Dawn M:

Jen, I’m willing to live with white dust over bed bugs any day. I live in the city and am having a VERY hard time finding Diatomaceous Earth or any of the spays with it in it. I went to a place today and they told me of a place not to far away that should have DE and I am going there today. I don’t have much money as I’m a disabled veteran and single mom to a disabled child so I don’t have the money to have an exterminator so I’m just going to put the DE everywhere til the bugs are dead and gone dust and all.

I did get the tea tree oil that was recommended and I put it on my son and myself every night; I think it works ok…. better then nothing at all. I think I have gotten one bite on my forearm and my son on his thigh since I have started using the tea tree oil. Actually, I’ve been up all night lately as

I can’t sleep thinking of these bugs crawling on my son and myself at night. I kill approx 5-10 bugs a night (those lil buggers are fast), all different sizes. I check my son through the night too with a flash light but haven’t seen any on or around him. I do have a mattress cover on his mattress and box spring that I clean and vacuum every 3-4 days. I kill my back doing it but I can’t have these vermin crawling on my “baby”.

I will write back after I get the Diatomaceous Earth and spread it around. Oh and just to be 100% sure, does anybody know for sure that this stuff is NOT piousness? I have an 8 year old son with autism and 2 cats; I don’t want to get anything that will hurt them in any way.

Dawn M:

Jennifer, how long does it take to work? Knock on wood, I’m 99.9% sure that they bugs are out of my son’s room as I have the mattress and box spring double covered(long story). I got the DE, I vacuumed everything then put the DE around the corners of his room, under his whole bed, around all four legs of his bed, along the rails where you fit in the box spring, and between the boxspring and mattress. Anyway, the bugs seem to be in the couch where I sleep.

I only figured it out when I was waking up with bites, this was before I got the DE. Anyway, as I said before, I’m disabled and can’t pull the couch out from the wall to vacuum behind there. I pulled out all the cousins, inspected them, saw nothing but still vacuumed the heck out of each cushion and all parts of the couch I could see.

I put the DE under the cushions, as much under the couch I could get, under my entertainment center as much as I could. I also put it in every doorway in my apt. I then covered my couch with sheets as I thought it would keep the bugs in and make them go through the DE but NOOOO. Every night I try and fall asleep around 9 or 10 then wake up around 2-2:30 as the bugs seem to come out around 3-4. Although, after 4 one morning, I had fallen back asleep and woke around 5 as something was itching around my cheek.

I lifted my head to 3 yes THREE bed bugs running around on my pillow. :o( Everyday I seem to add more DE and another sheet, blanket, or comforter over freshly laid DE on my couch over the last thing that covered it. I know I read the bag and it says that it takes the bugs 2 days to dehydrate after coming in contact with the DE so I thought that by now, they would be mostly gone but daily, even during the middle of the day, I find new baby ones. Every one I find, I kill and put down the toilet.

I did remember yesterday that I forgot a major thing that I was supposed to get and do. I forgot to get the steamer thing. I don’t have the money right now but will get one when I get paid my disability on the 1st. I’m gonna try and get the couch away from the wall best I can and stick the steamer behind the couch and hopefully can get a small enough one that I can steam under my couch too.

I just can’t wait to be rid of these darn things. :*o( :*o( :*o( I NEED SLEEP!

Dawn M:

Bad news…. I just found this info about the DE made for swimming pools…. “make sure you don’t get the stuff that’s designed to be used in swimming pools. That isn’t appropriate for your bedroom even though it’s called the same thing. You also shouldn’t breathe it in directly if you can avoid it (the pool kind is bad for that, but “food grade” has a lower silica quantity and isn’t as big a risk).”

Not sure if I’m even allowed to offer this but will put it out there, I feel so bad so I will put this out there, they can delete this part of my post if it’s now allowed…. if anybody needs DE and can’t find it, I’m willing to have you mail me a money order for the DE plus shipping only and I will mail you how ever many bags you need. I can get 4.4 pound bags for $10.99 plus 6% sales tax. I’m in Mass and the tax just went up from 5% to 6%. :o( And here I was, soooo excited to find out that they use DE in pool filters, an easy find. Pool places everywhere. Sigh. I’m very honest and will mail you the receipt for the DE and for the mailing so you can see you paid for ONLY that, not even my time and gas. We got to get rid of these darn things and I’m willing to do my part.

Dawn M:

Thank you Randall. Do I just ask his doc to do a blood draw? Is what he’s looking for EG Rickettsa and coxiella? You’ve got my brain wondering and I think I’ll do a little google searching.

Deedee:

gosh, i slept at my brothers apartment on Friday, he was telling me that there was this one lady who had bed bugs at her apartment and then asked my mom if they could spread to apartment to apartment. so then my mom said i don’t know. then i was itchy all night, and today is Sunday. I have red spots on my face, arms, and feet. makes me look awful. I hate it because they are red, itchy and they feel hot. but then I washed myself with Nix. Head lice shampoo & I also washed my clothes twice with hot water and Nix. But idk can bed bugs live in your head too?

Marissa g:

Okay, so i noticed a few months back waking up to a small bug on me but never knew what it was. this morning i had woke up and went to brush my teeth and there was a bug crawling straight across my white t-shirt. i asked my fiance if he knew what it was before we killed it he had no clue either. so we picked up the mattresses and found about three of them on the corner of the mattress. so he killed them and now have googled pictures of bed bugs out of curiosity (thank god for internet by the way) and YUP there it was the same bug that was on me this morning.

I have been on line all day and noticed that the NIX lice spray says kills bed bugs too. just curious if anyone else used it or not before on them to see if it really works or if I’m wasting my time on it? since i had some left over from when a friend needed a place to stay but her daughter had lice i went to the store to buy it immediately. so just didn’t want to waste more money if i had the “cure” here at home?

Bitten and sleepless in Brooklyn:

Can I put DE on y body not to get bit? And WHAT IS the hard beige substance BB leave behind? It looks like a sliver of a broken peanut or potato chip crumbs. I have DE I dusted a bowl and put a BB inside (that I caught BTWN my top sheet and comforter) covered w/ many breathing holes and the BB died in Approx 2 days and 4 hrs. I caught 1 that looked kinda gray/dusty put it in a separate bowl w/o DE. I was thinking it must have walked through the DE that’s why it’s Gray! and it died also. SO this was 2 days after putting it down.But I noticed after putting it down that’s when I saw them. I’ve never C N them just walk out like that . I’m picking up some “Bayer Advanced Home Pest Plus Germ Killer” I have a friend who used it and claimed that + mattress covers and (BORIC ACID) did the trick. I know BB won’t willingly just eat BA but may not have a choice if it’s cleaning itself or just it’s face being buried. So has any 1else tried the “Bayer Advanced Home Pest Plus Germ Killer?” I think I’ll continue w/ DE and the Bayer. Thanx 4 ur help.

Favor:

Man, I never thought I would see the day that I would be eaten by anything. At first when I would see these bed bugs I didn’t think nothing of it that was in Aug 2009. I would just switch them away, thinking they was little lady bugs that would eventually go away. Then one day my grandson was laying in my bed I said what are these little bugs n where r they coming from? He said r they little I said yes, he said that a bed bugs.

I still thought he just heard the saying about bed bugs. Because he is nine n he shouldn’t have known what a bed bugs was I sure didn’t and I’m 49. Anyway, time went on and one night I thought i kept feeling something crawling on me. I get up turn on the light and pull me sheet back these things get to running crazy probably 3 of them.

This time I kill them nothing but at the time i didn’t know what it was, but it the blood most likely mine n my grandkids. Still not being aware they were a problem I thought that was no big deal. I finally looked under my mattress one day n there they was that when my maddness began.

My boyfriend said that I was crazy every night around 2 or 3 in the morning I would call him, he trying to slept get mad because i’m waking him up yo kill bugs n then wouldn’t go back in the room. He didn’t believe it was bed bugs either, like me as old as we are we have never once seen a bed bugs.

Then I start googling how to get rid of bed bugs n find out that where all my bites been coming from. They was tearing me up. I got rid of everything in my room the bed, boxspring dresser,clothing everything. I thought I was bb free, got me a new bed everything change out couldn’t afford exterminator.

I really thought I got rid of them. Nope 9 month later I start to see one haven’t been getting bitten,or it just wasn’t bad as the first case. I knew what it was I had my boyfriend to tackle that little guys and crush him n throw it in the stool. I’m tearing my bed up now. didn’t see any bugs. I’m pleased!

In for a rude awakening, start itching seeing little bites, I’m in denial now I didn’t see anything so they are not there wrong end up seeing babies not that many, start killing them, thinking ok i got them in time, i’m on top of this not da. The bed bugs are bad, I didn’t get rid of them!!

This time I’m going to get them for they get me Call exterminator, told me to keep spraying alcohol in holes n everywhere I might think they are at. Going to Walmart tomorrow and get DE also I pray to God it work this is terrible!!!!!!

Sandy Johnson:

My husband brought bed bugs home in his luggage from a Comfort Inn hotel. He was bitten but got hives instead of bug bite marks, so it took us some time to realize they were bed bugs.

We hired an exterminator to treat our furniture, carpets, outlets, etc. We were instructed to remove everything but furniture from the second floor of our home, bag it tightly, wash all clothing in hot water and dry on high heat. The extermination was $700 for 3 treatments one week apart. We have had second treatment and are still being bitten.

We take our bed apart every morning and find them in the wooden slats where the bed side rails connect. Turned our furniture on it’s side and found them in the legs and small spaces under the furniture.

Harris Bed Bug killer from Ace Hdwe. works on contact, but not to eliminate completely. Purchased a Shark steamer to steam edges of carpet, blinds and bed mattresses / boxsprings. Definitely worth purchasing ($80 at Walmart) because it gets in small spaces and kills them instantly. Purchased carpet steamer to clean carpets which killed some also. Purchased sealed mattress/boxspring covers.

Most effective was this weekend when we sealed off our bedroom, turned on the heat, and placed many heaters in room to temp. of 115 for 2 hours. Monitored heaters every 15 min. for fear of fire. Found dead bed bug nymphs and adults and this temperature which also kill eggs. Didn’t get bitten that night.

We are now doing same to all bedrooms and bathrooms on 2nd floor. Good luck to all – this has been a nightmare for our family.

Jim:

Hi Ann,

You can’t bring the bed bugs with you if wash the cloths you’ll be traveling with in hot water (see our bed bug treatment page) and make sure that your luggage is free of any bed bugs (you would see them). The eggs are hard to spot, but most likely they are not in your luggage (wipe it clean).

Did you check to see if the hotel you stayed at has had bed bugs in the past? If not, visit our our page on hotel bedbugs at BadBedBugs.comand leave a comment with the address of the hotel and your request.

You’re not going to like this, but a single bedbug can produce 5 eggs a day up to about 300 eggs. These little guys hatch in about 6 days and are very hungry. Once the nymphs feast on your blood, they can then start molting and grow into adulthood (takes about a month). Once the adult bed bug has had a good meal, they can live up to a year without feeding again if they have to!

So, yes, you could have brought a female bedbug home with you and ended up with a whole family. But, let’s hope this is not the case and it’s something like seafood (let me explain : )

From time to time I get the same red blotches, about 11:00pm, they cover my chest and shoulders and like yours, they itch like crazy! A long hot shower does the trick, and it’s not bed bugs at all, it’s seafood that is not cooked well. I love calamari and found that if it’s not fried enough, I’ll have a reaction later that night.

In your case, you mentioned red splotches, did you mean red splotches of blood? If so, then something is biting you and my case would not apply.

Kiki:

i got diatomaceous earth (bed bug dust) and put it all around and me and my famliy are still getting bit sombody help me. I need to find somthing that works i have seven kids and im on a fixed income and im tired of seeing the bites/and bugs. does any one have a solution.

Jennifer S:

We have been suffering with Bed Bugs for quite a while now….we’ve tried practically EVERYTHING short of a professional exterminator (which they will be coming out early next week). Unfortunately, everyone BUT me in my family is getting bit, or as I read somewhere, I’m not having an allergic reaction to the bites, I have no bit marks or red spots, so I’m a little hesitant to believe that, but whatever.

My husband and 2 children are practically getting eaten alive….We used diatomaceaous earth and as much as I would LOVE to say it worked, it didn’t…it did not get rid of them completely, but I will say that I think it helped for a while.

We put carpenter’s tape (double sided tape) and wrapped it around a plastic container and put the legs of our bed into them and then poured DE into the containers. We also poured the DE around the perimeters of our room and parts of our apartment and then put mattress covers on. This helped for a while, but drove the bugs into our other room and into our sofa looking for blood…..

I’ve never encountered bed bugs before and I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy! I did read that putting your bed legs in cups of mineral oil would help….I’m going to try that next!

Oh and by the way, with the exterminator….we have to clear out our ENTIRE apartment and just leave the furniture…..the sprays will be every 10 days! Good luck to EVERYONE who encounters these little devils!

Cathy:

My daughter brought home bed bugs when she spent the night at her friend’s house. We had Orkin Pest Control spray 4 times. It did not get rid of the bed bugs. We threw out mattresses, clothes, books, etc… Nothing worked until we found the right pest control company.

They sell an Insect Killer (food grade Diatomaceous Earth) which kills bed bugs. You must carefully follow the directions. We dusted our carpet with the product then vacuumed it up hours later. We encased our new mattresses and box springs with mattress protectors and pulled our beds away from the wall. Make sure blankets don’t touch the floor. Make sure bed frames are bed bug free. We purchased steel frames and threw out our wooden ones. Put the powder around the legs of the bed. When the bugs crawl up to bite you, they have to go through the powder to get you. The powder kills them. Keep applying the powder once a week for 5 weeks. Eggs hatch. The insects will then want to feed. It took 4 weeks to completely rid our house of the bed bugs. The product really works. Nothing else worked. We have been bed bug free for 3 years now.

Warning the powder is hard on the vacuum cleaner. We eventually bought a shop vac from Sears to vacuum the power.

Good Luck.

Sandy:

I have used foggers, not a good idea, also have used countless sprays with no avail. i just got DE put it all over room hope this works i am so tired of cleaning am a clean freak nyway. will post again if this works will say this it makes a huge mess hopefully it is worth it.

Oh just so ppl know I got Diatomaceous Earth from Lowes, went to home depot they only had pool grade. hopes this helps ny1 looking for it!!!!

Sandy:

It’s me again, still not sure if i killed all of my bed bugs i put the DE down left it for 2 days and then vacuumed it up i also washed all of my clothes in my closet although i don’t think they were in there just a precaution it has been 3 days no bites, but i have also gone 6 days with no bites before. i am not getting to excited yet.

It took me 2 days to fully clean up from the mess that the DE made which will be worth it if it did the trick. i am so hoping this has been a nightmare. it all started about a month ago i started being bite had no clue what it was just like everyone else i passed it off as a mosquito or spider bite. i guess about a week later my dad told me that he had an infestation where he lives he had spent the weekend at my house and right after that weekend i started being bite, i freaked when he told me, that’s when i started bombing like crazy, cleaning washing, burned my mattress, bought mattress covers bought bed bug spray, sprayed every inch of everything.

