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Wondering, it only takes a few bugs to do all this to your body. Just keep killing them one at a time and you will win. There wasn’t that many biting me and my wife but it was a battle that went on for months. Have you applied the double stick mounting tape to the bed legs?
Two days ago I caulked my entire bedframe. Yesterday, to be quite sure, I painted it with primer. I’ ve inspected every cm2 of the frame. This morning I still found something that could be a piece of a skin in my bed. Also still new bitemarks are showing up; sigh.
I should remember that those are not animals with supernatural powers but that I’m missing some factors or facts here. And that bedbugs are extremely annoying but not the end of the world. I have a nice appartment and plenty food to eat.
So today I steamed the bottom part of the frame again until it was too hot to touch, then I removed the carpet tape from the legs and also the DE powder around the legs and replaced them by very sticky mounting tape, this time higher around the legs.
If this won’t help, I’ ll put an extra layer between the frame and the mattress with sticky edges that the insects need to cross to enter my bed.
The last possibility is to wrap the frame in plastic and seal it with duct tape.
I wish I could afford to get this taken care of professionally but if I had that kind of money to spare I would already be living in a nicer apartment than this one. I found out another co worker had a serious problem with these things. Cost her “thousands”. I’m trying to figure out what I’m spending “doing it myself” versus “professionally” and I just wish it was easy to get answers. Nobody will offer up a hard figure and it seems the pc industry is just as blood thirsty as the little buggers.
The JT Eaton DE powder and Pyro spray costs 4.99 and 9.99 at my super market. I’ve seen the exact same products cost double and triple in various hardware/home stores and through exterminating companies. With those kind of mark ups on products so simple you’re dealing with people eager to take advantage of you.
You’re also going to want to “double bag” your mattress. The expensive one for your bed and then the cheaper, snugger version to protect the expensive mattress covers. These things are weak.
Whats driving me crazy is the not knowing what kind of problem I’m dealing with. At this point It appears things were centered on my bed. I’ve found two live bugs over the past four days and about 6 or seven total since this all started about six weeks ago, no eggs or dead bodies. The only traces of fecal matter i have found were a few dots left behind by those few I caught (it was in the spots where i picked them off the wall with bathroom tissue). No new bites, existing bites are troubling me less and less (they still look nasty tho), cats area looks fine. No little spots of blood on my bed. I’ve experienced nothing even close to some of the videos and pictures I’ve seen. no swarms of little nymphs coming at me… i think I’ve found three in total weeks ago.
Still I need to be vigilant for a few more weeks. I’m denying them their food source, I’ve yet to turn the lights off in my place at all. it’s always that moment you let your guard down…
Bugginout, yest they are very flat. I was fascinated looking at them through a magnifying glass after they were captured. You made points that I agree with. They do resemble spiders when on the ceiling. Even to this day when I see something like that on the ceiling I say,’ Please don’t be a bed bug” and it turns out to be a spider. I never kill spiders out of respect and also maybe they will help us by snatching those bed bugs up too! By the way, during my battle after applying DE I caught one up on the ceiling. Just one though! I had the feeling it was dieing by the way it was behaving. It wasn’t responding the way one would trying to escape. I killed it anyway of course. Some people have warned of health effects of being exposed to too much DE dust. Be cautious with this stuff and wear a good respirator when vacuuming! I congratulate you on your efforts too!!
Maria, you must feel very good finding the bugs after all. This is a monumental step in my opinion. The most important thing is to kill the adults and eggs on your bed or frame, which you are. Only heat or crushing will kill eggs so be sure to steam. If you don’t have a steamer maybe you can use a clothing iron on high and iron the bed mattress, especially along all the seams. This will kill eggs. Also remove the box spring and iron the webbing material on the underside real good. Many of us are determining that this is a prime spot for nesting! The underside of the box spring where the staples are and the plastic cornered tufts! You may have found bugs on your frame but the eggs are probably on the box spring. Have you seen their eggs before? I have! You need a magnifying glass. They are ridiculously small.
Ahhh…you just made things a little more clear for me in the regards that that “things are crawling over me that aren’t there” feeling is actually delayed responses to already placed bites!
No new bites for me yet…but I did catch one crawling up my wall just as I was finally turning in around 1:30 am this morning. This one was not blood gorged and didn’t pop blood when i squished it.
I didn’t notice how flat these things can really get till last night. their bodies are like little balloons.
did my thing.
hoping to get more than 4 hours of sleep tonight!
Bed Bug Girl, the complicating ingredient seems to be the dry ice, is not easily available here, certainly not in small quantities.
bugginout – thank you. People have been so harsh and cruel to me that now someone is kind to me I nearly start to cry. Well actually tears are in my eyes.
Please continue posting, your reports are always interesting to read.
John G. – you could very well be right that there is a delay in time between the actual bites and the bite marks starting to show up. This morning, twelve hours ago I had no new bite marks and now I’m covered with new bites. At least 15 new ones. I’m not very allergic but they blood and burn a bit. Some are five of six in a row and look like scratches from a cat.
Good news, I found bugs hiding under the steel meshes between the bed frame. I had no idea that they would be hiding in such places, but to be sure I started to steam those areas. And suddenly I saw one, hiding under a mesh. He was already dead. To be quite sure that they would all be killed I threw boiling water over all the meshes. So if there won’t be new bite marks your theory is right.
Maria, I don’t think anybody can say for certain that your bite marks will show right away. People believe they can take many hours to show after being bitten. I also feel that they can be in clothes and get us then. I don’t think they can make it across mounting tape. I had excellent success after applying it. The bites stopped. But you must keep the bed away from walls, end tables or anything else. Don’t let anything touch the floor and the bed at the same time except the bed legs of course. But put the tape on the legs and any support blocks properly. Keep in mind that if you are not finding where the bugs are hiding in your bed, box spring or frame your gonna keep getting bit, sorry to say. These bugs are biting you when you are sleeping. I highly doubt they are getting you when you are awake. Are you certain you are being attacked while walking around or sitting down?
Signs of life…very sorry if im upsetting anybody by posting here so much. This site has been a big help and writing all this down really helps me keep it together.
Maria…my heart goes out to you. The idea of having to protect yourself from these things while you’re awake and active must be terrifying.
Once again I have to stress that whatever it is I am going through it seems very mild in comparison to what Maria and other posters are going through.
Since my last posting I have received no new bites, no new sighting of anything, not an adult, not a nymph, no eggs, no dead bodies or husks and no fecal matter. Of course I’ve also had almost no sleep since then as well so who knows…I may be completely mad. I have been using all that time not sleeping cleaning, inspecting, looking and treating.
I continue to fight these things diligently…
I feel much more organized now too.
Gotta tell you…the idea to drop clear plastic vinyl shower curtains to cover the DE in my bedroom has been a godsend. I’ve yet to see anyone offer up this advice on any website I’ve visited so I’m feeling extra clever I came up with this by myself. If this is a big no~no I would appreciate the warning but I think its helping lots. First of all it just makes it that much easier to be able to keep the DE down where it needs to do its thing while keeping it away from you. It makes it that much harder for the little buggers to crawl up from the floor boards onto you and your bed. I know it isn’t an airtight barrier so they can get around it but they’ll be easier to spot and as an added bonus I’m hoping to crunch a few between overlapping layers. In a couple of weeks from now when I get my new bed in and feel comfortable moving closer to the wall the mattress will not only be encased in allergen covers…the bed will be resting on a very secure thick plastic mat.
I’ve also caulked and sealed all the outlets, switches and especially light fixtures all over my place.
I firmly believe that bed bugs will attack you from above. I experienced it when I got my first bites. Like many people I thought it was spiders dropping from my ceiling. They do resemble spiders..but don’t be fooled. It makes sense. If you’re a pregnant momma and you want your babies to survive would you put them in a spot where they have to crawl miles for their first meal or would you place them in such a way that all they have to do is roll over? When you find them climbing up a wall they are doing so with the intent of positioning themselves over you.
I’m also very fortunate in that I’m quite adept at using the hand steamer. I know how to handle it to its effectiveness and I have been steaming the hell out of everything…especially my bed and clothes. O actyually love it. I’ve been wanting to get one for myself for ages…
Seeing as I’ve been denying them their food source I am expecting to experience some backlash. I’ve seen others write of a calm before the storm period. I hope this isn’t it for me. I’ve been terrified that they’ll turn to my cat to feed. I’m certain what happened to me last week was me interrupting one feeding on my cats paw. It broke contact, she bled and that was the one i found scampering up my wall. It makes sense. The only traces of fecal matter I have found in all this were three pin head sized spots left behind my kitty’s assailant…
but that also leads me to ask the question…if you encase a mattress that does have adults living in them and they try to come up to the surface to feed…they find they cant get through…you go to roll over in your sleep. Could that cause them to pop and bleed out? I ask this because it was an awful lot of blood and my cat seemed to just stop bleeding instantaneously. It was like a small blood bomb went off and then immediately stopped. Nothing of the sort has happened since and my cat seems to be fine. I should take a picture of what the mattress looks like. She doesn’t seem to mind the flea powder I dust onto her and shes getting lots of extra careful brushings and inspection. she hasnt got a scratch on her.
I really went overboard with the DE at first…i think I have a handle on it now. I’ve caked it between all the floorboards in both my rooms and theres a fine layer of dust instead of clumps of it that i initially scattered….what can i say? I was panicked. I’ll be vacuuming it up in four or five more days. I’m going to re cake in between my floor boards again..but this time I plan to seal it in with a more permanent floor board seal.
I can’t say if the spray treatments I’ve used thus far have been successful but tonight I bought “JT Eaton” bed bug spray (pyrethrin for short) and we’ll see what happens. this stuff feels powerful and it also feels easy to spray. I managed to really get it into the seams of both my rooms without getting it into them. i like that. Like I described earlier I’ve drawn my plastic floor coverings a few inches up off the floor onto the wall and taped things into place. The bed bug spray and De is under several layers of clear plastic and i’m safely atop the plastic in my encased and freshly steamed space.
the cat it locked in the bathroom.
If all goes well I plan on getting 6 whole hours of sleep tonight!
Good luck maria…hope some of this helps. I think you should try covering your floor in plastic sheets just to get you a break!
I regret tossing my mattress so hastily. I’m beginning to believe that any infestation I had was limited to my bed and the few adults i found were strays that didn’t get the chance to nest elsewhere. If this is true this means that I may have this thing beat back in a few more weeks…
Hi Maria,
See my link at the top right of this page on bed bug traps, that is what you are looking for and it costs less than $10 in materials to do it yourself!
I thought for a long time that I only needed to walk on boots with tape or glue around the ankles to prevent them from climbing up, but that proved not to be true. I don’t know what exactly happens. Can bedbugs walk through insect glue? Is double sided carpet tape not sticky enough? Wonder animals? Or do I just not understand them? Also, a thick layer of DE powder on boots doesn’t scare them off. Anyway, I never caught a bug in glue or tape.
I’ve searched for logical explanations but can’t find them. Freshly showered, with clean sterile cloths, wearing boots with double sided tape or/and glue, just doing some homework, not touching anything for a longer time and after a few hours I can count the new bites.
What we need is better understanding for what the animal is capable of, or even better, a simple detection tool; that would be all. A thing with a chip, batteries, sensors and usb, showing us with 99,9% certainty on the computer display where they’re hiding. Then we just need some steam and the job is done. And this humiliating debilitating nightmare will over.
What would keep them from inventing and selling the gadget? Maybe some geek lad in India will be my absolute hero?
Bugginout, make sure you know if your ceiling has asbestos or not. If it is the ‘pop corn’( or cottage cheese looking type)you must not create dust from it. This will be very unhealthy for you and not worth it( as long as you don’t make dust particles).It is very unlikely they are not dropping from the ceiling to your bed. Apply double stick tape to the beds legs and support blocks. Keep your sheets and comforters off the floor. This creates a barrier to your mattress and you. Ofcourse you have to kill any already on your bed too. Don’t put anything, such as laundry on your bed.
Another day spent vacuuming up then laying down fresh DE, cleaning, doing laundry and keeping it in the dryer for two hours. I threw away a ton of books and a few things i had been holding onto~was going to get rid of them anyway…now i’m glad they are out of the house.
I got a second mattress cover…this one was cheap…4.99 and i like it more than the expensive one. The expensive one is still on…the mattress is now double bagged and ever since i started using this spare twin bed of mine i finally have some bed sheets.
Things I’ve added to my arsenal:
Don’t know if it will help but I’ve read that lavender acts like a “force field” against these things…so I picked up some lavender scented fabric softener and dryer sheets.
I already threw the can out…can’t remember the brand name but i liked the topical insect repellent i sprayed on me and my bed last night…what i didn’t like is the 6.99 can ran out real fast. I’ve also taken to sprinkling flea powder under and around my cats “safe house” (the bathroom) and under her littler box.
I finally caught another one…just a few minutes ago. For the past week I’ve slept with and kept all the lights on in my place at all times. Banging on walls didn’t seem to flush any out so I decided to try to create “Dusk conditions”: I turned off my lights and no sooner than i did one started crawling up my wall…so they are still with me. this one must have been hungry. wasn’t blood gorged like the first and smaller too.
I am not going to fall asleep with the lights off.
and im going to steam the ceiling over my bed. again before i do that…
see…this is why I’m not worried I’m over reacting. So far what I’ve gone through seems very mild in comparison to what others here say they have experienced. I would much rather spend the next few weeks like this knowing in a month or so i’ll be snug as a bug in a rug in my brand new sealed-from-the-start bed than let things come to a point where i feel like i’m on the set of “slither”.
I am also beginning to question whether i brought these in via a new comforter i bought at a discount store. A co worker of mine has bug bites on his face…he’s insisting that they are mosquito bites and he’s having an allergic reaction but now I’m starting to wonder if mine came home via coat contact or vice versa. The same co worker has stated in the past his family moved from their last home due to bed bugs. If the people around me are going to avoid doing something about this what hope do i have? I’m glad I threw my coat away. The last few times I put it on I felt itching and pinching in my sleeves to a point where i had to take it off on my way home. I tried discussing this with my super and he just ran in the other direction.
Whatever it was…there has been zero activity since my horror story of two nights ago. no signs of life, no adults crawling up my walls, no nymphs, no eggs, no nesting, no fecal matter, no spots. At this point I have searched just about every nook and cranny in my apartment several times and after trying to cause as much of a stir not a thing. My bites flared very little last night. They seem to have dried out which i think is a key in getting them to heal quicker or making the itching and swelling stop. Should i get any new bites I’m going to try using a topical designed to dry the skin out.
Still…I am going to continue on with my regimen of vacuuming up the DE…then reapplying it, covering it with plastic vinyl shower curtains and applying bed bug sprays and using the lice shampoo and flea powder on me and my cat while steaming the clothes i did not throw away. Its been two days. I’m not going to let this up for a few weeks.
I’m hoping I caught things just as they were trying to spread out from my old bed and am in the process of interrupting their reprdctive cycle. from what i gather i need to interrupt several.
does anybody know if bleach is effective for killing them? havent seen anything about it.
It started more than one year ago, I was bit on the couch by a mysterious insect. I didn’t pay much attention to it. It escalated only 5 weeks ago after finding a bedbug in my bed and my following action.
My attempt to clean the spots with a steamer only caused them to run and to scatter through the entire house, but that at least made me clear what I was dealing with: tens of thousands of bedbugs. They were everywhere, especially the youngsters who are not yet clever in hiding. I even saw them crawling on the counter in the kitchen. Although I have only seen two living adults, the amount of adult dead bodies found in the first weeks was overwhelming.
When I filled the bath with hot water and threw cloths, bedclothes or curtains in it, hundreds of the insects floated dead through the water, cooked and in bits and peaces. It made me feel sick, knowing that they had all lived from my body. Through the wet partially translucent quilt I saw thousands of them in neat lines likes soldiers along the edges. I threw the quilt away and tried not to think or feel anymore.
Now I don’t see them anymore, but I am still bit on a daily base so the bedbugs are still there. I hate them intensely; they are ruining my life. I thought I had made my bed bugfree but yesterday I still discovered four hidden holes in the hollow iron tubes of my mesh frame that I must have overlooked. I sealed them with thick glue, examined every other cm2 of the frame with the help of a hand mirror and if the mattress cover does what it claims to do, at least my bed should be 100% safe now. So there is some progress, compared to 5 weeks ago. :-)
Thanks John G. I think I will try steaming my mattress and box spring again and putting my comforter in a super long super hot dry cycle and see what that does. I haven’t actually seen any live bugs, just one dead one and some black smudges, I know those guys are around somewhere!!
In the meantime I am tucking my pjs in and wearing long sleeves which is actually helpful. I also got Hotshot, which I read on here doesn’t work too well, but what can I say I am desperate. Anyone have ANY success with Hotshot?
*using a couple of large clear plastic tablecloth covers and clear vinyl shower curtains to cover all the de I’ve sprinkled turned out to be a great idea. I’ve even tailored things so that I’ve taped them a few inches up the wall as well. I feel more comfortable walking around now. only regret is i need about three or four more. wish i picked them up on the way home.
had a truly nightmarish experience last night. woke up around 3:30 am and thought I was in the clear. don’t be fooled into thinking your pets are safe. one fed on my cats paw causing her to bleed. my new 110 dollar bed bug mattress covers now have bright red paw prints all over them. I’ve been dusting her with flea powder and brushing her down with a nit brush. tried to create a safe zone in the bathroom for her and as stubborn as cats are she seems to be getting it. from 330 to 430 i found two crawling up my wall. I’ve also liberally sprinkled DE under the few pieces of furniture I did not throw away that are on the other side of my room.
bought the 35 dollar steam cleaner to go over what I’m going to wear tomorrow.
i also picked up another spray…this one is called Black jack. All my cabinets are still empty and there has been absolute zero activity in those areas..but i figured I’d spray them down too. also sprayed my walls, outlets and light fixtures.
haven’t seen any since i woke up early this morning…no signs of any nymph activity or adults. once again i tried causing a ruckus…rapping on walls and floor boards. nothing at all in my spare room…
hope that means something good is happening.
Sick of This, when we had first discovered bugs on our bed our initial thought was that they were utilizing the old comforter because I kept seeing new ones appearing on it as I was agitating it. Of course I killed each one. I think they were coming out from inside it. They were juveniles. I threw it out right away! The bugs were already well at home in our bed at the time and the battle began. So, Yes, they can be in your cushion top. Note: If your mattress or box spring has tears and shows signs of wear like that forget about battling in place. Just count your loss and discard it. If it is in great condition then all the bugs and eggs will be on the exterior and you can attack with heat and also chemical.
All of you need to remember that there is a cycle of life here. Eggs you miss will hatch and you will still see nymphs appear or see the affects of their bites. They need to feed but this makes them vulnerable to attack by you! Don’t panic. Stay vigilant and you will eventually break this cycle. Nymphs don’t lay eggs and they have to feed!!
If you’re waking up with bed bug bites it isn’t a nice mattress.
Get rid of it!!!
Part the Fifth:
I feel gypped with my mattress covers. They cost me 110 for the pair. The KMart version would have been 40. Bought a new vacuum cleaner to help with this. 60 more bucks out the window. Scoped steamers. I noted three different models each one promising to rid bed bugs and dust mites ranging in price from 25 to 40 to 90 from K Mart. Also despite the fact the expensive mattress cover is the same exact thing s the expensive box frame cover they were different prices. God bless people trying to take advantage of misfortune…
Came home and found a nymph on the wall and after much detective work a second one was also squished. Thats it. I really DE bombed my spare room despite the fact it has appeared to be “safe”…not a thing was out of sorts there. I was expecting to find maybe a few adults on the walls trying to get away from my room. I did a sweep of the walls and the ceiling…especially over my bed. I’m hoping the little nymphs I did not find are in the opening throes of dehydration preventing them from breeding.
