep blankets, etc. from touching walls and carpet/floor at all times. Most importantly, steam treat your bed, box spring and frame as often as you can stand to. This is most effective. Don’t rely on chemical pesticides, although they may work. Food Grade Diatemaceous Earth is very effective but you and others will breath it in and it makes a mess too. I had puffed some on the underside of my box spring, after permanently removing the webbing material and had great success at finishing them off for good! The hot steam from a garment steamer with hose attachment did wonders. There was no crack or seam they could hide in.

Andrea::

I can’t believe I have these in my home!!
It all started when my younger sister started to scratch herself non stop and we thought it was because her eczema was getting bad because of the weather. Then we noticed it was bites and thought they were mosquito bites. Then my other younger sister (they share the same room) started to get bites. My mom was cleaning the room and looked underneath my sisters mattress. At first we found only dead ones until we looked behind the posters in the room which was where they were all hiding. Disgusting.

I immediately went online for more information since I didn’t know what I was dealing with. Thank God I found this site! The information has been very helpful! Thank you so much!

I took out all the toys from the room and soaked them in hot water and bleach in the bathtub. I’m starting to clean out ALL their toys just in case. Anything that can’t be soaked in water was wiped down with a rag dipped in bleach and water.

All their bedsheets were immediately washed in hot water and dried in the highest heat in the dryer. We also washed all the clothes in the room using the same method. We are bagging them and storing them somewhere else.

I also got some alcohol (I didn’t dilute it) and sprayed down the mattresses and carpets. The smell is overwhelming but worth it if it’ll kill these things.

We are also repainting the room, I think this will help in covering any tiny spaces that they might be hiding in. My Dad does some construction and he has some type of blowtorch/welding machine that spits out a small flame. We used this to go around the corners of the ceiling to kill any little nest that might be out of reach. We have a “popcorn” type ceiling so it’s really hard to tell if there is a hole/space in the ceiling.

We found these guys early I think so with some luck they’ll be gone soon. We are not letting anyone in the house and we are not going to anyone’s home for a long time. We have no idea where these guys came from but until they are gone for good it’s best to stay at home.

I found that Tilex works really well to kill these things and the baking soda with water trick worked great to relieve itching.

I’m really afraid the bugs will spread to other rooms. I wouldn’t wish these on anyone. I haven’t been bitten but seeing them in your home…I can’t sleep at night. I feel like bugs are crawling all over me.

Will update on whether the methods I tried work!

AN::

Question- how effective is duct tape? I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a mattress encasement for my box springs, and I don’t really care if they are ruined forever by sticky duct tape residue. If I completely wrap them in duct tape, being very careful to leave absolutely no cracks or open spaces, will that keep the bed bugs from getting out? Can I also put duct tape over outlets in my room? I’ll probably caulk the baseboards. So if I clean everything including washing and sealing all clothes in bags, caulk all gaps in floorboards/ceiling/hardwood floors, wrap my box springs in duct tape and cover outlets in duct tape, then treat the mattress and spread DE around the bed, will they be gone in a few weeks?

Xylitius::

Hello,

My family and I never had any experiance with bed bugs until about a year and a half ago. We needed a bed and frame for my nephew and had purchased a used one. Due to not having any experiance with them, we did not check the bed and not even a day later, began finding bites on my nephew.

Within a week, our entire house was infested with bed bugs. It was beginning to get so bad that we actually were finding them in the basement on our computer desks. We cleaned everything, spent roughly 60 dollars per bed cover (some beds needed two) and even then couldn’t get rid of them.

One of my nephews, who at the time was a just a toddler, continued to get bites even after we had finally stopped getting them in some rooms, my room was the first to remain bug free due to being the top floor room and the only one without air conditioning. It turns out, the majority of the bugs were actually in my nephews playpen, hiding in the padded covers. We would have burned it if it was illegal to set fires in your yard.

I live in Canada and noticed that once it had gotten cold out, the bugs stopped showing up… until now. I have to work tomorrow and can’t sleep… cause I found two beds in our house that had bed bugs. Winter is gone and the blasted things are back… I wish the government would just order a country wide clean up and get rid of these disgusting things.

I’m going to try some… probably all… of the suggestions here. I hope something works because our last chance moment will be to rip our house apart until they are all gone… walls and all.

Jen::

I moved out of my house and allowed people to stay there while I lived with my husband in his small condo until we bought a house. Then we moved my furniture into the new house and discovered BED BUGS! It upsets me that this problem grew out of kindness for people who did not have a place to stay.

Anyway, we threw out the mattress and called in an exterminator. He had us bag everything in black trash bags and put them out in the hot sun for a few days. He sprayed the wood bunk bed and we encased the new mattresses in bed bug covers. We didn’t see them again until 6 months later. The first time we only saw 3 live bugs. This time we had a lot more.

My son was getting bit for over a week before I figured out where the rash was coming from. It looked like an alergic reaction because the patches of little spots on his skin would move around throughout the day. Around that same time I came down with a terrible cold. I didn’t see evidence of bugs on his bed, so I thought it wasn’t bedbugs. But, after looking more closely, I found the bugs. I felt like such a terrible mother! Anyway, this time I found them in every bed in our house. We have six kids, so it’s quite difficult to get rid of them.

We bagged stuff in black trash bags and put it in the yard. That didn’t work since we put too much stuff in each bag. I bought a thermometer to check the temperature inside the bags by putting it deep in the middle and pulled it out on a string. Not hot enough. Also, on the hottest Southern Florida days, our cars are only getting up to 105 degrees. Not hot enough. All of our mattresses have the bedbug covers. We took up all the carpet in the bedrooms and used a bedbug insecticide and Diotomacious Earth (both from Lowes) under the baseboards and inside the outlets (removed the covers first).

We built a heat chamber outside by using black plastic sheeting from the paint isle and putting the charcoal grill in there. We were able to get it hot enough, but the duct tape kept melting and the tent would fall apart. We tried using a portable heater in a walk in closet but it kept overheating. We all slept in the living room and family room on covered mattresses on the floor for about a week and didn’t have any bites.

We threw out our couch, love seat, and recliner, and a futon that had the mattress attached to the frame. We got a new futon with a metal frame and put a cover on the mattress. Although I treated the insides of our metal bunk bed with DE and insecticide, they were still in there and biting the kids on the bunk-bed. So, I caulked every hole in the metal frame and put duct tape over all the joints. Then I put baby oil in little dishes and put the legs of the bunk bed in them. That worked great! No bugs in that bed anymore.

We thought we were rid of them and put our master bedroom back together. Big mistake. They were either in the wood frame or the box springs (both heat treated, but unsuccessful). After two nights, I found evidence of bedbugs (forgot to mention I bought white sheets for all the beds and that’s all we’re using – no blankets, and all pillows have bed bug covers as well). The bugs were on top of the bedbug mattress cover in one corner of the bed (near my husband’s head!). So, I bought a steam cleaner (Walmart $79) and went over every crack in the bed frame.

I put the box springs in covers (I got the cheap vinyl kind and put tape over the zippers). The bed is pulled away from the wall and the feet are in dishes with baby oil (I’m hoping it won’t damage the wood). One night with that arrangement and there is no evidence of bugs. I continue to spray, wait for it to dry, then puff DE under the baseboards and in the outlets. We have a lot of electronics that we have not treated, but I figure if the beds are safe, then they can’t get to us. We still have kids sleeping in the living room since I need to treat two wooden bunk beds.

I plan to steam all the cracks with the steamer, paint with primer, then paint. I won’t be able to put all the legs into dishes of oil because the bunk beds are held up on one side by drawers or a desk (we made two bunk beds out of one). I’m thinking about putting double sided sticky tape all around the bottom of the parts of the bunkbeds that I can’t put in dishes of oil. This has been a nightmare for our family and I hope to be rid of them soon. From what I’ve read in other people’s postings, I think we can do it ourselves since the exterminators aren’t that successful.

It seems that the key to getting rid of them is to keep up on them for several weeks until they’re all gone. My little boy hasn’t been bit again since we first discovered them, so I think we are making good progress at getting rid of them. The biggest problem for us is that the kids have way too many clothes. I bought plastic bins for each of them and made them put a week’s worth of clothes in them and the rest go in plastic bags. Even though the bags have been out in the heat, we aren’t taking any chances and are laundering everything before we use it. I think we’ll get rid of them in the near future, but it’s been a lot of work! Thank goodness it’s summer time and I am a teacher and have time to get this under control.

My husband and the kids have helped a lot, but the main responsibility falls on me since I have the most time to research and take care of the problem. I have not been ashamed – I tell people about it and they are very understanding. We had to cancel my daughter’s graduation party, but we hope to have the party once we’re rid of the bugs. My best advice to people who discover bed bugs in their home is: don’t throw out your good mattresses: buy bedbug covers for them. They work extremely well, but they are expensive ($30 twin, $45 king at Walmart) and you have to be very careful not to rip them. I ripped a few of them trying to open the velcro zipper cover – I fixed it by taping it with duct tape which works fine. All white sheets is a must – that way you will know right away if you have bugs getting into the bed because you can see the black excrement (looks like mold) and blood spots from rolling over onto a bug.

They burst very easily, so unless you don’t move at all while you’re sleeping, you’ll find those spots. I haven’t found a way to get rid of the spots, but if you remember where they are, you can keep using the sheets after you launder them of course. I steamed the outside of the mattress cover that I found bugs on because you don’t want to take the covers off for at least a year.

A friend of a friend who is a bug guy gave me a puffer thing for the DE and he said you only need a small dusting of it. I’ve read about a lot of people using massive amounts of DE and I don’t think that is necessary. My husband has a terrible reaction when he breathes the dust from the air, so I am just putting it up under the baseboards and into the outlets with the puffer thing and letting the dust settle before he goes into the room. We may consider buying a large heater and piping it into the garage with all our furniture in there if we continue to have a problem. The problem is that we live in south Florida and we haven’t been able to find heaters sold here in June!