Still this did not work all the while never seeing a bed bug just going on what my dad had told me. then after i would say the third week i woke at 4 in the morning itching like crazy, looked at my sheet didn’t see anything, went to the bathroom came back said let me look 1 more time and there were two bed bugs about the size of periods at the end of a sentence crawling. i woke my boyfriend up told him to kill them, and was a little relieved bcuz this whole time him and my son was telling me that i was crazy bcuz they were not being bitten. so now i had the proof.

I then taped my bed legs, bought lots of 91% alcohol kills on contact, got the DE put it everywhere . now i spray my sofas, beds pillows everything w alcohol 2 or 3 times a day. hoping i win this battle i am told only after going 55 days without a bite that i can assume that they are gone. i really just want to get a good nights rest again.

SteveDenver:

HEAT kills bed bugs. In the summer or on sunny days, put your belongings in your car, roll up all the windows, and leave your car in the sun. Get a thermometer to check, but you want the temperature to rise over 120-degrees for a couple of hours.

Also, take all your clothes and dry them — the clothes you can’t dry (spandex, coolmax, silk, wool), put in a hot car for a couple of hours or have it dry-cleaned.

Tamara:

Hello,

I’m doing an article on bed bugs for my newspaper class at school. If any of you guys could help me out and answer a few of my questions that would be amazing. If you had bed bugs that would be even better.

What did you do when you had bed bugs?
Why do you think bed bugs are making a come back?
What do bed bugs do to your skin?
Whats the best way to get rid of bed bugs?

I know it seems like a repeat of some of the things in the article. I just need quotes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Bed Bug Girl:

Hello Tiara,

Thanks for sharing and glad to hear DE does the job!

Chuck:

Here’s what you need: Portable steam cleaner, mattress & box springs cover, Food Grade DE, bed bug spray, and four cups.

Note: vacuum everything prior to starting these steps!

1. Steam clean every inch of every side of your mattress, box springs, bed frame, and head board
2. Sprinkle DE on the bed frame and on the mattress & box springs
3. Place the mattress and box springs in the mattress cover
4. Put each leg of your bed frame into a cup and then fill the cup with water (bedbugs can’t swim)
5. Make your bed after washing all the blankets and sheets and putting the pillows in the dryer on hot setting
6. Keep blankets from touching the floor and have the bed away from the wall
7. Steam clean baseboards, carpets and crevices
8. Spray baseboards, carpets, and crevices with bug spray
9. Dust floors, carpets, and baseboards with Food Grade DE (I used a paint brush to dust it around, it takes a small fine coating)
10. Repeat as needed until they are gone I did it about every 7 to 14 days…and the more I did it the longer I went between bites until they were gone.

It takes persistence, but you can beat them. The traps on the bed posts will at least allow you to sleep well without getting bit provided you cleaned the bed and frame well enough. Also every time you do this run all your clothes in the closet and towels etc through the dryer. It took me about 7 weeks to eradicate.

One additional note: Once you place the mattress and box springs into the cover, do not open it up on subsequent cleanings, just steam clean it and wash and dry your bed linens and dry your pillows etc.

bugged:

to anne w.—consider scabies. hard to diagnose, you should see a infectious disease doctor. important not to be treated with steroids which can make it worse.

Diama:

@yawness, two letters, DE (Diatomaceous Earth [food grade])

I had them and they were biting me, but not my family! I washed all linen and put everything in hot dryers, also all my clothes were washed and put in bags. I lived out bags for 6 weeks – vacuum, vacuum, vacuum and throw the vac bags away! DE all around the edges of rooms put DE in containers and place under the legs of bed.

My friends, it takes work and a lot of patience but I haven’t been bit by bed bugs in 2 months now!

Good luck

Tee:

If I use Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) will it harm my puppy?

Lana:

my father in law had a bad case of bedbugs and he used an exterminator and bought all new furniture .. but my father-in-law asked the exterminator who did the job what chemical or spray he was using and the man told him SUSPEND SC insecticide .. so my father-in-law ordered it off the computer and uses it every now and then jus as a prevention .. well my family just moved into a new home and after 4 months being here we realized we had the same problem .. well we started using this suspend sc and it hasnt worked one bit .. so i came on here hoping to get some advise and im glad to see that so many people have agreed that this food grade diatomaceous earth is the best for the job .. so im going to try that n hopefully its true cause i cant stand this .. its so hard to fall asleep knowin once u do some little bloodsucker is comin for ya .. thanx everyone n wish me luck

Slkrg:

I live in Alaska and ended up with a bed bug infestation. For 2 years I thought I had allergies because I would wake up with hives on my body. I would end up missing activities because the whole side of my face would be swollen. The way I found out that it was bed bugs is that in the winter in Alaska you NEVER see bugs inside in the winter. About 1 am I woke up and saw what looked like a beetle on the wall, I thought “Hhhmmmm, that’s weird”. I had the though cross my mind that maybe it was a bed bug, looked it up sure enough it was. I think I got them from the neighbors who had returned from overseas and my dog would visit and bring them back.

This is how I got rid of them…100% orange oil which is a natural insecticide, it can be found in the hardware or automotive store. I sprayed my mattresses and encased them in a vinyl cover, I sprayed all along the wooden baseboard crack, window trim, tv inlets any place I thought they could hide. I then boxed up all the small stuff in plastic containers and sprayed orange oil on a paper towel and then sealed the containers with tape. The couch we pulled outside, sprayed with orange oil and left it outside for two weeks at below freezing weather. Then two weeks later I sprayed again to make sure that we got any eggs that may have been left behind.

I am more than happy to say that we have been bug free for 4 years. Orange oil when sprayed can be overwhelming so you may want to make alternative sleeping arrangements when you treat.

Janelle:

try using a blow dryer on the mattress. Use it every day. It helps alot. Also Tea Tree oil seems to repel them.. It worked for me.

Monica:

Plz to all those who used diatomaceous earth Does it trigger asthma my son has asthma and i am just so much scared of using it..However want to get rid of bedbugs.. once you clean up white powder do they come back?
thanks
Monica

Kay:

A lot of people are saying that if you put infested furniture outside in the cold, that it will finish the job. I don’t think this is necessarily true, and the reason for that being the girl who originally brought the bugs here laid her infested baby crib beside the back of the building next to the dumpsters. Less than a foot away from my bedroom window. She also laid her queen size mattress against the side of the building next to another bedroom window of mine.

At first, I thought they traveled down the dozen stairs that lead from that girls unit to mine. Or I thought that by her dragging the mattress down the stairs may have given the bugs a free ride down to my floor. But my landlord insists that he treated her apartment twice and was completely rid of them, and also there are two other tenants in the building who don’t have the bugs. (yet) One of them live below her, and the other lives directly across the hall. That’s why I’m wondering if they came in through my bedroom window. It’s winter here too.. (midwest) but I wouldn’t bet on the cold making much of a difference.

eddy:

i need help im 12 and i went to a motel in oshawa came back to my house and woke up with bites and i showed them to my older sis and so i looked up bed bug bites on google and they look the same as the ones i have.how can i be sure that they are bed bugs and how can i get rid of them

Karen White:

I picked up a couch from a thrift store and it had bed bugs – never knew anything about them before. Tried everything – sprays, bombs, powders, dryer, etc – nothing worked for long.

Got heat treatment – after a month they were back – 2nd heat treatment took care of them for 3 mos – now finding them again – they are coming to do last heat treatment – don’t know how we’ll get rid of bugs if this doesn’t take care of them – very expensive ($1400) and we are on social security only.

This is horrible – you can’t talk to anyone about it because of shame factor-I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

Meesh:

I have moved from apartments to town-homes to homes and some had roaches and the last home I thought I had bedbugs and roaches. My husband is Native American and he went out an caught these little tiny creatures that looked like gila monsters, but they are not. He brought two inside my home and released them. I do not see them to this day but thank goodness all the unwanted bugs are gone too, including the roaches, spiders, and the bedbugs. He has told me about these little creatures, but I do not remember the name. He says they are safe among babies and pets but not chickens.

Hope this helps some of you that don’t mind living with a looking like a monster.
m

pat:

I have been suffering with the unwanted quests for 3 months. For the first month I didn’t know what I was dealing with, so of course they had lots of time to multiply. I identified the problem by my search on the internet.

I took the advice from Jim and must say; it took a while but I believe it finally worked; bug bite free for 20 days. I am a bit nervous about putting my house back before bed bugs. I vacuumed, steamed, used D.E. ( must be food grade for safety) I a 50lb. bag for 25 dollars at a feed store. The reason you find it in the feed stores, is because D.E. is given to animals to control parasites. like worms , etc.

I believe they were living in my recliner because that is where I have been falling asleep for years. I also sprayed my chair with ALL NATURAL BED BUG KILLER I got from a Ross store and also Rest Easy, I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond. Of course I vacuumed the chair very thoroughly and in every crack before I sprayed the D.E. and the sprays on and through out as well.

Over the counter anti-itch cream did not work, what did work was Vicks Vapor rub. I what to thank you for your comments ; The advice was so helpful. Unless you going through the same thing, it’s not fully understood. NO SLEEP> CREEPED OUT BY THE THOUGHT OF THESE BUG CRAWLING ALL OVER ME COMPLETELY STRESSED ME OUT. I noticed in most of the comments—– Doctors didn’t identify the problem and the exterminators charge a lot but are pretty useless as well. IF THERE IS ANYONE OUT THERE THAT THOUGHT THEY GOT RID OF THEM ONLY TO SEE THEM RETURN, PLEASE POST A COMMENT, THANK YOU.

Maria, NL:

I bought DE on Ebay (a 6 kg bucket full of brownish powder), sold as “red mite powder” but no result so far. Today, after suffering extreme shortness of breath for 6 days, I had to remove most of it and immediately they attacked me. I found at least 10 series of bitemarks on my legs, I guess out of revenge or maybe they were just hungry and glad that the powder was gone. At least one serie of bitemarks was from an adult.

I built me a kind of island in the middle of the room (the table upside down and the edges covered with ratglue) where I can sit in peace on a plastic camping chair. This, and also the bathtub and my bed, are the only bugfree places in my apartment.

Disappointed, and thinking what to do next…

Deann A:

PLEASE CAN SOMEONE RESPOND…I would tremendously appreciate a response to the following. First, I am not sure if I have a BB issue. Here’s a few questions:

1. Has anyone noticed very tiny sparkles by what may appear to be areas where bbugs travel or leave fecies?
2. While I’m awake at work & sometimes in bed, I feel a light sensation of bugs crawling & know I’m not imagining since I’m usually very distracted or involved in some project and often find skin irritation where I’ve felt this crawling.
3. I haven’t physically seen bbugs but have white sheets and do see black pepper like specs.
4. Can you get sick or develop lung problems from using Dio Earth right below ur mattress, I have a platform bed with only mattress / no boxspring & want to put Dio Earth right under my mattress.
5. Can bbug bites appear like a crescent-type pattern looking more like a rash than a bite..sometimes I have what looks like a red rash-like skin irritation in the shape of a curvy line

Deann A:

Joanne, thank you so much for your quick response.

1. I know it sounds crazy when I mention a tiny individual sparkle here and there. I do I.T. work and believe I inherited whatever this problem is from work (as I work in a real estate mgt co.). I’m always a super observant person and usually notice things while pointing them out to others who 99% of the time concur. It’s been wierding me out, but whatever this issue is, I have correlated it to tiny, very hard to notice individual specs that appear like a tiny sparkle. The reason for noticing is because like with everybody else, I too have become overwhelmed with whatever is biting me. I haven’t called in an exterminator just yet because I’m trying to prep my home first (clothes out of closets, drawers, and other related tasks) prior to having them come in ….because I’d rather prepare first and then be able to ‘move’ on this immediately than to find out first that it’s BB’s and then be anxious trying to handle all that’s involved in prepping prior to extermination. So as far as the ‘sparkle’ like particles, I’m perplexed.
2. I most certainly do feel something crawling and wonder could it be the babies which are so very minuscule and usually whitish in color (which could explain why I don’t see it).
3. in response to your 3rd point, it’s not on my legs as much as my torso.
4. I do have physical bite marks. I’ve noticed some vibrant red raised tiny spots that either haven’t gone away or turn brown. I also noticed some much larger bites more on my back and torso & arms. Some bites seems to be in a crescent shape that look like either a rash or scratch mark connecting them. I’m very careful not to scratch, I rub whatever itches so I can determine that it wasn’t me that created the marks.
5. I recently had a blood test and my results were clear of Thyroid problem.
6. I have a wood platform bed and have been using Simple Green cleaner under the mattress and even on the sheets around the parameter of the mattress….which seems to have curtailed the problem a somewhat.
7. as far as the DE, as mentioned I have a platform bed and was wondering if it would be safe to place the DE under my mattress (I do have asthma but am desperate to curtail this until I can get help).

So my question is if the DE is food grade, can I place it under my mattress which lies on top the platform? There’s no box spring just my mattress on top the platform bed.

Once again, your prior response it tremendously appreciated, and I’m looking forward to this next response.

Neil Mac:

Man I am both glad and terrified after reading about half of the posted comments on this site. I recently moved in to a place with a roommate and thought I got the good end of the deal by getting the bedroom until I broke out in scores of red welts that appear in clusters. I had them on my face too and was starting to resemble the elephant man and hated going outside. Now I stay awake as long as I can and dread laying on the bed. My girlfriend won’t allow me into her place unless we can’t handle the time apart it’s still early spring and sleeping outside isn’t much of a thing to look forward to. And she won’t set foot in my place.

And when I do go to her place I strip naked and have a bath before I sit on any furniture just in case they are hitchhiking on me which i know they are because this extra paranoia started with the sight of one bedbug on her bed and she also immediately either bags my clothes then puts them through the washer then dries them for an hour more than necessary. I have tried various chemicals and even resorted to dousing my room with Raid Max insect killer but the slight relief from the bugs is offset with the toxic effects and allergic reaction to the chemicals it contains. i thought it was all the bugs till I looked up raid on the net and realized the numb tongue and lips was due to the RAID and not sleep deprivation related. I am glad I tried the term OFF in the Google search this time as I found this site.

I am getting some of that DE and off spray as I have noticed darkened erm poop which I know is liver related and that is another yummy side effect of RAID exposure. So if the bed bugs don’t send me totally mad and I keep RAIDING myself the liver failure will but I will make damned sure I take those dang things with me. lol

Sorry about the craziness they seem to have that effect on people. I hope they work. The bed bugs seem to love my blood more than anyone else that has come into contact with them since I have been around hey I am a great bed bug solution for others lol only I get bit.

My girlfriend didn’t get one bite till I wasn’t around. And man I seem to have a really bad reaction to the little monsters. Oh and as far as RAID MAX goes I saw one taking a stroll on the mattress and I covered him/her good and it stopped moving then I left it alone and a minute later he started walking around again so I really let him have it he looked like a Christmas cake and all he did was turn bum end in the air and buried his head into the mattress tape and tried to get away I was thoroughly discouraged by this and stopped using RAID after that as it had little effect other than annoying him and poisoning me and probably my poor cat even though I keep her way after I spray everything.