While its been a few weeks since I received my series of bites…they are still with me and have been a pain in the ass. The hot water treatment does feel good, and like I said…Gold Bonds medicated soothes…I discovered that the best thing for them has been the lice shampoo. Last night I slathered it all over myself…waited the ten minutes and after i got out of the shower i realized its the best my skin has felt in weeks…it got rid of the itch and flaring/swelling. it calmed my skin down. First time I used a special shampoo I went the premium route…19.99…this time knowing there would be many repeat performances i got the 8.99 rite aid brand.
Also I have a few thoughts…could i cover the stuff with a clear plastic or say a plastic drop cloth to keep it from contacting bare feet?
I don’t want to sound psycho…I understand the caution and risk involved but would say getting a blowtorch and quickly sweeping you walls and the nooks and crannies of your room help…also would a sun lamp help in any way?
I have been battling them for a few weeks. I washed everything, put my mattress and box spring in special covers, sprinked DE, and steamed my mattress. Still waking up with bites. I am moving in 2 months and wasn’t planning on taking my bed with me anyway, but I don’t know if I can deal with this for two more months!!
I have a really nice mattress, it is very thick and has a special soft cover on top, it is very large. I wonder if the bugs can hide really deep down where the steam doesn’t get to them? Seriously thinking about tossing it now and just sleeping on the floor or something, I can’t handle the bites anymore.
http://www.badbedbugs.com/how-to-treat-bed-bug-bites/
I thought it would be better to carry on my rant over here from the “how to treat bed bug bite” forum.
This will be part four.
I’m not going to be naive enough to believe I have solved my problem with one day…but I do feel today has been productive with me very aggressively laying down the law.
Bought the DE/Mother Earth powder and have caked it into all the nooks and crannies in the floor boards in my room and my spare room. I’ve taken extra care in corners and the seams all around both rooms and sockets have been caked and covered.
I decided to spread some outside in my hallway. In my haste to get rid of my bed and boxspring I overlooked precautions and just dragged them out. Thought it would be wise to do the outside of my apartment. Fortunately there is no carpeting at all in my apartment.
I continued to throw things out. Also on the fortunate side I’ve never been much of a clutter bug so parting with things isn’t all that bad to me. Cleaned out the shelves in my kitchen. Threw away the toaster, a vidalia onion chopper and a hand held mixer, all of my spices. All have gotten a little old and yellowed. The shelves are completely bare now and theyve been liverally sprayed down with the Raid. I was expecting this to potentially flush a few out but so far nothing has stirred.
Also cleaned underneath my bathroom sink. Found a dead cockroach but again…no sign of bed bugs. Area was also sprayed.
Also threw away my shower curtain and got a new clear one.
I bought bed bug proof mattress covers. One for the spare box spring and one for the mattress itself. Once again I re~inspected everything. All systems go. No signs of eggs, nymphs,adults,blood,fecal matter or stains. Non the less I once again sprayed everything down with the Raid spray and then sprinkled the mother earth powder into the box spring and in the seams of the mattress before sealing them up.
I also bought a large bottle of lice killing shampoo and i feel nice and creepy crawley free.
I did not know what to expect when i woke up this morning. I was expecting to find anywhere from one or two crawling up my wall to die to night of the living creeps with dozens or hundreds swarming all over my walls. I was happy to find none of the sort…but then shocked to find one crawling in my kitchen sink. I’m guessing this one was trying to evacuate and got stuck. I have spent a good four or five hours actively trying to find them with not a one in sight.
Instead of putting my clothes into the hamper untill enough pile up to launder I am going to start throwing them away…when it comes down to me having just about nothing left ill start buying new packs of underwear and some basic items i can juggle with the intent of throwing even those away till further notice.
I am going to be doing this every day/two to three days untill further notice.
Thanks Bed Bug Girl. Today is another round. Going through the place again …. more laundry etc. A couple questions. I’m trying to be systematic about doing everything. I am bagging all my clothes, extra pillows, etc while I clean. So I’m doing some of the laundry today at a laundromat, and others in the next coupe days. If I use the dryers at the laundromat on high heat cycles, how long should I leave them? Is it possible I could infect the laundromat? I hear differing things from half an hour to two hours. Also I’m using just regular black garbage bags. Will that be enough or will they bite through that? What should I use if not them? Your help is appreciated. I will work on building a trap, probably tomorrow. Thanks for that
Hello Teemu,
Sorry to hear you are going through this, but with your attitude, I’m confident you’ll win the battle! The best way to tell if you have more is setting a bed bug trap. I’ve documented how to build one for less than $10, see the link to my page at the top right of this page.
Once you know for sure, you can continue the bed bug treatment and you’ll know if it’s working!
I have an infestation. I moved into this apartment 5 months ago. It’s just a single bachelor place. I understand now that the previous tenant had them and the building was professionally fumigated. I also realize now that I’ve had them a while but didn’t know that’s what it was. I’ve been getting bites a few months but only suspected I had a rash of some kind … didn’t see them or feel much else. Then about two weeks ago I felt something on me but still didn’t make the connection. Then I started seeing them and blood stains on my sheets. I was cleaning and washing sheets but not as aggressively as I now realize I need to be. I started looking for a nest and found a few on the mattress but not really a nest. Then I discovered it.
I have a thermarest camping mattress, thin style, plastic covered, that was between my bed and the wall, that I leaned against if I was reading in bed. I had initially looked at it but overlooked them. When I started looking more aggressively I peeled back the seam and there they were. There was about a four foot strip of bugs, egg spores, fecal matter … just gross. I cleaned it then sealed it in several layers of thick plastic, and duct taped it. Then I tossed it. I bagged most of my clothes. Yesterday I did a thorough cleaning and put down lots of diatom earth, including around the bed posts. I moved my bed away from the walls.
Someone mentioned putting double sided tape up the bed posts to see if any move that way. I put several strips of very sticky thick webbed carpet tape up the bed post but found none there today. I put a plastic lined mite mattress cover on last night, put my blankets, sheets, pillow cases, through two high heat cycles on the dryer. Then I put the pillows in covers. I was washing and changing clothes throughout the day. Before bed I showered, bagged my clothes and put on fresh ones to just walk to the bed.
I had been sleepless for days, sleeping fitfully. So last night I slept a solid ten hours but woke to feel them on me again. I had a blood stain on my pillow case. I suspect my blanket is the culprit … I’ve heard that if the dryer is not hot enough they can be insulated in the blanket?? I am on a limited disability income. Yesterday I spent about $60 on stuff not including loads of laundry. I now realize this will be an aggressive fight to get them, doing loads of frequent laundry and thoroughly combing my place.
Question: I removed the nest I found, but is it possible that there are several nests?
I am soooooo frustrated.
ok i understand that a lot of people are having this problem i woke up one night to my 4 year old crying went over to her and she seemed fine she talks in her sleep a lot so didn’t think much about it went back to sleep. A couple days later felt something got up and found them on my bed have not been able to sleep at night in my house since i sent her to go live with her dad till i can move he tells me that he is going to call cps! My question is, can i get in trouble for having them and can i move without throwing everything away?
I found that a 2:5 (less or greater) dilution of ODOBAN, found at Home Depot and Lowes, works quickly on most (possibly all) stages of bed bugs when sprayed on and around mattresses and furniture. I also put a capful in my laundry after leaving an infested home and have yet to see any at my house. Odoban is a reasonable price and cleans surfaces while you spray. It does smell fairly strong at more concentrated levels but if you open a window; focus on smaller areas, take a break, and come back; or just dilute it more there is no worry. The stronger concentrated it is the faster it kills, when I sprayed them with a 2:5 they died within 5-8 seconds of contact
Was wondering is the DE safe to use around pets? Just have seen a couple of Bugs already been cleaning and spraying is there any spray that will kill the eggs as well or when drie?
Autumn I would tell your property management asap about the bugs. If you do research on them, you will see that they multiply. Also it may have been a bad idea to drag your furniture outside, because you may have spread the bedbugs to other areas by doing that.
I just found out a few days ago that I have bed bugs and it’s because another girl in the building had bed bugs and my landlord never told me that she had them. She ended up moving out and dragged the mattress outside and put it up against the side of our building and now I have the bedbugs.
I’m not sure whether they came in through my bedroom window (which was only a few feet away from the mattress) or if they hitched a ride down the stairs in the foyer when she dragged the mattress down. Either way, I have them now and I live in a completely different unit. Chances are, one of the other units in the building have them. I would tell your property management asap.. the longer you wait, the worse it will get. Don’t waste anytime. I would think that they would have to be the ones to cover it, but I don’t know.
I recently found out the bugs i been dealing with are bed bugs and am not sure what to do. I am embarrassed to go to the management company Cause i have no clue how or when we came into contact with them. I know they have a exterminator that sprays once a month for roaches and ants so i was wondering do you think they would be able to treat for the bed bugs? An is it the management companies job to treat that apt or is it mine as the tenant? I have thrown out all my couches and chairs mattresses and we use air mattresses not to sleep. I need to get rid of these as i have two small children and they have complained about itching. What would your advice be?
PLEASE HELP ME! We moved into a doublewide mobile home about a week ago… I have never seen any sign of bed bugs in our old apartment. I woke up tonight to something biting me, I told my boyfriend to turn on the light when we saw it, a adult bed bug! We killed it, but now I cant sleep that’s why I am on here.
2 days ago I had a baby-shower for my friend, there was lots of people here with kids and diaper bags.. Do you think there is more bugs? We searched mattress and box springs and the floor under the bed. Even the creases in the floor where the carpet and walls meet… We found nothing. Is it possible just one may have traveled with someone?
i recently pick up a very nive couch set for my living room which is a bi-yearly event being military. this set, however, came complete with bed bugs, and did not spot them till the furniture was in the house!
I really liked the set and have never dealt with these type of pests before. i first pulled them out to the balcony and removed all the under fabric. i purchased some eco pest spray from a save-a-lot and soaked the couches. while the root beer scent from the spray was quite intense, it seemed to drop them on the spot.
Still not totally convinced, i left them outside and let mother nature finish them off. the cold front of Colorado that just moved threw had a low of -30 and high of -10 for three days. it seems the most natural solutions are the best if you’re in the right regions. such as the lady above using the Florida heat to cook them in there own skins. after i was sure they were dead by close inspection, not skimping on the cleaning was the best idea. get in every little nook and crannie and all up in the inside of the furniture with vacuums and cleaners. hope this can be of some help to others! fight the war on pests!
I have left the solution on this page before but some of you might not understand how effective this treatment is * NO SIGN OF BEDBUGS * CHEAP AND WORKS * YOU WILL SEE IMMEDIATE RESULTS * WHEN YOU PUT THE mix on mattress, when I did this the bed bugs started popping up out of the mattress. that’s why i recommend you leave it outside….i got rid of them and not had them since…. to be effective you have to vacuum everything, i have a shark vac and yes it gets clogged a lot faster but it works , you can’t be lazy! you thoroughly have to vacuum See 20muleteamlaundry.com/about#laundry and mortonsalt.com, all found at your nearest store
When i had these no exterminator would do it cause there was no way to get rid of them so they said.They are the demons from hell!
I tried everything you can think of spent over $200.00 on chemicals and still there. I know this worked quickly and slept so good the first night we did this. Until I am fortunate enough to have a very dear friend give me a solution of borax 20 mule team detergent and salt.
First you get an empty large hole size shaker of any kind ( i used an old garlic powder container it wasn’t empty but I sure emptied it), Then use 1/2 borax detergent & 1/2 salt
Sprinkle everywhere… All over – took mattress & box spring outside sprinkled all over
left all day…
vacuumed everything up including electrical sockets every nook and cranny…
taped up sockets and me not ever wanting these things back taped up along baseboards
washed everything in hot water..
non washables in black trash bags baking in sun for 3 days…
repeated 3 months later…
I had a couple boxes under my bed so i sprinkled in there also. very important things but anything to rid of bed bugs.
I also, to this day, vacuum my mattress. all the time
3 years later no sign of them
It’s going on three months since I first found my bedbug problem. I’ve been working on my place trying to be rid of these things and everything seems to be going well. However, I did experience new bites just the other night. So right now, I’m starting the treating process over again.
I’m not giving up hope yet! The problem with these are that they may have laid eggs who knows where. So continue treating about every two-three weeks. If you kill the adults, you will be bite free for a while until the babies hatch and continue the growth cycle. So, just keep mindful that you need to continue to treat and check things every-so-often. I’m sleeping better over-all. The extreme paranoia that I allowed myself to enter has somewhat lessened since I’ve come to terms with the fact that this will be a work in progress.
Since finding my problem December 4th, I have heard countless news stories on these things. I never realized the scope of these things until now.
Best of luck to everyone and your personal battles of trying to be free of bedbugs! Thank you for this site also! And thank you for your time, Bed Bug Girl – you have my sincere gratitude. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t come across your site and all the helpful tips and hints. Thank you!
Jinxie, welcome to the club! At least you are facing this and attacking in place. At first it is terrifying but you will feel more at comfort as they start to disappear. They can be eradicated! Don’t worry about that. Exterminators are not 100% effective so don’t feel cheated because you can’t go that route. I have made several entries on here that explain how I got rid of them.
Sometimes I think I have a single bite on my face but I haven’t seen any bugs for months and then I am not certain it is from a bed bug anymore. They can reappear at anytime so we have to kill them right away before they start laying eggs. I wouldn’t worry about being infested from neighbors. Just keep from bringing any used items into your apartment and be watchful for any of these bugs in your restroom.
If you ever see them in your restroom then they could be trying to vacate or be entering. That will be a judgment call for you. If you see one bug then assume there are many more for each bug you see. You cant remove their feeding source because you have animals. Start steaming and applying food grade Diatemaceous Earth along edges of your rooms. Double stick tape legs of your couches, chairs and bed frames(including bed support blocks).
Myself, my husband and our 2 children moved into a large apartment in a very old building in November. A month or so ago, my 9 year old noticed she had some itchy red bites, we thought they were flea bites. (We have 2 dogs and several pet rats). The animals, especially the dogs were scratching like crazy.
We checked each and every animal over multiple times, and with me being in the veterinary care field, I know what to look for. So I was very surprised to find absolutely no sign of fleas or any other parasite on any of our pets, or in their sleeping areas. We bathed them anyway, washed all bedding in hot water, cleaned with bleach thoroughly, just to be sure.
The bites continued, but nowhere did we find a flea or anything else. We were getting perplexed and a bit frustrated, thinking some kind of allergy as only my daughter and some of the animals seemed affected. then my 9 year old brought home head lice from school, and we were caught up trying to get those out of our hair and home, and thought they may be the problem, although I wasn’t sure why my child was being bitten on her arms if it was lice, and after they were eradicated, the bites continued.
My 3 year old woke up crying a couple weeks ago, saying that a \little buddy\ (Our term for the lice) was crawling over him and biting him. I looked, saw nothing, assumed it was a nightmare and hushed him back to sleep. Then suddenly 3 days ago, we noticed he had huge red welt like marks in groups on his neck, the next morning they were on his arm and his back.
We knew we had some sort of problem then, and so set to looking online after making a doctor’s appt for him. Boom, we saw bedbug bites and knew what we were dealing with. After much shuddering and \ick, eww, yuck\ing, we began to tear the house apart. We tossed out box springs, carefully checked mattresses, and are still in the process after sending our kids to their grandparents for a few nights. (Where my mom promptly was bitten 3 times in a line on her butt). So far, we have found only 2 live adults, but many, many stains and matter and skins. I’m terrified to go to sleep!
The 20th load of laundry is in the dryer, as many cracks and crevices as I could manage so far have been sprayed with alcohol and smeared thickly with petroleum jelly. I have taken the dressers apart, sprayed them all with alcohol and set the drawers on bags outside on the balcony in minus temps. The alcohol and petroleum jelly, plus the hot washing and drying and obsessive cleaning is all that can be done at the moment due to a very limited budget.
Next payday, we are going out to get some of the products mentioned here. Professional control is not an option, and our landlord is a jerk. Moving is not even remotely an option either, no matter how necessary it may become, we just can’t afford it.
My question here is, can we control the pests and keep them out of our place if the other apartments have them? We have learned that they do, and also that the landlord KNEW about this problem and did nothing but have his \cleaning ladies\ (crack addicted prostitutes he uses as cheap labour) in to smear some cheap cleaning products and muck around. (They did such a fine job myself and my husband had to spend almost a week here cleaning before we would even consider moving our stuff and our kids in here.)
So please, if anyone can tell me how best to prevent them from getting back in here from the filthy neighbors place after we get rid of them in ours, I’d be very grateful for the advice. Sadly, not everyone can afford a professional exterminator, or to move, no matter how bad things get. And no, my landlord will do nothing.
Thanks for allowing me to vent, and for any advice you folks may have. The tips on here have been very helpful to me so far, thank you!
Hi,
I have not had bed bugs yet but I have had several flea infestations in my carpets. After months of trying everything I finally read somewhere that sprinkling the carpet with household salt and letting it sit for 48 hours before vacuuming kills the fleas and the eggs by dehydrating them on contact. I was skeptical at first but salt is cheap so I tried it. I can tell you that I saw an immediate improvement. I repeated the salt on the carpets for two weeks and then all the fleas were gone. I don’t know if this is a valid bed bug treatment, but it is worth a try. Good luck to all.
Regarding a comment about DE (diatomaceous earth)… You do NOT want to “put it all over your mattress”, for several reasons.
First, inhaling DE powder can cause microscopic cuts that can affect breathing and damage lungs or sensitive nasal membranes. Instead, put it in areas near your bed and furniture that is unlikely to be disturbed.
Next, moisture (such as sweat) can decrease the effectiveness of the DE.
Do your research before using any pest control method, and know how to use it correctly and safely.
Quit inviting people over to stay overnight or more at your house!!!! It seems that EVERY TIME you do that, the bedbugs come back.
I know this isn’t practical and even if it would work but more of a open for comment thought …But Does anyone have any idea if say you placed an infested bed or couch in a pressure chamber and increased the pressure would this be an effective way to kill all the bugs and leave the furniture still intact and if the pressure would have to be so great as to kill the bugs that the furniture would sustain damage would lowering or raising the temperature combined with pressure increase the effectivness of eradication I just want to air this for discussion as a possible solution to having to throw everything out I have seen on tv some of these pressure chambers they were quite large and could fit a whole room of belongings as well as clothing and could treat everything in one shot if this found to be viable Hello Bug Lab/ Bill Nye the science guy type people could we get some answers??? Anyway just thinking out loud Please don’t be to harsh in your response to my “what if”
We had them!! It was disgusting and we could not get rid of them. I think we brought them home from a hotel we were visiting in NY. We used a pest control service to get rid of the bed bugs when all else failed. It was worth it to us, you don’t have to throw everything away. Just leave the house for a day or two if you have kids.
Tana, the food grade DE is safer for inhalation of I believe. DE is a problem for our lungs, similar to asbestos. I heard it could possibly be a carcinogen so be sure to use food grade. I am not sure but I think food grade is probably more refined then non- food grade. Use a good dust mask.
If you had spread a non-food grade DEaround I would suggest you vacuum it up with a vacuum cleaner that uses a hepa filtration system and then reapply food grade. You could have just steamed your bed frame.