Sad mommy::

UGH! I feel the pain of everyone who is going through this mess. :( I am 9 months pregnant and have a 5 year old son my nightmare began 4 weeks ago after we moved into a new apartment trying to better our lives little did we know the place had bed bugs. As a mother I feel so horrible making my son go to bed at night because I know the poor lil guy will wake up with bites. It breaks my heart to say the least. My bf and I told the apartment complex imediately something was wrong everyone acts liek its no big deal. Obviously though you dont see them wanting to come over or stay the night in our home. LOL They agreed to send Orkin out hes done 2 sprayings now if you even call them prayings the guy is only here for 5 minutes at a time never did a full inspection just looked at the bugs I caught and said yes those are bed bugs. The whole thing is frustrating and Im going crazy! AParently the neighbors down stairs had them too and just now are getting sprayed after weve already had 2 sprayings. I sware as soon as you start to relax someone sees one or my baby gets bit. Ive spent every dollar we have (which was our baby savings!!) So now we have no money for baby things and the baby is coming I got bed covers, pillow covers, I do wash of everything every couple of days, My bf and I threw away our bed and bought an air matress. I vacuume 3 hours a day every thing I can think of!! I wipe everything down with cleaner. I sware I sit here and just feel like things are crawling on me. I rarely leave the house afraid I will pass this nightmare to someone else. Ive thrown out so much of our stuff. Thats just the tip of the iceburg. Someone please give me some advice I cantbring a newborn into this horrible apt. Please any advice!!!

sassy::

I have suspected a bed bug for about a month, waking up with non-itchy bites on arms and shoulders. I’ve read most of the instructions and posts and can’t find any info on if I need to cover my box spring as well as mattress? Any suggestions on this? Or is spraying the box spring with DE helpful? Does DE stain carpets or other surfaces you spray?

Ilham::

I am very happy to find this site! I moved to Qatar three months ago. My husband had rented a villa already furnished. I was very sick after moving couldn’t get new mattresses and neglected to notice that one of the mattresses had black spots and the wood frame too. Recently I checked closer and noticed dead bed bugs in the frame. I called the land lord and they removed the mattress and bed frame and I vacuumed. Here is my question: do we have live bed bugs?

None of us have seen live bugs, none of us (husband, son, me) have been bitten (that I can tell, just occ. isolated bites that could be from anything) in three months. My husband says he is very allergic to them (experience from years ago in home country) so I figured we would know. I have only seen dead bed bugs after the bed was taken out. I don’t know what to do because I don’t know where to find the things here like DE (but I am going to try) and don’t trust the pest control company. If there were eggs or live bugs wouldn’t we have see them or been bitten by now? Any advice would be welcome, I feel so depressed after finding them and have read so many awful horror stories. Thanks!

John G.::

I only come back to this site to see how people are doing. If you have been battling these bugs for a while then you need to start steaming. The heat kills the bugs and the eggs.

freaked out again!!::

Hello, need some guidance. We had an infestation a year ago isolated to one room. We had Orkin come out and treat 4 times, washed and bagged all clothes and put outside, removed any clutter, encased our box spring, mattress and pillows. We slept in another room for two months. The bugs were eventually eradicated from our room. Unfortunately, the psychological impact remained for my husband.

Well our worst nightmare just came true. They are back!! What the heck!! How could this happen? Were they dormant? Did they really never leave us? What the heck do we do know? Do we do the same thing we did before? Do we throw our furniture away? I don’t know if we can go through another summer of hell with these things.

Has anyone had them return after being gone for several months? Help us!!

FirstTimeFighter::

Wonderful…if it isn’t one thing it’s another! We just moved into our own home (finally, yay) about a month and a half ago. The house is 109 years old with hardwood floors and needs lots of work to “refurbish” things. There was carpet in only two rooms that we ripped out before we moved in, leaving only 2 large and thin area rugs as the only “furnishing” left here (one upstairs and one down). Our basement is old and damp…can they live in there? My son hangs out down there sometimes (teen boy…working on bikes etc).

I have no idea WHERE these bedbugs came from! My son (in one upstairs room with one of the area rugs) found about 5 bed bugs two days ago in his bed. He has not slept in it since and caught 3 more (one baby) in a ziploc baggie to show me what he found in the bed. (I had never seen them before and only half believed him). His bed is not on a frame and sits on the floor. We are going to throw it out since it is older with some tears in it, etc. Son HAS slept over at friends homes since we moved in here, so I thought maybe one or more hitched a ride home, but wouldn’t it take a while to end up with that many adults obviously breeding in his own bed?

I sprayed a pesticide in the baggie first (to see if it kills them), then covered every inch of his floor and area rug. I also sprayed the bed in and out since we are going to throw it away and don’t want them “falling off” as we drag it downstairs to the trash. We will probably buy cheap mattress covers to zip it into before dragging it through the house to the trash.

I don’t know where they “hang out” in his room. He does have a little attic door on one side of the room that leads to a non-usable area with blown-in insulation in it. I sprayed all around that little door too. Could they be living in there? The old house we have barely has any outlets, but even so, I will remove the covers and continue the search everywhere I can think of. Where else should I look? We cannot afford much at all and definitely can’t just replace furnishings and bedding on a whim…

Is the “diatomaceous earth” the same thing as Borax (Boric Acid).I live in Michigan…where can I get it?

In thinking back, it IS possible that my son or his one bag of luggage became “contaminated” when he returned from Louisiana to Michigan in April on the Greyhound bus lines. There had been none seen until July 6th, however, and no one has appeared to have been bitten.

Nasty, mysterious, annoying creatures! I hope we are catching them in time for a quick success to ridding our lives of them.

Thank you so much for your suggestions and insight. I’ve read through some of your stories and I am a bit terrified at what we may be up against (insert sad face here).

Wildabeast::

I just feel the need to vent…

Six years ago, living in a *beyond* dilapidated apartment building in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood with a landlord who was no joke INSANE (he had serious bipolar disorder for which he was on incredibly heavy meds that gave him memory gaps and an extremely unpredictable temper), we got an awful, class-A bed bug infestation.

The landlord refused to spray and I didn’t know then that Toronto has this beautiful law that states that if a landlord refuses to spray, you just wait till you have rent money, hire an exterminator, pay the exterminator, retain the bill, and hand it to the landlord at rent time along with rent-minus-the-final-sum-on-the-bill, and the landlord is STUCK for it. Not a damn thing he can do.

I didn’t know that then, so we struggled along trying to solve the problem with do-it-yourself fixes for six months – and when I say bad infestation, I mean that I had about 100 bites at any given point. I was scratching myself bloody in my sleep. We threw out the bed and got an air mattress, but we had a cat…so the mattress quickly became a flat pile of rubber and the bites continued. Finally we moved, and even had to have the new place sprayed before the horror ended.

Fast forward to beginning of June 2011. We moved – and, of course, asked both landlord and superintendent about any bug history. One or two roaches here and there, they said, nothing to worry about. Roaches I can fight, roaches I can starve out through good housekeeping. Fine. Only…six days after we moved in, my girlfriend killed a big fat adult bedbug. I had been in my previous apartment for 3 years without a bug or a bite, so I was damn sure I hadn’t brought the little bastards with me when I moved.

When, after seeing 4 bugs in two weeks, I reported the problem to my landlord, his response was to call all the other tenants, tell me nobody else had complained, suggest I had brought them with me, TELL ME HE HAD HAD THE APARTMENT SPRAYED AFTER THE LAST TENANT LEFT (which he did NOT tell me before I moved in when I asked about bugs) so there could be no bugs (as I’m sure all you guys know they can live for up to 12 months without a meal *shudder*) – and then he sent his nephew to buy bug spray somewhere and gave it to the super and told the super to spray my apartment.

The super decanted about 1/4 of what the landlord gave him into a PREVIOUSLY USED DIFFERENT TYPE OF BUG SPRAY bottle (chemical reaction, anyone?), brought it to me, and told ME to spray – without mask, gloves, material safety data sheet, the name of the chemical I was supposed to use, proper ventilation (half the windows here are jammed shut), or ANYTHING. Then he quit as super over some quarrel with the landlord.

After two weeks of this farce I threw up my hands, waited till I had rent money, and hired an exterminator, knowing it would come out of rent and not my pocket (which tends to be fairly shallow), and went through the standard but enormous pain in the butt that is prepping a house for bedbug extermination.

The landlord sent yet another of his inexhaustible supply of nephews (I’ve been here a month and have seen 3) to collect rent. About an hour after I forked over rent and receipt, I got an irate phone call from the landlord, wondering if I had gotten my apartment sprayed or the whole house (how could I get the whole house sprayed when I only occupy one unit?!), screaming that if I had bedbug problems again in the next 12 months he would not pay for extermination (illegal in this city), bellowing that I should have waited for him to arrange for the whole building to be sprayed (something he never mentioned the possibility of), and simultaneously claiming that his initial cavalier attitude had been justified by the fact that nobody else had complained. I told him I could not talk to him since he was lying to my face, hung up the phone and threw it (fortunately not breaking it).

Thank GOD I have been keeping a log of all bedbug-related conversations since this disaster started, and thank God it doesn’t seem to be too brutal an infestation (I have maybe 5 bites at any one time instead of 100)…because if this keeps up I’m going to end up at the rental tribunal or involved in a lawsuit, and if that happens then by all the saints and half-forgotten-and-no-longer-worshiped gods, I am going to make sure I come out ahead. I can’t BELIEVE I have to go through this all again, after 5 gloriously bedbug-free years…it’s enough to make the angels weep.

FirstTimeFighter::

Wildabeast, what a terrible encounter! Unfortunately (here in Michigan) many Landlords are jerks like that. I recall leaving an apartment for a better place (nothing to do with bed bugs…didn’t have any) and my Landlord was so angry they broke the law, retaining my deposit without cause, ignoring my proper, legal and timely certified letters of intent to vacate and disagreement with their “assessment” of damages, etc.

They claimed that I left an infestation of fleas. I didn’t have any pets! Other tenants in the building did though and the new tenant in mine obtained furniture from wherever she could when she moved in immediately after me.

Long story short, I sued him for two and a half times the retained amount (a lawyer advised me to after looking at paperwork between us) and I LOST! The judge’s exact words were, “usually the Landlord sues the Tenant and I favor the Tenant, but since the Tenant is suing the Landlord I am going to favor the Landlord”. Can you believe that?? If I had had the money I would have continued on and tried to have the judge go before the judicial board or whoever oversees his “rulings”. What a crock…the landlord skated away with $850 of mine for NO reason.

I sure hope your situation improves and that not all L/T cases have idiot judges like I had.

FirstTimeFighter::

I’m hoping that was the end of them and we caught them quick enough to be done with them. I ended up getting Sevin dust (kills fleas, ticks, spiders, etc for gardens and plants) since our stores do not have the DE. I mixed it with 20 Mule Team Borax (in laundry soap section of stores). I couldn’t figure out what to put it in to “puff” it around the house – looking all through the stores though I found a cheap set of plastic ketchup and mustard dispensers in the grilling section. Those worked pretty good and the tops can be cut a bit bigger if needed.