Anyway I will post my results after I get the OFF spray and DE combo going. Bye for now I am having a bath and am going to drop various cloth based items into near boiling water to see if i can see a few die horribly. I love slicing them in half and spraying them with my cologne then lighting them.

Man I have to get a grip. All I can say is take whatever steps you have to before you get driven crazy by them. I think i will try staying a a homeless shelter till i can get another place and am going to sterilize everything I own except my laptop but I hear the hate plastic and metal or at least don’t live on it. Oh and someone said to have the bed away form the wall and put the legs into containers of oil to stop them climbing into a new bed. I am going to look into a metal cot type bed and do that. bye

G:

DE Works…but only if you use it correctly. Here’s how. You have to place the DE in CRACKS, CREVICES, HOLES, FOLDS, PERIMITERS. The biggest problem with bed bugs is not the ones you see…but the ones you DON’T SEE. They eat you and then hide. If you put DE on your bed only, you aren’t stopping them from coming out at night. Remember, YOU are the dinner. The bugs want YOU. The bugs have to come from somewhere. Check your matress and box spring for HOLES. If your mattress/boxspring is ok, then vacuum, spray the DE bed bug killer (you want to kill the EGGS with this), then get vigilant with the DE. Remember, put the DE in the cracks where the bugs HIDE. That stops them from even coming to get you.

John:

Has anyone had this experience: I am in NYC and there are a few contractors who say they get rid of bed bugs. They also say they have sniffer dogs. I called them and they admitted, yeah we have them but the advice is always the same anyway so they don’t seem to use them: bag everything up, spray inside the bags and then spray all over the apartment. (Then the bit they don’t tell you, – hope for the best!)

The one which doesn’t say this says they use a machine instead as it is ‘more reliable/accurate’. So I called them in (NYPestpro), telling them that I seem to have a small problem on one section of a wall and the occasional bug which we can see and apparently nowhere else. A guy arrives WITH NOTHING WHATSOEVER. He looks at the wall I had identified over the phone and tells me that i have an infestation on the wall. I therefore need to bag up everything in the room (a gigantic amount of work), and then he will come in and ‘do’ the room.

He also implied strongly that he won’t warranty anything unless I bag up everything in the whole apartment and we do the same at enormous expense and time/trouble and let him do the whole apartment!

Last week, my offspring came home from school (a clean school, whatever that means) with a bug on his shirt. I suppose it may have been there when he left this morning but equally it may have come home with him. So after we spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars doing whatever it takes to get rid of this problem, it could re-surface within minutes? In fact we can re-paint the whole apartment, tear down all the walls and spray inside them, concrete up all cracks and crevices which appear in any apartment the minute it is built, there can still be no guarantee about these things.

One of the things I wondered was whether they have stopped using dogs (etc?) PRECISELY BECAUSE they might identify that the problem is limited to a certain area? And they wont be able to charge a fortune for the cleaning out process? After all, our problem does seem to be limited to a certain area AND we have all new bedding all new sheets and I have checked all over those items and there is no evidence whatsoever of infestation anywhere except on that wall (yes, I can identify where they are and/or where they have been)

The second thing I wondered was whether under these circumstances, the problem can be kept at bay where it seems to be? By spraying the relevant areas (and of course kids teddy bears) with contact sprays (which don’t seem to have much effect as the most you ever see is ONE bug here and there every week or so) and residual sprays which either kill them as they crawl across a sheet or deter them from going onto the sheets? Is keeping these things at bay the only real solution until someone develops a fogger which works?

Or are all the OTC sprays too weak to have much effect? The one I have been using to no particular effect seems to have a heavier concentration of the active ingredient than the one which everyone seems to think works??

Lola:

I had my house sprayed twice after 2nd time I found an adult bb in my bed I went the grocery store and bought pronto bb spray I sprayed it on a baby bb n it died instantly unlike the spray the exterminator used. I’m buying DE today n a steam cleaner I believe that this is a plague from hell I hope the DE works cus I’m about to jump off the roof. Moving will not help for Nhone who’s thinking of doin so. They will only follow u there throwing out it furniture does help but they hide everywhere n will only reinfest any new furniture just vaccumm clean n wash m dry all clothing n then bag it all up it’s alot of work but what other choice is there . Good luck to us all.

Stephanie:

Ok we had bedbugs for 2 yrs. Drove us crazy and had a newborn in the house. Used DE butbit wasn’t very effective. Spent thousands on exterminators but it didn’t work. Finally had to move, only to be reinfested. Finally came onto a product called drop dead. And had the idea to use saran wrap. So we vacummed like usual and then sprayed the drop dead and fhen saran wrapped our box spring and matress. The effect was immediate. I could believe it. We r now bed bug free for 2 months now.

T.Randon:

This is Madness! Insanity!! Sickness!!! I am 44 and promise I had NO idea that the “Sleep tight ,Don’t let the beg bugs bites ” wasn’t anything more than a “saying” … I have not slept for over a week now and especially NOT in my bedroom!!! How can we let a CRITTER

Brigitte:

I love this page but as a chemist I must point out that Silicon dioxide is in DE but not the product itself. Keep up the good work and thanks!

Jodes:

I am so, super, tired =(

I refuse to sleep. I feel like I’m prisoner in my own home. I contemplating going to a hotel just to get some sleep. Good news is that no bugs are attacking me while I’m awake. Bad news is that I am super-sensitive to everything. I wish I could be off-guard for just a moment.

I found ONE nymph on me yesterday (I was on my couch). Got an estimate for $1480. Tomorrow I have another company coming. Hopefully it will be cheaper.

After seeing only 1 bug and not seeing any in the crevices of my mattress or just walking around, do you think I should spring for the $1480 just to be safe? I just came back from a vacation in Miami, went straight to my parent’s house for 1 week, and then came home. So I’m convinced it was in my luggage and terrified that my parent’s house is also infested (they don’t seem concerned though). I prayed that there was only 1 baby in my luggage, but I think I saw some very small white things crawling in my bathroom and in my luggage. I’ve put all of my luggage and its contents in bags outside.

I don’t think I can handle a home remedy on my own. I’m single and it’s easier to have a team come in to do this then try to lift furniture myself.

My heart goes out to all those that cannot afford to get an exterminator =( After reading these posts, I really can’t complain.

Best of luck to all of you. All I keep on reminding myself that I still have all of my senses and limbs. It kind of helps.

Jodes:

Anastasia,

I am moving too and these suckers TRAVEL!!! Make sure you don’t bring them learn how to get rid of bed bugs the right way!!!! I only found 1 bedbug and I’m about to charge $1500 on my credit card for a full treatment. I’m taking no chances. I stayed in a hotel last night just to get some sleep….welcome to misery!

=(

tracy:

i am going out to buy food grade diatomaceous earth. but the itching please help!!!!!

Natia:

I found a one bed bug in my bed. I killed it. but after week I found a eggs in other bedroom, What to do and how get rid of the bb eggs. Help me.

Ola Mayo:

I have been suffering through the ‘bed bug epidemic’ for the last month and a half! I have resorted to sleeping on my balcony because it is the only place that they aren’t. All I have to worry about out there at night are the spiders. I prefer them over the bed bugs! I have found that they ‘slow down’ around 3:30 a.m. and that’s when I get the nerve up to get in the bed to get about 3 hours sleep so I can go to work the next day. I can’t afford an exterminator ($400.00 for the first room and then $200.00 for each additional room, I have a living room, bedroom, kitchen & bathroom and I’ve seen them in EVERY ROOM). I will try the DE. I’ve already tried Harris bed bug spray, and Bed bug and flea foggers but neither one of them worked. I even tried spraying them with rubbing alcohol but it didn’t kill them on contact as I had read on another site. It just slowed them down for a few seconds. I have bites behind my ears, on my chest, between the top of my breasts, all up and down both arms, on my calves and on my ankles and the top of my feet. I can’t take it anymore! Some of them are almost invisible!

Michelle P:

I had bed bugs before, i washed all my stuff, all my clothes about 4 times and got the house treated all 4 times, i was bug free for about 4 mo now they are back :( i dont sleep cause i have severe allergy of any kind of bites. I am going to call my landlord again so we can do the treatment again, I was wondering if i wash all the stuff and put on a plastic container would that keep bugs out or do i have to place them inside plastic bags? and can i just put the clothes in the dryer for 20 minutes or do i have to wash everything again? I am sorry its a lot of questions :( i am desperate please someone help

or we leave in a studio how about toys? do you think they would hide inside toy box?

thank you anyhelp would be great

Michelle:

BBG: Thanks for the info on Mother Earth Dust! I feel at least relieved that I’m not harming my animals. Another question: As MichelleP asks, must one wash AND dry on high, or can I just do a cycle in the dyer on high and skip the hot-water wash.
Thanks again*
Melissa

Therese:

I know all you guys are from the US, but let me tell you that the problem has CRAWLED all the way to northern Ontario Canada. We have increasing bed bug infestations all over Canada and wish that governments would think over their decision to ban DEET.

reed:

I got bedbugs a while ago and have been living with them for the longest time, and I have to say: it’s getting old… i need to be able to sleep again, i threw away my bed and am sleeping on the blankets because of bed bugs, and simply because the bed is old. Then I still had the bed bugs so I threw away this old chair I had. I have no more old furniture, but still have bed bugs. Where are they hiding so I can set up the powder? In the new furniture too? or are they hiding in the walls? I live in an old building.

Brandi:

I’m glad I’m not alone in this. Two years ago i was living with my boyfriend and i kept on feeling something bite me during the night. I figured it was spiders or something. A few days later my bf dad woke us up showing us this blood sucking bed bug. We lost a lot of sleep just staying up trying to catch them in the act. We caught A LOT!!!!!! We had to finally throw away all of our furniture!!! We had nothing to sit on or sleep on.

We had lived in some apartments so we got them to bomb and spray in there. Yet nothing worked. So we ended up moving. Its had been 2 years free without bedbugs until about a month ago. We just got this new house about 5 months ago and everything was fine until a month ago i started getting the bites again. So we sprayed the house YET AGAIN and they were still here. I spray this bedbug spray every night cause im so scarred of them. Last night i got bite and i jumped up and it was right there next to my arm. I have caught about 20 of them in my bed. I put them in a bag and burned them.

I have lost a lot of sleep. I have been sleeping on the couch every night and I’m not feeling safe in my own home. I have only seen them in my room but my boyfriends dad has seen 2 in his. I’m only 18 and i have never thought there was such a thing. I thought when my mom used to say, ”Goodnight sleep tight don’t let the bedbugs bite” it was just some stupid thing she came up with. Well i guess not cause i have been tormented by them. I wanna just throw my bed away but im scared if i do they would just get in my new one.

I need something that actually works. I want them out of my life!!!! If anyone knows anything to help me out please tell me cause im losing alot of sleep and i cant live like this in fear anymore!

Almost Bed Bug Pro:

We r winning the battle…and we r not using DE yet….

I want to warn everyone about these pests and they r worse then that…there is so much knowledge that I have now about what works and what is working and also about how bad they can get and also small lil notes that people here r failing to tell….so let me get started and yes this will b long due to me battling this for a year now and not a sole believing me….

So 1st of bites…
I have an allergic reaction the second they start to bite me…it burns like hell and itches like crazy…over time I have gotten better about waking up and killing then and also not scratching them til they bleed…I am scared up I have dark spots on my hand forearms calves and feet…so imbarrassing to wear anything that shows my legs…but I live in Texas and u have no choice…now I have a husband which finally he is on board with me about these bugs…b4 he thought I was crazy and being a hypocondriac cause of the news and whatever…he and all 3 of my boys can sleep through the nightly feedings…and also not have any marks of bits or itching…so I was alone on this having my husband get mad at me that I was still up at we hours in the morning and i mean til 4am or longer…now on weekends and some night my husband is up with me watching for them to come out of hiding…

Now off to hiding places
I have eead and read and read about where they can hide and I have to say its anywhere…I have a single wide mobile home the biggest u can get…we have wood floors in the whole house 2bedrooms with carpet and 2 bathrooms with laminate and no baseboards…but we have crown molding and trim from floor to cealing every few feet…I have found nests which look like black specks and if course during the day bed bugs and then eggs r nasty looking they pile up on each other…kinda clear with the tint of brown…please look for that and its a nest…ok on subject again (sorry lack of sleep) curtains mattress in any seam it can even b the stiching on the whole mattress…zippers on during mattresses couch love seat frame door frames even just so random as along the baseboard…dog beds kids stuffed chairs like the ones at Walmart for the lil kids…desserts…and I had a treadmill and they were anywhere on the frame of that that sat on the floor also had a blanket under it so cotten they love it…crib…I found a huge nest after I already removed my son from it but it was on the skirt and under the mattress and it was very light weight so I was surprised…hmmm also cab me in ur car…oh and on ur kitchen table…

Now poisons
I forever used bed bug and flea spray by the gallon…my husband hated the smell I was fine with it…it got a lil strong but its more floral then like bug sprays so guest r ignorant to it…I did not like the hit shot bed bug and flea spray that was in the arosal can…I think it sucked and for the price didn’t last long but it does kill the eggs so it says and has worked for me…now here resently like 2weeks worth I have had this powder all over my house and on my bed and bix springs…its NOT DE…I can’t find that stuff anywhere here in my small town…its called MANY PURPOSE DUST its by GREEN LIGHT…it does not list bed bugs but it dies list fleas and ticks which is y I tried it…I put it all on my box springs baseboards whatever even walls and its working…but is not safe so it says for skin and stuff but I have put it in my hair long story on our skin and I have small dogs and we r all fine…bombs do not work well…they kill some but the smart ones crawl up the walls away from the foggers…and everything has to b cleaned up and off the floor and if u have mattresses and stuff it does not kill those bugs…pretty much waste of money unless u just want to cut the bugs down…

Now I have all our furniture outside on this over 100degree weather for a month now and it seems like they r gone but so don’t trust it…now for those that r trying to freeze them…remember that it has to b at least 2weeks of below freezing continusly and that’s all the way to the core…and heat in the dryer I hear everyone saying 20min or 30 but I read an hour so b safe do an hour…also I am reading about DE not working well its not gonna work if u just sprinkle it it has to b a dust or the bed bugs will not cross it…and it doesn’t work right away either it can take up to 48hours…and all it takes is one feeding for them to b able to reproduce…also the adults cab live up to a year old with one last feeding…and I am at the point where the eggs r hatching and I just read that they can live for months without a feeding…and trust me abandoning that room or whatever does not work they will leave that space and go hunting…I know I haven’t defeated these bugs but i know so much now that I know what to do and expect and when u r the only one fighting them its hard and even harder if u can’t find the right poisons…also the hot stuff gallon spray works on contact but will not keep the bugs away just by spraying it…it has to stay wet and I have watched bb crawl right up to it and go around it…them smart lil things they r…also I have noticed most r active starting at 11pm to 6am and trudging me they r day bugs too…they cab feed off ur animals and when they get a host they keep it marked some way some how cause I am it and I swear they sniff me out…
Oh also for those that say u can c bed bugs u can they look like rice almost but the babies if they come bite u I swear they will blend on ur skin and u can’t c them well I have put white sheets and blankets on my bed and threw out all brown stuff…just warning