Adults crawl around and hide in dark crevices during the day. They lay their eggs in a certain spot. I also had seen adults in my wood frame. The only eggs I ever saw were on the bottom side of my box spring. They could have been on my mattress too but I steamed everything anyway. The ones you see on your ceiling are probably dieing from dehydration (DE) or chemical. Both applications are a slow death. Collect them and kill them anyway. Expect to see babies as the cycle of eggs hatch. Keep up what you are doing and they will die before they can lay eggs. That’s the idea!
We found bed bugs in my son’s room. They were in the curtain and a mattress.. we threw out the curtains and the mattress and once we took apart the wood frame we saw more so out went the frame. The room is empty except a air mattress, small book case and one night stand which has been emptied out.
The bed sheets and clothes have been washed and dried and bagged and now sit in another room, there are a few other things in the closet that will now go in the dryer. A couple of days ago I put down DE around the baseboard and in the closet and also bombed the room.
This morning my son saw two walking on the ceiling. What else can I do. We have not seen any in the other rooms but I plan on putting DE all around the house. Is the DE food Grade better than the regular one.
Thanks for any help.
Dottie, first of all, I am sorry you are going through this. If you have time you should scroll down and read some of the entries I have made and others as well. We pretty much cover everything. You can treat your bed and frame but some people who wrote on here tell us that they found the headquarters odf these bugs elsewhere, such as under an end table.
Some claim the bugs don’t like to travel more then 8 feet from their feeding spot, whether it is a couch, chair or bed. This may explain why sometimes they are bothering someone in one area of a home. Others have claimed they can wonder around much further. I have personally seen one in our bathroom along the edge of the tub. I wouldn’t know if migrated from my neighbors restroom or my bedroom.
When I distributed Diatemaceous Earth on the bed and box spring I found one a few days later on the ceiling above my bed. I think it was dieing of dehydration. I do not believe the bugs will lay eggs on anything that is movable, such as shoes or clothing. I think they prefer a stationary object that has a food source, such as a bed or couch.
Most chemicals, if not all, do not kill the egg larvae. Washing and then drying on high heat will kill eggs and bugs effectively. The best way to kill bugs hiding in areas of your box spring and bed is to use steam. I used a garment steamer from Costco ($40) that did wonders for me. It steamed up in areas I couldn’t reach with chemicals. It’s some work but so worth it. If you have a wood frame bed you HAVE to disassemble it and steam everywhere. Focus on cracks and where pieces of wood overlap each other.
I suggest you remove the screen cover of your box spring(s) and treat the underside of the box springs with DE, steam, or chemical. I suggest steam.This is the spot I feel adult bugs hide. Remove the plastic tufts at the corners of your box springs. They have staples so be careful. I find that the babies and juveniles hang here. Clean them with hot water and seal in a bag until the game is over. Just don’t give them anywhere to hide while you attack this. I found eggs and all sorts of bugs on the box spring screen so just get rid of it. Replace it later sometime.
It’s a pain but not anything compared to living in Hell. Pull your bed away from furniture and walls. Practice not letting anything, such has a blanket, touch the bed and floor at the same time. Use a smaller blanket if you have to. Finally, apply double stick (mounting tape) around ALL support blocks and legs of bed. This will keep the ones off that try to crawl up your bed. Be sure to remove the plastic peel of the tape (usually green) after you wrap it around. The tape does wonders! You HAVE to tape!! Always inspect the seams of the mattress and pillows. I don’t like the idea you cut your mattress. You should apply packing tape where the cut is to prevent them from going into or out of your mattress. Leave a light on near where you sleep. They don’t like light.
SORRY, I HAVE A LOT TO SAY: These little things started biting me the week of Christmas 2010, I noticed 3 bites and now the other night I had4 bites on one arm and 3 bites on the other. I can not afford to buy another mattress nor call an exterminator. I live with my parents but they are not taking the situation seriously.
So far, no one else has been bitten so right now the problem is in my room. I really don’t want this to spread. I am currently cleaning the room out, i have all my bedding and curtains in big trash bags. I have so much stuff and don’t know where to put the stuff at. I graduated from college in may 2010 and had to have all of my stuff and sons stuff in one room so it was kinda crowed.
QUESTION: should I throw all the old shoes and clothes out in the trash? What can I do with limited/no money? How do I prevent them from getting in other parts of the house? Should I be around other people? I killed 3 of them today but didn’t see any more, I cut open the mattress everywhere and still did not see any (I used rubber gloves). After I finished in the room I took a shower
QUESTION: Will this help prevent spreading if I shower every time I leave out the room from cleaning it? What should I do with the stuff I pack up? Should I be sleeping in the den? I washed the stuff (blanket) I used in hot water and dried it, shouldn’t that help that?
Do these things get in your hair? Should I throw the TV away? Foodlion has bombs for bedbugs and fleas, should I use that and just seal off my room with plastic so they can’t get out? I was reading that they only dwell in dark places.
QUESTION: Is it okay for me to take my books, and paper on out the room? I have boots with fer, I sprayed them with Lysol.
QUESTION: Should I still keep them in the room? Do they hide in your shoes? I am so scared and embarrassed about this situation and don’t know what to do since the people I stay with act like it’s no problem(not taking it serious), I don’t have any help.
PLEASE HELP!
You were here for me when I needed you with information and the emotional support of knowing I was not alone with my bedbugs. Thanks to you, I knew what to do and have been bedbug free for five months, so this note is a great big THANK YOU for maintaining the site and a word of encouragement to those newly infested. There is hope for those who act fast.
My problem began while attending a conference at a university where I received five bites during a lecture. Then I started waking up with more bites. After dithering for a month, thinking I couldn’t possibly have bedbugs, obsessing about the new bites every few mornings, hating to go to bed at night, I jumped out of bed in the middle of the night and put stainless steel bowls under all four legs of the bed. I poured a couple inches of mineral oil into each bowl –voila — no more bites! Then I began to wonder if I had been imagining the bed bugs. A few mornings later, I was standing near the bed after dressing and felt a bite on my leg. After a quick slap I rolled up my pantleg and out fell a bedbug. OK, no more wondering, I really did have bed bugs.
I canceled my plans for the day and headed out to buy a bag of diatomaceous earth and bed bug proof covers for all my mattresses and box springs. Came home, stripped my bed, removed the mattress, box springs and slats, vacuumed all surfaces those surfaces and the rest of the room thoroughly and dusted everything with DE. Zipped the mattress and box spring into the bags, and reassembled the room. Laundered everything washable on hot and dried it on hot. Down comforter and pillows included. I put inconspicuous little furniture coasters under the legs of the bed and filled them with DE.
And that was the end. Five months later I have not had one bite. I’m still cautious. I’ve preemptively treated the guest room and living room with DE in inconspicuous places that I think could harbor pests. And the bonus is that I put DE around the pipes under my kitchen sink and haven’t seen another ant on my kitchen counter!
I won’t stop going to conferences, or to theaters, I won’t stay away from hotels, I’ll still have guests — but now I take precautions to prevent another infestation. I learned what to do here — so again, thank you!
Marie from Florida is a GENIUS!!! A bed bug hitched a ride back home with me after I visited family in the south. I can’t afford to hire a pest control company, and don’t want to use anything toxic because I have asthma and have 3 pets in the house. When I finally found where those evil suckers were hiding, I used the Dawn dish detergent mix she posted, and it worked instantly! I’ve killed the one adult hitchhiker and a dozen or so nymphs, and I’m now working on caulking every tiny crevice in the furniture, etc. and washing all the clothes and linens in the room. Now that I know how to kill them without endangering me or my pets, I’m confident I can win this war.
Nguyen, you should compare the bites or rashes that on your son to photos of bites that are posted on this website to make sure. Go to the link on the upper right that is “bed bug bites” and scroll down. They range from red dots to severe rashes and even blister like depending on where on the body the bite occurs. If you feel they are indeed bed bug bites then you need to start treating the affected areas. There are plenty of good tips on here.
Hello, please help. My teenage son keeps complaining of bed bug bites. He has the itchy rash on his wrist, thigh, hips, ankles. We wash his clothes and bed sheets but he still has the rash. We never see any bugs or blood though.
Now he leaves his room and occupies the couch. I am afraid the bed bugs, if there are, would find their new home: the couch. However, since we never find any bugs, small or adults, I am not sure if it’s the bed bugs.
Please help me to treat this problem.
Chad, I purchased a garment steamer at Costco(if you are in U.S.A.) for about $40 and it is really hot steam with a wand and hose.
No Peter, that is not true.
The problem is that you are impatient, you posted a comment and because it didn’t appear right away, you made an incorrect assumption.
This site is an excellent resource for identifying and treating bed bugs yourself, but that is only possible because I manually check every comment to protect the site from spammers. This takes time and I do it in batches at the end of the day, if I have time, I may do it multiple times in the day. I do this all free, I don’t sell anything and any advertisements I have help offset the cost of the server this site sits on.
Your bed bug treatment was not deleted, rather not approved yet; because you didn’t see it approved immediately, you became hostile and assumed the worst. It’s unfortunate you go through life like thinking everyone is an extreme liberal, but if you look for the positive rather than the negative, you’ll be a much happier person.
Thanks for the bed bug treatment, but you can keep your hostility and ungratefulness.
I posted a real bed bug solution.
You chose to delete my post without explaination.
Most likely you did not like my post because it was a real remedy without using expensive products that are your sponsers.
If you don’t like my remedey, post your objection. Let the post stand.
You extreme liberal types really want to censor anything that you don’t like.
The fact is, bed bugs can be eliminated without steamers or freeze techniques
or by buying expensive powders or sprays.
Buy the spray Clorox Clean-Up.
It will kill the bugs on contact 100% of the time.
It is in your local supermarket.
Spray everything every 4-5 days.
Problem will disappear within a few weeks.
I found a bed bug at 5am. Sprinkled it with DE, put it in a little jar……………8 hours later ITS STILL LIVING! How long before this thing dies?
Ordered slip covers for the mattress! Hopefully the double sided tape on the bed legs and covers will help me to finally get some much needed rest! I can’t help but be paranoid at night. I haven’t had a “good” nights sleep since first finding these things. I’ve decided to also get rid of my couch and two chairs. I think it will be easier to treat my place without these extra hiding spots. Does anyone know of a good site to buy an affordable steamer? The ones I’ve looked at are ranging from about $250-$300 and that’s just not in my budget.
Lisa, you can get this under control by purchasing a garment steamer(@$50). Make sure you have a home size extension cord. Steam the seems of your mattress very closely. The hotter the better. This will roast babies and eggs you might not see.
Steam the frame and any cracks if its wood. Steam all the metal parts if its metal. Remove all plastic protectors from your steel frame and your box spring corners. Bag these up and freeze them or something if you want to keep them for later. Remove the webbing material from your box springs and get rid of it carefully. Very likely to have eggs on this. The bottom area of your box spring will be exposed now. Steam this area as best you can. It is some work.
Puff some Diatomaceous Earth (food grade) into this area as well if you have it. Wear a mask or cloth over your nose and mouth. Apply this DE on top of your box spring when reassembling. No need to apply on top of your mattress. Apply DE to areas of carpet and base boards you suspect. Apply double stick tape around legs of bed and any other support blocks for bed.
Keep comforter from touching floor. They can crawl up anything to get to your bed. The bugs can’t get by the tape in either direction. The tape is also referred to as ‘mounting tape’. Launder all your bedding and dry on high heat.
All this will knock them down big time!!
Okay…. so far so good. I have been taking pretty good steps with everything. I have been bite free for five days now. I still go over my room every day looking for any signs of these things. I believe I caught them pretty quick, however, I will not let my guard down. Too paranoid I guess, lol!
Denise, thanks so much for your advice. I will definately look these two chemicals up and see if I can use them. (Chemical Allergies here). I’ve started pretty much a “home” make over routine. Sadly most of my things I go through I am bagging up and tossing out. Living out of plastic isn’t easy but it sure beats transporting these things over someplace else. I thought of opening all of my windows and turning off the heat for about 3 days…. it’s been about 20 degrees during the day here and about 10 or 15 degrees at night. I figure it couldn’t hurt to play freeze out with these things… you think it might help? I will be staying with a friend during this period. Guess I will find out! Best of luck to everyone battling this problem!
OK I have a serious problem!!! I am living in another country and have never had this kind of problem. The other day my husband and 2 children started to complain about bumps on their arms and legs. I thought oh no they ate something and had an allergic reaction to it. Then I started to have these bumps appear.
We went to the doctor and they told us it looked like bed bug bites and to use a topical cream and spray all furniture and put our mattresses and furniture outside in the sun for the day. I did that and vacuumed the mattresses afterwords also.
After hearing about bed bugs I decided to research it on line and now I am worried that the treatment was not enough but I cant find most of these products here, I don’t know what to do!!! HELP!!!
Are there any home treatments with basic ingredients that you can find at a grocery store????
I need a fast treatment also because our 3rd child is due in 2 months!!! HELP US PLEASE!!!
I was attacked no matter where I tried to sleep in the house. Finally took my garage stored sleeping bag, taped the legs of the expanded kitchen table and have had no bed bug bites for three days of good sleep with the table as my bed. It’s giving me relief time while I deal with all this advice. I’m single so this is working out.
MUST BUY 2 products from do it your self pest control
1. CY-KICKS-CS, active ingredient is cyfluthrin 6% ask the sales person for any product that has that ingredient,
2. Martins IGR active ingredient 2-{1methyl2(4phenoxyphenoxy)ethoxy}pyridine 1.3% these 2 must be mixed together(2)oz per gallon of the cy-kicks-cs, and (1) oz of Martins IGR per gallon.
The IGR is an insect growth regulator that keeps the bugs from reach maturity (so they aren’t capable of mating) I have already told you my story re the bed bugs, no point in going over it again, however wanted to let everyone know how it’s been since we FINALLY found the RIGHT stuff to get rid of them.
For those who haven’t seen my other comments, I will start by telling you if you have bed bugs, be prepared for A LOT of work, (but without these 2 ingredients all your work will be in vain) at least mine was. I stripped all the beds in the house including the ones not infected (we thought we only had them in our main bedroom and the couch in the living room) NOT the case the little suckers (literally) like to hide in your clothes, on your body, in your hair, in your pockets, purses, diaper bags etc.
Step 1. again is stripping all the linens and every single item has to be washed in the HOTTEST water your washer allows, this includes your pillows, (even the throw pillows), stuffed animals, the mattress pad, the bed ruffle, comforters, blankets, EVERYTHING, strip them ALL to the floor. Then after you have done this your pillows should go in the dryer (highest heat until COMPLETELY dry)
2. Spray the bed, mattress, bed rails, carpet headboard, box springs, everything in the nightstands, has to be at minimum put in the dryer 60-90 min. (I washed every bit of all my clothes, however the heat seems to be the key to killing them) Don’t skimp and just dry the bed linens or pillows.
3. Spray every inch of carpet/floor, inside shoes, pull the drawers out of the dressers,armoirs,nightstands,take your couches apart and spray every inch including the metal springs (turn them upside down and spray inside every crevice you can find) and spray (BE SURE TO GET THOSE 2 ingredients and don’t skimp when mixing them) WE TRIED the DE covering every inch of our house with the nasty clay like powder, still had bedbugs.
4. 5-7 days NO MORE than 7 (5) is better because the bugs are in different stages of growth when you start, REPEAT everything you just did. Make sure to spray along the walls through out the ENTIRE house. EVERY 3rd day the pillows from the couch and my bed (16) total went into the dryer for a minimum of one hour.
YOU WILL SEE MORE BITES after the initial spraying (they DON’T want to dye, and will be more aggressive after you start getting rid of them.) I recommend you use commercial washer and dryers for this (I tore my washer up with the heavy loads of pillows, the comforter by itself was to heavy for my industrial strength washer) Make SURE you have all the clothes that go to the laundromat in tightly closed large trash bags, THEN SPRAY your car with the insecticides.
Baby car seats are also at risk so they HAVE got to be taken apart (anything that is cloth MUST GO IN THE DRYERS for a minimum of 60 min at the highest heat). We are now 8 days without a bed bug bite, HOWEVER, my husband saw a BABY so TODAY I am rewashing all my bed linens, and spraying every inch of the bed, mattress, box springs, rails, every inch of every wall,(along the floor) the couch again upside down thoroughly sprayed.
My neighbor works for a professional bug company HIS COMPANY REFUSES to accept any bedbug accounts due to the amount of work involved and all the follow up necessary to ELIMINATE them. We have an 8 lb dog that we keep outside for 2 hours while the spray is drying. None of the carpets, bedding, or couch have any stains, YOU however if are concerned about staining anything then THROW IT AWAY. IF YOU PUT ANYTHING on the curb COVER IT IN KETCHUP to deter anyone from picking anything up.
GOD BLESS, be persistent, and I can confidently say if you follow this you CAN get rid of them. I suggest that if you find ANY sign of bedbugs that you STOP reading NOW and get to the store for those 2 items. GOOD LUCK!
Denise in Orlando
I just moved into a beautiful new apartment and love it.
As I was moving in, I bought a set of couches off of Craigslist that were beautiful Victorian style seating with wood inlays.
(Can you see where I’m going with this?)
One of the first days being in the home I noticed a strange bug crawling on my mother.
We killed it.
In the next day or so I had a bite that I recognized from doing previous curious research on bed bugs.
That night we opened up the couches to find a TON of dead bed bugs…. curious.
Threw out the couches immediately hoping for the best, as they had only been in the house 3 days.
But now I keep getting bites that look more like spider bites, with only two lesions.
But I fear for the worst.
I am going to begin the treatment tonight by bagging all clothes in the bedroom, vacuuming, and using the sticky tape all around the door (trying to keep them where they are) and the bed.
I have to wait for the mattress, pillow, bedspring covers to come in the mail (WHY IN THE HECK DON’T THEY SELL THEM IN STORES!?).
Any advice on what type of pesticide/spray/dirt/whatever treatment works best?
I am terrified.
This is a fair warning to trust NO ONE on Craigslist, we got our money back, and he was very nice about it, but I do fear he was “playing dumb.”
INSPECT EVERYTHING!
Just found my bed bug problem this morning and needless to say I started ripping apart my bed…. yup, found the bedbugs (6 so far). I alerted my landlord of the problem and the company that they contacted gave an estimate of $500 to spray down the place with no guarantee…. Needless to say I a very weary of chemicals, so I believe we are going to try this on our own. I would rather battle with these bugs than battle with the effects the chemicals may have on me. Out to buy Diatomaceous Earth today, double sided sticky tape, and possibly Neem Oil. Don’t really know what will work… but I guess I have a date with laundry, plastic bags, duck tape, and find some of those pillow and bed cover things. Geez… heard about this “bed bug problem” but never figured I would be effected. I don’t visit different places often… never stay in hotels…. but I do have neighbors right next door in these apartments that I live in… maybe these things traveled over…. Didn’t want to have this problem… sigh.
ok so it is a little over a month after the pco came back for the 4th time to treat the house… not sure if we are bug free yet.. it is rather cold her at night so we bundle up pretty good.. and my face has seen either bites or.. pimples not sure considering I rarely have pimples and lately I have had quite a few.. some go away sooner than others some itch some don’t.. but I can’t help to think they are possible bites.. I don’t see any bugs.. but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.. I have encased all beds mattresses and box springs.. and have a ring of DE around all bed legs.. I still vaccum like crazy every weekend.. but am so tired.. we are still living out of bags in the garage.. so afraid to put everything back in the closets and dressers.. when will this end? I am planning to move.. but am afraid If we still have them .. I will take them with us…. what else can I do.. and how long does it take after they come in contact with the DE to die.. can they cross over crawl up and still bite?