First we put a new zippered mattress cover on, then took it downstairs to the trash. I didn’t want anyone to take it home so I wrote on the cover in big black letters, “Junk – Not Worth Taking” since pretty much our entire state is suffering financially and people DO go through trash a lot. Unfortunately, while I was busy “dusting” upstairs, someone DID take the mattresses within about an hour of me putting them out there! I feel so bad for whoever took it, but I did try and warn people not to take it. I couldn’t very well write “BioHazard” or “Do Not Take” or “Infested” because then the trash company would not have taken it either.

Anyway, I’ve dusted the entire upstairs including attic. Son is staying on first floor for about two weeks. Wrapped stepson’s mattresses (another room upstairs) in zippered plastic. No sign of anything in his room or anywhere else. Then I got the Sevin granules and small broadcast spreader (handheld) and did entire basement, garage, attic and perimeter of house outside. I’ve come away with some battle scars since I tripped over a root outside while using broadcaster, fell, scuffed up legs pretty good, jarred the deteriorating disks in my lower back (now out of place) and either broke or severely sprained my right thumb! OUCH…it sure seems to hurt worse at 43 yrs old than when I was a kid!

Hopefully I won’t be back here to discuss more “treatment”, “expenses”, “injuries” or “infestation”. Good luck to everyone fighting these awful little monsters.

Just want to add: so far no bites on anyone – my son saw them in his mattress before he slept on it and hasn’t been upstairs since except to get his few clothes for me to re-wash. Also, it cost me about $50 plus whatever a new bed will cost when we get it. (Currently son sleeps in an extra single bed downstairs). The Sevin Dust canister is less than $10, a large bag – about 15 lbs of Sevin Granules for outside is $10 – both kill ticks which look a LOT like bed bugs, the “dispensers” (catchup and mustard) were $1.88, and the 20 Mule Team Borax was $3.36 for a decent sized box. The zippered mattress covers were $10 each. The handheld broadcaster (can be used for grass seed or any amendments to outdoor soil, etc) was about $6.

Also, Sevin dust is safe enough for pets to be around. My sister and I have both used it in the past (small amounts) to “dust” barn cats and farm dogs to kill their fleas only if they have a very bad infestation…otherwise we use regular drops that go on pet’s back and back of neck. I would not recommend using it around children or letting them touch it though – and wash it off if you get any on your own skin.

Mia::

For a few nights in a row I was itching so bad at night that I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been having issues with hives (stress related) lately and figured that was the cause. However last night my husband and I were both itching and unable to sleep. We got out of bed and found bed bugs. Today I have stripped the bed, bagged the bedding and vacuumed the bed as well as the room. After reading almost every post on here I sprayed bug killer only at the entry/exit points to the room to try to contain the problem. After pulling the bed away from the wall I found the tell tale black spots, one really bad spot and other less severe. This has me wondering if my “hives” were actually the bed bugs eating off me (and not my husband) or if it really was hives. A friend of ours had bed bugs and we took some preventative measures when he told us about it.
Obviously we didn’t go all out on it but I’m hoping we did enough to keep them from spreading to the rest of the house. All of the posts I have read here have been very helpful. We don’t really have enough money to hire an exterminator and when our friend was dealing with the issue, he couldn’t find anyone that would guarantee the problem would end, even after multiple treatments. We will be getting the covers for our mattress and boxspring and we will probably move that bed to the garage after its sealed. (Luckily we have another bed)
I find that I’m kicking myself now tho… Back when our friend had bed bugs I should have done research so I would have seen the signs. After everything I’ve read today, I know I could have put a stop to this before it got crazy. So for all of you that have bed bugs, tell people! Don’t be embarrassed about it, these things happen. Make sure your friends/family know what to look for or even what they can buy to help prevent the spread to their house(s).
I don’t know for sure yet if my problem is really only in one room… My dog always sleeps with us so she might have even carried them to the rest of the house. As I said b4, we don’t have a lot of money so we will be trying to solve this problem as cheaply as possible. Thank you again to everyone that has posted advice here, I will let you know how things go for us.

Wildabeast::

To FirstTimeFighter:

Thank you for your sympathy. This landlord of mine…well, he could be worse. At least he isn’t medicated to the point of active insanity. He’s just cheap to the point of complete irrationality, but that’s standard. I suppose I’m just finding it unpleasant because my last landlord was reasonable, polite, honest, helpful, etc., etc. I only moved out of his place because it was a basement apartment and the lack of light and six-foot ceilings were a bit hard to deal with. I hope that what you’ve used will work at your place – bedbugs are notoriously hard to kill with standard bug killers, though. Like cockroaches, perfectly adapted – only more so.

Better-tasting Half: I know how you feel. I’m that person too. I don’t know why they love me, but they love me. I’m a walking four-star meal to them, and my girlfriend barely gets a nibble. Mind you, when the cat got fleas somehow last summer, she got eaten alive and they didn’t touch me. Still, I would totally trade!

Oh, and just a little happy tidbit of information for those of us who get chowed down on – did you know that when a bedbug bites you, it also injects you with a soporific drug that’s in their saliva, so you sleep through the biting process? Yep yep…they don’t just eat you alive, they drug you while they’re at it. It doesn’t matter in cases of light infestations, but when I had that really bad infestation six years ago, and was having 100 bites at once on me, I would wake up in the morning feeling so doped-up…a pot of coffee didn’t even help. So, I don’t know what to do about it, but be warned guys! I hadn’t seen that lovely fact mentioned in this thread so far.

Hire that exterminator!!! I know you can’t afford it but…they will NOT go away otherwise! However, do your research before you hire, even though your skin is crawling with every breath you take. Since you occupy the entire house, it ought to be possible to hire an exterminator who will give a six-month guarantee – that is, that they will come back and spray as many times as necessary inside a six-month period for the same price you originally paid, without you having to cough up again. Then make sure you get them to come twice in two weeks, since two sprayings in 10-14 days is best for messing up the life cycles of those little unprintables. Wait after spraying #2. If you see any more, get a third spray done two weeks after the second. Just keep calling them in every two weeks until you stop seeing the bugs – then wait till right before your six months runs out, and have them in to do a final strafing, whether you see any bugs or not.
This will necessitate having all your clothes in sealed double bags each time you spray…so you may just want to have everyone keep three outfits out, seal up the rest, and do a lot of laundry for the next month or so. Prepping a house for extermination is a royal pain in the gluteus maximus, but it’s the only way to get rid of an infestation. Good luck – and make sure you get a GOOD exterminator!

Rinks::

This tip has been used in the past by some people.. use sliced onions/onion juice .. somehow it just keeps them away ….

John G.::

Over and over I have been telling people to steam. I get the feeling they ignore me and keep posting on here that the bugs keep showing up and biting them and are frustrated. Everybody needs to realize it’s the eggs that are the source of the problem ! They hatch and the babies go in search of a blood meal right away. They are so small you can’t see these nymphs or the eggs unless you use a hand held magnifying glass with lots of light. When you feel something crawling on you at night and then you turn on a light and can’t spot any bug it was probably a baby nymph that fell off of you.

OnceBitten::

Last Saturday my daughter said “dad I think we have a problem”. She then shows me a strange bug she had smashed on her bed. Yeap, it was a bed bug ! Life hasn’t been the same since. I knew something was up, since both of my daughter were getting bites on their legs, that I thought were fleas (we have a dog). I started by throwing away their mattresses and wood frame beds. Then went out and purchased Hot Shot bed bug spray, and sprayed their room around the base board. Then sealed all electrical outlets and cracks between rooms. Then bagged the mattress and boxspring in my room. All clothes are being washed and dried in hot/high.

Items purchased so far:
Hot Shot bed bug spray
Vinyl Mattress covers
White sheet sets
Safer Brand 5168 Ant and Crawling Insect Killer Powder
Vapamore Primo Steam Cleaner
Eureka 3670G Mighty Mite Canister Vacuum

I purchased the new vacuum because it has bags. Our current vacuum is bag-less with a hepa filter. After vacuuming up bedbugs you need to dispose of them ASAP.
Plans for the weekend are to steam clean the carpets (not using the Vapamore), then steam base boards (Vapamore), spray hot shot and lay down DE (Safer Brand) power. Any suggestions are welcomed !

only one bitten::

I have a problem with these little pesky little buggers. I sometimes stay with my boyfriend and i keep getting these bites and thought that it was spider or ant bites but then today i finally saw two of them. My boyfriend or nor anyone else has gotten bit but me. and they only seem to be in the one bed in the house. So is there somthing i can do to help them rid the bed of these things at a reasonably price. There are kids and pets in the house so i need somthing thats going to be safe.

John G.::

Elizabeth, it is normal to get frustrated. But as you see the bites go away you will feel relieved. Myself and many who write on here had anxiety about them long after they were last seen so expect that. We tend to think they will show up again even though they are gone. As for the steamer you should be able to find a garment steamer with hose and wand at a discount warehouse type store, maybe Walmart.

I found mine at a Costco where I live for under $50 and it eradicated them, glad to say!If you don’t have Costco there is costco.com and you can order. Dry your clothes and linens on high heat for at least 30 minutes as long as it doesn’t damage your linens. If it will then just bag them up airtight and store them for a month or so. The bugs could just be in your couch or bed.

If you just bought your couch I would suspect that. If not, I would suspect your bed. I have earlier posts you can read in which I describe how I got rid of them from my beds. I suggest you read those.

Freakin.Out.But.Ready.For.War::

Well me and my family just stayed at a motel recently, and after much research, confirmed we have bed bugs. I am covered in bites. We are kind of low income young couple and we do our best to pay rent, so needless to say I cant afford an exterminator. But thanks to your site, I am well informed and I am ready to take this fight head on, Ill make those suckers pay! Thanks for the info and wish me luck!

Ryan in NJ::

I have a bad feeling that I have the beginnings of a bed bug issue. A few nights ago, I noticed a set of bites in a particularly uncomfortable region of my body, and figured that they were bed bug bites due to the unique nature of them (two sets of 3) and their particular orientation (roughly linear). Please note that I learned all of this information from the site!