Scary stuff

Just recently I ended up with bed bugs in my hair…its been 2weeks since and it was the worst thing ever…they don’t want to b there so when they become active they try crawling out and bite u as they leave ur body…my poor head face chest back legs and feet I was in so much pain and struggling to get them out…I almost shaved my head…and I have very thick long brown hair…I destroyed my hair and scalp cause i didn’t have money at the time and I was deprate so I used hand sanitizer alcohol and the powder poison it worked some but not compleatly so then i used a comb and my hair srraightener and that worked some thought it was better til I went outside in the head and it started all over again…needless to say by that evening it was shampoo shampoo shampooing that got them all out…and for the week I freaked out everytime I had a tingle or itch or anything…

Watch
I don’t sleep at night anynore due to all the bites over the year I have gotten so I have learned if u stay up to kill them sit in one spit and area to watch after awhile of watching u can c where or area they r comming from…this can help u find their nests…I spent a couple of days with the bug spray in hand and made a wet barrier all around my mattress which i moved to the floor cause it was easier to control the bugs once I found them infested in the box springs…I sat at the edge of the bed and with tv on and my phone in hand with the bright flashlight on going through sections on the floor when I found one I killed it S the night goes on it gets busy but by morning u can tell what areas they were comming from…by me doing this I found 5 nests in my bedroom…and trust me they don’t stay far from where u sleep…and yes u can have more nests then that if u don’t pay attention…and when it comes to carpet I recament tare it out but i rent so I got my gallon of hot stuff in hand and drenched the floor and then let it sit til dry and vacuumed…dye to this I got my sons room bug free again…and the foggers did not kill them in the carpet…I swear it helped cut bugs down but left the strong smart ones to deal with…

Plastic

I 1st did the plastic even vacuumed out the air it half assed worked due to kids company animals and just normal sitting…it helped stop the biting though but not if u don’t get all nests takeb care of…I found it easier to throw the stuff outside…

Company

I told my family and close friends about the bugs after I realized what tarrors they r…I don’t even wish it on my worst enemy and if I was told about them from either it was my step dad or a neighbor about them I would have been more aware and probably prevented this…but I was ignorant and thought it was a cute funny saying my grandpa said to me and i used to say it to my youngest til I got them and now biting them back is harder then ever…all I can say is please suck it up warn ur company and yes u can have company without them getting them…I always pretreated when i knew someone aas commjng and my husband doesnt let his friends and family know due to worrying what they think and say but i told mine and not a single person has gotten them thank god…

Hope

I hope what I have shared has helped anyone cause I have found out a lot from these things and kbow what works and doesnt work…my body is scared for a long time and i am mentally having problems…I’m depressed can’t sleep at night have a major anxiety disorder I won’t lie here recently I have been doing uppers to help sray awake and keep my family from getting bitten and to fight them…my marriage had struggled due to the point of my husband cheating just cause he couldn’t deal with me anymore and the non believing me…me r doing better now cause finally he sees…we still fight due to the fact that his boss is our landlord and he refusses to mention anything about this cause he doesnt want to b the talk of the work place saying we r dirty or something…bed bugs don’t mean ur dirty now if u dont keep things cleaned it will help with the spread but its not due to that…I also don’t allow my kids to have friends stay the jight due to the fact that I dont want them bite by chance and I don’t need them to go home with a bug or just to tell their parents about it and never b able to have my kids b friends with them just cause of them being scared of the hugs ….I will say when they go to a friebds it i go to stay out of town I make sure the clothes r freash out of the dryer and the bag is too…very important…ok if anyone has any ?s email me please like I said I’ve been fighting and learning for a year and i am down to having the last of the eggs hatch and they will b dead soon and I will b free of bb finally.

sleepless in nc:

I have been bed bug free for a year I moved and left everything except toys n clothes….yesterday my child was eaten up from head to toe with bites I thought it was allergic reaction it was so bad well my other daughter says mom there is something that just bit me n I was on the bed. I go in pull her bed away from the wall and there was plenty of evidence of bed bugs but only around where the bed was

I threw the bed out and packed a 4 inch wide 2 inch thick barrier of DE all around where the bugs n eggs were. Left it for 24 hours went in vaccumed up all the powder then took the vacuum dumping in a tied trash bag toook it to the dumpster cleaned the vaccum outside n left it there. Then I took good night bed bug spray and sprayed where I had the DE and all the rest of the carpet. I then blocked off the air vents with plastic bags and closed them then I closed the door to the room and sealed it with duct tape n plastic all the way around in 10 days I will go in there and see if all this effort worked.

I haven’t seen them ne where else n I checked all over furnishings bed walls cracks I even went out n look for ne crawling on my kids cause they r sleeping in the living room didn’t c nothing. But now I am itchy and irritated I am highly allergic to all kinds of bugs. I have had sleeping problems for a year now since the first infestation. I really hope this works.

Any words of encouragement for me. I know I sealed that door up good I just went out there its 3:33am here and saw nothing with the lights out n I used my phone as a flash light. PLEASE SOMEONE ANYONE TELL ME DO U THINK THIS WILL WORK . I’m so drained from no sleep my kid now I am itching our skin off. Please any one?

John:

I have lived with bed bugs for two months that I know off. I thought I had become alergic to my fabric softened but soon realized that the bite marks were bed bug bites. My apartment has been sprayed twice and has had liitle effect.

I believe that they are comin from my neighbours, which makes them especially hard to get rid of. I have found that using deep woods off on my self just before I go to sleep helps, but when you shower the nest day your tub will be full of dead bugs. They seem to be dried out. DE works but only up to a point, it will not get ride of them. I thought I managed to keep them off my bed at night by putting two sided carpet tape on my bed legs, but the little suckers climb the wall and then the ceiling and then fall on the bed. I am wondering if the extermonators are really trying to get ride of them(they have to be making a fortune).
Good luck

2sexxy:

Garden Safe Cawling Insect Killer Containing Diatomaceous Earth works great and kills bed buggs on contact you can buy it at Lowe’s for about $9.00 for a 4lb bag Good luck!!!

Berrett:

Bed bugs are one of the worst things to deal with. It harms you psychically and mentally. Here is how To Keep Bed Bugs Out.

• Use a flashlight and magnifying glass, look for bed bugs, their dark fecal spots, and light-brown shed skins.
• Focus on mattresses, box springs, bed frames, and areas around the bed.
• Bed bugs like to hide so remove bedding. Look in cracks and holes. Turn furniture upside down and take apart.
• Bed bug detection traps are available.
• Vacuum along mattress seams, baseboards, and other areas.
• Wash all bedding and clothing in hot (120°F) water and dry in a hot dryer.
• Consider steam cleaning.
• If possible, replace infested mattresses.
• Specially designed mattress encasements might be helpful.

so tired!:

I am so glad I found this site, I have read and took down notes to help me fight these nasty little creatures. We moved into our new place about 7 months ago and soon after I noticed little red spots appearing on my legs, they didn’t hurt or itch or nothing like that, but now they hurt and itch like crazy.

Me and my bf have bites but our daughter wasn’t really getting bit until a couple days ago. I have previously had to deal with bed bugs but moved out of that place and took nothing, that was the end of that; but now, I still have 5 months left on the lease so I am going to try remedy this situation myself. What I was doing was staying up real late every night so that I am so tired I just fall asleep right away and have no time for paranoia… but that is not working anymore.

Today I am getting (demanding, actually) the help of my bf and our roommate to use DE and all the other tips people on here have tried and worked for them, so hopefully they work for me, until this 5 months is up and we can move out of here.

Aenthil kumar:

hi,
before i come to know about DE powder. i thought that i can not control bed bugs. i live in apartment i do 12 hrs work shift so i must get enough sleep in remaining 12hrs to do next day work without any problems.but this bed bugs never let me sleep i got itchy feeling even though i was so tired. i suffered for 6 months. i lost my body weight remarkably my co-workers and my friends asked me about this. finally i used Google to find out this website. i bought this powder and simply spreed it all over the room. with in four days i got deep sleep and i never get itchy feeling. now i gained my body weight and i am so happy. if anybody is suffering from bed bugs just use DE powder. it is effective than costly pest control agency. use it one time then you will enjoy your sleep .

Earl Sinclair:

I tried the food grade Diatomaceous Earth. So far so good. I used about 25lbs of DE. I think I went overbaord, but it seems to be working.
A couple of suggestions when using this:

• To spread the DE I used a dollar store small wire colonder.
• Turn all your furniture over and dust it with DE. NUKE IT
• I left DE on the floor where you can’t see it.
• Make sure you have a shop vacuum as this stuff goes every where(which is a good thing) A normal vacuum will be destroyed if used to clean up DE unless you empty it and clean it out every few feet of use.
• Be ready to dust alot, and I mean daily for a while.
• Have some extra furnance/AC filters on hand. Get the cheap ones and change them every couple of days after you use DE.
• The little (insert your favorite word here) Will run once you spread the DE.
• Have a Spray bottle of rubbing alcohol in every room, spray one if you see it..

I also found out by getting upset and thinking I have to have something in the house that will kill them, I found these items work:

Furniture polish, foaming carpet cleaner(the only one I found that worked was the Dollar Tree Brand,works well on bedding and walls, it melts them into a goo and then it is easy to clean up and smells fresh too), Hairspray(at least they can’t move anymore), rubbing alcohol.

Give the DE time to start working (about a day for the bigger ones)

I spread DE on a Saturday and started cleaning on Sunday. (total time about 12 hours)

As I have read in other articles on this site: Use the food grade DE and you can powder up your pets too.
Great all around pesticide, flies, spiders,fleas, misc anything that crawls,— lions and tigers and bears —OH My
I bought my DE at the local garden center. A 50LB bag was $49.95. I’m sure you can get smaller bags.

Hope this helps someone.

Just remember when you start with DE, your house will look like an illegal lab of some sort went totally wrong………….

Let’s bring back DEET.

Good luck

LadyBlue:

I am sooooo happy i found this site. Like many of you, I was sooo embarrassed when I finally figured out what was wrong. It started getting bit middle of July, dismissed it as mosquito bites because it’s summer and I was outside a lot. Then began the 3-4 am wake ups because my arm was itching out of control and “burning” sensation. Week 3 of incomplete sleep and I was a nut case. I woke up to the itchy arm and was upset, turned on the lights and was about to start crying because I was soooo frustrated. Moved my pillow and something brown moved. I jumped off the bed but then came back to investigate. Google is my best friend. I found out it was a bed bug… No, not happy it was a BB but at least did not feel insane.

Let my landlord know and they called out the exterminator. It only appears to affect my bedroom, but we bagged up everything in my room and my kids room. Exterminator came in and sprayed. I also bought a steamer. People at the laundry mat thought I ran a shelter I had so much stuff.

Of course Landlord holds me responsible for reimbursing the fee to have treatment done, but can “pay as I can”.
When i came home after the exterminator was here, was not sure that much was done. It took me a few days to go back to my room, but did and it felt great to sleep in my bed….straight up until 3 days ago.. It’s only been 3 weeks since the exterminator came in. So I am happy to have found this site. I will try the DE, Vacuum, steaming, mattress covers solution. Even thought my couch is “heavenly” i prefer to sleep in my bed, that way the kids can get up and enjoy the living room and i might get a few more minutes of sleep,.

ang:

No you don’t have to worry about your computer vent. & wet Diatomaceouse Earth does not work!!

louis:

I keep hearing from alot of people on this site.Where can I get DE? You can go to Home Depote and buy it for around $9.00.The product is called CHEMFREE INSECT KILLER.read the the label and it has DE in it.They have other brands but this one is the cheapest.

MR:

Diatomaceous Earth works! But it takes anywhere from 12-24 hours to kill them – we tested it on a couple bugs we caught and put in a glass jar with some of the powder on them.., and they have to come into contact with it.

Today is my day 14 of battling bed bugs and they are almost all gone! It is not a, “spread some powder and then they are gone”, deal. You have to dig in and be diligent about cleaning them out!

We bought the DE from Lowe’s in a 4 lb bag for like $9, mine was not the food-grade, so I used gloves and a face mask. This size has worked fine for 3 full bedrooms, my entire 2nd floor. We got a shop-vac, because you probably do not want to then clean it up with a regular vacuum-plus once you vacuum some of the DE into it, you can vacuum any live bugs up and be assured they will die!

We stripped the beds, box springs and all..they hide in EVERY small space! We vacuumed, dusted, sprayed (Bed Bug and Flea Spray), vacuumed, dusted, sprayed, etc., etc, etc, for the last 14 days!! The large ones can lay up to 5 eggs a night, and those hatch within 10 days..

We also heard from a friend that watched a Bob the Exterminator show, and said they set up several space heaters in each room and heated the rooms up over 120 degrees and it kills bugs and eggs all in one swoop-we do not have space heaters..! We put every bit of bedding-including pillows, and clothes through the dryer on High heat, everyday. We were blessed to be able to contain them to the second floor, so our family has basically lived in the downstairs living room and kitchen/dining room for two weeks.

The bugs are most active in the middle of the night, so I would stay up late hunting them, then set an alarm to get up in the wee hours of the night to hunt some more. We put the DE in every crack and crevice, along the floor to baseboard areas, around the bed legs (bugs have to climb up somehow), we put that DE EVERYWHERE, and sprayed cooking spray on the legs so they couldn’t climb up.

By the way, we found them in my little girls room nesting in the top of her curtains! Her bed is a metal frame kids bed with no real box springs, so they found a place close by to go! Once you destroy all the nesting places on the bed and box springs (remove the cover at the bottom of box spring-they get into the little place in the wood framing of it), they will start scattering to anywhere they can get to. I would find them on the walls, in the drapes, in door crevices, behind picture frames etc..but that was actually a good thing, because it meant they were on the run!

We bought bed bug proof box spring and mattress covers-but should say, we just got them today, so everything else we’ve done was killing them off. We covered our bed as it was where it started, and if anymore eggs are in there, they aren’t coming out!!..

We just moved into our townhome a couple months ago and had been itching in our room from day 1!! Go figure! Anyway, they can be wiped out without paying a ton of money to exterminators, you just have to read all you can and find out their habits etc..then be absolutely determined and diligent to get them out!!

Move in hard and fast on them, and you can get them out, it takes a little time, but at least you know you won’t be still fighting them 6 months to a Year later! I praise God they are being wiped out! I’ve been praying and spraying!!! Today on day 14, I have only had to kill 3 of them! I’m taking my house back!!

Bed Bug Girl:

Hey Jc,

The bed bugs follow your carbon dioxide (what you exhale), this is why a bed bug trap using dry ice works so well (see https://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-traps/) for details on how to make your own.