Denise, I used DE and heat treatments along with drying the clothes. We have been bed bug free for a few weeks now. That was a lot of work you did and I hope it paid off. I am amazed that your in-laws did not let you know about the bugs. What is not alarming to some is to others. But that was rediculous. I hope you at least gave them an evil eye!
I just wanted to add one more comment about the products CY-Kick CS.These 2 products mixed together absolutely did not stain any of my furniture, linens, carpet etc. We used the DE food grade 1st and it didn’t work in my case.
I also bought a product online to use on the bug bites before we actually found the real true KILLER of these bugs from Hell, called Bite Rx (Search for it on Google Products) it was expensive but worked better than anything else we tried.
Yes I TRIED just about everything including alcohol, chiggerexplus, and even washed my hair with lice products. I am not endorsing these products for any other reason than from my experience. I do KNOW and can say earnestly that these products WORKED.
Again be diligent, make sure to treat the entire house, closets all doorways, baseboards, headboards, carpets, etc. I get “sick” with the smell of just about everything, but waited 2 hours before getting any where near the products, wore gloves, and took a shower after having any contact with the products, and did not have any ill effects. I did notice the dog drank a lot more water, so keep yourself hydrated, and make sure to keep your animals water bowls full too. Make sure that your animals food and water is put away don’t allow any of the product any where near their food, or your food, just common sense.
Hi ALL, after coming home from sharing a hotel room with my in laws for 5 days. We had bed bugs, apparently they have had them for 3 YEARS, brought 6 suit cases FULL and FILLED the hotel closet with their hanging clothes! (They neglected to tell us this when we agreed to share the cost of the room with them)
14 days after we got home I noticed a couple of bites that I was unfamiliar with. My mother in law (a nurse) spent the night at my house about 2 months after we got home to help me after having surgery. I showed her the bites she casually said “oh those are bed bug bites” I was FURIOUS! NOW the pests had really set up camp and had invaded the entire house!
My husband didn’t decide to do anything about it until HE eventually got bites (so now we were about 90 days in with them multiplying RAPIDLY) I looked up SEVERAL sites with e1 having different ideas, we started trying all the different ideas to no avail. Finally I went to an exterminator who lives across the street from us..he told me HIS PROFESSIONAL company flat refused to take any bug bite accounts because they can’t guarantee to get rid of them.
FINALLY WE FOUND THE ANSWER! THIS WORKS ABSOLUTELY…1st know it’s going to take A LOT of WORK, but if you have them you KNOW it’s worth it.
The products are CY Kick CS the active ingredient is Cyfluthrin 6% (1 pint cost us $60.00) and Martin’s IGR 4 oz. was about $15.00 (stands for insect growth regulator) which means it kills the eggs the bed bugs lay, you mix 2 oz. of CY Kick CS and 1 oz of the IGR per gallon. You will start noticing MORE bites the 1st couple of days because it really brings them out.
EVERY single day I ran all the pillows in the dryer for an hour (didn’t wash them but 2 times) because YOU MUST WITHOUT A DOUBT do the same process 5-7 days after your 1st treatment. (ALL THE LINENS, PILLOWS,MATTRESS PADS etc got the hottest water possible when I washed them and a MINIMUM of an HOUR, I recommend 90 min. in the dryer. We have been “bug free” for 4 days now (meaning 0 none zip bites) after fighting with them and buying all the other products suggested.
We only started this treatment 10 days ago, so without question I will SPRAY everything down ONE MORE time 2-3 days from now. Will put all 16 pillows in the dryer for an hour again too. I literally soaked the inside of the couches, turned them upside down sprayed all the springs, metal framing on the beds and the furniture. Pulled all the drawers out and sprayed the inside the cabinets, night stands, dressers etc.
We have a small 8 lb dog I kept him with me away from the house for 2 hours both times my husband sprayed allowed the products that we mixed together to thoroughly dry before we allowed him back into the house or on any furniture. (When I 1st found a bed bug I put it in a pill bottle with no food,water or air, it lived 10 days) SO good luck, hope you are able to find those 2 specific products.
God Bless you, because I have been through HELL and back getting rid of them. Anyone who has them can attest to that, you might not realize it but you carry them with you on your clothes, they love to hide in diaper bags, purses etc, so SPRAY your vehicles down, dump out your purses, clean out the diaper bags. (My son and daughter in law came over I insisted that they not bring anything in the house, but when we got back over to their house I INSISTED that I take apart the baby’s car seat, washed all of our clothes that we had on washed all the clothes in the diaper bag. Ran all the material from the car seat and the diaper bag in their dryer for an hour after we went to my husbands parents house for Thanksgiving) and YES I found a bed bug in the baby’s carrier (the carrier snaps into the car seat)
Well, the bed bugs moved to the living room so now i am moving everything! getting thrown out back to laundromat with clothes and linens!
Well it finally happened to me. I travel half of the year and I finally had my first confirmed run-in with these darn things. I am currently away from home and want to know exactally what I need to do to keep from bringing these home with me. I have read all of these posts and certainlly DO NOT want these things infesting my house.
Thank you for your help.
Well, I’m happy to announce we have found nothing on tape and son has no bites, my husband is away and the bed bugs love him so wont know for sure til he is home because they don’t bite me or i don’t react. I am thinking the heat did a very good job my landlord is not going to like me cause i am going to make him bring me back the heaters and do it again on his dime. i don’t pay for power, DE (Diatomaceous Earth) is under heaters and we have hot water heat…
Pipes, lights and plugs were siliconed today but still freaked out about basement as that’s where laundry is. I cringe every time i do a load that i am tracking some thing back. I put DE under base boards bought mattress encasement at Zellers for a whole $57, a lot better than the $160 on line! check out your local Walmart and Zellers stores guys! still need to paint and seal walls and continue to vacuum and work our way through the rest of the house doing all of the above …we are tired! we are putting things we don’t want to lose in unheated storage and its like -17c that’s 1.4F here as a high all week.
I will keep you posted. I hate the bag thing :) thanks for listening!
Hello, Everybody! I hope you guys are making progress. Two nights ago I had a bite mark on my left arm and initially I got very upset. Apparently raccoons that hang out near my complex and travel through our back patios are bringing fleas.
My landlord has advised us to spray for fleas outside at this time. I remember getting flea bites as a youngster so I observed this bite on my arm and later in the day I determined that is much more likely a flea bite then from a Bed Bug because it looked a little different and went away rather fast.
Still no concrete sign of a bed bug or bite here since the one I captured on the ceiling a while ago. But we are constantly looking. Our next plan is to purchase white sheets and pillow cases to easily spot these bugs or the fleas that may be showing up.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and stay in touch. I am really hoping you beat this!
Patricia, a few days ago I elected to put my clothes back into the drawers but I inspect them before I put them on. I haven’t seen a bug since the one we saw on the ceiling about a week ago or so. Sometimes in bed or on the couch I feel like something is biting me but it could just be “nerves”! We never see a bug when we think one is on us.
So, until I see another bug or very obvious bite marks I am not going to pull out all the ammo again. We are practicing good house keeping and keeping the bedding off the floor. I still feel the double stick tape was most effective in at least giving us good sleep. I still haven’t applied any sticky product to the walls and I regret not doing this. I really need to get something and do this. If you have a wood frame bed you have to take it apart and steam everywhere on it. Fill in holes and deep cracks of the frame with caulking. I did!
Keep in touch and let me know how you do.
i used a brown tick and flea spray that worked right away….but i still wanna kill larvae and eggs.
John are you still living out of plastic bags ? we bought a 3 in one steam mop we used as a hand held steamer and steamed walls and base boards let dry (DE) Diatomaceous Earth all cracks and crevices land lord brought in heaters we ran at temp of 60 Celsius 140 Fahrenheit in both bed rooms so far so good now we need to steam all base boards in rest of house steam walls than DE every where we are all so going to seal every window floor board etc with invisible caulking as well its cold here now not to many Vacancy’s here so might have to rid it out here for winter will keep you posted tape on floors tonight see what it catches
Patricia, don’t panic. You will see results as you attack this. Just remember that there is a cycle of the eggs hatching and you will see baby nymphs, so don’t get frustrated. The DE is very fine and goes airborne very easily. Wear a high quality respirator mask. Not a droplet mask, such as the surgical type. These will be ineffective. I have applied DE to my bedroom and just returned to it to sleep after about a week.
My girlfriend noticed a bug above us on the ceiling near the edge. I got close to it and realized it was an adult Bed Bug motionless. I was hoping it was dead. It wasn’t, much to my disappointment. It was certainly possible it was dieing from the DE because it was strange that it was up on the ceiling. I killed it and flushed it.
The Double stick around the bed lags works very well so I am considering applying it around the walls near the ceiling to keep them off. There is real the potential of them crawling up and dropping onto the bed. An earlier post on here suggested this and I wasn’t worried about it. I am now.
I have several co-workers that have bedbugs. One is slowly winning the battle via professional exterminators. Another is floundering. They just don’t know how to deal with it and it’s getting worse. The other day I noticed that I had received ‘the gift that keeps giving.’ (cue sarcasm)
On a good note, I have spray bottles of rubbing alcohol all around my house, as I use it as a sanitizer. When the little pest crawled over my arm, I grabbed a bottle that was close to hand and zapped it. It died instantly. I’ve also noticed that creepy-itchy feeling and have been combating it with alcohol. Anywhere I itch, I spray. Including my hair. Doesn’t do a lot of good for the texture, but the itchy-crawly feeling goes away.
And I’ve been spraying down my favorite chair every day. Granted it only kills the bugs that crawl through it, but it keeps me from getting bit. Wet, cold rump is a small price to pay…
2 notes of caution:
1) Be careful not to spray it near the eyes. It Stings!!
2) This should be a no-brainer, but not everyone knows how flammable rubbing alcohol is. Don’t spray it near open flames and Don’t smoke in rooms where you can still smell the alcohol vapor.
I still have some diatomaceous earth from a previous battle with fleas. (I won!) So today, I’m off to the store for:
a magnifying glass (easier to spot the little !@*&%s)
cedar oil
double sided tape
More alcohol!
possibly a steamer if I can find one I can afford
The Plan:
Extreme tidying & vacuuming, possible steam cleaning
‘Blocking up’ my couch and wrapping double sided tape around the blocks, diatomaceous earth under the cushions,
possibly cedar oil on the outside (will have to check label first – if not, will continue with aggressive alcohol treatment)
Diatomaceous earth all around perimeter, double sided tape around all outlets & cracks, & even covering outlets I don’t use
Laundry while tidying – ashamed to say I have a couple of piles of laundry on floor – I’ve been keeping clean laundry in bins since the ‘flea war’, and will be adding some double sided tape to the outside of those bins
I might even pick up some of those storage bags that you vacuum the air out of & put all my summer clothes in them. Along with some D-earth.
So far, the cats seem unaffected. They’re not doing the panicked climbing to get away, that they did during the flea episode. Does anyone out there have suggestions on keeping it that way, or are the bed bugs likely to just come after me?
Books: It seems to me that a way to treat infested books would be to bag them up & throw them in the freezer for a week or so, leaving them bagged after treatment until all the bugs are gone. Does this sound feasible?
Will post again with results & if it works, will be helping the co-worker who is still struggling.
Well, we discovered bed bugs a few days ago, notified land lord and he is bring in a steamer which i know is not 100% effective. i know they came from another unit as i heard pct tell land lord he could not do a complete spray and she told me she had them all summer grrr…
After a lot of reading we have decided 1 to move asap and to to use a routine of Dawn for Dishes Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth and and barax and salt treatment. I have also gotten rid of all wood furniture in bed rooms and removed clothes for washing and bagging sealed beds in plastic witch I will replace for piece of mind or buy mattress encasement for removed all clutter and completely emptied closet.
Once under control rooms will be strictly for sleeping no storing things in closets except clothes going to try no dressers hang all clothes and sealed tubs for rest. will make a rumpus room in basement of new place for sleep overs etc. Wish me luck! going to dust every box with DE as we pack and seal with duct tape in hopes of not taking with us.
W will be having steam cleaner fixed as not working right now and buy a new steam mop to add to our daily cleaning 32 day til move wish me luck will keep you posted. Oh, and so every one knows, son has 3 bites, hubby bit also and myself none; only found 3 bed bugs.
Frustrated in Phoenix,
I forgot to mention that professional exterminators probably use chemicals that will continue to kill even after drying but I have read from earlier posts that sometimes these exterminators have to return to same residence multiple times and the cost can be hundreds to a couple thousand dollars. Try ridding them yourself.
Frustrated in Phoenix,
The chemical treatments that we purchase over the counter here in the states apparently only is effective while the product is wet, that is if you get a direct hit on the bug or it crawls over the damp surface and it does nothing to the eggs. A person with United Industries (Hot Shot) told me they have a product coming out that will kill eggs and bugs even when it dries! This will be monumental.
I have never paid anyone to do heat treatment but I purchase a garment steamer from Costco that i enjoyed using and I am sure it roasted every egg and bug it came in contact with. It was a good purchase and I love having it because it is chemical free. I am having real good success and almost ready to stake the flag and declare that I have my place back.
I have some earlier comments below that I suggest you read on what I have done since I discovered bed bugs. By the way, I always thought they came from my Ex-Wifes house after her trip to Cancun, Mexico. My boys must have brought them over with there laundry and things.
The other day I fell asleep on her couch for about a half hour and I got nailed. Fresh bites. I told her about it via text but never got a reply. I have my proof finally.
We saw a very tiny nymph 2 nights ago on my pillow when we were in bed. It must have just hatched and went hunting. It got us I have to admit. We remained calm and since then I steamed the bed frame one more time and today I replaced those wood blocks and thin wood planks that go under the King box springs. I replaced them with planks that are 2″ thick to remove the need for blocks.
The fewer things touching the carpet, the better! I still believe the double stick tape around the legs of the frame is worth it’s weight in gold. I used a baster to apply the Diatomaceous Earth in areas of the room and between the box spring and mattress. The fine dust was not pleasant at all. I used a cheap mask.
I would recommend a high quality mask if you choose to do this. I think I am rounding the corner on beating this.
is chemical treatment better than heat treatment for bed bugs- what should the cost be for each?
This was weird. Two nights ago my fiance puts on a T-shirt before climbing into bed. I didn’t think much of it but she got bit real bad on her left arm down to her wrist within some minutes.
I had just fallen asleep and she woke me in a panic. She had went to the restroom because of the stress and discomfort from the bites that just occurred and spotted the adult Bed Bug on her shirt between her chest and shoulder. She was able to kill it.
These little bugs are hungry because we are doing everything we can to keep from getting bit. This bug pounced and didn’t waste anytime. We came to the conclusion that it got on her shirt when the shirt was on a soft foot rest next to the wall for many hours prior to her putting it on.
I think I have done an excellent job of removing them from the bed and positioning the tape. She has hampered my efforts to apply Diatomaceous Earth but she is on board now.
JoAnn, I would have to assume you can bring home the bugs from a school infestation quite easily. I am thinking a lot of that school is carpeted as well. Look for the tiny red / brown or black mold looking poops they leave in seems and tufts. Look for fresh bites after sleeping. Then you will know, unless you are lucky enough to catch one.
Well glad and not so glad to see that other people have problems with bed bugs.
My daughter’s school (High School) found bed bugs in classrooms last week. The administration tried to hide it until they received tons of angry calls from parents wondering why an announcement wasn’t made. The school is almost all lynolium and wood except for the auditorium. I am thinking a student brought in the bed bug on their clothing.
I read that the bugs can live in electrical outlets, molding, basically anyplace dark.
What are the chances of the entire school being infested and our children bringing the bugs home? It’s big school with lots of children, And in dealing with high school students they don’t want to go to school to begin with, this is the perfect excuse!
Megan,
I doubt he brought any bugs back with the clothes he was wearing. I cannot say that for any bagged clothes or other items. The bites will itch for a few days and probably have subsided by now but will leave a bright red mark in some cases. I have seen these kind on my feet stay there for a week.
My boyfriend wound up w/ several bites after spending the nite at his parents’ house; is there any way that he could’ve brought them into our home via his clothes, etc.? He’s really itchy and the bites are classic bed-bug bites, but I’m going crazy wondering if those suckers could’ve hitched a ride to our home! Any suggestions/comments are welcome; thanks to all for your previous posts/info. on this topic :)
Here I am again…4 treatments later and a carpet cleaning company that treated the carpets as well.. and I think we still have a problem.. I have encased our mattresses with plastic covers.. and my box spring as well.. I will be purchasing 2 more for my daughter’s box-springs tomorrow.. I vacuum every week like a bad woman.. and wash the kitchen and dinning room tile floor with a mix of pinesol and water.. (mostly pinesol)..
Tonight I surrounded our bed wheels with a wide thin layer of DE.. I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this…. The bites have gotten less.. But still notice small ones with an occasional big one here and there. Why is it so hard to get ride of them?
When the exterminator came for the fourth time 10 days ago he left useless traps that look like a folded piece of cardboard and stuck them in between the carpet and baseboard near my bed.. ( only in my room and only 2)..why isn’t there a trap that can attract them and catch them so I would have proof..
I can’t see any.. but am sure we still have some.can’t afford to move or throw the rest of my furniture away.. already threw out my sofas.. ya they were in there too. I can’t afford the hire another PCO…and the one I did hire.. thinks it is psychological now.. What a jerk..
was sitting at my dinning room table earlier and think I was bit on the front part of my ankle at it stings some now and then but no visible bite mark yet.. Is there anything that works….? CAN’T KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS…
First let me say, I’m glad I found this site. I often heard, ” Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” I’m almost 50 yo, I never heard of bed bugs being this bad. I haven’t been face with this problem yet. Thank goodness
My daughter moved out of our house about a year ago and now she’s face with the problem of trying to get rid of bed bugs. She lives in a low income housing complex so I’m sure the problem is huge. As there all townhouses the bugs are crawling from one house to another. She has a exterminator coming in to spray the place. But the thing is, This is her second time dealing with bed bugs in one year. Whatever the exterminator is spraying sure isn’t working at all.
The Housing Authority made her get rid of her mattress and box spring, couch, chair. This is the second time she was told to trash these items. I read where you could have them hot steam that would kill the bed bugs. I was going to have that done but now I’m back to looking for more furniture. My daughter can’t afford to keep replacing furniture. Right now, my daughter is sleeping on a blow up mattress. I made it very clear to the Housing Authority that she didn’t have bed bugs before she move in.
Once again I need to go over there and help her out. I’m going to use some of the tips that I have read on here.
The hot water, the DE, Alcohol, 20Mule Borax & Salt and the Dawn.
Question — I do have a “Heating Gun” I’m wondering if that would be safe to use? Cause this is war.
Diatomaceous Earth works!
Bed bugs were just discovered in my apartment building, but I haven’t seen any in my apartment yet. Is it just a matter of time?
Hey, Guys! I am happy to say that we are not getting bit. I am not going to suggest they are all gone but the double stick tape is keeping them off the bed from the carpet. I purchased a roll of heavy duty mounting tape at the hardware store for about $10. It is much more then I need. Probably enough for 5 or more wood frame beds. I purchased the Diatomaceous Earth today. I got a large bag for about $12. I plan on using it soon.
Brittany, have you figured out how you got them in the first place? Do any traveling, bring a used item into your place, have guests stay over or maybe an adjoining apartment has them? This is important because if your neighbors have bed bugs you must eradicated your place and the neighbor has to as well. I live in an apartment and I don’t know yet if the bugs are migrating from the unit next door or above me.