Since that time, these are the following steps I have taken:

1. Replaced my cloth mattress cover with a mattress cover that is supposed to be ‘bed bug resistant’ (as a side note… the cloth mattress cover had two small holes near the head of the bed… I think the little buggers ate through it)
2. Checked the integrity of the box spring cover I put on a while ago – other than a few small holes I covered with some plastic tape (which appeared to be due to the screws in the bed frame), the cover looked fine
3. inspected the entire room, including floorboards, door crevices, and around electrical sockets for eggs, shells, fecal matter, and bugs, observed nothing,
4. Moved everything from my room into the bathroom and vaccuumed the entire room excluding my closet (which is next on the list to be vacuumed). Vacuumed along the floorboards, crevices, etc
5. Cleaned all paper and junk out of room to trash
6. Washed all floorboards with All-Purpose 409 cleaner
7. Examined bed frame, and washed bed frame with all-purpose 409 cleaner
8. Emptied clothes out of all drawers in my dresser and put them in trash bags. Examined all drawers of dresser next to my bed – no signs of any bugs

Could anyone suggest appropriate next steps to try to avoid an infestation? I am not sure that I can put down this DE stuff, as I have to live in this room on a daily basis (I live with roommates), and I would be walking in and out of the room every day. I am also hesitant to buy a steamer because I inspected the entire room and couldn’t find anything.

Thanks for any help / advice you can give! I hope I can avoid a major problem.

kathy::

hi…………i got my apartment fumigated and i have de dusted everywhere so my question is…

if i wax all my hardwood floors (after washing with murphy’s oil soap and vacuuming) with pledge with it seal and kill the eggs if any are left ??

thank you

Kristy::

I brought home on my luggage what I think are bed bugs from a trip to Utah to see my bro-in-law. He had bed bugs he got from a used mattress while he lived in Ohio. He did his own fumigation treatment, thought all was well and later moved to Utah. A few months later I went to visit and he was kind enough to let me stay in his room. I returned home, threw my suitcase in my guest room and began to unpack slowly.

Sometime within the week I noticed bumps on my back that became irritated. I couldn’t see the bumps and didn’t worry much about it. Then, 10 days after returning from my trip, I was awoken in the middle of the night with the feeling that something bit the inside of my arm. The next morning while showering I felt bumps under my left arm. I looked in the mirror and saw 3 bumps, 1 of the bumps was really irritated and was right in the spot I felt something bite me the night before. I also noticed 3 bumps in a line along my collarbone to my neck. I wasted no time…I researched and realized my bumps looked like bed bug bites. I then had a moment of realization “My brother in law had, had bed bugs”…OH NO! I had no idea how horrible these bugs are. If I had I would have warned him that he needed to do more than fumigate once.

Worried about the bites on my back (that had became so irritated I could barely sit back in a chair) I went to the doctor. 1 of the bites on my back had become infected and I had to take antibiotics. Following the doctor appointment I called Terminix. The branch manager happened to be on call and he came to the scene. I threw my bed coverings in the wash, which now I know I should have done after the inspection rather than before. He looked over my room and didn’t see any signs of bed bugs…hmmmm.

Convinced I have bed bugs, I bought the mattress and box spring covers (pretty pricey) and put them on. I deep cleaned my room that night by vacuuming and mopping and wiping everything in my room with AJAX and hot water. I also began the dry, wash, dry process with my laundry which is going to take FOREVER! That night I found some bugs that ended up being carpet beetles, great! Apparently beetles and bed bugs don’t get along so I figure the carpet beetles can stay so long as they push the bed bugs out. I can’t believe I would say that.

I continue to deep clean and change the sheets every 2 days. I haven’t seen any bugs or anything that I know is droppings etc. I did see some blood on one of my pillows after the first set of known bites. I also haven’t been bitten but I have also been sleeping with the lights on.

My plan now is to get all my clothes into bags and do hot shot on Saturday. I bought the can hot shot to spray in the walls and on my furniture etc. and then I plan to set the foggers off. I am doing the entire house because I have animals and am afraid they have carried the bugs throughout the house. During the fogging I am going to take all my clothes, linens etc. to the laundromat and dry, wash, dry, and then put in plastic sealable bags. When I can return to my home I plan to steam clean, vacuum and wash everything and put DE in the holes of the walls and seal them. I then plan to do the same process the following weekend.

Hopefully this works for the bed bugs and carpet beetles…any other advice or thoughts? Should I do all of this without having seen any real evidence of the bugs? I think there is a dead one underneath the mattress cover but I’m not going to open it to find out. I have what I think is a recent set of bites on my scalp. Do they go in your hair and bite you? I thought they avoided hair.

John G.::

Not So Sure, I would be surprised if they laid eggs on the frame as opposed to the mattress but it is possible. If the egg laying has stopped then there wont be any babies because they die soon with out a blood meal. I would take precautions. I suggest a thorough visual inspection. Check some areas at least with a magnifying glass which would clearly show you any eggs or maybe even an adult in crevices. Steam treat the entire frame or poor scalding water over it. Steaming is the more practical option.

MS.Thompson::

Please help I have bed bugs and I know where they came from. My neighbors in the upstairs apt has them now they reached to my apt. I have a 1 year daughter she has gotten bitten and her reaction to bites are huge welts look swollen. I also have bites too. My landlord has pest control pest people coming tomorrow. Any suggesting to what I need to do if that doesn’t work please somebody help me and my daughter!

Tip-ster::

(1 of 2 tips) Stuff like Gold Bond medicated cream and a prescription topical corticosteroid called Nerisone Cream, soothes bedbug bites for several hours (I was prescribed the Nerisone Cream to treat exema).
(2 of 2 tips) One way to keep bedbugs off your bed could be to wrap a sticky tape…backwards… (duct tape?) around your bed’s legs. They might get stuck on the tape if they try to climb up onto your bed. Of course, your bed coverings must not touch the floor or the walls.

I am so grateful to the folks that have shared their knowledge/wisdom on fighting bedbugs, that I thought I would do my small bit to show my gratitude & keep the flame alive.

jeff z::

I’m with a pest control company. When infested with these pests,patience is the issue.First and most important, do not take anything out of the room. Most of the time bed bugs will stay where their blood meal is located. They can travel up to 100 ft though.

When removing washable materials from room use a plastic bag. Put in dryer for at least 30 min. Call a pro. Bed bugs are not guaranteed by any pest control company. They are resilient and resistant to all over the counter pesticides. And now most pesticides. Someone specializing in this is the only sure way to rid these. This is time consuming and long procedure to eliminate

John G.::

Locust, I agree with you because I got rid of them on my own spraying, steaming and applying tape and puffing out DE from a baster! I like his point though about patience and bags.

Josh::

I have been dealing with this for about 4 months. The doctors first determined that I had Exzema. I was going crazy and was determined that I didnt all of sudden after 32 years of life that I would just come down with exzema.
The best remedy I have for relieving the itch is HOT water, the hotter the better. It will itch intensly for a minute but will take the itch away for hours. I have tried creams and allergy pills doctor prescribed and over the counter.
The second best remedy is drinking lots of water, again the more the better. I cant explain why but it helps alot. Maybe flushing the poison out of the skin?
The third best remedy was neem extracts…creams, essential oils, etc

As far as getting rid of them…we have cleaned and ran all of our fabrics the wash and put them in black plastic garbage bags in the sun for a day. We also spread DE all over the house and let off store bought bug bombs. Three days later we finally slept in our room and they came back. Hopefully this weekend I will be cooking the house…I will let you know what happens.

Thanks for all the good posts and ideas.

Eric R::

Don’t know how I got these little buggers but I did. Hopefully I caught them in time I can take care of it myself. Since I do gardening, I decided to experiment with stuff I had laying around, and it kills them on contact. I used an insecticidal some by the brand name of Garden Safe. Best of all, it is organic and OMRI approved.

Brian::

I’m wanting to use DE preemptively on an apartment I’m about to move into since I had noticed a complaint about bedbugs online from a year ago and I have two questions. One I’m wondering if I decide to use it again after I move all of my stuff in should I be worried about it getting in the vents of my computer? From the sounds of it this stuff gets everywhere. My other question is about a mixture of water and de I’ve seen some people mention. Does this work? Since the point of de is to dehydrate them won’t mixing it with water quench the powder and make it ineffective?

TheRoomMate::

Hot Shot Bombs do not work unless sprayed on them directly….trust me….my name is Sean and I’m from new England and recently had an injury a few months ago and been laid up outta work….due to having my injury I’ve been forced to sleep on a couch for three months with which I see and believe to be bed bugs.

I’ve been there roommate for legit 3 months…….I know these little pests patterns like the back of my hand….I know their cycles….I know there breeding habits and what they do to hide…..and a simple bomb will not work!

For at least a month now I’ve spent well over a hundred bucks on chemicals and foggers and it comes up short every time and they go dormant until the mist clears…..they love to hide in the seams of couches beds and there personal favorite over in my neck of the woods is in your clothes so they can easily travel.

I can not express how much these bed bugs have effected me……I can’t even walk into my own house without “skeeving” out! You’ve gotta have a super strong mentality to get all these pests yourself…..take it from someone whose been battling these apocalyptic little buggers for a solid 3 months now….they’re not a walk in the park….and definitely aren’t something to take for granted because before you know it there crawling outta clothes, and at that point it may be too late.

No one believed me for months and that’s what I was afraid of….because now there all up inside my couch and being carried by my dog everywhere…….such a mentally and physically draining infestation……..I mean not for nothing but I just watched something on tv about bedbugs and the infestation rate in the u.s. Has gone up 500% in the past few years….and I’ve even heard of people throwing away tens of thousands of dollars all the way down to spending whole college savings accounts to wipe them out and still with no results!

Pretty scared for my household folks….it has been three months and we can definitely not afford any kind of half backed extermination……..so I’m on this fight alone and don’t know how much more I can take without going stir crazy being outta work and chilling with these blood suckers all day.

Any insights or feedback on here has helped me gain more knowledge so everyone keep posting and keep up the good fight….any help from anyone will turn up useful……so everyone sleep tight…….or try to any who…….letting this just build for months is turning out to be pretty tragic to my household considering we recently just last summer remodeled the entire house…..so moving out is not an option…..I don’t know what to do……need some ideas

Jes::

Me and my husband moved in to this house in June…. and a week after I found bites on my leg and I saw couple funny looking bugs. I Told my husband maybe we have bedbugs. He immediately said I am crazy. There is no such thing. And he convinced me that my bites were from the yard and I only saw beetles.

To help with my bites, I have been putting on baby oil on me before I go to bed. Since I haven’t got any bites and we forgot the whole thing.

Til, last month, he started getting bites. And this time he freaked out (LOL) and worse than me. I also started seeing bugs running across my pillows and I crashed them. He actually has couple running on his face and woke him up at night.