Trisha:

I was wondering after how long did everyone notice their “BB” issue end once you realized you had it? I noticed about a week ago I had the issue after 3 months of crazy itching. My Apartment complex is known for spiders and that is what we thought it was. I have used the DE/Steam Vac defense every 2 days by steaming the entire bed frame, box springs and mattress. We also lay down the DE powder around the whole bedroom, bed and entry ways to other rooms.

I stopped getting bit since we have moved into the living room area and not taking all the washed blankets into the infested rooms. This morning was the first morning nothing was found going through the mattress although I did not go through the box spring were we have found some as well.

I will still continue the process untill we go about 2 weeks with out finding anything. How long did it take others to get rid of the BB and once getting rid what did you do to prevent anymore coming back?

Brandi W:

I have tried diatomaceous earth and I still have a bed bug problem. I check my kids beds and rooms every night for them. I thought I had finally gotten rid of them and then my child wet the bed the other night and when I went to change the sheets I found 2 of them. I have found them sitting right in the DE and they had layed eggs there too. I have found some that looked like they were slowing down because of the DE, but I was really baffled by the one laying eggs while sitting in the stuff. I am just going to keep trying to be deligent, and maybe try the Dry Ice thing that someone else suggested. Supposedly they can find you by your body heat and the CO2 you put off.

Yadira:

I need some advice, I got bed bugs in my bed and my husband used boric acid in the bed, in the carpet and in my children’s room too. And now I don’t want to go into those rooms because I think that is dangerous for us to smell, I am 7 weeks pregnant and I don’t want to risk my unborn child. also I haven’t let my children sleep in their room because of this boric acid in their bed. Am I correct or we can sleep in the beds even though they have boric acid powder??? Please help!!!

Etta Rae:

Hi, I had just noticed the bed bug infestation in my room about a month and a half ago after my mom had been noticing them in her couch where she sleeps in June. At first I was dismissing the tiny little pests as some kind of other bug or little roaches since that’s pretty bad where we live as well and mind this, we live in Texas.

When I found a bed bug under my pillow, I flattened it and then taped it to a piece of paper and looked it up via Google and sure enough it was a bed bug alright. I took immediate action then because at first they were biting my dog who was waking me up in the middle of the night in the early morning hours whimpering big time (also I had been dismissing the situation as fleas). I have NOT bought the DE stuff yet, want to but so far when I found a small cluster of a nest up above the top of my box spring under my bedskirt and mattress (assuming that’s where they had been at the whole time I had gotten them in my room but to be better safe than sorry later, I sprayed everywhere of my sleeping quaters with Ortho home Defense MAX for bedbugs (Kills them where they hide!) and sure enough after spraying, vacuuming dead bed bugs/some that might of still been alive/dying, and re-spraying it showed signs of it working in killing them.

Double checked under the box spring and mattress, vacuumed, re-sprayed while I was running all the bedding I had put into bags to dry on high heat in the dryer. Sprayed good sized layers along the sided of the bed boards, small crevices, headboard, foot board, etc. Gonna see how it goes on when I sleep and see if I wake up to see any of them crawling about in the wee hours of the morning about 4 – 6 am. But none the less, the stuff does kill them and I just found out about them today after keeping them at bay with some crystal cat litter which has silicone in it too plus spraying RAID for fleas and ticks.

Keeping your sleeping quarters free of clutter, constantly washing clothes and bedding, vacuuming like mad, etc. does play a big part into defeating these nasty little critters once and for all. Luckily I caught them before they could get out of hand and I would have been stuck at getting rid of my bed all together. Gonna get more of this stuff since so far it works wonders, way better than the hot shot stuff and respray crevices I might have missed since I went crazy with this stuff and sprayed everywhere I saw them coming which was good, getting rid of the adults and their little cluster nests on contact was a good thing.

Really glad those little suckers got cocky and only moved from the folds of the box spring up to folds of the bottom of my mattress near my foot board, saw some at the headboard too but not as many as saw at the foot board and luckily when spraying them when first saw them it killed the little suckers all together at once! Double checked them with my witnessing eyes after spraying and vacating the room for about 30 minutes to an hour and checking every 15 minutes.

I know for fact they were dead on contact with the stuff since when I picked one up in my gloved hand, in my palm. it’s little legs weren’t moving and it was lying still. Also when I picked up the mattress after turning it on it’s side to spray all around and ensure I got every square inch of the mattress plus box spring I found some more lying flat and still plus stiff as a board when touched. Didn’t move like they did before when I picked up the mattress the first time. So yeah, I highly recommend Ortho which you can get anywhere they sell pesticides and insecticides. I wish you much luck as well in defeating these things because the war is not over just because some people get rid of them and prevent them from coming back.

Etta Rae:

Third time posting, so far it’s 3 in the morning and no signs of further infestation on bedbugs except one I found alive on the curtain. Like I said, I’m gonna buy two more cans, one fore my mom and one for me to spray as according to where I see them, where they may harbor their eggs, etc. This time I’m gonna focus more on the bottom of the box spring and the crevices around the carpet and ceiling, plus change my curtains and bag up the pink one til I can destroy whatever eggs may be there but yet still no bed bugs yet which is good. I’ll probably make one more post if I don’t see any while staying up to make sure I got rid of the main adult infestation for good so I can focus on the eggs that are either
A) hatching already or
B) getting rid to hatch in about 7 – 19 day.

You can do this Henrietta, just be persistent and read up whenever you may find something.

Etta Rae:

Me again with a follow up report,

my box spring was infested in the corners and in the folds which I took care of but still I got rid of it plus the frame. Now it’s just me and my mattress along with my bedding. So far so good, I sprayed all and up along the crevices near the bottom and top of the wall, near the window pane and on it, up above the window pane, etc. We’ll see how this go.

I am taking my uninfested bedding out of there and sleeping up in the front room with my mom and kid sister leaving the mattress alone with the sheets on it to see if any other show up. I am going to however clean the area and place the mattress back but now at least I have better control of the situation if they were *god willingly* just in the box spring and the frame that I got rid of. But you know how they say “better to be safe than sorry.”

Either way I am feeling a tad bit more relieved each day that I straightened out this problem and prevent it from reoccurring since I will most definitely getting a new bed, roll away preferably since those are easy to master control the problem. If I’m right and my mom is too, they’re most likely coming in from a nearby apartment. We’ll see. I’ll double check my room and the mattress(especially the mattress to make sure I eradicated them all). *crossing my fingers I did* We’ll win this war, these things will not take over my life!

Leelee B:

I never believed in buying used furniture especially a box spring or sofa /chair against my better judgement I let a friend convince me to buy a sofa from an associate of hers. Low and behold that jerk sold me a sofa with residents aka bedbugs.

Not even three weeks later I started seeing bites on my 2 yr old and myself no one else was getting bit so I thought it was mosquitoes. I took my daughter to the doctor and was given a cream for the itch. We had fresh bites everyday so I started reading up on bug bites, I was praying it was not bedbugs bites b/c I never saw any eggs, nest, bedbugs etc.

On Sat 9/10/11 I got up at 5am checking the sofa and my daughters bed I found nothing. I decided I was going to a 24 hr CVS to get several bottles of rubbing alcohol just in case we had mites which would be cause by a bird making nest outside the window or rats even though I never saw any signs before. I went in my daughters room to check on her and saw a bug filled with blood on the sheet. Man, I freaked!… that confirmed my suspicions especially since everyone else in the house though I was paranoid.

My spouse went out and bought bed bug foggers and a gallon of Ortho bedbug spray (total $48) we treated the room immediately threw out the sofa and another small piece in my daughters room. I spent $143.00 buying plastic zippered cover for both the box spring and for all the mattress in the house; in addition I bought zippered plastic covers for all the pillows.

On 9/11 I vacuumed the entire hose and at around 11pm I was checking the sheet and pillows when I found a 2nd bedbug attached to the outside of the case I sprayed again and went out and bought more foggers( 32.00) for the entire house. I was reading other testimonies about how to treat bedbugs effectively without using a Professional b/c I don’t have the money to pay $300 per room. So I ordered food grade DE $64.00 w/ shipping. I spread DE all over dusting it in carpets etc and saw one bedbug trying to get away I caught it and put in in a container it struggled for several hours several hours later it was dead and crisp. No one has gotten bitten since.

On 9/23 my oldest daughter found a bedbug crawling on her carpet (the same room we found the other 4 bb). This was her 2nd night in her room since 9/10. I told her, need to stay in the room so the bed bugs stay in that space and be killed by the DE but she refused. So far no other room in our home is affected by BB so I am hoping we caught the infestation early. But the DE gave us piece of mind.

Debra:

Someone asked about finding blood and wondering why there was no squished bug close by…it appears that after a feeding, a few drops of blood leaks out of them, I think also that if you are getting bitten often, some of the blood you find on your sheets may be yours–eek.

Christine:

No need to panic. You should not be using foggers or spray cans of pesticides because they are very harmful to humans and pets and do nothing to harm the bed bugs. Pyrethrins and pyrethroids do not kill bed bugs. They have developed immunity to them. You do not need to use pesticides or to spray or cover everything in the whole house with powder to get rid of them. You do not have to throw all of your possessions away.

Use these steps and be amazed:

Vacuum your house thoroughly, including your mattress.

Put a dust mite cover on your mattress. Bed bugs are bigger than dust mites so they can’t get through a dust mite mattress cover. You might want to put a dust mite cover on your pillow as well.

Here is the most important part. Get Climb Ups for your four bed legs, or however many legs your bed has. Also install them under the legs of your sofa, and other upholstered furniture. You need to put a fine layer of talcum powder in the Climb Ups, but that is all.

By excluding the bed bugs from their food source (you and your blood) they will fail to reproduce and then the whole population in your house crashes and you are free of them.

Be careful that nothing from your bed hangs down to the floor, and move your bed away from the walls.

Wash your bed linen and your clothes in hot water.

No matter where the bed bugs live in your house, they only come out after midnight to feed on you in your bed. They are attracted by carbon dioxide and heat. By making sure they can’t climb onto your bed, you have solved the problem. Climb Ups are available Bed Bath and Beyond; the legs of your bed sit in them and prevent the bedbugs from climbing up your bed.

You can also use a plastic container like you get at the deli, cover the inside with diatomaceous earth, put fly trap tape around each leg inside the container and you’ll have a bed bug free sleep (make sure you have a dust mite mattress cover that completly seals as well!). Good luck!

Cristina:

We found bedbugs and not sure where they came from. We had recently moved and they are known to travel in the moving vans or they could have already been in our new place as they like to hide in the outlets and cracks and don’t come out in the daytime. I watched an episode of infestation and heard that bed bugs are hard to get rid of on your own, I was determined to due to me having small children. I did the sprays and was getting burnt out due to me finding more.

On the show they had said that they can’t withstand heat. I got up the next day went to Walmart and bought a Shark hand-held steamer for $89. Best 89 dollars spent. I steamed the inside of the couches, mattresses, baseboards, curtains and outlets. I did this twice and haven’t seen any bugs or bites. THIS REALLY WORKS AND I PROMISE IF I CAN HELP AT LEAST ONE FAMILY RID OF THESE NASTY LIL CREEPY CRAWLERS, I’LL BE HAPPY! I stand by the Heat method it cuts out all the chemicals and really works.

Taylor:

I am currently fighting this problem with bed bugs in my college dorm and these bugs are almost impossible to get rid of! It takes multiple times for them to go away. I don’t recommend exterminators, they aren’t worth it.

merlot58:

I thought I had scabies or some other mite problem, have been battling this for 10 yrs, now I realize all I needed was DE.. going to buy some tomorrow. Thanks.. : )

So tired:

So I saw a bed bug about 2 months ago immediately pulled all bedding vacuumed etc. I didn’t see any sign of them. I have a old water bed frame with a specialty made regular mattress to set inside of it. (got sick of the water bed) Anyhow those little bugger were in the wood of the frame and the under-drawers. I got a steam cleaner steamed all that couldn’t be washed. Went to laundry mat (most home dryers do not get hot enough to kill bugs you may want to check yours) And did all that could be laundered Bought this stuff called stop bugging me sprayed my bed down and surrounding carpet. Let that dry overnight. The next day put down some DE (in hardware store found it but do not think it is food grade quality). So far have only seen 2 bugs and they were not healthy. Hoping this works best of luck to all.

rachel:

PLEASE HELP!
im 17 and my sister stayed over recently. i knew she had bed bugs at her house but i didnt worry about it, well anyway she slept on my bed, and everything, when she left i laid my head on my pillow for about 5 when the itching occured i looked in the mirror and had about 10 bites on my face! since then on theirs been many more bites, on my chest, and legs i told my mom but she doesnt care, she said it is not her concern, so i am left to deal with this alone, HELP! what do i do?!?!? my mattress is outside covered in bleach and lysol, i have no money for DE ! i havent slept in the longest time i live in fear and sleep in my living room!

RC:

Had the house treated with heat 1 week so far no new bites and old bites are going away

bedbugsreallysuck:

I will never forget the day I saw my first bed bug. It was last night at around 2 a.m. Over the past few days I have been noticing bites and major swelling. I was immediately concerned and started my research. I came across bedbugs. I was not totally convinced and had to do some investigating. So that night i stayed up waiting and waiting….. Nothing. As I’m getting ready to call off the bug hunt… There he freaking was. Coming right at me… This confirmed it… I have bed.bug. I literally took my lighter and burned him alive.

Took my mattress and threw it out.. washed my sheets. And pulled everything out of my room. Ended up sleeping on the couch. I had no new bites when i woke up this morning which was nice after getting about 10 over the last 5 days. I ended up going to home depot and getting the DE made by safer brand. It says organic but I’m still concerned about having it so close to where I sleep. I basically set up a perimeter around my bed and used a glove to fill every hole and crevice in my bed frame. Not sure if this is even gonna work but, for the time being, it is giving me what little peace of mind I have left.

I feel so bad for all the parents having to deal with this. I am currently single and living on my own so it is not really effecting anyone but me. I would not wish this on anyone and I believe my journey has just begun. Good luck to everyone dealing with this. It is not because you are unclean or have bad hygiene, it could happen to anyone. Try to keep a positive mind about this whole situation and with hard work and persistence, there’s proof you can get rid of em.

Ugh!:

Against my better judgment I purchased a futon style mattress from Ikea’s As Is section just before Thanksgiving in anticipation of holiday guests. The mattress was wrapped in plastic with only a small opening and I figured someone must have returned it because it was the wrong size or something. Boy was I wrong!!!

Shortly after placing the mattress in our Ikea sofa-bed in our den where we were sleeping, I began to experience bites. First one, then two, until I finally caught a two adult sized bugs. An exterminator came to our house and confirmed that they were in fact bed bugs.

I threw away the sofa and the mattress and steam cleaned the carpet and washed to curtains on high heat. For weeks it seemed as though he problem was solved, until Tuesday night.