It’s very frustrating. My ex-wife went to Cancun last year and my boys bring their laundry over on weekends. They had these bites before we did so I am just figuring they came back in her luggage. But definitely attack the problem now as you say you are. I would suggest purchasing the Hot Shot 1 gallon jug from your local hardware store and begin spraying everywhere you can with this hand held pump sprayer. It’s a contact killer and wet killer so they have to crawl over it when it is still wet. So don’t be afraid to really dampen in areas.
Spray your bed frame, up underneath the box spring. Everywhere you can.They usually start out in the box spring and later move to the mattress seems. You may not find them in the seems just yet. Important: remove your box spring webbing that covers the bottom side (just rip it off and carefully place in a bag) and also the PLASTIC TUFTS that protect the 4 corners. You can replace these items later when you are comfortable about it.
This is an excellent hiding place and breeding ground for the bed bugs, especially the tufts. I personally saw this at my place. Don’t bother getting a new bed. Attack them in place. Use the DE in conjunction with the chemical. Put double stick tape around the bed legs to stop them from crawling up it at night. others have suggested petroleum jelly as well. Pull bed away from wall. Nothing to touch ground. use tiny blanket if you have to. I used comforter last night and awoke to being bit and saw it touching the floor.
Leave a reading light on. this helps to some degree because they prefer darkness. Also, if you are alert and you feel one the light will already be on if you can spot it. I kill baby nymphs by crushing them between my 2 thumb nails. It’s gross but better then it growing up to be an adult. You can catch the adults with toilet paper and then use the tip of a sharp knife to poke it .
ALCOHOL, Rubbing Alcohol in a cheap spray bottle safe for kids, pets. SEE the Big Bad Bed Bugs lift their tales and die. Look for bottles on sale and refill your own spray bottle over and over. I did this twice three times a week and it has worked thus far along with all the other stuff…Caulking walls and rug, door intersects. Vaccuum in the night time at least a few times
I have been dealing with bedbug infestation since May and have finally found something that kills them but you must be diligent about it. Rubbing Alcohol!
I sprayed until wet all areas where they are them go back in 3 days and spray again for the new ones just hatching. Then I spray again on the 7th day and thereafter every 7 days until there are no more outbreaks. I have sprayed them directly with alcohol and they die within a few minutes. I think its the properties that cause them to dry up.
I have checked back after a few days and the bugs and their droppings can be vacuumed up. The alcohol in dollar stores is 70% and good to start with if you can’t afford the 100%. The higher content leads to better results of course. Also you can use this same alcohol for the bites as its soothes the skin and takes away the itching. Please use a mask and ventilate as the fumes are overpowering. This works!
So I’ve never had an issue with bed bugs, until today.. I think. My legs were really itchy so I was itchin the crap out of them. I turn on the light and they are covered with red bumps! I looked everywhere on my mattress underneath it and did not see anything. I’m going to try the borax/salt, the dawn/water, and the food grade DE. I can’t live like this! I’m sittin’ here freakin out that there are bugs all over me!
I used some double stick tape around metal frame legs and also checked the bedding real good before going to sleep. I moved the bed away from the walls and made sure blanket wouldn’t touch carpet. Happy to say we had a good night sleep! talking to the person at the company that makes Hot Shot (United Industries) was very helpful.
These little tricks are working and I am going to keep at it. Next is the DE (Diatomaceous Earth) and I might use petro jelly as well. I guess we are fortunate because in my opinion the infestation I have appears to be slight. From what I am reading on here it is obvious you guys are getting bit a lot and also see many around and they are very active too.
I spoke to government agencies today and got nowhere except a helpful link to my county vector program. I spoke to United Industries also and an employee told me the Hot Shot Spray can take up to 24 hours to terminate the bed bug from a direct hit or if it walked over damp surfaces. She said if the spray dries it has no killing effect and it will never kill eggs. She did advise me that they have a product coming out that will kill eggs and also continue to kill even after it dries. I can’t wait to get that!!
I caught another bed bug after work and have it in my container for the pest control guy when he comes over. I also told my apartment manager about my bug situation and he was sort of helpful. I was asking him for help. At first he said he would get an exterminator but later deferred the idea of the cost to me. Gee! Thanks!
I double stick taped the legs of the bed with the metal frame and looked it over as best I could. I found a very tiny bug that is hairy and grey in color. To me it looks like another specie of bed bug so I am keeping it as well. we are not sleeping on the wood frame bed. We keep finding them on it.
Next for us is a steam cleaner and the DE. We will keep at it.
It’s been at least 7 hours since my large bed bug specimen was sprayed with the Hot Shot and it is alive and well. I had also let it crawl on an end of a Q-Tip wet with the “pesticide” . This is absolutely ridiculous. How do we expect these bugs to die by merely crawling over something that has been sprayed, such as a mattress when it doesn’t kill them if they are sprayed directly?
I have sseen wasps die instantly from wasp products and roaches die quickly from those pesticides. What a joke. I think a governing agency isn’t allowing for high enough concentrations of the active ingredients. I read the Canadians post and noticed he had great results with .5% pyerythin. It seems like Canada allows for higher concentrations.
Also, my girlfriend and I are trying to figure out if the source is a neighboring apartment. I have seen the manager spraying around the complex but I always thought it was for roaches. I am going to have to bite the bullet and talk to him.
My girlfriend is sold on the Borax method. She wants to try it. A Doctor told me that encasing your bed in plastic suffocates them. He said you can get this plastic from moving companies.
We were itching a lot and having bite marks after getting up in the morning. A friend of mine mentioned bed bugs were in San Fransisco and New York. I am in Orange County, California. I realized we were likely infested with bed bugs. It made sense to me. My girlfriend found two after I text her and asked her to look around the bed.
It has been over a month and we are in a battle here. We have two large beds in an apartment. I have some ideas where they came from but it doesn’t really matter. First thing I did was fog. I did it twice and maybe 3 times. It was Hot Shot fogger available at The Home Depot. Even though the store is large and has a massive pesticide aisle it only offers the one brand that lists bed bugs for the stores here in California.
I purchased the aerosal can of the bud killing product and that wasn’t fun spraying and I think did very little for the fight. I purchased a hand held spray product from Ace Hardware that is for bed bugs. It was very strong in odor. I think it worked better then the Hot Shot but the room was not habital for almost a week due to the chemical odor.
At one point in the battle I removed the webbing material that covers the bottom of box springs because I found them hanging out there and also spotted some eggs there along the edge of this material. Removing the webbing also allowed for me to spray the underside of the box springs thoroughly and limit where they can hide. They seemed to prefer this material! Around this time I had purchased the 1 gallon Hot Shot Hand Sprayer for Bed Bugs. It is very easy to use, covers a lot of area and doesn’t smell bad after an hour or so.
We still get bit to this day and I go on the attack again. We are finding them in the mattress seams along the edge now. I could be mistaken but my reasoning for this is because I have been spraying so much in the box spring. We were finding nymphs lately and that was a good sign because nymphs don’t lay eggs. We want to kill them before they lay eggs of course. But unfortunately I found a massive sized adult hiding in the mattress seam today. This was disappointing for me because I didn’t want to see an adult. I am hoping this was the matriarc and I flushed him or her from under the box spring.
I went ahead and sprayed this adult directly with the Hot Shot Sprayer twice and did chose not kill it with my tool. Instead I collected this specimen to watch the death process. Much to my disappointment this bug is still active and it has been almost 3 hours!! It’s confusing because I feel the bed bugs are dieing off but this one isn’t dieing as fast as I thought it should. I still have hope that it will die. Earlier I complained to an employee at The Home Depot and told him about my experience. He was all ears but said I should throw in the towel and purchase new beds. He also said the California stores don’t have products that the east coast stores have and I should purchase something offered from the internet. I told him his company is doing a disservice to the the community offering a product that is ineffective.
Hope this was helpful to you.
Well, they’re here in full force in Regina. I live in a seniors high-rise and the landlord started inspections in the summer. The exterminators came September 15th with chemicals and killed most of them. After they left I found about 20 dead ones and 2-3 live ones on the mattress and box spring. I had to leave the apartment for 2 days, because the chemicals stink (perfume!) and I have asthma. Thank goodness the bites stopped, they were driving me insane.
I had two kinds of bites – little hard white ones, particularly on my hands, and big red puffy ones on arms and legs. They itched like crazy. After the chemical treatment I lived with all my clothes, towels, blankets etc. in glad bags and slept on the couch for two weeks. Since the fumigation I haven’t noticed any bites but I found a large adult tonight., full of blood. YUCK!!!!
The exterminator is coming again Wednesday the 27th with a heat treatment. I have to remove all my paintings, and anything that would melt like candles and toiletries from the apartment before they come. All medicines and vitamins have to go in the fridge. The exterminator said the heat won’t hurt photographs, but I’m removing them anyway.
The landlord has become more aggressive lately and is inspecting all 155 apartments in the building for bedbugs. The residents here like to go to value village and other places and drag junk home. I’m moving as soon as I can afford to, and throwing my bed away before I move. Thanks for the tip about Dawn. I’ll try it on the next one I see, I’m going to Walmart tomorrow to buy a steamer.
So here I am with a follow up….another one.
It has been just shy of a month since the 3rd treatment for our bed bugs with the exterminator.. I still get bites.. and I think my daughters do to.. these bites are so tiny..little red dots at first kinda sting..and get a little bigger after a day or so.. don’t itch terribly like the bigger ones.. but I am pretty sure they are from nymphs that may have hatches.. going crazy..
I called the owner of the exterminator co.,,, he is coming out himself with the guy that treated this Sat to inspect.. treat again (with a different chemical) and to leave traps designed to lour those little bed bugs, hopefully .. I don’t know what to do.. still haven’t put the clothes back in the rooms yet.. living out of storage containers and trash bags in the garage sucks..
Why are these things so hard to get rid of? I even had a carpet guy out to treat the carpets almost 2 weeks ago to steam them and treat for these buggers.. also steamed the mattresses and box springs.. have caulked all baseboards and window sills … am waiting on mattress / box spring and pillow covers to come up.. they are poleypropelyne ones designed to keep out dust mites..bed bugs etc… does anyone know how well they will work… willing to do anything at this point..tires of the bites.. even the little ones scar like you wouldn’t believe…. going insane!
I recently have been invaded by bugs and at the point that it is bed bugs by similar experience as those posted!! I am about to use the Borax and salt treatment. I got rid of my mattress and box spring. Clothes all to the dryer in black bags. But my question is I share a room with my 1 and a half year old so we have many books and toys that are electrical how do i clean those because you say everything needs to be sprinkled and sprayed????? PLEASE HELP
THIS IS MY LAST TIME POSTING A SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR BED BUG TREATMENT – STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND JUST DO IT. IT IS A LOT OF WORK BUT ITS WORTH IT!
When i had these no exterminator would do it because there was no way to get rid of them so they said. The bed bugs are the demons from hell.
I tried everything you can think of, spent over $200.00 on chemicals and still there. I know this worked quickly and slept so good the first night we did this. Until I am fortunate enough to have a very dear friend give me a solution of borax 20 mule team detergent and salt.
First you get an empty large hole size shaker of any kind ( i used an old garlic powder container it wasn’t empty but I sure emptied it)
Then use 1/2 borax detergent & 1/2 salt and sprinkle everywhere… All over, I took mattress & box spring outside sprinkled all over left all day.
vacuum everything up including electrical sockets, every nook and cranny the bed bugs hide; I taped up sockets and me not ever wanting these things back taped up along baseboards.
wash everything in hot water.
non washables in black trash bags baking in sun for 3 days
repeat 3 months later
I had a couple boxes under my bed so i sprinkled in there also. very important things but anything to rid of bed bugs. I also, to this day, vacuum my mattress. all the time
3 years later no sign of them!
20muleteamlaundry.com/about#laundry
mortonsalt.com
All treatment products can be found at your nearest store such as Walmart.
** VERY IMPORTANT TO SPRINKLE EVERYWHERE…. YOU CAN’T BE LAZY. YOU HAVE TO VACUUM EVERYTHING AS WELL!
This works! Good luck!
This is our second time – first was an expensive trip using professional pest control and three visits to get rid of the bed bugs. We washed, dried and bagged everything in our bedrooms. This time one female adult was found Sept 9. 2010 full of blood, running across a pillow in the middle of the night. No obvious bites. No other signs of bed bugs. Since then only one possible bite about two weeks after the first sighting in another bedroom. Then nothing.
I used the internet to try to find a trap that would attract the bugs, which are very hard to find. Found one you can make at home, tested in conjunction with Rutgers U in NJ. Use a stainless steel dish with Diatomacious Earth in the bottom and place an insulated jug in it, with dry ice inside. Open the spout a little. It emits carbon dioxide and attracts the bed bugs. Place a paper towel from the floor to the top of the dish and over the lip so that the bed bugs can climb into the dish. Leave for 12 hours. Use about 2 pounds of dry ice. I didn’t have any DE at the time and used talcum powder in the dish. I also put two sided tape around the inside of the dish so that any live ones couldn’t climb out. This worked. It showed me that even though no more bites, there were several tiny nymphs and one larger bug dead in the powder and/or stuck to the tape. Then I ordered DE and followed with treating the door sills, baseboards, and other places in both rooms. I haven’t really emptied the closets or the dressers in the second room.
By the way, I used Benedryl to relieve the sensitivity to the bite I had. The itch was gone very soon and didn’t return. I’m not sure the bite I had was from a bed bug. It could have been a spider bite. By the next day the welt was gone and the site had a tiny center which looked white and like pus. Even thought the welt disappeared, the site itched when it was washed but didn’t itch if not touched.
I’m following the instructions that came with the DE. It’s time for another round of dry ice to determine whether there are any living bed bugs around. They might just be in hiding or trapped by a DE barrier, just waiting for a chance to feed again.
I’m also quite concerned that no one seems to know whether these things can get a blood meal and the person not get a reaction. It seems unlikely that no one in our household has visible bites, even when the first living one was found.
Time for another test with dry ice. Dry Ice, at this time of year, is difficult to find and a little costly. I had to pay a minimum charge of $15 for the few pounds I bought. Still better than paying for exterminators.
We have also put vaseline on the legs of the beds, and tape, sticky side out, around the legs of chairs and beds wherever possible.
Note to readers:
Diatomaceous Earth is harmful if inhaled. Commonly available at pool stores as a filter medium for “DE” Filters. This is NOT the stuff you want to use! Look for FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth!
As with anything, be careful with any product you are using. Always read the label, and be informed.
Me, my brother, my mother, my brothers girlfriend have been battling bed bugs for the past few months or so. We try so much and it isn’t seeming to work. We cleaned up clutter. Put all our clothes in garbage bags. Took all our blankets to the laundromat and washed with hot water and dried.
I have read a lot of solutions for killing bed bugs and we are now going to try the dawn solution and also steamers, ect-. We do not know where these hideous bugs came from, as well as we don’t know how long it takes for them to fester and populate.
My brothers girlfriend came back from Israel a few months back. we are starting to think maybe the bed bugs came from there because the news , ect- is mostly saying travelers are picking them up and bringing them back. Also a few people and their children stayed with us. They have left and fortunately have not brought these pests to their new home.
We have just called a pest control company and are already seeing a difference. All the big bugs are mostly gone. and here and there we see a few babies. To give you a hint or an example of ways to keep from getting so many bites is you could wear pajama pants, tucked in long socks. a tight shirt and then a tight long sleeved shirt-turtle neck. whatever you would like. and also then gloves with the shirt sleeves tucked in.
Does ANYONE have any remedies to keep from them biting you? Or from getting worse? And i think I’m doing a great job considering i am 15. thank you
Brandi A
OK, so now I’ve joined “the group.” Question – has anyone tried a hot hair dryer on the mattress/box springs instead of a steamer? Don’t have a steamer, and since I’ve read that the water vapor itself doesn’t do anything positive, and I’m thinking it can cause other damage, I’m wondering. Thanks. I’m at the beginning of this adventure, so…
Yesterday we found bed bugs, on our mattress’, & furniture. There is 5 people that live here and only 2 of the 5 had bites. But I know all of us have been bit, just didn’t show up on everyone.
So we started thinking of ways we could get rid of them without hiring an exterminator (we don’t have the money to do that). I looked on the internet and it said that heat would kill them (120 degrees and higher). Since there is a baby living here, we knew chemicals was out of the discussion.
Then I remembered the commercials for the SHARK STEAM MOP. So we went to Wal-Mart, got the cheapest one ($59.95 it was on sale) one sided, and it wasn’t the vaccum and mop, just the steam MOP. And it seems to be working, only time will tell, and its a hell of a lot cheaper than an exterminator. We can ALREADY SEE A DIFFERENCE!!!!!
I just bought RID spray its used for head lice. it has Phenothrin in it. Its safe for mattresses as well. I have sprayed my entire mattress, and put all my linens in the washer and dryer. When I was putting my comforter in there was a male bedbug literally starting walking towards me. So gross. I also moved my mattress away from the wall and saw what I thought were baby spiders with little dark pinned shaped bodies and clear legs. After doing some reading I now know they were nymphs. (I killed them immediatly). I am having pest control come buy and search my house as well with me today. I got my first bite 8 days ago. I am hoping to catch this in time. Will keep you all posted.
I fought this battle for over a year in Edmonton. It didn’t matter what I tried, they came back. What a nightmare. I found out later that my 95 year old widow neighbor had a massive infestation and her son was treating it with sprays that caused them to migrate to my apartment. I had beaten them hands down with a steam machine and lots of hard work, only to have a new group move in. The infestation was discovered when a my neighbor went in to hospital. When I found out about it I promptly sealed off all access points to the adjacent apartments and had my apartment professionally treated. Probably not required as I have developed a very thorough regime for executing these little buggers.
So, I move to Vancouver where my wife’s aged parents live. They are old and bored, they spend their days buying junk from Value Village and the like. No big surprise then that they have a pretty good infestation. The building manager hired some local goof to come in and spray, what a joke. The main infestation was entirely missed, on the back of the headboard! How much more obvious could they be? I have been treating the apt with steam and pyro dust. Lots of clutter, informed residents and still bringing crap in from the junk stores. I am doing one more round of treatment, paying a respectable licensed company to come in and treat after I prep everything. I will do regular followups, however the first time I see them bring any junk in to the place, I am out of it.
I found one crawling across my bed a week ago. Brought it home with me from the in-laws. Multiple bites. My wife freaked. Here we go again.
So here is my follow up.. exterminator came saturday.. finished the 3rd treatment 3 in just under a month.. I have found dead bed bugs hera and there.. but the worst part is htere must still be live ones because at least me and 1 of my daughters have gotten bit.. I think my other daughter too.. but she is in denial.. 2 of us even slept on the living room floor last night seeing as our bedrooms are upstairs and it was way too hot to sleep in our beds.. we got bit.. not a lot but a few 3 to 4 bites at least.. does anyone know how long after treatment it takes before we don’t have any bites.. haven’t seen any live ones.. but have killed 3 live spiders.. 1 each after every treatment and they were are all the living room floor.. did I mention the whole entire house was treated for bedbugs.. fumagant.. grow inhibitor..and dusting.. I am soo tired still don’t get much sleep and emotionally drained.. starting to effect work.. this is terrible.. does anyone have any suggestions.. also how much longer before be are bit free?
I have been dealing with bed bugs now for at least 3 to 4 months. Not knowing it was bed bugs at first. My oldest daughter was getting bit and had a bad reaction to the bites on her arms.. I inspected her mattress and saw nothing.. she went to the doctors and they said she had blocked pores.. ya right..