And of course, I was woken up with his freaking out. And it was 4am. I then remember I saw Vaseline somewhere on internet and I started putting on the headboard. He also found lots of them running along the headboard. Due to we both had to get up at 8am for work, we only put vaseline on the headboard and turn to sleep on the bed end. And both of us just wear socks so the bugs just can’t go inside to bit us.

we finally able to get couple hours to sleep. The end of the work day, we went to home depot and got a cheap heat gun and used it to treat the bed fame. As he found the bugs living inside the bed fame (we have wooden bed fame… yuk). When he was doing it, we saw bugs just dropped and instant dead. We had the heat gun set to 250-300 degree.

I also put all the pillows in the dryer on high for an hour. I washed all the sheets and blankets. When we pull the mattress out, we saw some running around. I spray 91% rubbing alcohol on the mattress and let it dry.

We also put DE on bed fame underneath the mattress.

I am not sure when the end of the war. But we are fighting til the end and I believe that we will win!!! :)

Mica::

Hello all,

I just discovered that I have a bb problem (YIKES) and they are eating me alive! I have checked soooooooo many sites, but none seem to promising with info. Finally, I came across this site and I am soooooooooo THANKFUL! Not only did I find the DE, but the guy at the plant nursery told me about this bed bug spray that contains PERMACIDE (P-1). I was a bit skeptical at first because none of the sprays I’ve used work…….NONE! At this point I’m desperate and took his word for it. So, after applying the DE all over my house (looks like a white Christmas in there) I start to spray the bb spay (with permacide) in the corners of the walls and baseboards ….they started to come out and go DOWN! With just one squirt of this stuff they stop dead (literally DEAD) in their tracks, so you know I went spray crazy right?

I’m gonna keep this routine up for about two weeks and hopefully I will get rid of these blood sucking invaders! By the way I got bb from my neighbor! I live in a condo and the bb’s are coming through the outlet that’s adjacent to my neighbor unit. I taped that outlet up and it will never be use again!!!! Yesterday was my first day using the DE and bb spray, but I will update you all with the progress of my extermination.

Jone::

@ Mohammad

I’m not sure that alcohol will do any good. There is some information that indicates heat or cold are pretty much the only two proven things that a homeowner can do to kill bed bugs. You might be doing more damage to your stuff, not to mention risking a fire hazard with vaporizing alcohol all over the place.

Goo luck.
-Jone

BBhater::

I have a softside waterbed also. I ended up getting the tubes for it so I can move it when I need to. I have the tubes for it and I also ordered a zippered mattress encasement because it zips up all around the bed on 3 sides, not as much as the top of my softside mattress, but enough so I can get the tubes into it, zip the top of the mattress and then zip the encasement around it.

I haven’t gotten it yet, but I’m hoping that it will help my problems. I found several in my box spring so I steamed it really good. I’ve only seen one since then. I sprayed the mattress and box spring really well with Bedlam and haven’t seen any since that. I used drione dust around my headboard and around the edges of my box springs. I have used the steam and Bedlam and the dust mostly.

I’m hoping that when I get the mattress/box spring encased, and keep up with the spray/dust, I will be done with these suckers. I hated to get rid of my bladder in my bed, but the tubes are actually very comfortable. I did put a memory foam insert above the tubes, inside the mattress before I zipped it up. I can’t tell much of a difference. Hope some of this helps!

John G.::

It’s been a little while since I posted and I also just read a number of posts to catch up with you guys. I am happy to say that we haven’t seen any bugs for a while and I still believe we are bug free.

I always assumed my boys would get bitten again at their Mom’s house but they haven’t for a while. It’s hard for me to believe I eradicated the bugs there because I only had time to steam the bottom mattress of their bunk bed and I only saw one baby nymph. At the time of my battle I took a photo of a bug on my mattress and I may post this photo later because I finally managed to get it on my computer.

I’m sorry some of you are suffering and I hope my previous suggestions are helpful.

can’t sleep in va::

Well, it’s coming up on 4 weeks since we realized we had bedbugs. Two weeks ago my father came to help with the heavy lifting & kid occupying and we:

• pulled the mattress & box springs outside (previously bagged)
• laid a tarp on the floor and steamed the *bleep* out of the supports and frame
• took the whole thing apart and outside, then steamed every inch
• puffed DE into the baseboards, swept up the excess on the floor (I went a little crazy the first time) and it got nicely into all the creases of the wood
• caulked the baseboards (we also had to lay & seal quarter round because there used to be carpet) and outlets and any holes we could find
• ripped up the carpet in my daughter’s (neighboring) bedroom, but found no signs of bugs. Dusted the baseboards and outlets anyway, and they were already caulked from when we painted.
• after we assembled the bed again we wrapped carpet tape around the legs, just in case. But my dad pointed out that we shouldn’t do the mattress since we actually DO want to know if there are any more bed bugs.
  ****** Yes, we laid a barrier of d/s tape on the mattress, which gave us some respite from waking up at the slightest touch of hair on the arm but created new stress with not being able to stretch out without wrecking the tape, or if the sheets shifted it stuck to the head/foot boards.

We are slowly making our way through all of our misc laundry now that the dryer is working again.
This has been so exhausting and stressful, and I just keep crossing my fingers that it is over.

I do think we got very lucky and actually caught them before they traveled anywhere. We have caught a couple since our original attempt at cleaning, and my husband even caught a couple trying to sneak back inside on the box springs when we did this major cleaning. Fortunately they stuck out pretty well against the white encasement. >:D

In the first couple of days we changed the sheets every other day just to check, and I think our grand total has been 2 bugs (1 nymph & 1 small but not tiny – so hopefully just eggs that we missed and NOT capable of laying any more) and a couple of things that my paranoia says are husks that made it through the wash, but my husband thinks were probably just dirt.

John G, you have been the biggest help for us, bar none. Thank you SO much for all your advice!

John G.::

Jim, thank you for the nice comment. You made my day! I certainly hope I have been helpful to others who are trying to get rid of these bugs. I have finally posted my prized bed bug photo on my mattress I promised you guys as a special bonus!

The other ones are confirmed bite marks that occurred on my wife and my Son so you know what they look like.

Yvonne::

It’s been about 6 months since our battle started. Unfortunately, we were not well informed with the bed bug thing. Our daughter (15 yrs) is ultra sensitive. We have 3 dogs and thought that perhaps she was getting flea bits. Bought the appropriate foggers to remedy the situation. Turned her room inside out to make sure we had gotten all the fleas and what we thought were “ticks”. The problem continued in her room so she moved out of her room and into her younger sisters room. Bad idea. That room was now “contaminated.” We did not realize what we had were actually bed bugs until about 3 months ago. We have used heat in the bedrooms (one room at a time). Our room has been “heated” to 130 degrees twice. Not effective.

I read somewhere yesterday that it was because the room didn’t get hot fast enough, allowing them to run for cooler areas. And yes, we did it our selves with a propane heater. Very dangerous thing, I know. But with no money in the bank, we have had no choice. We found a site and paid $139 for products. We have covered our bedroom mattress/box spring and pillow with those special covers. We have caulked our base board and sprayed this treatment. Still have bed bugs. Must say we are very discouraged. But have no real choice but to continue with our war. Will keep you posted on our progress.

Newbie2BB’s::

Having a lot of anxiety about finding bed bugs in my bed. I didn’t know I had them till about 2 weeks ago. I had some bites on my ankle and didn’t know what the cause was. Thought I’d wash my sheets and get my blankets washed fresh before winter and I was in shock when I saw dead bed bugs in my dryer. I’d seen pics of them before and was pretty sure that was what they were. I went to the internet to look up photos just to double check and yep, that’s what they were. I thought I’d better check my bed and found at the top of my bed an area about the size of a quarter a bunch of baby bed bugs and some eggs.

About a month ago, I bought a new couch. My living room is about 20 -30 feet from my bedroom. I don’t know if a new couch could have had bed bugs in it or not. I’ve been frantically searching the internet on ways to kill these things. I head about rubbing alcohol killing them, and used that to kill that cluster of bed bugs. Then I vacuumed my entire room. I still got bit that night. Next day, checked my bed and found a few more baby’s but not as many as the first day. The day after that I only found one and for the next two nights I didn’t find any, but tonight I checked and they laid some more eggs on my bed again. It sounds from what I am reading in many of your posts, if I am going to win this battle, it will be weeks before I can be free of them. I plan to purchase a steamer and get some food grade Diatomaceous Earth.

I don’t have money to pay for an exterminator and it doesn’t sound like it’s 100% effective anyway. I hate sleeping in my bed but I have no where else to sleep. I plan to get some double sided tape this weekend. Can anyone tell me if this Diatomaceous Earth is harmful to pets? I have a cat that insists on sleeping on my bed with me. I’m afraid if I use this stuff, and she walks on it, will it harm her?

Kathleen::

We have had studies done that say the steam is a great start to helping eradicate bed bugs. Therma-Kleen sells American made vapor steam cleaners the reach temperatures between 300-380 degrees F. Because they are a dry vapor steam that is 95-97% dry, they are great to use on mattresses and walls. They would also be great to use on the hardwood floors, so you would have the to have them re-finished. This is a great way to start without all of the chemicals. These cleaners have helped many and have been sold to many hotels/motels.

Ashley::

I have found that using DE around my base boards, in the couch, and mattresses help. Also I found online that you can use Pinesol, Dawn dish soap, and water put them in a squirt bottle and spray the bugs and it kills them automatically. I have used this solution also on my baseboards, door casings, light switches/sockets.

Wake up call::

First I just want to say thanks to all the commenters on here for sharing your information. Its been really helpful. Here’s my story.

We are 3 adults and 2 children living in a 4.5-bedroom semidetached in Toronto. The neighbor is clean we did not get it from them. I just don’t know where they came from.

About 4 weeks ago and all of a sudden I started having many large hives running all over my arms and neck. Noone else in the house was affected. I thought I must have a health problem like failing to process milk or protein as I was working very hard at the time. Sometimes my hives would present an hour after a meal or physical exertion or midafternoon for no apparent reason. A friend said I must have all of a sudden some terrible allergy. After 3 weeks doctor could only find that I was low on B12.
Finally we discovered bedbugs in the master bedroom between the mattress and box spring with excessive blood and smear in the seams of the mattress.

I immediately looked up PCOs via the web. I could not tolerate sitting on this problem so to make a pick I compared the website quality, and writing style to make a selection from 3 that seemed to have a decent presentation on their site, and then doing a followup search with “complaints against ” (finding nothing). Now I know you are thinking, the website has nothing to do with the quality of the treatment! and you are right, but I had to nuke these buggers with heavy artillery for sanity’s sake, so I had to make a fast decision.
The service I went with was due to their mission statement of honesty, free resprays for 3 months and had a professional looking site. We had a day to get things organized before he showed up. In retrospect, we didn’t clear enough stuff for him to do a good spray, but again, I wanted immediate impact.