This past Tuesday we were sleeping in our master bedroom, which shares a wall with the den. For several weeks I had noticed bites but naively thought they were from this Fall’s round of Asian Ladybugs. We had gone to bed early and around midnight I awoke to that painful itching sensation and quickly turned on the lights. We caught four bedbugs.

A different exterminator came and confirmed that they were bedbugs. The price quoted to treat a two bedroom condo is $1250. We are going to treat with diatomaceous earth and other online remedies first because that is a lot of cash.

Last night husband sprayed and put a casing on the mattress. We through out the headboard and bed frame. Tonight he put diatomaceous earth all around the room. I’m a little nervous about the impact that breathing it will have on our lungs.

I will keep you all posted on our success. Best of luck to all of us.

MVC:

Bedbugs are little Draculas i mean for real like vampires. they wait till ur asleep as soon as the body temperature rise they bite. they track humans by their blood & gas they exhale carbon dioxide. im from the getto in CAPE TOWN & have been targeted by these insects for up to 5 years now. we had rent to kill here thumbs up to them no signs of roaches anymore but the vampires seem to be immune to whatever you do. we aint untidy people we vacuum every single day and deepclean Saturdays it should be generally important to do so.

Bedbugs smell awful when they’re killed and they lay eggs in huge quantities. i noticed these eggs are white and extremely small and when it survives its a beginning of a new bedbug chapter. i haven’t slept for 6 nights at least few hours during the day i cant stand these insects. as i’m typing this post i’m on the watchout for them and i’ve killed up to. i don’t know at least less than 20. my pillow and bedding is filled with blood spots really looks disgusting.

it has been away for months due to a chemical i used. when i threw it on them cause i found a spot where a lot of them were grouped like a family gathering planning tonight’s outbreak the lamp oil killed them immediately. it dries the bug and bends it like a banana. my only concern was the eggs i don’t know how to destroy them and i know revenge is taking on me and family for destroying their forefathers.

this is serious and i’m honest about everything i’m posting. i sat in the taxi on my way home when the guard shouted at me saying. “Bru, sit still, there’s something in your neck”, he took the bug which were probably hidden in my jersey and said please keep these dangerous creatures to yourself. people enjoyed the good laugh i could feel the heat in my face as a result of the embarrassment. i asked the driver to stop the taxi got out and walked with tears filling my eyes.

I cursed these nightmarish bedbugs they’re ruined my life. i don’t sleep over anymore and i spend less time in other peoples homes coz my friends and family do not deserve this infestation. so today ill get some lamp oil which i know will work for the next couple of months and ill pick up some DE. thanks for reading people good luck to yall. i have posted this with the intention to share my experience and without prejudice.

Hannah:

So, Lord willing, this story will be a positive one,now and in the future. So far, it has been six months since we got rid of our bb infestation

It all started in early July. I found a bug, and then another one. A nagging suspicion drove me to the Internet, and a check of my bed sheets confirmed. However, I didn’t really believe it until I found another bug. I killed it, and kept it, looked it up, and confirmed my fears. I had had no itching, and little to no bite marks, and the visible ones were hidden by freckles and mosquito bites.

There were no bedbugs in or on the mattress, we put a cover on that, and immediately began washing and drying my blankets, pillows, clothes, curtains, etc. we found an infestation in my wooden bed frame, in tiny cracks and nooks. The most popular places were the knots in the wood, we’re I didn’t find some for weeks. We eventually got rid of the whole frame. That was the turning point for the battle. We put my mattress on the floor, with de all around it, like a little perimeter.

So, I figure that all the babies and adult BB’s that were left hid in the wood floor. And baseboards. They were confined to my room by a diatomaceous earth (de) border, and when they tried to get to my bed to feed were stuck in de. We put de in all cracks and caulked everywhere too.

After two weeks with no BB’s I got a new metal frame. It had wooden slats, so we caulked all cracks before putting it in my room, and used de in every step. Gradually we vacuumed up the de. We put de in Tupperware containers surrounding each foot of my bed, the only way to get to and from my bed is to go through de somehow.

I feared going to bed. Reading helped me to go to sleep, but willpower was what made me stay in bed. Our first inclination had been to bomb the house with bug killing gas, and sleep somewhere else. NO. Don’t do that. It’s not easy that way, but it’s better than spreading the problem to other parts of the house.

I still freak out at little itches. I still don’t bring my purse to the movies, and seeing this website again makes me want to go check my bed with a magnifying glass. My pajamas are dark colored, and create dark fuzzies, which freak me out. I dry everything before and after I go on a trip. It gets better, but I will still be on guard it’s normal,

and for everyone out there, don’t feel alone. These evil little monsters are killing themselves, because by increasing and becoming more prevalent in our society, we can help each other more and more, and find new ways to kill the little suckers. We aren’t alone. Just look at this site.

So the most important things? Find the place where they are coming from. If it is your bed, I strongly recommend trashing it (or buy a mattress cover that covers the entire mattress), if financially possible. It’s easier in the long run. Place a perimeter of DE around your bed. It might not kill them all in one day, but in a few weeks, it should. It took us five weeks. A month later, we had a scare, and found one single adult in my brothers room. We took apart his room, and found nothing. Nothing since then either.

Good luck to you all. And no, you aren’t going crazy. :D

Flight Attendant:

To whomever posted about using the orange oil, the stuff you use to polish wood furniture, that’s a solid tip, thanks! We got to test that one right away, and it kills them on the spot, not even a death gasp.

We just discovered our unwelcome guests 3 days ago. I’m a flight attendant and thought I was beyond vigilant with checking my many hotel beds, but apparently I wasn’t vigilant enough. Looks like one hitched a ride home with me in my suitcase (despite never putting my bags on the bed, EVER. Worst passenger EVER). Sad thing is my boyfriend and I started getting bites months ago, but were told by the dr that it was allergies probably caused by our laundry detergent or the like. We were checking for bedbugs all the time anyway, like the paranoid entomophobes flight attendants are, and still missed them.

Our apartment building just treated the whole apartment with no cost to us yesterday, thankfully. We’ve vacuumed everywhere repeatedly, to the point of overheating the vacuum cleaner, and I’ve been liberally sprinkling diatomaceous earth everywhere like a bed bug fairy of death. We also bought bed bug covers for the box spring and mattress ($45 each at Wal Mart). Maybe this is insane (or unhealthy? I don’t know), but we sprayed DE all over both sides of the box spring and mattress before putting the bed bug covers on.

I know that throwing away furniture is supposed to be a big no-no, but we tossed our bed frame and bedside table after it was all treated, and then vacuumed the hell out of the apartment again after transporting them into the bin outside. After everything I’ve read, a good majority of people have said they inevitably throw out their bed frames and furniture. We just decided to eliminate one for-sure issue, after unearthing live ones chilling in the wooden slats holding up the box spring.

After every vacuuming session, we suck up a boatload of DE into the bag to ensure they are suffering til death in their dark, blood deprived hellhole. God, I hope this all works.

We came home today to find a few dead ones. Miniscule triumph after an 8 hour duty day at the laundromat and still unknown scale of infestation.

I have no idea how our wool uniforms are going to survive a dryer for 40 minutes, I’m hoping a Dryel bag will protect it from shrinking. I’d throw it all away, except we still have to work and it will take 2 weeks for new uniform pieces to arrive. The whole lot is currently quarantined, tied up in double bagged heavy duty garbage bags. From now on, my (new) bags will be living in the hotel bathroom.

There are so many things I’m unsure of. Like the closet is across the room and I have a filing cabinet in there.
Are they laying eggs in paperwork I can’t throw away?
I also have a 4 tier metal basket system that sits on the floor that houses my purses and belts. Are they in there???
Since they leave bedrooms to hunt for their meals and we are away from home at work half the month, is our living room just as screwed as the bedroom is, just because they are trying to find someone to bite?? Or are they on flight attendant schedule too, endlessly lay eggs to pass the time and (god forbid, I hope not!) attempt to investigate the neighbors, then celebrate by biting us more when we are home in our own bed? We haven’t seen any sign of them in the living room really, just one dead one today hanging out on the zipper of one of my work bags… but that speaks for itself. My psyche cannot grasp the potential scale. Also, speaking of bags, I live in Vancouver and I haven’t seen the sun in days, so the “keeping them in the car with the sun roasting them” trick won’t work here. How should I treat our work bags?? Vacuum and DE?? I feel like the bags are ground zero here! Again, we still have to work, and getting new company luggage won’t happen in a day.

On top of it all, we found out the same day that all this started that I’m pregnant (a surprising, but much much more welcome guest). The information sheet we were given advised us to leave the apartment for 12 hours if there was someone pregnant living there. We were gone for 24, but my god…I’m exhausted, at my wits end, and scared to death over whatever fumes I’m inadvertently huffing, and I feel like this is only the beginning. At least I have a good excuse to cry.

I will update our trials and tribulations as they happen. I am crossing my fingers for everyone.

Bed Bug Girl:

You don’t have to put the books in the microwave, you can visually inspect them. It’s the books that have bindings which open that you need to be concerned with, but using a flashlight on one end and inspection the other end for bed bugs should do the trick.

A lot depends on the place you are staying at! For example, an apartment complex that has an infested unit can hire an inexperienced exterminator who ends up drive the bugs into the next apartment; if that’s your apartment, then you’ll end up with the problem again. So make sure there are no complaints, ask management directly about previous infestations, and take measures listed on this site to ensure you don’t bring them with you. If you stay, get some type of guarantee from the exterminator if you can!

Please let me know how this works out for you!

No More Bedbugs!!!:

Hi, I’m posting again because I still have bedbugs. My apt mgmt sent out an exterminator to inspect, and he swore up and down that I don’t have any, despite me showing him the fecal stains on my boxspring, and bites on my body. So now, my landlord is off the hook for footing the bill. They told me I’m welcome to break my lease and move out, without any consequence.

I was so disappointed to hear that I’m again on my own to rid my apt of this problem. I have done extensive research, and I will be purchasing Phantom today and distributing the pesticide myself. I emptied out my dresser and closets, washed, and bagged everything. I still have not seen any bedbugs. But my son and I continue to get bit every night. I’ll post again after I exterminate.

I will be moving out in April when my lease is up, and I pray that I don’t take them with me. I’m not keeping anything except our clothes, electronics, and my son’s toys (which I will be freezing for a few days to kill any bedbugs hiding inside).

Good luck to everyone who’s battling this issue, it SUCKS!

Pain:

i never knew what a bed bug looks like until a few months back. i got severe itchiness around my feet and i went to the doctor, and the problem resolved. i didn’t think much of it at that time, until when i woke up one morning and found a weird looking lice-like thing getting half squished near my bed with blood around it. i was scared wondering if that thing bit me.

I’m a medical student so i did my own research and found that it was indeed a bed bug. i didn’t know what to do. that was my first encounter. i read about DE but i couldn’t find it anywhere. i study abroad so it’s much harder, i don’t know where to get it in this country. one day i went to a mart nearby and saw some kind of chalk used to kill ants, cockroaches and bugs.

I decided to give it a try. i drew around the perimeter of my bed. so far i found them dead whenever they tried to crawl up my bed. served them right! ohh and the chalk is really cheap! I’m so happy because well, I’m just a student. i couldn’t afford all the professional service thing. thank god i gave the bed bug chalk (DE) a try :)
good luck to all you guys!!

Robbin:

Joanna, Bedbugs don’t come from being dirty, you can pick them up on the bus, airport and even hospitals! You can wash yourself all day and it won’t help to get rid of them or prevent them from spreading to others; however, having them and a lot of clutter around the house can make killing them a lot more difficult! There are some great successful do-it-yourself stories on this site giving details on how to go about this – most important is time and patience – you can’t give up!

The only way you bring them to your boyfriends house is by transporting something they are hiding in, like clothing, furniture, etc. Check your car to make sure they are not in there as well!

BRYAN:

Can anyone tell me exactly what to do with the DE and the orange oil spray for the best results including the couches ??? I will appreciate any and all feed back THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH :)

DE WORKS:

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Had bedbug infestation. Bought a 10lb bag of Diatomaceous Earth off ebay for 15 dollars. Covered my apartment in it. Waited a few days, vacuumed it up. NO MORE BEDBUGS. I’ve been bedbug free for 3 years now. IT WORKS! Friend had same problem, I told him my solution. WORKED FOR HIM TOO. Bottom line…DE WORKS!!!

Note: See our page on Bed Bug Powder at BadBedBugs.com

Bobbie M:

Here’s what worked for me —

1. Bought bb-safe enclosures for the mattress, box springs, and pillows.
Also bought Food-Grade DE and BB sprays (available at Amazon, eBay or Tractor Supply).
Note that DE is NOT harmful to people or pets but it MUST be FOOD-GRADE.
Also do NOT inhale it while you carefully put it down.
2. Washed and dried (on Hot!) all blankets, sheets, etc
3. Placed bb-safe enclosures on mattress, box springs, pillows
4. Bed has only 4 metal legs. I carefully spread food-grade DE around each leg.
5. Also put a line of food-grade DE across the door entrance to each room, to keep them from migrating between rooms if possible.

Now I no longer get bit at night. But as you know eggs could still be present elsewhere in the room and hatch many months later, so I continue to —

1. Vacuum
2. No longer leave piles of clothing around. Hang everything up. Keep everything clean. And most importantly, wash and dry on Hot!
3. Keep DE “barriers” between rooms and across other potential migration paths

It looks messy to have DE around but it works. I intend to keep it around my bed for a long while. I will get rid of the DE barriers between rooms in a couple months.

Thanks for the good advice from everyone who has posted here.

Anne:

For those looking for bed bug dust and live in Toronto, Ontario you can find DE at Grass Roots on Spadina and Bloor. There is also a Danforth location! The Big Carrot also has it.

vikki:

I tried to DE stayed up all night and hunted I have been killing them by smashing them between paper. but my chair and bed are covered in the dust. The stream treatment did not seem to help and none of them came out . How long does this take to kill . If this does not work i’m going to have to toss the bed and chair and sleep on the floor til i can afford a new bed. please are there any faster way to deal with bed bugs, please !!!!!

Bed Bug Girl:

Hi Vikki,

There is no short-cut to get rid of bed bugs, the most effective way of doing it yourself is following the steps on my bed bug dust page. Most important, be patient and don’t give up!!!

Oscar:

I went to a swap meet about a month ago and I bought a small dresser so I can put my TV on top of it. Not sure I got bedbugs from the dresser but about 3 weeks ago I would wake up to bedbug running away from me. I would always kill them but the other day I went to clean my closet and I discovered a bedbug hiding on one of my shirts, ever since then I have been killing with napkins about 4 a night walking all over my walls . Does anybody know how I can get rid of them? ps I cant even sleep at nights thinking they will come out. its messing up my dally life. thank you and hope to get rid of them soon .