A week later she came into my room late at night saying she was itchy and saw a brown bug on her.. I went to her room, started to take her bedding off to wash it.. and there they were, several bugs crawling.. The next day I went to the store .. bought products to spray.. specifically labeled for bed bugs.. steam cleaned her carpet took all clothes out and washed them all.. threw out her wood frame bed.. bought box spring and metal frame and encased her new box spring and mattress..
Within days my youngest and me started to see bites.. so the following weekend I started to spray everywhere.. removing clothes out of the rooms as well.. for 4 weekends straight that was my life..cleaning spraying..vacuuming.. we still had them.. had no choice but to hire an exterminator..
Two treatments into a 3 treatment process.. still having bites.. don”t know what to do.. exterminator says it is nearly impossible for anything to survive his treatments..and that maybe it is psychosomatic.. really? anyway so for the long post.. I am just sick over this .. in 2 months I have lost nearly 20lbs.. and have gotten less that that in sleep.. I am emotionally, physically, and financially exhausted!
Another easy way to get rid of bed bugs is one that worked extremely well for fleas years ago. It’s called 20 Mule Team Borax and it’s sold as a laundry additive in your supermarket. It also dehydrates the eggs killing the cycle of fleas and any other insect through dehydration. It smells nice and doesn’t have harmful insecticides in it. Years ago, after dozens of pesticide treatments, a friend from Miami read an article about pest control. The big pesticide companies won’t tell you about this. But it works. You just sprinkle it around any area which might breed an unwanted pest — roaches included. It may take a few days to work. Because you are not only suffocating the living pests, but you are also dehydrating the eggs.
Why must we get so complicated when this is a wonderful solution?
Hey guys, a couple of days later and so far completely bed bug free :D that stuff works great! I sprayed it on every window sill, the door frame, under the wall heater (which isn’t on, so it won’t explode XD), on our mattress, box spring, corners of walls, and anything else i saw that could have been a haven for bed bugs.
We left the apartment for the weekend and came back after spraying, there were about 15 dead bugs on the floor and in our mattress. We sprayed again that night and slept on the couch. No bites from the couch :D And when we slept in our bed last night, absolutely no bites and one hell of a good sleep :D The landlord told me that if they come back, he will deal with them by calling an exterminator, so at least we have him on our side =) But once again, the spray that i used is called “PRO Aerosol Insecticide” it has 0.5% Pyrethrins, and 4.0% Piperonyl Butoxide.
Here are the details:
pro aerosol insecticide
pro aerosol safety
pro aerosol label
You can purchase it at any Home Hardware that sells insecticides, and I’m sure Canadian Tire would have it too. Its $16.00/can, but when it comes to not getting sleep and waking up with red welts on you that look disguising that itch like crazy, its most likely the cheapest way to go. I just have to remember to spray in 2 or 3 days so that if there were any eggs, the spray will kill the nymphs!
Thanks again for you help guys!
Tony. S
we didn’t have any problem until new people moved next door..we also had some of my sons friends spend much of the summer with us..we have found 3 bugs in my bed..have been bitten at night..since i am disabled and don’t feel one leg i really didn’t know what was going on..i need help in cleaning the room..no other room in the house has any..and since i cleaned he carpet in there with hot water i haven’t seen any more..did i clean them out or do i need to do more to make it stop..it takes forever or me to clean anything because of my bumb leg but i try..
as an add on i bought a new mattress that is special for my bad back..will be getting plastic cover for the mattress and will take all bedding to laundromat for washing in hot water and drying..with the dawn solution do i spray the furniture an then wash it down..or leave it to dry..on fixed income and can afford exterminators..have a bissell steam cleaner with heat and used that in bedroom..have not seen anymore since..do i need to do it again..
Ok I KNOW I there is a bed bug problem where I am staying. My fiance and I are staying with friends who have noticed many bed bugs in their bed. They sprayed some sort of can at their doorway and around their bed but nothing more. Their house is extremely cluttered with books and clothing surrounding their bed and throughout their room. We stay in the living room on an air mattress covered with many layers of blankets (we have a kitten that uses his claws to climb and run all the time). We have unfortunately had a few bad turns within the last three months. I am pregnant, we don’t have orientation to our new part-time jobs until Wednesday, our “friends” want us out by the end of the month, we do food stamps and Medicaid, and have just managed to borrow enough money from family to get a new place this week.
Now our better named roommates don’t seem to be doing much about this infestation (perhaps they want to wait until we leave or something I don’t know). We don’t have a whole lot of money and we were very frightened of getting them. At the time the best we could think to do is spray a barrier around their doorway with 100% deet (it was all we had). So we crossed our fingers hoping we could treat our things when we left. Not a chance. I noticed the cat pounce at something on the bed and quickly eat it. I asked him if I even wanted to know what that was…. he stared at me silently as if to answer that I did not. The next time he pounced the bed I caught him and stashed him away while I examined it. I determined it was a bug and quickly scooped it into an airtight, clear plastic container. Upon close inspection I am 99.9% certain it is a beg bug. It does not appear to be engorged by blood but when looking closely at where I found it I found several tiny black dots that I, with my previous paranoid searching with a flashlight over several days, could have sworn were not there yesterday.
So here is the deal…. we cannot cure this apartment. Most of the clutter is not ours and our roommates seem in no rush. They certainly don’t seem to care about the prospect that we now have these bugs as well this which is highly foolish. We would never have their permission to sort/clean any of their room or anything in it. EVER. Our best bet is to make certain our new place has no bugs and properly treat everything (including ourselves and our young cat) before it goes to the new place.
-So we have an air mattress (how would you treat that exactly? That dawn stuff sounds like a good idea).
-Several blankets and a large pile of clothes (would simply washing and drying them in the apartment complex’s units work? Speed Queen brand dryer I think does 45 minutes).
-We also have a few vacuum sealed bags of clothing that were sealed long before we got here but have puffed back out though there is no visible rip anywhere that are stashed in the food pantry (could bed bugs get into that? They are not stored anywhere near our bed but were a few weeks ago).
-A pair of caterpillar with some fabric on the inside but rubber and leather on the out (even if the dryer thing would work I seriously doubt the poor dryer would appreciate these heavy weighted and seriously heavy-duty boots with metal buttons and metal hooks for laces).
-We also have a tower computer and monitor not plugged in next to the clothes which are next to the bed (do they need cleaned? How would we clean delicate computer equipment without possibly damaging it? -We brought these with us because they were our most prized and expensive pieces of computer equipment and we would like to keep them that way).
-Two books as well (one hardback one paperback).
-Some cat things including a scratching post, plush toy mouse, cat carrier made mostly of cloth (can that go in the dryer too if dryers work?), and of course the cat dishes and litter box (worry not that is getting a scrub down anyway).
-Finally we have the cat and ourselves (we have to fight with him regularly to keep him out of their room. More so lately possibly because he wants to chase the bugs :( We do not always win this battle and must frequently fetch him from their room as quickly as possible).
All of these things are close around our bed other than the vacuum sealed clothing. I may have only seen two (if that was what he swallowed… probably) but common sense says where you see two multiply them by a hundred so you can underestimate them properly. I have no bite marks and neither does he plus still no bits of blood on the sheets but that isn’t complete evidence of anything. I do know I have a bed bug infestation. How bad it is and all of what it is in I do not know nor do I see that it really matters. I need to make certain they don’t come with us to the next apartment. We don’t have alot of money (make that almost no money) so penny saver ideas that have worked for you are much appreciated. Good solid advice (knowing full well we cannot afford hundreds of dollars of equipment or exterminators) would be a boon. Please help me and thank you so much in advance for even trying.
i have just experenced the whole bed bug thing i have to say EEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!! i’m not sure what i am doing but i say throw your old bed in a bond fire and buy a new one. treet ur house, if that dosent get rid of them i dont know what im gonna do
Good afternoon. I have finally beat the bugs!! These are relentless little creatures! I’ve been battling with them night and day for about a month. I start my day at 5 am and found an adult cruisin across my bed one morning. I thought it was just a regular bug and tossed it out the window without a second thought. Two days later, another one. I heard all the hoopla about them on the news and decided to look at a pic on the web. Sure enough, bed bugs. Mental note: No matter how cool, don’t take tables from the alley into your home.
I looked at my bed, found a small huddle of them against the slats and killed them (so I thought). Two days later they were back. I went out and bought a cover for my mattress and pillows, tore my bed down and vacuumed everything. Washed all my bedding and thought they were gone, nope. I had put white sheets on my bed so I could spot them easier (just in case) and the next morning I had over twenty little blood splatters on my pillow and surrounding areas. Eeewww and unbelievable!!
I did some more research and read about the eggs. Oh, I forgot to mention that my discoveries were made while performing sneak attacks during the night or early morning , lights off with a flashlight. Yeah I felt like a weirdo. Anyway, I noticed little white things in the cracks of my bed frame. That weekend I tore my bed apart again and scrubbed every inch with soap and a brush, vacuumed, sprayed “Hot Shot”, washed my bedding and then put it all back together, AGAIN. Two days later they were back and laughing at me.
At this point I’m starting to act like Howard Hughes. Not sleeping, sneak attacks, washing, filling in the cracks of my bed slats, the flashlight, paranoia and becoming a recluse. I decided to buy a hand held steam machine because I have cats and didn’t want to spray anymore.
I bought a Shark portable steamer with attachments for 70$ at Walmart and it’s the best thing I ever bought. I used the brush to steam and dislodge the eggs from around my frame. I also have old untreated wood ammo cases and crates in my room (where I found an arsenal of eggs). I went against the recommendations for the steamer and used the brush on those also. No damage. I steamed my mattress, pillows and washed the protected covers. I steamed my rug, the base boards and the hardwoods. The cloth on the attachment for the floor picks up the dead bugs as you go along so you can monitor your progress and it’s very satisfying. I bought new slats for the bed and filled the knot holes with wood filler and left the room. That night I performed more sneak attacks and found nothing. The next morning, still nothing. I steamed the floor again for piece of mind and the cloth was free of bugs. It took a weekend to get all this done but a week later I’m still bug free and crossing my fingers!!!!
Good luck and thanks for reading.
It’s important to treat bed bug infestations the day you discover them or you run the risk of them multiplying and infesting the entire house!
Bed bug bites themselves can not only be irritating but can become infected and cause serious problems in some cases. At first, the bed bugs bite may not even be noticed, bit over time, people become sensitive to the insects’ saliva which can result in a allergic reaction leading to red, itchy, welts!
The best defense is a product called Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade) that you spread around and will kill bed bugs dead!
Thank you very much! I talked to a guy i work with and he said he had them Everywhere. He told me to go to a home hardware and buy this $16.00 can of insecticide. He told me he bought everything trying to avoid asking the landlord to get it done for him because he knew that it wouldn’t get done. He said he finally tried this and it worked. I just sprayed everything i have that bugs could be living in, all i need now is the matress cover! Maybe a couch cover too because i believe i’ve gotten bitten from there. I turned up my boxspring and found 3 bedbugs crawling on the bottom side of it and i sprayed he bugs right away. They all dropped dead within 5 minutes. Lets hope it kills them all! Thank you Very much for all the help! If this stuff works, then I’ll write back and let you know the name of the product, etc.
Tony. S.
Tony S.
I would suggest renting a steam cleaner or borrowing one of those shark like hand held steamers and steaming everything you can’t throw in the dryer. The rest.. throw in the dryer. We also boiled water on the stove then poured it over baseboards ( used towel below to avoid any major mess then tossed the towels!) then when the wood dried ( a couple hours) we caulked every meeting.. wall to floorboard, wall to window, floorboard to floor we used clear caulk and the added benefit is we have used air conditioning less. :)
Bed bugs are easy to kill. But hard to find. Get a mattress cover for this and use it. We found our bedbugs in the couch.. not a ton of them but WOW what feisty eaters they were. We got lucky and only had them in the living room.. But we treated the WHOLE house in order to be sure. We aren’t sorry.. we haven’t had one sign of any bugs since. Word of advice.. be very proactive.. leave no stone unturned.
So, I’ve been getting bitten for the past couple of nights now. I just moved into an apartment in Toronto for about 2 weeks now and i’m almost 100% sure that they’re bed bug bites. I have the “grouped” bites on my arm and my back, but i have yet to see any sign of bed bugs or anything else. The “grouped bites” are few and small but they have the hard white welt on them. My girlfriend has bites all over her without hard white welts, but they are insanely puffy and swollen. Can anybody help me with this? If they are bedbugs, how would i get rid of them without knowing where they are or how many there is? I’ve checked literally EVERYWHERE. Well the only thing i haven’t checked is behind the floor board heaters, but my landlord won’t let me rip them off so i can kill those blood-suckers. I don’t care if i have to kill them all by hand, i NEED them gone because i haven’t slept for 2 days now and I’m going insane. I just can’t bear the thought of having things crawling on me and sucking my blood whenever they want without me knowing. Well like i said, Any help would be Greatly Appreciated!
Thanks.
Tony. S
Will putting my suitcases (that have all my vacation clothing in them ) in plastic bags and leaving them in the car work? And if so, how long do I need to do this for? What about bottles of shampoo, all the items you use daily? Will that work for them too? We were in the hotel room for 3 nights total when I found them. I will check mattresses before moving into a hotel room again. Is that good enough? I hope I don’t have to fumigate my home because of this. I am new to all of this. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
2 weeks later and not one sign of the monsters. No new bites, all crevices and beds rechecked ( we have 6 of them) we finally are ready to bring furniture back in the living room. I really feel it was a combination of cleaning, boiling water, removing the trim boards and window sills to identify infection, then treating the whole area with not only insecticide but actually physically pouring the boiling water on everything. Then after the trim, sills are replaced, caulking around them. Very grateful for all the information on this site!
Diatomaceous earth (DE) can be found at a pool store also BUT MAKE SURE it is FOOD GRADE DE!
if you were to look at DE under a microscope, it would look like tiny razor blades. Since insects have an “Exo” skeleton, skeletons on the outsides of their bodies. Covering their exo-skeleton is a waxy layer that holds moisture in the insects body. If the insect was to come in contact with the DE, it would cut the waxy layer, and therefore, the insect would dehydrate, to the point of dying. This is also a great treatment for flea infestations.
James H,
I am anxiously awaiting a follow-up on your Aug 24th post where you were bed bug free two days after heating your home to 120 degrees. Now that it has been two more weeks, how are your results?
Tim M.
Its beginning to be physiological with me the least little twinge and I jump out of my skin and my clothes not a pretty site. because of this infestation I sleep during the day and stay up all night.
Tonight I was being bitten by nymphs I think are living in my leather chair unbelievable the changes that are happening I have not seen an adult BB in days only bugs about the size of the dots on this page. tonight like I said I was being eaten alive my only recourse was to spray this product which seemed to work. I have ordered the stuff that was banned in Ohio tomorrow I’ll get more DE and do a thorough vacuum then get rid of the bag. I’m making plans on what pieces of furniture I’ll get rid and what I’ll keep. I have a studio apt my heart goes out the people with multiple rooms .
I am renting an apartment and have told the manager about bed bugs that have recently come out. He said that he is not going to spend $500 (on this small studio) for bed bugs extermination. Can’t a renter force the apartment management to call and pay for pest control?
To me, bedbugs are like a cross between Mao Tse-tung and Satan. Mao writes, “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” I dare you, tell me bedbugs haven’t been studying with Mao. (I know, I know, Taoists studied animals.)
I sleep during the day so I’m up all night . I think the DE is working I killed a lot of large individual bugs who look dried up, but bad news is I’m starting to see small bugs what I guess would be called nymphs that means eggs are hatching.
I get paid once a month so anything I want to do has to be within this time frame. My apt manager has me over a barrel she says she cant spray my unit until I move out all my furniture I think this is BS why move out untreated stuff that’s coming back in.
Please note DE should not be put in open spaces and floors, etc. Many people talk about spreading it around.
Can bedbug nymphs _INFEST_ an apartment with only 7 full adults and no nest with blotchy spots? There are black bedbugs in my apartment, why do I never see pictures of those? They are slow and look spider like and fat in the middle. I have vacuumed, bagged stuff, sprayed the floors by the walls, and the infestation of nymphs keeps coming. I don’t think they’re book mites. Any suggestions?
Longer story:
I’ve had bedbugs twice since ’03, and this makes the third time. They were gone for a while and came back. I think they were gone for a couple of years at a time different times. They seem to come back in warm weather. The kind in my apartment weren’t red, they were black with fat bodies when they are full.
They don’t seem to be fitting what I know of bedbugs. The last two times I got rid of my bed and sprayed and it seemed OK. This last time, I felt like something was biting me, but I showed no marks on my body, and there were no signs of bugs in my bed. However, every six months or year, etc, I would find a bedbug. I found one in my kitchen, one in the bathtub, and one in my bedroom. I thought they were coming in from somewhere else but my land lord says I am the only one with them. I did bring an almost new couch from the alley about a year before they started the first time so this could have happened. And how can they be gone for 2 years and come back? It sounds like they can only live 18 months without food and I don’t think eggs can lay dormant that long.
This last infestation I was in graduate school and had books on my floor as I had tons of books for my thesis work. I found a bedbug under the books. As it was only one bug I underestimated it. The bugs are now everywhere. I also later found one grown adult across the room by another pile of books, one in my bookshelves in a spider’s web, and two in my bedroom. I have only found about 7 large bedbugs, and did not see dead bugs after I sprayed by the corners of the walls and floor.
***What I don’t understand is how they have infested my whole apartment!!!! Not the big bedbugs, but the tiny nymphs. With finding 7 grown adults, I have had my dresser, book shelves, chair, closet, desk, night stand, etc., TOTALLY infested with Nymphs. I have thrown out much of what I own, yoga matt, luggage, meditation cushion, etc., etc. From the books that were on the floor if I opened one there would be 5 or 6 nymphs on the first and last couple pages, and ALL over my closet, and many, many other ones throughout my bookshelves. How can 7 bugs produce all those nymphs? I found one in my desk as I was recently getting rid of it, and for years before this infestation I would occasionally see nymphs on my paperwork, but didn’t think they were bed bug nymphs as I had seen no adult infestation.
How can *1* bed bug hang out in my desk for years churning out occasional nymphs and not infest my couch? And I only found adult in the closet, and everything on the ground was infested. I thought I might have book lice, but they are not in most of the kitchen or on the walls (I just found some in my silverware drawer yesterday and cleaned it immediately.) They still seem to be on my floor when I leave something down like my Birkenstocks, and yet I have thrown away most of my stuff, have plastic trays with pesticides under my bed and couch (I think that is how they have not gotten a foothold on those. I have seen NO bedbugs on my bed or couch), and have vacuumed thoroughly.
How is it that I have not found the standard blotchy blood spots with nests, and have all these nymphs????? Also, I have chemical sensitivities and will not spray something and sit on it. I was reticent to spray my apartment but as the infestation grows I spray more and more. My landlord had an exterminator in who knew nothing of bedbugs and less of chemical sensitivities. He sprayed something incredibly toxic I had to carefully clean up to stop my headaches.
And one last thing, even when I was infested I didn’t show bite marks or had small marks. Just recently I had my Birks on and I think I was bitten repeatedly, I saw tiny red marks, but they went away shortly. I am afraid to set anything down in my apartment for fear of cross-contamination and have many things in bags.
I forgot to add, the guy in the apartment below me is a hoarder. His apartment smells absolutely disgusting, like open cans of garbage. My landlord tells me the guy below me has no bugs, but I find that hard to believe as my apartment is clean and absolutely infested. I am looking to move.
HELP PLEASE, Jeff
I own a store in nyc and lookibng to buy bed bug treatments wholesale…Do you sell wholesale to stores?