After onsite inspection he determined that the main infestation sites were the master bedroom concentrated near the bed, and the loft – generally distributed. We agreed to $600 for a full house spray and he started right away.
Really, just 90-110 minutes he came out and said he was done for now – having done 3 floors & basement. I kinda felt it was too fast, but its hard to say.
We discussed what I could expect: Living Bugs could stay hidden for up to 7 days, and then would have to transit across a sprayed area to be poisoned. Eggs in hidden areas would continue to hatch for 2 weeks and would have to transit across a sprayed area to become poisoned.
As a point of information, he uses a Hot Steamer for cracks and outlet and spray Premetherin solution at 5%. This is compared to over the counter consumer solutions of 0.25-0.3% for the same stuff. Roughly 15 times stronger. He is claiming a chemical effectiveness of 3-4 weeks, compared with 8-12 hours for the hand sprays.
Personality-wise the guy was low-key, felt honest to me and gave me ample time to ask questions and followup calls with no attitude. On the other hand, it was just a single guy and he was in and out in under 2.5 hours, soup-to-nuts.
Ultimately the personality worked for me, since I get really turned off with upsells and hard sells and he didn’t do any of that. The only questionable point was that he suggested we leave the netting on the bottom of the box springs and he would just jam his hose in there and spray all around. I kinda think we should be ripping that off and getting a look in there.
We left the house empty for 5-6 hours.
Now I don’t know if its just stress but within 24 hours of the spray I had painful stomach cramps, but they went away on their own. I was the only one with the cramps. Probably stress.

Worth mentioning, by this point I just could not bring myself to sleep in the master bed as bait so I was basically not sleeping until 4am and then on the couch downstairs or basement until work at 8 the next day. The bed was still baited by my partner who does not get a reaction to the bites. Horrendous fatigue, and I was really not myself (still not, its 3am atm).
After just one day post spray I was seriously considering the house heating treatment from a different provider which would be $3000-$4000 to “kill them in a day” but I am seriously skeptical of that actually working, so I chose to skip that for now.
Cleaning-wise, we have hot washed and hot dryed and bagged nearly all our clothes and stored them in the basement. New white sheets for everyone, and wash/dry daily for those.

Over the next week there was dropoff in sightings, but at the same time we are getting much better at finding them. Evenings and nights, we have found them in the broadloom, hanging off the netting under the master boxspring, and on the sheets during nighttime impromptu inspections. After the third day, we brought home DE and dusted the master bed and carpeting underneath. There is a trend towards only seeing nymphs, still seeing 2nd to 4th stage though. 6th day we found nymphs in one child’s bedroom broadloom, and both kids have single bites on their necks. Also we were not finding any in the impromptu inspections by day 6, however the grownup sleeping there does not get reactions to bites.
Tonight, 7 days post spray we found a crushed engorged queen in the bathroom behind a garbage bin which was really gross. And a nymph going up the wall in the master. I believe they are trying to get away now. So that’s where we’re at now.

Overall, I would say we are not close to done with this problem and I won’t really be comfortable until we get a second spraying done after clearing off our tabletops and moving the furniture out from the walls. We have also looked around at the household and realized we have a lot of non-essential stuff just sitting around so we got rid of it. Like an extra futon, 2 old cribs, a couch. I mean this stuff is useless to us even if we didn’t have bedbugs. So in that regard its been a real Wake up call.

Good luck to all

Miss Stress::

So for awhile I was living in my parent’s garage apartment when they discovered they had bed bugs (they go out of town a lot). My fiance and I suspected we had them too but my mother looked and said it was not bed bugs (clearly she was wrong). Now we have moved and have been living in a 2 bed 1 bath for 3 months now and we noticed bugs on the wall. We had Orkin come look and they moved the bed saying they were definitely bed bugs.

The apartment complex scheduled Orkin to come out and spray. We did all the prep even though we were low on funds and without a washer and dryer we were out almost $100. We weren’t really sure what to do with all of our miscellaneous items but we did the best we could. After they sprayed we did not see any bugs but refused to sleep in our room or unpack until they were going to come spray again. About a week and a half later they came out again. Since the house was still mostly prepped and we were wearing only a few clothes that had been washed and dried and stayed in my car we did not have much to worry about.

Now we are putting our house back together watching for signs of bed bugs as our roommate moves out and another person will be moving in this week. In the last week I have seen 2 bed bugs (I believe pretty much fully grown unfortunately) in the texture in my ceiling. We have some bed bug spray we got from Walmart and have been using it almost religiously. I’m 19 and I’m freaking out because I do not know how to stop our problem. Any advice or tips would be appreciated. I will be calling the apartment complex again tomorrow since we are still in our 30 day guarantee period with Orkin. But unfortunately I do not know I we will pay for the prep once again with bills due next week.

patricia::

Hello again John.G, been a little under a year since I’ve been here well got good and bad news i was able to get rid of the bugs last year at a large cost I will say. 1 storage locker for things we wanted to keep, still have it. Threw all furniture our away moved in to new place with TV comp cloths and anything I could wash and DE the place before we moved in.

Steamed floors every other day we got lucky we did not take any with us. Almost a year bug free mistake I made moved to different unit same place and they’re back. We have found a mouse hole in pantry and three mice i am wondering if that’s were they came from or down the common heating pipes. This is new started to wonder about a week ago and sure enough found one. My husband is freaking out so it’s really stressful right now. I always feared this so i did not unpack storage locker and all furniture is used. I refused to buy anything new this last year except a vacuum steam floor mop and garment steamer.

Going to do same as last year throw everything away if I cant wash it add a few things to storage locker and find new place to live, DE the new house and start over. The whole building is infected. I’ve been so paranoid this year when other tenants come over. When they leave I spray where they have sat with straight rubbing alcohol. This is going to be another exhausting month or so. Glad you won your battle John. Everyone, I am doing the extreme as I have a son and husband who react very badly to bites, that’s how I know we were bug free for a year. Thanks for letting me rant!

Missy::

We have bedbugs but they don’t seem to be biting or bothering us much, if at all.

I view them like mosquito’s. They will always be with us so learn to minimize them without getting too preoccupied. The lengths some people go to, to get rid of them, is unfortunate, because they will no doubt come back sooner or later. Like mosquitoes.

I believe that some people attract plenty of bedbug bites because of some internal chemistry. Other folks like us in our household, don’t.

Rose::

Got these blasted bed bugs last year some how. Last summer just sitting in my cloth recliner on laptop and my arm started itching and had a bunch of bites, at first thought a bunch of mosquitos had got me. Then I started getting bit in bed, big welts and intense itching. Husband not bit or that he could tell. Finally caught a bug and looked it up, sure enough a bed bug. Went to extermator and bought some spray and D. Earth. Did some good but not fast enough. Took my little halogen flashlight and a small paring knife, with a flexiable blade. Have a wood frame bed with carving. Found all kinks of the buggers in cracks and with light could see at night and before they can run I crushed them with knife blade.

Did not get much sleep for awhile as I would wake up every few hours and do a search and also check in daytime as they will be there. I also bought a heat gun and run it all over bed frame, all the joints, they also gets the eggs because you can see them, a pearly white color, All clothing gets tossed in dryer. I take bed apart every week and search. going to try the Dawn mixture). In the past few months have only found a few and they are young nits but they have been crushed.

My husband thinks I am nuts but heck the bites don’t bother him. He hates having my flashlight going off and on all nite but hey, its WAR. Before I go to bed at night I do my search and all nite. If I get bit it is up and at em. I will win…….. NEVER dreamed I would have these darn things. ( My bed frame looks terrible from the heat gun but it can be stripped and refinished.)

chantell::

I had bedbugs about 3 years ago it took me 8 months to get rid of them. i havent had any problems with them until these last 3 weeks i got them again. i havent got any new things or clothes and i know of no one who has bed bugs. i am puzzled on how i got them, anyone have any ideas? the only think i can think of is maybe because the landlord isnt taking care of it fast enough.

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi Samantha,

No, the bed bugs would not die in that short period of time – they can live up to a year (more like nine months) without feeding.

Joy::

I last posted on Sept 16. Just to give you an update, I sprayed two more times after Sept 16 and now I am completely free! I made sure I slept in the same room so they would not infest other areas of the house in search of food. I spayed the areas top to bottom with Hot Shots every ten days and yes, that means taking your bed and dresser apart but it was worth it. I saved a ton of money by staying on top of it and washing everything in hot water. Good luck to everyone.

Tobacco Brown::

Hello,

Just read your blog because I did not want to go to bed at all last night, because of bedbugs. I happily arrived a few weeks ago to visit my nephew and meet his fiance’ We stayed together and the couple left to spend Christmas with the family of the bride to be. They departed at 4:00 and my nephew woke me up and showed me this huge bug running across the bed, then it miraculously disappeared. My heart sank as I have luggage here to return with. I have been bitten several times until I started spraying the bed and surrounding areas with an organic formula. In a few days they return, and we have to make a group effort to to deal with this infestation. How can I proceed to KILL those parasites and protect my luggage ? This stole my Christmas vacation from me. Can you offer some effective information regarding this problem ?.

thank you,

ms. brown

having some success::

we found bed bugs in my daughters room we threw her bed right in the garbage and I happened to have pledge orange oil I was cleaning with I sprayed the bugs and they died so I we cleaned the room out I went all around everything with the pledge oil and left the room empty the next day there was bugs around the base boards was dead big and small ,my son had a futon mattress on his floor so we put everything on his bed opened the windows sprayed pledge orange oil all around the bed and when you go in the morning there are bed bugs dead everywhere in the oil I even sprayed the whole zipper on the cover of the futon mattress it was amazing the first day there was only a few big ones in the oil and 3 days later there are about 50 babies in the oil dead this morning it seems to be working and I’m lucky I don’t have carpets in my bedrooms my floors are slippery but its working for me and its cheap we have the kids sleeping in the living room and so far no new bites on them

debugmeplease::

I’m so glad 2 run across this sight !! I was in bed appr. 3 nights ago and felt something crawl’n on me. It was a little red bug. so small i couldn’t make out how it looked. I put it on a white piece of paper and squashed it, it was full of blood !! At that point I told my son (who was home from college) to help me check my mattress 4 bedbugs.

We found 1 bed bug alive n 1 dead at the head side of the bed. There were a lot of dark waste around the area. We then wrapped up the mattress n took it out to the garbage. We then checked his mattress n found approx. 6 large bugs (i assume to be adults), we discarded it. We’ve washed n dried all clothing bedding, n bagged it. We’re sleep’n on the couches in the living room.