Jennifer in Florida:

The key to NOT getting bedbugs OR getting rid of them once they are there is to ***take away their food source***** If you have roaches, clean your house. If you have ants, put yoru food away or in tupperware. If you have bedbugs, clean your shower, your bathroom, your floors, dust, vacuum, Once a month do a deep spring cleaning. Roll up rugs if you use area rugs, shampoo carpets, dust walls, (behind wal hangings and pictures too). Do your laundry, don’t leave dirty things around, When you are dirty wash yourself, Never go to bed dirty. Take showers at night, Apply lotion to skin to hydrate, BedBugs eat dead skin. Take that away and they will stop.

If you get bed bugs and have a hard time getting rid of them, you could get rid of everything you own and start over but that would be expensive. Instead, launder sheets and blankets and clothing in the hottest water you can NOT IN YOUR INFECTED HOUSE. Spray fantom all over cloth surfaces like beds and couches and carpets. Let dry, finnish your laundry and take a lunch. It’s almost over.

Get FOOD GRADE DIATOMECIOUS EARTH usually at feed stores or hardware stores with a nursery. once the cloth in your house is dry, spread DE all over, WEAR GLOVES, MASK AND EYE PROTECTION. This is ok to ingest not to get into mucous membranes or lungs. It will dehydrate you. You can work with it without gloves but your skin won’t like you anymore.

Let the DE set atleast 7 days. Yes that will mean, hotel time. Take a vacation. Maybe stay at a friends house now that you have clean clothes. Please be sure to let them know you had a BEDBUG infestation so they can protect themselves too.

Then it’s time to vacuum and dust and do a real deep cleaning to your house. It burns calories and you will feel so good once it is done. Look at all the dead BEDBUGS you are cleaning up. You will continue to find them for a while. Periodically you will have to do a deep cleaning on your house. Why not take pride in this. A clean home is a healthy home. Remember, these BEDBUGS go to the dirty houses. Like roaches if the food source is plentiful and they go unchecked they will multiply with a cengence. BEDBUGS will migrate to the next house over. So while you are cleaning let your neighbors know so they can be on the look out. It is best to get them before they get you. The smaller the Number the less the cost of getting rid of them.

MeNotYou:

@ Ezra Van Helsing

Love your post. I appreciate your sarcastic dark humor through my turmoil. I never thought I could find anything about those jerks funny. Thanks.

JoJo:

I’ve been dealing with the little jerks for almost 2 years… I moved, am on my 3rd round of furniture (Thank-fully we have a great goodwill type place here) and still can’t get rid of them. I have tried DE, bedbug spray and steam. The exterminator said that the only way to truely get rid of them is to treat all 4 apartments at once but the other tenents refuse!! Is there anything else i can try? Our ventalation is connected to two of the3 other apartments so i have to be very careful of what i do.

ashley:

Only had infestation in one top bunk of kids room. immediately thru out top bunk and mattress now have mattress’s in encasements. in infested room used alcohol and Clorox clean up on everything. dried all clean clothes that were hanging and in dressers. put DE in all rooms. only rooms i haven’t completely flipped over and checked and cleaned everything are the laundry room and kitchen how likely is it that i have to clean those room with alcohol.

i only found 1 infestation and only 1 other bug in the other bedroom prior to finding infestation. my daughter was getting bit up for about a month and a half. why cant i find anymore? do you think the majority of them got out when i took the main infestation out?

It’s still on the side of my house can they get back in? this is driving me up the wall. i have about 30 bags of all our winter clothes extra bedding stuffed animals and so forth. i already put the totes that where in the infested room that were inspected with no bugs in storage as well with keepsake boxes and stuff and put down de in the storage. is it ok to take the sealed garbage bags there and they wont enter?

I’m going crazy here someone please answer!!! its driving me up the wall i still feel like they are here and i missed them or there is just one and its all gonna start over in a month. i suffer from ocd and I’m going crazy!!!

do i need to wipe everywhere including dishes in the cupboards n so forth im going crazy here someone please help! im ready to just jump in my car and run away

Yvonne:

We suffered with bedbugs for almost 1year. Finally, we did several things at once and solved our problem:
-clean all floors and furniture with a carpet sweeper and cleaner
-diatomaceous earth perimeters of every room
-spray visible bugs with bedbugs spray
-use mattress covers for all mattresses and box springs and even
couches
–

Charles Fowler:

If, you can kill the eggs at your bed, that is the key. If you determined heat treatment is too dangerous or expensive, now what ? The big picture is you have a ranch, you’re raising Bed Bugs and using your bed as a corral.

First, spray your bed or encase the bed to kill the eggs so you won’t be overwhelmed.

Second, Make sure there are no problems with your bed. Nothing about your bed can be allowed the touch the wall or floor but the caster wheels.

Third, the new corral for the Bed Bugs is a dim light going 24/7 where the Bed Bugs can be drawn to and removed with masking tape.

Fourth, you spray the ceiling-wall line on two of the most distance walls from the dim light to move the Bed Bugs toward the light.

Notes: Do not spray near the dim light or any other location, that will create a barrier to keep them from coming to the light. This dim light is most likely for life. As new Bed Bugs arrive at your home they will go to the light. Bed Bugs are drawn to you like Bees by your Co2. A fan moving air near your bed will mix your Co2 evenly in your bedroom, making it hard for Bed Bugs to find you.

Every other day a light spray on your bed caster wheels will protect you. Those in the Bed Bug business won’t be needed anymore. Please beware of biased replies from them. This method seems to be the “Silver Bullet” for Bed Bugs. This lure will provide detection, control for the home and car. The poorest people will be able to handle their infestations. This DIY project can be done for a very small cost of parts. This is a very “Green” method.

For all living places and whole house treatment, the hallways will become giant traps. The lights are there, a $5.00 dimmer switch is needed and spray. Lightly place DE on hall traffic areas where people put their foot down. Careful: My new kitten made a mistake, near the light. I moved the litter box there. Later I found a live Bed Bug in it. When the Bed Bugs stop coming to the light they’re gone, for now.

If you have total control, you’ll have complete relief. The Dim lights double for night lights and Bed Bug Control.

SUMMER:

We found out we had bed bugs last year during June 2011. It started out with my son getting bites all over him when he was sleeping in his room. We thought it was fleas, so called pest control to come out and treat. The day that pest control came out my son had found a bug on his wall. He taped it and showed it to pest control. After that we were $1000.00 in the hole.

The exterminator came out three times to treat the whole house because I even found one in my kitchen. We took everything out that they said had it outside in bags, washed two times and dry three. My son did not want to fall asleep because he was becoming a meal.

Just the other day I was thinking about it being a year that we were bed bug free. Slept good too, but last night my son came running into my room at 2:00 with a bag telling me they were back. I looked at his bed and saw that there were some on his sheets. I took the sheets off and put them into a bag. Taking the bag down to wash and dry double times again. So today we are going to home depot buying something to wrap the bed in and throw it out. My mom also told me that she saw a bed bug in her room. So now we are throwing her bed out too.

I’m guessing they made it out of the bed wanting BLOOD. ANOTHER SUMMER OF HELL!!! Here we go again.

Bug Killer:

For all of you wondering why the bugs only seem to be biting some people in your house, not all – or those of you who see the bugs, but have no bites – the bites don’t always show up. I think it has to do with personal reactions – neither my sister, my brother, my dad or my mom or me had any reaction at all to the bed bugs. I kept seeing them, not knowing what they were. They creeped me out, but I have a live-and-let-live policy for insects. Then I saw one that was red and realized it was clearly a parasite – googled bed bugs, figured it out, spent a few hours panicking.

A friend of my brother’s got kicked out of his house a few months later, had no place to go so he stayed with us – he had an immediate reaction to the bed bug bites. Like a rash all over his arms and legs, almost like mild poison ivy. So don’t assume that because you don’t see the bites, they’re not feeding – you probably just don’t have a reaction.

Another thing – don’t try to move out of a room to starve them. They’ll just use spaces between the walls to follow you, and now you’ve got them in two rooms instead of one. I know it sucks, but your best bet is to hunker down where you’ve got them – make sure you’re treating all rooms if possible, but if they’re in one room only, stay there so they don’t start looking for a new food source in other rooms of the house until you’ve finished killing them.

I’m heartened by the diatomaceous earth results you folks seem to have – definitely going to try that before we call an exterminator and spend the money. Anyway, good luck to all, and death to the vampiric bastards. Hey, at least they don’t sparkle, right?

Jay:

I pretty much agree with the OP as to the best strategy.
I’ve trawled HEAPS of forums and blogs, and one of the most common experiences seems to be that exterminators charge thousands of bucks to kill 99% of your BBs, then the remainder breed back and you’re starting over… Steam cleaning is good if you have the energy/time, which I do not. Here is my lazy strategy (and still cheaper than getting professionals in).

1. fit bedbug proof mattress encasements
2. place bed legs on interceptors (see our section on bed bug traps to make your own interceptors)
3. wrap bed legs in bedbug tape
4. position beds so they are not in contact with anything except where the bedlegs touch the interceptors.
5. vacuum and spray the couch in the lounge with residual pesticide so it’s not a comfortable place for them
6. scatter Diatomaceous Earth in places you’d expect them to traverse (e.g. around the couch, around the beds, around the skirting etc)

We’ve been bite-free for a while with the above, and expect the BBs to die of starvation in 24 months or so.

Steve C:

Yes, I was shocked to find bed bugs. I live in a small block house with plaster walls. By the head of my bed there are some cracks in the plaster. Fortunately, I have a Sleep Number bed so there isn’t a box spring per se. The mattress is a couple air chamber. I spread DE all over my bedroom, the window sills. I also spread it around the outside of my home at the base and around the sills. It has only been 2 days. I found about 6 in the bed this morning. However, none were under the mattress. I think that the DE will work but will take vigilance. I bought new pillows and ran the sheets through the washer. I think that the ones I found this morning may have come from the sheets even though they are clean. I will post my progress. Thanks to this Web site I became aware of DE. I am a horse rider and bought a 50 pound bag of DE at the feed store for $25.00.

Day 3 – update: I woke up at 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM and no bed bugs. The DE did its job. I have it under the mattress pad, on the frame and all over the floor by the walls of the bedroom. I am going to leave it there another month or two. I forgot to mention that I took my mattress pad and cover to a laundromat because their dryer HEAT UP way further than any home dryer. Both those items would shrink in the wash so I put them in the laundromat dryers only, no washing. I live in Phoenix where the humitidy is almost zero. That may have an effect on why the DE is so successful. Do not use DE meant for swimming pools. Use only food grade DE. Swimming pool DE has been treated and is ineffective toward insects. I will keep posting my progress. So far, looks good.

Nicole C:

We put down a TON of DE last night and this morning, I am completely covered in bites. We dusted every nook and cranny and all of the beds. Beds are encased. I thought maybe the DE made them freak out and bite me a lot more. I hope that’s what happened but I could sure use some encouraging words right now. Will they die?

Joseph B:

This comment was removed and place at the top of this page – Thank you Joseph!

Jenny H:

How can I make sure that bed bugs didn’t get into the computer? If they did, how can I get rid of them?

Ursula:

For those of you wonder if you move will you take the bugs with you I can tell you without a doubt you will! I moved into a house about 3 years ago and my boys and I started to have bites all over within days after our move. The landlord got a PCE to spray it never killed 100 percent of them even after 10 treatments. I got rid of all my beds and furniture bought covers this cost me thousands of dollars. I had to move twice for my job and my little boy is still getting bit. I took nothing. Nothing. With me when we moved other than heavily laundered clothes and a very few toys. I just spread more DE in the bedroom I’m so sick of these bugs. I wished I never moved my family into that infested home 3 years ago. I hope this DE treatment works these things are so hard to get rid of.

monica:

I have bb in my room and my sons. We’re all sleeping on very old mattress & box springs on the floor because we have no frames. Should I throw them out and by air matresses? Can’t afford new frames & beds.

Michelle:

Found bed bugs about a month ago. My daughter had refused to sleep in her room because she saw a bug. This is not unusual for her so I did not bother to go see the bug. After a couple of days though, I was in her room and she showed me one of the bugs. I have never seen a bed bug before but I felt impending doom as I wondered if this horrible looking critter in my daughter’s bed could in fact be a bed bug.

Off to my computer I go to search the internet for clues. Thanks to Google, it took mere seconds to have my suspicions confirmed. More searches on how to get rid of these pesky pests was filling me with dread that my home would never be bed bug free again!

We removed all bedding from my daughter’s room. Washed in hot water, dried till it was dry + 20. Then we bagged it all and put it in a car outside in the 109 degree heat (easily 120 in the car) and we left it all there for two weeks. Extreme, I know, but worth it!

I thought that after we sprayed her room with pesticide and left it empty for two weeks, we would be good to go. (Insert horrible buzzer sound here) NOT! Those dastardly devils had migrated to other rooms! My other daughter’s room was the happy residence to a few bed bugs that we could see. Back to Google I go!

I had been using Diotomaceous Earth for my pets as flea, tick, and worm control for quite a while and wondered if it could help in the case of bed bugs. My Google search turned up quite a few stories that held promise. So, I filled up a bottle and began to spread both daughter’s rooms with DE, cleaned all clothes, bedding, and surfaces again. Made sure that under the bed, box springs, and top mattresses with all nooks and crannies were fully coated in DE. Covered all base boards, full perimeter, and then coated the entire carpet. Both girls left there rooms to sleep in mine.
Still getting bitten!

The couches have been the recipients of the boisterous bed bugs!

Break out the flash light, kill all spotted disgusting pests. Spread DE on all couch surfaces, under couches, and the perimeter of the couches. Yes, guests think I am terrible about cleaning, but I know what the real scoop is!

At this point, I have taken the flash light, searched all furniture daily for three days, applied a coat of DE to each room with all of its inhabitants, laundered all that could be and even run the throw blankets and pillows though the dryer for 20 minutes each day.
We have not seen any bugs for several days. No bites that we can see for several days. Am I counting my chickens? Nope.

Since the Diotomaceous Earth seems to be doing the job, I will continue to keep everything coated for at least the next month. I will also continue to launder all bedding, throw blankets, and pillows each week. I plan to win this war and I honestly do not care if my guests think that my house needs a good dusting! DE is not poisonous to me, my children, or my pets and it seems to be getting the job done!

Donewithitall:

I’m so depressed and tired over this. I’m not well to begin with now I have to fight this too. I feel like giving up. Just want it all to end,

irritated:

my husband had gotten bed bugs while we was not together when i moved back in i inspected everything because of bites everyone was getting. i found that the couch was infested with bed bugs so when he got home from work i told him the couch had to go!! 2 days later we threw out the old couch, cleaned top to bottom, bombed with bedbug and flea fogger, brought in the new couch and slept peacefully for five months.

Then my sister moves in and what decides to move with her…. BED BUGS!! my kids were waking up with 14 to 2o welts from bites a night! i had the mindset i’ve battled and won before i can do it again. well the bombs did not work this time. i researched so many websites for so many hours, i wrote down products, looked for reviews on those products… it was exhausting… well finally this is what i did!