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I’ve lived in a student apartment with roommates for a year now. I all of a sudden started noticing bites, after research I am certain that it is bedbugs that are biting me! The bites are horrible and leaves a scar. Surprisingly my roommates are not getting bit.
I got a new mattress, washed my sheets, declutered my room and left baby powder along with carpet powder around the legs of my bed. I also pulled my bed from my wall so that it wouldn’t touch the wall preventing the bedbugs from crawling up the wall and onto my bed, basically I tried creating a barrier so that bedbugs could not get to my mattress again. This worked for a month…now the bedbugs are back! HELP!
Also is there any repellent that I can use to keep them from biting? Or how can I prevent the bites from scarring and turning into noticeable spots?
Had a daycare kid spend the night 3 weeks ago, went swimming, ( saw nothing) a few hours later mom calls and says “what bit my kid” she had TONS of bites.. it was horrible.
We thought it was fleas and got rid of all pets, treated and sprayed as if for fleas.
Fast forward 2 1/2 weeks.. hubby and I get in an argument and I sleep on the couch.. I wake just fine, then by 3am I am covered with TONS of bites.. Fleas are back I think?
so we start treating again.. in the process… we discover on our couch bed bugs.. like 15 or so.. Aughhh!! we toss couch out. go crazy cleaning and running the vac. 2 days later ( a weekend) hubby goes to get commercial grade spray, we bag up the whole house, processing anything cloth ( toys bedding ,clothes, towels, sheets, EVERYTHING) and ran it through the dryer on HOT. Hand washed and inspected everything else. Basically packed it up like we were moving. Kids and I left and took refuge with family while hubby sprayed everything.. floor boards, bed frames, dressers, behind appliances EVERYWHERE. We came home next day, cleaned again ( small children won’t due to have posion on the ground) and unpacked..
Was getting ready to get a couch brought in when i saw a small movement by the window sill.. I went over to investigate and just so slightly was a movement again.. It was a bed bug.. AGUHHHHHHHH called hubby banished kids to the far room and we removed EACH piece of trim board..Window sills, tops bottoms EVERY piece of removable wood.. Poured boiling water on each piece and then re-sprayed one board at a time.( to prevent spreading them) . Re attached the boards and caulked around each piece as we attached. awhhh.. I really hate these guys.
Never did see them in any area other than the couch, and window sill ( in living room by the couch) any chance we have gotten rid of them in 18 hours since beginning to treat them I would really like to start working again.
So far, night two, at staying in the house, since I have bi-passed my thermostat to heat the house over 120 degrees and so far no bed bug bites as of yet,will keep ya’ll informed as days go on…
well I bypassed my heater and it got well above 120 degrees, I found a couple of bed bugs dead and when I picked it up, it just crumbled under my fingers. I did buy mattress covers that is bed bug certified, I will let ya’ll know how everything goes in the next couple of days to couple of weeks…
Very cool James! If this works for you, I’ll do that myself! Please let me know if it works and also the info on how to modify the thermostat will you?
Ok, tomorrow is the day that I by-pass my electric thermostat to heat my house up to 150 degrees. I have talked to a licensed electrician/a.c. & heating expert and he said, that i could by-pass my thermostat so it would stay on and heat my inside of my house to 150 degrees, in which the mattresses and everything else would be over 115 degrees that is needed to kill the bed bugs.
If this does work I will let everyone know, so as they would not have to pay up to $1,000 dollars for pest control to come and put heaters in their home to heat there house up to 150 degrees, when you can do it yourself, but am just wondering if anyone has ever tried this or knows anyone how has tried this technique before???
I understand that bed bugs can hide,but they would not be in my attic or where there it hot already,I know they hide in cracks and crevices and in matresses,ect,but if I wire my thermostate and it reaches over 120 degrees for a few hours then they should bake to death so to speak,115 degrees is what it needs to kill them and it takes 30 minutes of 115 degrees,but at 120 or more my chance of killing all of them is very good,just wondering if anyone else has ever tried this technic,or heard of anyone doing this???
I can wire my thermostat to keep on heating my house up to 150 degrees, I know that it would be an increase in my electric bill, but better than $1,200 dollars for an exterminator or $100 plus dollars on chemicals ,I also have a thermometer that will read my house and I can carry it to each room to gauge how hot it is…Do you know if this would probably help my situation…
Hi James,
The places that these bed bugs hide can sometimes be protected from heat depending on where they are hiding. It may be 115 inside a room, but what is it behind the insulation of the wall or inside the mattress? Personally, I don’t think that’s going to work, but if you do it, find a way to measure the temperature at multiple spots.
it is 105 degrees outside, I was told by an exterminator that if i turned my heat on all day and covered the attic vents from outside that i would essentially bake them. it takes 115 degrees for 30 minutes to kill them, but if i left my heat on at 105 outside all day, that would kill them as well don’t you think?
I come here and read the post , I thought I was the only one .I’m going crazy . these bugs are in my office chair even after I took it apart and dusted with DE they were eating the back of my thighs (I’m wearing shorts) I just killed one 15 minutes ago. I’m feeling things all the time now. this does affect you mentally. I sleep during the day. I’m about ready to splurge and get that spray that’s advertise here $23. that steamer sounds good also I just hate having to move all my furniture
To Lys, Not sure you will get this, but thought I’d offer a helping hand to your situation.
I’ve been dealing with bed bugs for over 5 months now and through extensive research have found a regimen that works in slowly eliminating the bugs while keeping them under control through this time. It does take more than once or twice of course, like any pest control has to do a follow-up and/or multiple sessions to eliminate the bed bugs.
Here is what you need:
With all of this, clear all clutter off of floors and make sure to bag all clothing, linen and any other fabric on floors in infested areas (that means if room is infested, everything on floor is to be bagged) seal it up, I used 2 garbage bags a piece counter facing each other to make sure nothing got out, but that may be over kill just a bit. Bag up all pillows and covers/linens of beds and wash/dry all linens off of floors and beds in dryer on high heat for at least 30 minutes at a time.
Vacuum all floors, take attachments/hoses and run it along the sides of beds and furniture, may sure to look for cracks, move all furniture out piece by piece as you vacuum it. Dressers,night stands, etc all need to have the drawers pulled out and tipped over to look underneath for nests.
Once all furniture except for bed is out of room start steaming mattress, go over at least 4 times all sides running steamer slowly across surface, you want to make sure steamer is touching surface for top and bottom of mattress to get all eggs as bed bugs burrow inside of mattress (that is the reason it takes more than once or twice). Once done, move on to box springs, make sure to pull covering off back of them and use pressure attachment on hand held steamer to get in between springs and wood frame.
Once mattress and box springs are steamed move out of room and steam floors. Run over floors at least 2 times if not 3. Take hand held steamer and run along borders of wall and doorways, make sure to run close to carpet edges for deep penetration into carpet for best results. Once floors are dry move furniture back in room and sprinkle DE powder on top of box springs before laying down mattress, once mattress is down cover top and creases along edges (and buttons if you have them on top of mattress) along the edges of box springs, along carpet edge entire room and in and around furniture to create a barrier.
For the following 2 to 3 weeks you will need to vacuum once a day including hoses/attachments ran along sides of mattress and box springs to catch the babies and any left over adults as they come out of bed. If you have mattress and box springs covers on already I would suggest still checking and running vacuum along edges to make sure none escape. Remember, ONE ROOM AT A TIME, they travel fast, it also would be advantageous to tape over outlets in rooms to prevent them moving out of that room to the next or back to the one already treated, don’t want to back step your progress.
Just steam edges of room along carpet edge once every other day or once a day if you have the time for the next 2 to 3 weeks on top of vacuuming to ensure they are taken care of. If you mattress/box spring covers tear/rip/stretch or come apart in any fashion you will need to do this over again, though you may be able to skip the complete floor steaming and just vacuum those areas very well, but you will have to steam with hand held steamer and lay down DE (if DE gets wet it is no longer effective).
And that’s it! Not fool proof, no guarantee they wont come back again, but will definitely put a HUGE dent in the infestation and in some cases (if not too severe) will work after 1 time. In moderate to heavy infestations this will be an ongoing battle between you and the bugs, if you continue this regimen, which i know is both time consuming and tedious, but is completely worth it and WAY CHEAPER than calling a pest control company, you will eventually be rid of these pests, but nothing good ever comes easy.
So, if you want a solution and willing to roll up your sleeves and work for your home and welfare of you and your families help this may be the right choice for you. Its helped me, though I still have scars and I can sleep in my bed again. Hope it helps a person in need, I know the desperate feeling :).
Almost six months ago, my family and I moved into a new apartment. We brought all our old furniture with us, and had no problem with bedbugs before moving in. Within days of moving in, I began to get little bug bites that had us puzzled.
After two months of getting the bites, I went to the doctor, thinking they were spider bites and worried about staff infection. My bedroom was the only one not sprayed for spiders when the landlord called in an exterminator, so it seemed logical.
My doctor told me that my bites looked like scabies and prescribed a cream to cover myself in before going to bed. The morning after doing so, several bedbug bodies were found in my bedclothes. The poison in what doctors prescribe for scabies does kill any bug that crawls on you. Also, boric acid powder, a common bug treatment, dehydrates them.
When we told our landlord, we were told that the bed bug infestation was our fault, and we would have to pay for the exterminator. We hadn’t the money, so we are still trying home treatments. Nothing seems to work conclusively, but a combination of treatments at the very least, keep them under control.
These seem to have worked:
What makes our situation with the landlord worse is the fact that we have friends who knew the previous resident of the apartment, and know for a fact that the previous owner had a horrible infestation of bedbugs.
The only thing standing between us and a professional is the landlord forcing us to pay for it. Does anyone have any idea how to get the apartment complex to deal with the problem at their cost?
hey, I’m sorry for the late followup on my story, I was helping a friend with bed bug problem. DE is more like a deodorant, it will keep them away. But if they cross it they will dry out within 12-13 days. tested this myself. follow those step i posted. do a border of the DE, no need to go crazy with it. vacuum everyday and repeat with DE. after a week you will see less of them. if your local home depot doesn’t have the hand held steamer you could rent the commercial one. also keep your clothes bag if you want.
I am currently bagging everything I own into plastic bags. I just moved into this apt. 2 weeks ago. Bought all new furniture, including a brand new mattress, with the exception of one chair from salvation army. Well guess what? That chair has created an entire infestation. Luckily, I figured out it was bed bugs very quickly.
Since I live in an apartment building, I called maintenance and they had pest control come over. Let me tell you guys what the PCO told me. He told me that this is not a problem that you should try and fix on your own. If you spray chemicals on them, it will kill the ones you see on contact but it will scatter the rest into other places, like your walls. What he is going to do to treat it is with a chemical in the mattress, then sealing it with a special cover. You can’t take this cover off for at least a year and a half. I am probably going to get rid of it when I leave here. Then he is going to spray into the crevices of my furniture, the walls, floor, outlets, any space they can be hiding. Then he is going to use a freeze treatment on the entire place and on my personal items.
What I am having to do now is bag all my clothes and I have to take them to be washed tomorrow. Then every other object that I have I must put into plastic bags. I have to go through every single book and flip through them to make sure that there aren’t any in between the pages or binding. Those will go into a bag too. Any bug that I miss, he is going to freeze to death.
This problem has caused me so much anxiety. I’m having problems eating and sleeping(obviously) but you mustn’t let them win. For those who live in an apartment complex, you need to be tough with your landlords. They need to understand that the problem will be the whole building’s problem if they don’t treat right away. I had to stress that many times and the sooner it is taken care of, the better.
This is a horrible epidemic and my heart goes out to all of you who are dealing with this. I never thought in my life I would have to deal with something like this. I will never look at public places or used furniture the same again.
Who is Keith Gordon and is he for hire? I live in NYC
I spent the night at someones house and woke with 3 welps on one arm, a big welt on my jaw line, 3 welts on my temple and a big welt on the corner of my eye in addition my ear is turning purple and extremely swollen-all of these itch and are huge I look like an ulgar!! they didn’t tell me they had bed bugs ! When I woke and moved the sheet there were 2 black bugs. I woke them up they came in and saw the bugs on the couch–well one of them the other ran I must admit they are pretty fast.
Ammonia works best for the itching, yes ammonia. I am scared because my head itches can they nest here even though I washed my hair? I’m such a scary cat i brought one of those traveling bed bug bags, work long Pj’s put the legs in sweat socks and had on a long sleeve stuff and scarf and they still got me. i plan on some of these items below just to be sure I didn’t bring anything home. (Although I had the bed bug bag I put my clothes in plastic and put on the terrace spray my bag bed bug bag and the plastic bag holding my clothes with hot shot bed bug and Flea spray. (9.95 for a gallon with a spary nozzle from home depot) I also sprayed my house (all the rooms ) and around my bed.
A dog come to my job today to check for bed bugs all was clear including my area bags etc. I jump at noices and check everything. Feel itchy and jump at the feeling of air touching the hair on my airs. Do you think I am taking this to far!!
Diatomaceous Earth JT Eaton bedbug spray, (label says it lasts for up to 16 weeks)
Deltamethrin .03% and the Diatomaceous Earth bottle (Safer Brand)
Paint brush borax and salt Chinese Chalk IGR and Pyrethrins Bonide for bedbugs
Goodnite sleep and a good steamer is any that can reach 180 f and have 35 psi. I had used a McCulloch mc125 and was not to expensive, less than a $100 dollars.
‘food grade’ diatomaceous earth which is EPA approved against indoor and outdoor crawling insects and is also FDA approved for internal and external use and has a rating of Food Chemical Codex Grade. citrus or citronella cleansing solutions mixed with rubbing alcohol,use Diatomaceous Earth in all corners, cracks and openings in your home. Make sure you use it on your carpets, under your bed, around your bed, anywhere there is a hiding place. Even in your closets and drawers.
I have a neighbor that had bed bugs…most likely brought them home during recent travel…as she is really clean. She was freaked out, as she did not want her kids bitten. She borrowed my Hahn Steam cleaner and used a new product I gave her….manufactured by the Airosol company..Bed Bug treatment. She sprayed her mattress, luggage, and surrounding area. She is so relieved ….she hasn’t seen any since.
Here I sit unable to lay down and sleep . The stress is over whelming .I have missed Doctors appointments because of my sleep pattern. Today I took apart my leather office chair I was being eaten alive .I found seven large bed bugs and maybe eggs and after all that I did get bit once tonight . Tomorrow I going to stock up on rubbing alcohol and petroleum jelly . Another solution I came up with is to seal all crevices with Elmer’s wood glue . I had to do this when I took out my mattress and box springs, the air mattress I replace them with required I use wood slats where the wood overlaps I sealed with wood glue .I notice I have cracks where baseboards and electrical outlets meet the wall . I think the DE works but gaps are in my defense .
Since last November I’ve been dealing with a bed bug problem. I kept waking up with my feet feeling like they were on fire till one night I threw back the covers and there it was a bed bug full of blood. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. I don’t have roaches or ants. I’m a fairly clean bachelor so I don’t feel bad about having this infestation. I notice my neighbors will get strange looks when I ask if they have them as if only the unkempt would.
Don’t waste your money on the regular sprays these little suckers are tough. I have family staying with me now which is why I’m limited in the action I can take. I did get rid of the mattress and box springs and put everyone on a air mattress including myself but since mine is on the floor I don’t dare sleep at night even in the daylight one or two will creep.
I found the Diatomaceaous Earth by calling around and good thing I did Home depot does not carry it but OSH garden and supply does and its cheap and it works though rather slowly because I’m still get bitten. This stuff does not puff out but comes out in clumps so I used a new paint brush to help spread it. I went around the base boards and under the dresser. I know there are other areas because I found a bug in the wheel of my office chair. My apt manager said if i take out all my furniture, yes move out, she will have the whole place treated but I’m unable to do that so she has an excuse to pass me over.
Like I said I have not found a quick knock down spray which I thought I had when I bought Hot Shot bed bug and flea spray it does NOT work! For what I spent on that I could have gotten more D E. I’ll be back to post updates on what works and what doesn’t.
do bedbugs bite dogs? my little dog is itching terribly, and she has advantix on.i’ve heard both yes and no
HI ! I would like to ask if anybody has used Shirley’s formula and I would like to ask what type of salt do you use. Is it table salt , kosher salt, Iodized salt or coarse salt.
I ask this because , I have been told to not use a vacuum to pick up the salt and borax , because it will ruin a good vacuum.
I would like to also, know if anybody knows , how long would use leave this solution on. And if instead of a vacuum, you can steam vac this solution up.
Help ! inquiring minds want to know.
my son started getting bit we thought they were spiders we had just moved in .while gathering dirty clothes to wash we seen one just appear on the heap of clothes these things are a nightmare! we fogged with bonide total release fogger they live in the carpet. we killed a lot, even pulled the carpet back and found dead and alive ones sprayed alcohol. the fogger worked and killed a lot of bed bugs, but it also chased some off now everyone in the building is gonna bomb because they came back after like 4 months so hopefully this time we can send them right out the building!
I recently discover that we have bed bugs we have tried everything from sprays, fogers and even threw away the bed and all wood in my room, nothing seems to kill or get rid of those sob’s I am tired of waking up every morning to the cry’s of my two year old baby. Going to bed has become a nightmare.
I never thought this could happened to me. I am so desperate and like many of us am living paycheck to paycheck and already having to spend money we don’t have. I have been reading everything I am able to get my hands on, including this site.
So I have ordered the neem oil and diatomaceous earth once I try it and if they work and I pray that they do I will post my update. I was unable to find either of them on any of the local stores so I had order them online. This is out of control.
Hi R,
Comment clearly state that DE (Diatomaceous Earth) is by far the best solution – I’ve seen the borax and salt mentioned, but not sure how well this works. Not sure on the rental price of the steam cleaner but I doubt that one cleaning would be good enough, more like three over a few week period but here I’m guessing.
If your neighbors have them (as in apartment neighbor) then chances are real good you’ll get them again. They love the electric sockets and other tunnels that connect rooms. You could always do the DE on your place, steam cleaning, etc and when they are gone, then do a DE Perimeter ever week, but what a pain that would be when the management should be taking care of the neighbor (if they know and are not doing anything about it).
Do us all a favor will you? Whatever you end up doing, let us know what and how it works. There are a LOT of people who would be very appreciative!
Best regards,
Jim
James, I found your post and read your suggestions. Other than putting DE down, there’s nothing else I should use? Someone suggested borax and salt, does that work? How much does Home Depot charge to rent a steamer? Is steaming once enough? I’m pretty sure my neighbors have them, does that mean I’ll never get rid of them?
hey r read my post don’t give up these things are hard to get rid of but if you follow those steps it should work. get yourself a portable steam gun. not sure where you live but home depot have them for rent. another thing i notice home defense by orthon kills them. Also vac everyday and empty the bag outside seal it if you can. keep your clothes bagged. only the clothes that are by your night stand or around your bed.
To that other person who said fogger will work, it won’t, they will just run in the walls. R, I posted the steps a few months so you back you should be able to see it. Good luck buddy don’t give up follow those step and you should be free these bed bugs. haven’t had a problem since. also read up on them no need to spend money on these crazy products. let me know if you need further help i could email the list to you or post my email.
I have had bed bugs for a few weeks also and found a powder that I just sprayed around my house, bed mattress and other places that they may be. its the same as diatomaceous earth but this powder is for inside and out and gets rid of all crawling bugs. it was really cheap for a big bottle. i have heard many suggestions on how to get rid of them but am hoping this helps. does anyone have any other suggestions? that is also safe for young children?
okay guys i too have been battling these spawns of Satan for 4 months now. (long story short) I’ve done everything i can to get rid of them but there’s always one that comes back for me.