Do these pest follow u to feed? I found 2 bites on my wrist today. I assume from the couch. I’m embarrassed, frustrated, n want to cry!! I’ve read about DE on some of ur post. oddly we checked the couches b-fore hand. Can i purchase DE from homedepot or walmart? SOMEBODY PLEASE ADVISE ME ON THIS SITUATION!! I’m on WITS END… Without a lot of $$$$. DEBUGMEPLEASE!!!!!

Poor, Poor Daddy::

My wife & I started getting bitten about a year ago. we kept it to ourselves and tried to deal with it on our own. 3am leaps out of bed, snatching the lights on and hunting all over the covers, usually to no avail as if they were smarter, invisible and more clever than us. seeing my wife’s arms covered in swollen bites makes me feel like i’m not protecting her from these Vampirous Bullies. And then they get me too.

Now my two poor teen daughters are waking up to numerous bites all over. they’re ashamed, afraid, and covered with bites that look like they will leave a permanent scar. we’ve bombed, sprayed, washed, dried, cleaned, dropped powders everything. and no relief. my wife and my room still is being visited (still doing the 3, 4, 5am jump ups) but not Nearly as much as my daughter’s cluttered, clothing covered rooms.

We all feel so helpless with no end in sight. if a bed bug could personify itself into a man, I would go to jail for Manslaughter on account of his attack on my family. Self Defense. Except, I’m still not able to Defend any of us from these tiny insidious Monsters.

mark::

The best solution for bed bugs is an ozone treatment. Ozone is non toxic and can be used in place and will not damage any furniture and can be used on upholstery and bedding. you just need a protocol that works.

Tammy::

Hi,

I live in an apartment in South Florida. After getting bites which started just before Thanksgiving and of course was chalked up to mosquito’s or something else, it was confirmed by pest control three weeks ago that we had bed bugs. Probably since I had at least 10 of them in a baggie to show them that I took from the mattresses in two bedrooms and I told the office of my suspicions . We covered the mattresses right away with the bed protectors (even before they confirmed they were bed bugs). But once they confirmed we threw the mattresses out. Since apparently I am allergic to these bites because I welt up to the size of a quarter from each bit, it was driving me crazy. After trying every bug bite lotion on the market, Benadtyll, Calamine lotion, Caladryll, Hydrocritzone cream, etc II started asking around about what to use on these bites and someone suggested Desitin (diaper rash ointment). The bites on me usually last at least four weeks and I am even scared from them. But the ones I put Desitin on, I don’t think will scar like the others and definitely feel much better than the others did as they do not itch nor do they even welt up.

I also did a lot of research on what to use for the bugs. And someone mentioned that these bugs do not like clove oil. Since I am desperate to do anything, I bought some. Since it is so strong, I mixed it with baby oil and started applying to my feet and legs. I also put some in a baggie with water and soaked a couple pieces of wash clothes in it and threw those around the bed, under a reclining chair that I slept in and would get bites in. I also made a mixture of rubbing alcohol, clove oil and Eucalyptus oil together and sprayed that on the chair and couch this weekend. Since I started using the clove oil on me and even putting some in my hair, I have not been bitten (knock on wood) in a few days. I don’t know if it’s coincidence or the clove oil but last night was the first night I have slept in months without waking up (with a flashlight in hand, my new bed partner) at 3 am because I feel something crawling on me and checking the bed, sheets, pillow, etc. (I am currently sleeping on an air mattress). I refuse to by a mattresses until I see no more bugs. And now my husband is scratching and even found a bug on his pillow this morning (he sleeps on the couch), which he thought I was crazy using this stuff, but who know what really works.

This is the third week that pest control is coming out as I sit here and type waiting for him. I have the bug in a baggie to show pest control.

I have the couch and recliner turned upside down and every drawer pulled out of the dressers. We washed everything we own at the laundry mat, (20 triple loads the first weekend), packed most of it in plastic bins and put it in storage. Are living out of two plastic bags of clothes each (one for work and one weekend ware). I hope this nightmare will ends soon, but and skeptical that we will be completely rid of these things but I will keep my fingers crossed. Has anyone fought these things and won?

Thanks for listening.

Shonda::

I’ve been getting bumps on my body for months and recently found out that I have bed bugs so I brought the spay and sprayed my room and got a new mattress and they came back but the problem is I have plastic on my new bed and box spring where could they be hiding I do have blankets in top of my mattress also the people who live upstairs are dirty could they be coming from there can some help me

Pauline::

Place mattress in vinyl cover. Smear Vaseline liberally on legs of bed. Take an old pair of runners and smear Vaseline around the edge of runners. Wear them in doors. The bugs are smart and will drop off the ceiling on you. Place clear two inch wide box tape around perimeter of bedroom walls about waist high. Smear Vaseline liberally on box tape or if you have a flat ceiling try isolating bed from there, same principle as wall. The bugs are unable to climb the walls and can not drop on you while you are peacefully asleep. Spray bedroom and any infected rooms once a week with bed bug spray of your choice, wear mask and vacate premise for at least three hours or do one room at a time closing door behind you. Place diatamous earth around perimeter of each room, use old toothbrush to distribute thin layer, too thick and they won’t walk on it. Wear mask as diatamous earth can be irritating to lungs. leave mask on until any particles in air settle out.

Go to drugstore or store of choice and buy isopropyl 99 percent rubbing alcohol. This will kill bugs on contact. I keep a large spray bottle on bed, just in case one manages to get through while trying to sleep. I have awakened many times in the dark, spraying liberal amounts on isopropyl on itchy skin or prickly skin. DO NOT SMOKE while using alcohol.

I carry a five inch bottle of rubbing alcohol tucked in my inside pocket of jacket. One day while shopping I felt something prickling my shoulder. I quickly unzipped my coat, grabbed the bottle of alcohol spray, shoved the bottle down the back of my shirt and sprayed away. The itching and stinging stopped, don’t know what was back there but it didn’t bother me the rest of the day. Got some weird stares from other shoppers.

Took about two months but no more bugs. I still carry the bottle in my inside jacket, feel better just knowing it’s there. Good Luck, good hunting. If you have kids or pets do not use diatamous earth. Do not listen to this stuff that grade food diatamous earth isn’t harmful; it harms the lungs if breathed in. I place it around the perimeter of rooms and if any is in the air I fine spray the air to settle out any particles. Always wear a mask and gloves when distributing dust or bedbug spray.

Tricia::

I woke up a week and a half ago and had what I thought was an allergic reaction. My arms and legs had welts with a blister. Went to the doctor, he said most likely bedbugs. I came home and looked in my bed. ICK!!! I found two of them.

My husband asked the exterminator at work what they used for bedbugs. He said steam works but you have to move the steamer slowly, about 1 inch per 10 seconds. You need to go around your mattress, and box springs paying attention to the areas that are overlapping or seamed. After you let your mattress and box spring DRY thoroughly (you do not want a mold problem), you should buy a mattress bag that is made to keep bedbugs in and out.

Don’t forget to clean your pillows and put them in bags too. Next step is to buy risers that are made to keep bedbugs off of mattresses and beds. Oh and don’t forget to check your headboard and bed frame. They seem to like to hide in cracks and crevices. From what I read, the babies look like a little curved piece of rice. They tend to hide under dresser drawers and are sticky.

Don’t forget to steam upholstered furniture paying attention to piping, folds, creases (just as you did with the mattress).

If you vacuum while you have bedbugs, remember to empty your bag or cup as soon as you are finished. Don’t want another breeding ground for them.

Clothes need to be washed and dried on the hottest temperature. At this point, it really is hard to think that you might ruin a few pieces of clothing but getting rid of bedbugs as quickly as you can is the main goal. If clothes are already clean, I have read that you can just dry them on hot for 20 minutes. Make sure you put your “clean” clothes into plastic bags and seal them while you are working on getting rid of these critters. Don’t forget, coats, backpacks, lunch boxes… just about anything that you take out of your home and bring back in can give free rides to bedbugs. Clean these items with a steamer if you can.

Steam around windows, pay attention to baseboards, and anywhere that there is a crevice for them to hide in. I would not use a steamer around an electrical outlet for obvious reasons but I have used a hair dryer set on high.
Remember you have to move slowly with the steamer for it to work. As for the bites that only my youngest and myself are suffering from, I have taken an over the counter allergy medicine, used “after bite”, and also the baking soda and water paste.

Bedbugs love clutter so consider this a good time to spring clean.

chuck::

I just read a 1955 handbook a friend gave me. It said that pine spirits (turpentine i asume) will get rid of bedbugs. Has anyone heard of this?

Sean::

Okay so just updating,
I think we have carpet beetles rather than bed bugs- so just wanted to let people know this is a possibility. I realise the 12 bugs we found which moved very slowly like ladybugs are not bed bugs at all.
We are going to steam anyway but I am somewhat relieved even though they are still tricky to get rid of.
C Beets do not bite you but you can react to the hairs on them apparently.
We have yet to see a bed bug and have no red marks on the sheets anywhere so i am deducing that it is more likely to be this- also I have found a lot of holes in my cashmere woolens over the last couple of years.
Also the DE we put down caused me to have an agonising sore throat after two nights in the room- I chose to be bitten/have allergic reaction to the beetles in the room next door in the end rather than a sore throat that meant i could not sleep.

Ah critters- they make life hard when they strike!

Jessica::

I think I have bed bugs but I’m not sure. I can’t see any of the clues they leave behind. I’ve tried a dry ice trap and an alka selzer trap with no luck, I’ve made my bed an island and taped the legs and around the edge of the mattress, I’ve washed all of my clothes and linens on hot and dried on hot. I can’t find anything suggesting I have bed bugs except for the bites I’m getting. Huge, nasty red welts that itch like crazy. I’m waking up every day with more bites.

My DE, mattress covers, and steamer will be arriving tomorrow. My problem is that I live in the basement of an old house. Lots of places for these creatures to hide. I can’t caulk and paint since I rent. My landlord is calling in an exterminator but I’m afraid that she will hire one that will just spray or bomb for them, causing them to just scatter into other rooms of my house. I think I only have them in my room. I’ve been sleeping there every night to keep them there since I don’t want them to scatter.

This is so overwhelming for me that I don’t know where to start. I don’t even know for sure if I have them! But it’s the only thing I can think of, since the bites I’m getting look exactly like bed bug bites.