I bought 3 cans raid max bed bug and flea spray (with straw), jt eaton bb spray, bb spray and a 20lb bag of DE powder. my husband searched for a couple of these bugs put them in separate pill bottles and put chemicals to the test.. Hot shot DOES NOT WORK!!!! raid and jt eaton worked instantly to kill them. the DE powder did take 3 to 4 days to finally kill them so its a slow kill but to me a kill is a kill with these things! Heat kills them as well 120 degrees for an hour minimum….

i bagged EVERY fabric item in my home except a blanket for each of my kids.. i sprayed the dressers down (more like i soaked them in the spray) waited till the spray was dry and put de powder under the drawers and all around the dressers, took the beds down (my mattress is already encased due to last problem) sprayed the entire frame, i found quite a few even eggs on the frame.

i bleach my kids toys, i sprayed every where in the walls under my encased couch and after spraying i laid the powder. next i took all my bagged items to my aluminum shed i left them sit. the next day about 3pm i checked the temp in the shed it was 130 which was hot enough to kill the little buggers! im hoping and praying that being continuous with this routine will eradicate them!! so far thought no bites!!

i live in Ohio where we very rarely get 3 digit temp readings, but if you can get an extremely hot day get out of ur home for a few hours open blinds to let sun in don’t run no air, keep it closed you may be able to hit 120 for an hour and kill out most of them! good luck to every one these things are horrible!

cookie:

At this point im willing to try anything, so im off to the store to get DE and start the process. My husband thinks im paranoid and a complainer (which i am lol) but the bugs dont bite him..he sleeps so hard nothing wakes him up. As im typing this paragraph im killing these bloodsuckers. I wish i had the money to let the professionals exterminate them. tonight im going to grease up the the feet of bed with Vaseline as suggested hoping to get a bite free sleep, then 2moro ill start with the DE. These critters make me dislike sleeping !!!

E Castro:

I keep hearing of people having problems with Bed Bugs moving from apartment to apartment.
Im not sure my remedy will work 100%, but it should help.

In my old apartment, we had ants that would come in through all the outlets. it was really bad. One crumble of taco meat left on the hardwood after a late night meal after the bars, and boom, giant ant trail in the morning. So I started with caulking all the trim in the whole place. Worked pretty good, but then they just used the outlets.

So I bought expanding foam spray, or filler foam as they call it. This is the stuff that they spray around the pipes under your sink. Its a foam that you spray out of a inverted can with a straw on the end. As it dries, it expands to many times its original size, filling up and sealing all cracks.

This 100% stopped all the ants at my old place. As I am a week into my fight against Bed Bugs in my current apartment, I took off all outlets, light switches, and anything else that can create a hole in the wall, and sprayed this stuff in till it was coming out the front and i couldn’t get any more in.
It expands to at least twice its beginning size, and dries into a hard foam that you can trim up with a Razor blade so you can fit your covers back on.
Not sure landlords will like this, as it encases the outlets in foam. And if you ever want to break it off the outlet, make sure to turn the breaker off.
Im hoping this keeps them from entering from other apartments like they originally did, and I hope this stops them from leaving my apartment when the professionals come in 2 days.

So far, vacumming, 91% rubbing alcohol sprayed along all cracks and seams daily, Laundering everything, cans of EcoSMART bed bug spray, sealing up all outlets and bug bombs has seemed to kill everything in a matter of days.

Changing and washing sheets every other day, threw out everything i don’t need anymore, sealed everything up as well.

So after the professionals, I will move onto spreading Diatomaceous Earth and sealing the mattress. And just keep to the DE treatment weekly as well as rubbing alcohol and bug sprays every few days.

Kat:

Ok, so I will give a little background and then tell you what we did. I am pretty sure I got bed bugs when I got a second hand mattress. I moved out of that apartment and into a new one, not because of bed bugs though. At the time I wasn’t sleeping in my room at my old apartment much so I didn’t even notice until we got to our new apartment when I was spending almost every night in my bed now.

Within two months we had a full blown infestation. The exterminator said it wasn’t the worst that he had seen but def. not the smallest either. Needless to say we gave it a month they couldn’t guarantee that they were all gone and we kept seeing them so we moved out. We threw out everything. Well I found out that I gave them to my boyfriend by sleeping at his house and vise versa.

At that point I knew we couldn’t tell the landlord because of my past experience (old landlord wouldn’t give us our deposit back.) So we decided to treat it ourselves, I had read up A LOT on BB and would consider myself very well versed on their habits and what to do and what not to do, although of course I am NOT an exterminator. We basically cleaned the entire room inspected everything anything that was deemed ok was bagged and removed. ALL and this is important ALL clothes, bedding, towels cloth of any kind needs to be washed on hot water and dried when you dry it you need to dry it 45 min LONGER once its fully dry to kill the eggs and any BB. Then bag it up, leave it in the bag until further notice, if you can live out of these bags for a month take what you need from the bag and then reseal. This DE stuff is like GOLD!

I took this stuff spread it all in the room you don’t need alot and you NEED to rub it into the carpet so its almost invisible to the eye. Then I spread it all in the baseboard any cracks and the sockets. RUB IT IN. If you can buy a new bed, do so and before you put it in there buy a good BB cover. I got one for 60 bucks on Amazon that got good reviews. You want one that says bed bugs o proof on it. get pillow covers too.

If you can afford a new mattress get a BB Cover if you can and take this DE Stuff and spread it on your bed. Get it anywhere that there are holes or visible areas where they have infested. Then cover the mattress with the BB Cover to seal them in. And kill them. If you cant afford a BB Cover then spread this stuff all around the mattress and get Four bottom sheets. Take first sheet and put it under the mattress so basically put the sheet on and flip the mattress over so the sheet is on the bottom, then put a sheet on the top, so now you have completely wrapped the bed in sheets, then flip it over and put another sheet on the first side. repeat this once more so than you have encased the mattress completely. Not saying this is ideal but if your strapped for cash its a good start.

before you do this you’re going to want to so this next step first. Sorry I am writing this as I go so things might jump around a little. Anyways, I bought Ortho Home defense max spray and sprayed that in the holes cracks baseboards, on the bed sides and where there were tears and evidence of them. You would do this in conjunction with the DE powder which btw is pretty cheap. anyways, then after you have dusted the room, sprayed the room, rubbed DE into the carpet, we took BB bombs and put two in the room, they say dont do that but we did, I dunno rather be safe than sorry. After that we set them off and left. Mind you you want to leave any beds or furniture that you had in there, in there for this treatment.

Five hours later we came back and vacuumed up the carpet, this is when you want to do the treatment to the beds that I mentioned before by encasing them, and yes this is safe to be around. least I haven’t gotten sick and from what I read you don’t want to eat it or breath it but once is settles its ok. ( not a doctor) Leave the powder around the baseboards and in the cracks, you can put sheets on again and what not I just wouldn’t start using dressers until you confirm that these things are gone, IE if you have dressers I would treat them with DE. So then you just have to do maintenance, check your bed wash your sheets reapply DE when needed.

If your persistent and keep treating you can beat this but I really think that being thorough with making sure your checking everywhere and treating the adjacent rooms baseboards Also caulking up and holes once you put this DE stuff in there would be a good idea. This is just what I did its only been two weeks and so far so good. Figure I would share my experience with this horrible affliction.

Cant Sleep:

I first saw these nasty brown bugs on my bed back in late June,I thought they just harmless insects like ants.But then my mother went to the doctor and showed them her itchy welts on her skin and they said bed bugs had bitten her. That’s when I panicked and researched and found out I had bedbugs on my bed.They are the nastiest insects ever!

I hate roaches but bedbugs take the bait..they leave spots on the bed leave you feeling feeling itchy.I hate this, they have no purpose to my knowledge.They just make you feel so dirty.I just had to vent this stuff is horrible..my family cant afford to get an exterminator. So I’m doing the best I can by placing alcohol on the bed and washing clothes/sheets in hot water and drying them on the hottest temp…its so serious I’m praying that they they go away.

It’s so stressful I don’t know where they came from. I’m just trying to stop it before bad turns too worse.Its enough almost makes wanna cry.This stuff is driving my family crazy. Is there anything else I can do? I’m thinking about getting a Steamer too.

Kenneth

Hi, everyone. I have had some horror stories with bed bugs. About seven years ago I was in Vancouver, and I lived in a cheap apartment. I saw all these little brown bugs around, some of them were quite large. I was such an alcoholic at the time that it took me a few months to realize that the bugs were biting me.

At first, it was a few little unobvious bites, but not much. After being bitten thousands of times, I guess the allergic reaction started, and I had trails of hives all over my body every time a bug bit. I finally did a bit of research, and I realized what I had was a severe bed bug infestation!

There was soo many of them that they didn’t physically have room to hide. My mattress was covered. if you moved a poster on my wall, there were thousands in behind. They were all over the corners of the room and on the floor piled up on top of each other under the bed, and all around the radiators. So I up and moved. Sadly I did not do enough research because they followed me, and of course, my new roommates didn’t like it very much.

They tried to treat the problem with spray. But the damn bugs were crawling away from the spray! They seemed to know their impending doom. I did my homework this time, and I washed all my clothes and dried them on hot, and I moved with just a few garbage bags of clothes to a new apartment. No furniture or anything came with me. Finally, I was free and have remained bed bug-free for a few more years. By this time though I was completely traumatized by the damn things, especially now that I quit drinking and couldn’t drink away the fears. Then I moved back to Toronto with a roommate for a while. Afterward, I moved into my first apartment on my own without roommates. I furnished it all from scratch, went into debt over it….the apartment was beautiful!

Two weeks after living there, I saw a bug crawling on my computer table. Panicking, I looked around and found where they were inhabiting a crack in the wall in the corner and also in my closet. There were signs of feces all around the walls too. I did tons and tons of research, and because they weren’t that hard to find, it leads me to believe the infestation was quite severe. Usually, you can barely find the damn things, especially in the case of a small infestation. Later that same day I saw a bed bug-infested mattress just lying in the hallway of my apartment building near the elevator..and it clicked.

I was in a 300 unit highrise, the bed bug prison from Hell! I reported it immediately, and my landlords sent this exterminating company to come along and spray around the room a few times. I did enough homework to know that this was not effective. I went around and polled a bunch of neighbors on my floor, and they all had the same story!

1) they all had bed bugs

2) they had had their apartments sprayed numerous times

3) the bugs always came back.

I felt so sick. I knew what my landlords would do would never work. I knew what had to be done to get rid of them was practically impossible, especially in a building so friggin large. I only made $15 an hour, so it’s not like I could afford $thousands either. And frankly, I figured a multi-dwelling highrise full of poor people was doomed. I got very stressed and depressed quite quickly, and frankly, it took me to a very dark place. I did not start drinking again but started fantasizing on how I could just off the balcony and end my torture.

After another week and two spraying attempts, I broke my lease, through everything out (except for my clothes which I washed on hot), and I moved into a furnished room for rent. The only things that I didn’t wash were a couple of duffel bags, which I left outside on the balcony for a couple of weeks in the winter…..but I guess it wasn’t cold enough. A couple of months later I saw bites and looked around, and I realized I had brought them with me to the new room for rent. I was planning to leave town in a month anyway, so I just quit my job on the spot and left….only with my clothes this time….no duffel bags.

I spent a month at my parent’s house in the middle of winter in Manitoba before moving to Calgary. Here I started fresh, and lived in three different apartments..no bed bugs! About a year and a half ago I discovered a bed bug infested mattress in the dumpster behind my building. I freaked out and immediately called my landlords, but no one had reported it, so I posted a memo under everyone’s door in the building. I also did a lot of research, and by this time the diamotaceous earth was now on the internet and a few of comments about it. I am still questioning the authenticity of the comments because a lot of them seem to be on sites plugging the product.

I put DE all around my apartment and did it every couple of months, and I was very careful not to vacuum right up to the walls. Anyways I did this for about six months and never saw any signs of bed bugs. Life in the dirt, though no glamorous, really wasn’t so bad! I also bought an emergency tent that remains unopened in my storage room just in case. About a year ago I started getting lazy with the DE routine…I didn’t apply any fresh coats. I still didn’t vacuum right up to the edge of the walls, but I think it was gradually disappearing over time.

I hadn’t seen any bites or any other bed-buggy mattresses around, or any signs at all…so I didn’t worry. A couple of weeks ago I got these itchy bumps all over my butt and on upper thighs. It struck we as weird, especially being in such a localized area. At first, I thought “Great…..genital warts”. So I went to the doctor, and he said no definitely not….looks like an allergic reaction to bug bites. I didn’t have a good handheld mirror, so I hadn’t had the chance to inspect myself previously. I immediately got nervous. Could it have been mosquitoes? How could mosquitoes even get to an area I had covered so well as my butt? Especially in Calgary in the rainiest summer ever…and I knew I had not worn shorts… And the bites were lasting for two weeks now and only mildly itchy.

Now I’m paranoid. It’s hard to tell if there are bug bites on my thigh areas now or if it’s just small pimples mixed in with the hairs. I might have a bite on my mid-cheek, but it’s hard to tell and not itchy. I have not been one to react extremely to the bites in the past. Gradually over time, the reaction gets worse. I am not 100% sure I have bed bugs, but pretty darn sure if’s not fire ants or spiders or mosquitoes. So I am now about to put DE all over once again and going to say a few prayers. Gosh, I hope this works.

One thing I would love to know is to hear more DE success stories. I saw so many on other sites, but it always seemed like a plug for the product. I asked an exterminator if DE was good, but he told me it wasn’t. But can I trust them anyways? I can’t expect exterminators to sell me on cheap DE as it will result in me not spending $ thousands on spraying, now can I. Please I would love some advice. Somebody, please tell me that DE works!

Linda is losing it:

I can’t get rid of them! I paid over $2,000 on professional thermal remediation treatment. They heated my house up to 140 degrees for 8 hours after significant prepping. I bought the zipper covers for every bed in my house. I went straight to the professionals and they even came back a second time one month later to retreat my bedroom when I found a live bug in my room.

My body is covered in scars and fresh bites. They had said my room was the initial source and the chance of eggs hatching was possible so they reheated just my bedroom. I have just discovered the extermination company has disconnected their phone!

My husband took my living room furniture to the dump today! See I thought I was home free for about 2 months until three days ago when I noticed the breakfast, lunch, and dinner bite pattern on my left arm and then realized my whole right hip was covered in bites. I had fallen asleep on the couch.

Today we found a bed bug on our outside patio furniture. I was sitting outside since we don’t have a couch anymore. I am the only one in my house getting bit. It’s hard to understand how crazy this can be if you are not a direct victim. My husband was not convinced it was a problem initially but now he is ready to move and leave everything behind.

Every time I start to get comfortable and think they are gone.. they aren’t. I can’t sleep. I work a lot, and I miss my bed.. at least just being able to get in it and relax.. I threw out all my favorite pillows. There’s no where to go that just says “home”.

It always feels like something is crawling on me.. I can’t tell people. It’s like I have herpes or crabs or lice.. pure humiliation. I’m so exhausted. I’m so afraid to have people over. I don’t feel like going anywhere. This website said “speak your mind” so I’m speaking my mind!