Never Gonna Get Bit Again::

Jessica:
I, too, got bit and was pretty certain it was bed bug bites, but could find no evidence of them anywhere. I am hoping that I just brought one home and it was just the beginning of an infestation. It has been 23 days now since I got bit.

The important thing for you to do once all of your supplies arrive is to make sure that you isolate your bed so they can’t get to you to bite you. Steam your mattress, take the cover off of the back of your box spring (it’s just a dust cover, and you will be encasing it anyway) and steam it really well. Steam your headboard, paying extra attention to any cracks, and steam your bed frame thoroughly. I have read a lot of info about tape not working so well, so I have margarine containers lined with Vaseline under all of my bed posts and bed frame legs.

After steaming your mattress, box spring, headboard, and bed frame, put on your mattress and box spring encasements, rewash all of your bedding (I gave everything an extra 30 minutes or so in the dryer) and try the Vaseline interceptors. Once you have isolated your bed, and they can’t get to you to feed, you can start with the rest of your bedroom, and even the rest of your house. I didn’t do it all in one day. The most important thing to me was to not get bit at night.

I am still vacuuming my house twice a week and dusting with DE around baseboards after. So far so good. Remember that adults can live a year, perhaps longer, without feeding. That’s where the DE comes in. It will dehydrate and, ultimately, kill them, but it is a slow death, so it is VERY important to keep them from feeding in the meantime. If you scroll down the home page on this site, to the section on bed bug steamers, you can read what I did to try and eradicate them. Good luck!!!

bedbug hell. help please::

I think we might have bedbugs I keep reading about Dawn for Dishes what is it I’ve never heard of It before?

Update: It’s Dawn Dish Detergent and kills bed bugs.

gail::

A few weeks ago my daughter who is in her 20’s . Told me she was or felt she was getting bit, where or how she didn’t know. well , i never saw or had any trouble with bed bugs before in my life , till now. She went too the doctor & got some medicine for her bite’s. So when i got home went &checked out her bed, oh my the were on the side’s of her bed with blood mark’s on the mattress & box springs, i about lost it, & her too.I looked it up on line too find out what too do.I have sprayed the beds & other furniture that i can spray. I used alcohol &water & white vinegar mixed in it , it work’s, u can use bleach & hot water or mix with the alcohol & or vinegar mixture, they all work.Wash down the beds & wall ‘s with this mixture, or with hot bleach water. I’ve got good responses while using these. Wash & dry all u r bedding real good in hot water & dry in a hot dryer. Clean the house real good when u can. Good luck all, i still check beds daily .

Stefanisme123::

I found several bed bugs in my apartment and had pest control come out a week and a half ago. They sprayed and said that the spray would make the bugs become more active, so I ended up staying in a hotel for 4 days. I called management and insisted they do something besides spray and tell me to deal with getting bit for 2 weeks so they called in a bed bug sniffing dog.
The dog was led around the entire perimeter of my apartment and did not hit on a single thing. After the pest control guy left, I proceeded to put my mattress and box spring in hypo-allergenic bed covers. Low and behold what do I find on the floor by the wall? A BED BUG!
I called management and said that I had found one, they asked to see it. I had flushed it down the toilet because when I find one my first reaction isn’t to keep it!
Needless to say, sleep has been challenging since then. I have thrown out my couch, chair, and all my bedding (comforter, sheets, pillows etc).
I decided to take the fight to the bed bugs myself, I read about 91% Isapropyl Alcohol being effective to kill bed bugs and eggs on the spot. I took the time to go around my whole apartment, pull up the edges of the carpet where they are held down by tack-strip and vacuumed and sprayed a 1 part alcohol to 3 parts water mixture.
For the last two nights I have no bite marks, I am thinking maybe between pest control and my edge of the carpet treatments this problem may be over!
It’s hard to not get up and inspect every corner of my apartment on a daily basis, and it will also be hard to ever sit comfortably in my apartment again. Tricks of the brain keep making me feel like I have things crawling on me, when in actuality I do not.
Pest Control will be coming back in 3 days to treat again and then a day or two later management will be steam cleaning my carpet. I hope to have this problem solved. Not having a couch or a nice bed set anymore is worth not having to deal with these pests from hell.

bedbugs killer!!::

hello everyone who has this situation let me tell you my story….i got them for the second time in one year after moving out of my old place i thought i didn’t have to worry about them again, WRONG! I’m allergic to them and thank god i have dark skin and i am kinda hairy on my legs because it covers the nasty looking bites!!!

i was in my bedroom going crazy and found this website, read for two days and got enough info and i’m pretty sure i will get rid of them here is what i did. for starters i took care of the bites using baking soda made the paste with it and applied it on my arms and legs, rinse off, applied calamine and scar cream (memerma) and finish with Vaseline to keep the bites cover and control the itching.

I know it seems like a lot of work but i was desperate…..now time to kill the bugs! cleaned up my bedroom, put anything on the floor in plastic bags after been inspected and kept them in the basement, next anything that i know i don’t need or i wont use got rid of it, i bought a sealed cover for my spring box, sprayed the inside with a mix of water, alcohol and dish soap, bedbug spray from walmart and .D.E (ill explain what this is) sealed my spring box and set it on the frame of the base that i had already clean the same 3 ingredients.

Next i tapped any holes on my mattress sprayed with my alcohol mix and truly inspected ,every corner,tag ,line very important and cover with a brand new sheet, at this point i know for sure there are no bugs on my bed at all. had sealed the mattress and spring box so if there were any they will remain inside, next put the legs of your bed in a plastic bowl with Vaseline or hair gel or aloe and don’t forget this! Don’t let your bed touch any walls, if any bug tries to get onto your bed will get sucked into the bowl, now you have a bed free of bugs and they cant get to you anymore.

So you took care of your bites and your bed, now you take care of them, clean the room with the spay mix ,pour D.E or diatomaceous earth ,go to a health food store and ask for the food grade ,it is a powder. Pour it around your bed around the walls, around the windows and the doors every where dressers, closets and don’t forget to wash your clothes with hot water and dry them off ,you will need to get a sealed basket for dirty laundry.

The D.E it natural you can even drink it i guess (but check for yourself first…) ,but i only use it for this situation, use gloves and a mask so your skin doesn’t get irritated, what it does is dehydrates the bed bug. Get a bedbug bomb at walmrt and set it off, follow the instructions, when you get back the bomb would have eradicated or removed this things from their hiding spots and forced them to walk around into the D.E…..i know this seems like a long procedure because it’s hard to stay on top of it for a few months and it may just work…please let me know what you think. I spent around $150 total …i understand what you all are going through and i really really hope this helps you!

God bless you all.

Brittani::

These vicious little vampires are destroying me! The infestation my fiance and i are living with has not only had an effect on our home and work life but is wearing on our relationship. we have tried everything and our resources are completely tapped out. i wish i could afford to pay an exterminator but i cant, all those in the area i have called, and all want hundreds of dollars that i just don’t have.

I now want to move away, my fiance doesn’t, and I’m sad to say as my entire body is covered in bites this may be the end of our engagement. i cannot stand it any more, I’m in constant discomfort and have tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them, at this point I’m done discussing it.

I’m miserable, i cant even wear my flip flops and sandals anymore because they’ve destroyed my feed and I’m embarrassed to show them because of how disgusting they look. I wish there was a service for people like me who cant afford $700 to $1,000 and more to have the place treated for bed bugs, but the fact of the matter is i may be moving back to Illinois to get away from them and it breaks my heart to know my fiance will be lost without me, but i don’t know what else to do.

I hate these insects with every fiber of my being and if i could hunt and kill every single one and watch him die in pain i would do it for destroying my happy once peaceful home. Ive stopped planning my wedding and have no intention of restarting unless we can relocate together and start fresh, and i know we cant afford to so i’m throwing all this wedding stuff away and giving up. this has been one of the most depressing experiences of my life!

My skin is covered in bites, i have black scars covering the skin between the bites, I’m in constant discomfort and my relationship is in serious jeopardy and i just don’t have the strength to deal with it any more. what’s worse, most people think its a problem with cleanliness that causes them so I’m too humiliated to even be able to talk to my loved ones about it. i feel so alone in this struggle!

Never Gonna Get Bit Again::

Well, I am quite upset to say that, after 6 months of being bite free, I have bed bug bites again. I work in the bar of a hotel that is more like a glorified rooming house. Most of the tenants are monthly. We have a very serious infestation in the rooms upstairs. These same guys come downstairs and drink in the bar, so it is quite conceivable that I truly did get rid of them last time and this is just a new infestation due to bringing one home on my clothes.

This time, I am fairly certain I got bit on my couch, as my bed has been isolated since my last incident. The legs are all still in margarine containers lined with Vaseline. I still have DE around my bed. I have noticed a couple mystery bites in the last few weeks, which I attributed to the masses of mosquitoes we have due to all the rain we’ve received. However, the other day, I was laying on the couch and got really itchy all of a sudden. Looked at my ankle and saw what could only be a bed bug bite, as mine tend to swell up quite a bit. The next day, I was vacuuming and putting DE in the couch when I all of a sudden got itchy again and looked at my leg to find 7 new welts. Definitely bed bugs.

Since I’m quite freaked out by this, I texted my boss to let him know that they’re back in my house and he immediately called me and said he would come by and drop off some chemicals the exterminators had left him. He brought pyrethrins and propoxur. He also told me that if this doesn’t work, he will pay for a PCO to come exterminate.

So here’s the plan: I sprayed the heck out of everything in both my living room and bedroom. I have bagged up all fabrics to be laundered. Everything is out of my dresser and closets. The areas of the house that I did not spray with the chemicals have all been dusted with DE. I am going to spray all those same areas again in a week and then start using DE everywhere the following week. Once a week for 3 months. I know I can get rid of them, but it definitely takes alot of diligence.

Florence::

WOW! Its month now since we conquered those tiny but might creatures. Thanks for all you help on this website. I thought i should share some tips and products we used.
1. Isopropyl is the only product that kills bed bugs instantly.. you have to spray it directly on them and they will be dead. We used isoproyl 99% aka rubbing alcohol. I purchased it from walmart.. we sprayed it in every nook and corner just incase there were any life ones we did not see.

2. We used rubbing alcohol because my diatomateous earth did not attive. when it arrived.. the product was poured on all baseboards, we lined it along every wall. Pour it on mattress seams and bed frames. we pur some in between our sofa…

We still saw beg bugs around after we did these but their death is just a few hours away after they come in contact with DE

Insecticides do not work on bed bugs.. it only makes them angry.
Bed bugs are attracted to oxygen, so if a room is not in full use it is possible that you wnt find any.