Well the reason why I’m posting this is because i found a link from random net surfing and i found a bed bug fogger for $450.
its supposed to be a recent addition to the do-it-yourself arsenal against bed bugs. the site seems credible enough to try it out as i and many of you guys are desperate for a fast an inexpensive remedy. i bought mine today and i should be receiving it on Friday. so I’m going to go nuts with this thing and pray that they die as advertised. i will also post my results of the product each day after. i hope I’ve helped someone take that step towards riding themselves and others of bed bugs.
…lets all pray that it works because if it does, it will be the best product for combating bed bugs without question.
Can bed bugs live in TV’s. The apartment was treated by an exterminator and the TV is in the living room. The bugs were found in the bedroom. Also does freezing the clothing work? Or maybe drycleaning?
sorry, r, but we finally had to call the exterminator….. i just can’t deal with them. we had to borrow money, but to get rid of these things, i’ll do anything! we moved everything out except the furniture and pictures, and they spray next week. it is costing us 500 dollars and a storage. good luck!
I’ve had bed bugs for maybe 2 months now. They started in my bedroom. We treated it and seemed to have contained it but the problem is.. they are now in my mother’s bedroom and my living room. This is enough to make me sick. I really don’t know what to do.
I’ve been using the DE powder and every spray imaginable. I’m about ready to just move and leave everything behind, not that I really have the money to do so. I really cannot afford an exterminator as they cost up to and over $1000. I simply don’t have that money.
Are there any success stories out there to make me feel positive about this? I’m getting knots in my stomach and losing my appetite because of this. Can I really get this matter taken care of in my house on my own without spending an extreme amount of money? Or will I have to move?
Also, I read about washing your clothes in hot water and drying them as the bugs can’t live through the heat. I have no dryer at the moment, is washing them in hot water enough? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
How do you get rid of the bite scars? My daughter’s bites don’t itch anymore but scars have formed.
BOROX AND SALT are the CHEAPEST MOST EFFECTIVE way to get rid of bed bugs…. you mix half and half and sprinkle everywhere…. read below for more directions…and for your clothes stick them all in plastic garbage bags , black ones and leave them in the sun for a day then wash completely in hot water….we have not seen any since and glad someone listened on this page Borox (its laundry detergent) costs like 2 dollars at the store
thanks, abel. we have already moved the furniture out, and treated the area with 3 kinds of bedbug spray, used poison on the couch, soaked it with Cedar Oil, and covered it with plastic, in the sun. we have not had any in the bedroom, and when we moved the furniture out in the heat, the only thing the bugs came out of was the couch. we are treating all of it though, anyway. i also got some DE, and am going to use that. all the items that we think may be infested is in black plastic bags in the sun, and the furniture is soaked with cedar oil in the sun. my fingers are crossed!
Sue,
i believe the oil is a repellent. it hasn’t worked for me, but you could try lavender oil instead. it has many benefits. it can help keep the bugs away from you as they hate string smells. it also helps you sleep more relaxed. and you could also mix it with you laundry if you really like the smell.
but you should really try to kill them instead of helping them migrate to another room or perhaps another house. you could start by vacuuming you bed, floors, and baseboards. then spray rubbing alcohol in any opening near your bed. alcohol dries them out and kills. then you could do what “alex” suggests and turn your bed into an island. i tried this and had great results, but i uses mouse traps under my bed legs instead. it did work tho.
i hope you can rid yourself of these modern vampires. the world would be a better place without them.
my BROTHER brought me bedbugs! will the cedar oil work like they say?
Make your bed an island!!!! These words have changed my life (ok, maybe not my life, but my sleeping experience)! I had (have…) bed bugs. The trick is this – make sure you have a bed frame (initially I didn’t – so the box was right on the floor) – cover the spring box and the mattress with a good quality mattress cover (you can get the type which is actually rated for bed buy infestations). It’s CRITICAL that you don’t rip the cover when you put it on and that you DO NOT cross contaminate by re-using the same covers, etc.
Now – here comes the most important part which almost everybody is unaware of: make your entire bed an island, so the bugs cannot climb onto the bed, do this: get 4 (or 5 if your bed frame has 5 legs) plastic containers, or glass jar lids, and place them under each leg – and fill them with oil! so this way, if the bugs even manage to climb the plastic containers/lids, they will just fall into the oil almost eliminating the chance of them being able to climb the frame and getting to you. Good luck!!!!
Excellent tips James, thank you for sharing, and for the video!
Jim
Replie to Ann W
annW i wouldn’t go threw with it the problem with that is bed bug will run too the walls ask them if there going to get inside the wall if they say yes. if your going to shell out that kind of money go with the therma treatment, it’s new and they come to your house, see the video at the top of this page. I would go with these guys Ann w
Hi all i see a lot of people having problems with bed bugs.We had the same problem i freaked out so did my wife but after reading up on these thing, i manage to be bed bug free. I try to be straight to the point with steps that can help you guys like it work for me.
Good luck let me know if this help some of you folks.
Hi Ann,
Vikane (made by DOW) is really sulfuryl fluoride which replaces methyl bromide (harmful to the ozone layer) and is for serious infestations; your place will be tented, every living thing removed and then it’s treated with this deadly gas, and it takes three times as much to kill bed bugs as it does termites! The tent remains in place for about 18 hours, then must be ventilated for 6 more hours. Many pest control companies claim that the Vikane Gas Fumigant will kill 100% of the bed bugs and any eggs.
Ann, will you do us a favor write back and let us know exactly what they did and how much they charged? If possible, pictures would be great, but certainly not necessary.
Good luck – this should do the trick.
I talked with Terminix and they are using Vikane Gas Fumigant. He said it will kill anything…including the eggs. Has anyone know anything about this product or had any experience. The house will be tented for 3 days. I’m suppose to sign the paperwork tomorrow for them to tent on Saturday. Please if anyone has had an experience with Terminix or Vikane Gas please, please tell me. Thank you
I’m considering having my house tented by Terminix for bedbugs. I know its expensive but it is worth my sanity!!!!!! They tell me that it will kill the eggs. Does anyone know if this is correct or not? Please someone respond ASAP!!!!
This summer will be two years since we noticed we have bed bugs. We have tried a powder that drys them out, but when I tested the theory and put some bed bugs in a glass jar it took 7 to 10 days for them to die. We figured we had them when I was getting bit sitting in the upstairs living room wearing a sweat shirt, and finally my mom found them. My father who is a hoarder brought them in on something from a thrift store, even though he tries to say it was from his brand new bed from the mattress company. Well because of my dads hoarding, his room is so infested that they are living in colonies on the ceiling and he tracks them through the house.
I live in the basement and spray 3 times a week on all my furniture. I use Rest Easy spray from Bed Bath and Beyond. It kills on contact, repels, and is all natural. I am allergic to the bites, they will cause me to break out in hives near the site so I am obsessed with getting rid of them. My father on the other hand wears them in his clothes and we can’t take him anywhere, we have tried everything our house and the only thing that has seemed to work is constant cleaning and de cluttering around the rest of the house. But we can’t do much with having animals and my dad not doing his part.
We called a few exterminators and was quoted $200 just for his room cause of how cluttered and infested it is, but there is nothing from keeping them from spreading even more. I will be moving next week into my place and plan on steam cleaning my furniture and then spraying while they sit out in the heat all day.
With my dads room, we literally have to throw everything out the window and put him in a nursing home. So try Rest easy, vacuum, de clutter, and hope for the best. Oh and get rid of the pest who brought or keeps bringing the pests in.
Keith Gordon –
We just had our second treatment done by an exterminator. Early April, we realized we had a big bed bug problem on one of the two couches in our living room. We threw out the couch and had them spray (Suspend SC and Sterifab).
Mid-may (about six weeks later) a friend stayed over on the OTHER couch and was eaten alive. Since then, we have noticed that the couch was covered in them. However, we did watch the PCO treat it.
Today, we threw out couch #2 and were treated again. This time, PCO did not find a single bug, but sprayed all over anyway.
A few questions:
This has been a trying experience and I want to be cautious, but I want things to go back to normal asap!
DE works excellent as a pesticide and has one of the best success rates around, not to mention it is environmentally safe and not harmful to us! You can buy DE (Diatomaceous Earth) in almost any feed and supply store for cheap. Are you sure you applied it the right way?
I got them when my landlord used a bug bomb in the apartment above us, which had apparently been infested for at least 8 months… I tried using DE, as I am chemically sensitive, but it didn’t work. At the 7 month point, the landlord came and sprayed in our apartment, so I couldn’t be in my home for a week (tried on day 3, but it shut my lungs down.) He sprayed the same pesticide again at the 8 month point. We’ve been fighting bed bugs for about 8 1/2 months now…
We can’t afford to hire a professional bed bug exterminator ourselves! I’ve done research and found a couple products that sound promising: it’s just a matter of scrounging up the cash so we can try them, and having my brother or nephew come in and do it for me.
Hi Guys,
First of all I want to thank everyone who has shared. I started getting bedbug bites the first week of May. I have not found the nest, but have found 3 of those bastards! I to am going nutz, the last two weeks I have been bawling like I found out I had Cancer or something. I pray myself to sleep every night, and I am at the end of my rope!
First of all I have a slum lord (landlord). I moved in here because the property we were renting was sold and we had to leave immediately, so we took the first thing we could find. Since then its been hell! First maggots, then mice, then we found 1 roach (haven’t seen one since). It’s just been one thing after another. Last May we finished our 1 year lease now we are month to month. The landlord called his personal exterminator (who is not from a company. He showed up at 1:30pm came in looked at my bed and says I don’t see anything. I then showed him the bedbugs that I froze and my bites, and he goes O’ yeah you got em. NO KIDDING! He did a quick spray and I’m still getting bit. He didn’t inspect anything! He told me he’s charging my landlord $150.00 for treatment, which to sounds way to cheap!! I live in Easton, PA. From what he said my case is mild, another family he had seen across town had bedbugs so bad that when he picked up the cushions on the couch they were all over. I don’t want mine to get that bad!!
I hear everyone talking about DE. I went to Walmart, because someone said its name there was Nano. WHERE CAN I BUY IT ON-LINE or IN STORE???? I also hear some places are just buying it and repackaging it. I don’t want to get something that doesn’t work> PLEASE HELP!
Please forgive my spelling errors and again thank you to all !
Hi,
I haven’t gotten any bed bug bites that are visible (thank god for that) but I always have this stinging feeling while I am watching TV sitting in my couch. Also I have seen little black spot on my bathroom counters. When I use my finger tip to get it off, it comes out easily like a ink smudge. So I am not quite sure if my apartment is bed bug free.
I have been going through this for the past couple of weeks now and have been stressed because of the bed bug issues. So I was thinking about using this product show in the picture and just need your feedback on it. I would really appreciate if you could tell me other ways that I can apply to be sure that the bed bugs are still there.
Thank you.
Bibhuti
Ok so im glad i found this page it was very helpful, the information given by everyone…and just knowing that im not the only one with these creepy bugs!
I JUST discovered them, and i dont know how i didnt notice them before…my mattress was infested with them. I dont have a light or lamp n my bedroom so when i go to bed its completely dark so i never see them nor did i notice bites or even have reaction to the bites. however, the other day i went in the AM to sleep and was lying there for about 25 minutes and happened to open my eyes an see a bug, not realizing what it was i went to kill it and as i moed i saw another and another and so i jumped up and OMG they were scattering all underneath where i was lying i started screaming and lifted up the blankets and they were there too tons of them…omg, it was a nightmare come true! it was DAYLIGHT and they were all over my bed. once i realized what they were i pulled the fitted sheet off the bed and saw all i nthe seems…more big juicy ones and shells or something. … i freaked and cried and freaked somemore! i called every exterminator in the phone book and all were soo expensive, and i have no money. finally i found a guy who only charged $300 and guarentees for a year. …and maybe sensing my panick , he offfered to come and inspect for free, and he came in 20 mins to my door. so he inspected and was amazed that it was as bad as it was and i had not known, he inspected my kids bedrooms also and said that they were not to bad which he was also shocked because of the amount i had in my room he assumed they would have travelled to the other rooms too. any way he came the next day and did the whole house. he did inform us to bag everything which i am going crazy …i have taken everything possible out of dressers and closets and gbagged them, and have been trying to wash and rebag them, we wrapped the mattress and box spring and threw it out the window lol, ( i refused to bring it threw the house) the guy did warn us that we will still see some until he comes back in 2 weeks then we should be i nthe clear, but now after reading im worried that this is gonna be hell. we are tearing out the carpets in every room too, and baseboards.. i dont care, i wil llive like that if it means getting rid of them. but just like a post i read on heer i feel like theyre all over my scalp and in my hair, i feel so itchy on my head and it s driving me insane… twic e ive broken into tears and had to have my kids check my head to see if there were bugs …the man assured me it was psychological but i feel it and it s freaken me out!!!!i have big thick hair and i know that if stuffs in their it wont come out! I hope this works, i hope the exterminator works…i have seen 2 today …he sprayed yesterday…but again he said that would be the case for now…. i think i might just go get that DE that everyones talking about just to be sure…but what to do about my head/hair aside from shaving it off? I wish everyone on here and every where else all the best in dealing wit hthis bed bug issue!!
I found bed bugs just before Christmas, when the superintendant told me the man that moved out upstairs was infested with them. I have sprayed hot shot spray and scrubbed the rug with hard scrup brushes to get rid of the eggs, because i have done research on this digusting topic. The other night after all my spraying I saw two bugs in the apartment. Other tenents are not cleaning or keeping up with spraying. I live in a one room studio and have mostly everything in bins and i want to move, but can’t find a place yet and want to leave bug free. A saleslady in home depot told me to get a steamer because her niece suffered terribly with bedbug bites and ended up on antiobiotics. Please tell me what type of steamer should i get. I am loosing sleep. I am not infested with them, but this whole floor is now throwing furniture out and i just don’t want any more of them. Carolyn
Sooo I wanted to update on my progress with the DE. I found it in 200g bottles at the local hardware store for $8.99, I also found it afterwards cheaper at Wal-mart, but the brand from WM had an attractant mixed in for ants, etc., where as the one I found locally did not, so I continued to purchase it. I’m on my 3rd bottle, it has a little nozzle, but I ended up for the most part mixing the DE in water and painting it where I wanted it.
I painted it around the floor boards and the moulings by the ceiling, I took apart all my dressers and painted lines on all sides of the drawers as well as the frame. I dusted inside and all around my couch, then I made DE barriers around every door and window in the house (just in case).
I live in an older building so there are a lot of crack and crevices, when the exterminator came the one time, he said they could even be coming up through the floor boards. I removed almost everything from the bedroom and then dusted the floor in there and painted the walls, boards, and moultings. I have an Ikea metal bed frame, so I lucked out there, but the boards that hold the matress up are wood, so I painted all of those as well as the matress and pillows themselves before putting their respective covers and bedding on.
The good news is that since I’ve done the bed I haven’t gotten another bite. The bad news is that early last night I caught another bed bug. I noticed it while trying to catch and remove a spider (don’t want to kill those), I saw it wandering about the mouldings by my desk where I’d been working, I bagged it – it was a not quite full grown bed bug.
I’ve washed and bagged up all my clothes, they’re back in the dressers, but just bagged up. I’ve also bagged pretty much everything else in the apartment. The things I can’t wash on hot I’ve been submerging in water and soaking for extending periods ( not sure if this works for eggs), I’ve also been steaming what I can with a clothes steamer (I’m sure an iron would work too).
I’m going to try one of those DIY C02 traps with dry ice to get an idea of what I’m dealing with in here, I feel that the DE is working, but it may be too soon to say, I don’t think my situation was too severe. I am able to sleep a bit more than before, and I’m getting more comfortable, and feeling safer in my bed etc. I imagine I will still have to move if my neighbours cannot get their situations under control.
Thanks for all the DE info everyone posted here, I’ll update on what happens in a month or so.
god am i glad i found this site! i went through a recent separation and all my stuff was stolen by my ex. well anyway i needed to buy a new couch. so i was on a budget and didn’t want to finance a new couch so i bought a used one from craigslist.
The couch was a sleeper sofa, well i have a one bedroom apartment and was sleeping on the sofa pullout because i wanted to get used to so when my daughter would visit she would sleep on my bed. Come to find out the sofa was infested with bed bugs, i have a ton bites!!!
I threw the sofa in the trash and i was moving my blankets back and fourth from the sofa to the bed. so i through my bed away as well. i only found one bed bug on the mattress of the sofa but i was bitten all over my body except my face.
I have now financed a new bed (thank god for 90 day same as cash) and bought a futon for the living room. i tore my place apart and swept like crazy. anything that was in contact with the couch or bed is washed or being washed. i didn’t find any traces of them besides on the couch but through the bed away anyway, i wont take any chances with my daughter visiting shes only 2!!!
I had a exterminator or the complex i should say had one come and he was a fly by night. he had a maglight and that was it! he flashed it around like he was going to see these things in plain view at 12 pm and said i don’t see anything. so he was a joke. well today i bought Diatomaceous Earth and some bug insecticide.
I put the Diatomaceous Earth on everything! it was like a volcano went off in my house! i haven’t been bitten since i removed the couch and bed but its only bed two days so i don’t know.
I only had the couch for 8 days as well so i’m hoping i caught them very early! by the way everyone if you cant find Diatomaceous Earth that’s because your not looking for it correctly. DE is the actual scientific name of it. you cant just go to walmart (where i bought mine) and ask for DE (Diatomaceous Earth) you have to know a brand name with Diatomaceous Earth in.
You can buy DE at walmart its called nano d the d has a _ or underscore under it. and it says organic crawling insect killer. its in plastic round bottle the top is green the d in nano is yellow and the bottom of the can is black. it also has a yellow pinstrip in it.
I am disgusted with this!! if anyone can’t find the de write back and i take a picture of the bottle to show you.
I live in a small low rise building. My neighbour in the apartment underneath of me let everyone in the building know they had bed bugs last summer, subsequently the landlord had the exterminators come out and spray all the ajoining apartments. Then in March of this year I started getting unidentified bites. At first I thought it was a spider, but when it kept happening I became suspicious that the bed bugs had somehow made their way into my house. The exterminators came out again and sprayed very thoroughly again. For a couple of weeks I didn’t seem to have any bites, but then they started again. It could have been because the exterminators didn’t come back after 3 weeks this time, or because the landlord is using a sketchy exterminator.
A couple of days ago while reclining on my sofa I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, it startled me and I immediately jumped up. It was a bed bug trying to make a meal of me, I cornered it on a cushion and trapped it in a ziploc. I was sure it was a bed bug but I double checked online to confirm, luckily it was still thin and hadn’t had a chance to bite me.
I’m a little more freaked now though, I assumed I had, and I guess knew I had bed bugs, but since I’d never caught or seen one it made it less real. I hoped that it was just this one lone bed bug since I’d only been getting bites about once every 7 days. I got another bite tonight though, again while one the couch I think, so I’m really pissed and worried now. Tomorrow I’m going to head out first thing in the morning to find some DE and dust my entire house with it. I don’t really have faith anymore in the exterminators and feel like I can do a better job myself at this point. I’m crossing my fingers that this works.
Glad to hear about mixing salt with the Borax. Will do that this week and see what happens.
Both of my feet became swollen. I think something happens to our bodies once the bugs insert their saliva into us. Anyone know about that?
I read that Eucalyptus Oil would kill bed bugs. I finally went to GNC (General Nutrition) and bought some Eucalyptus oil ($5.00). I tried it on my car seat and it seems to work.
The guy at GNC suggested that I put my clothes in a tub, boil some water and pour it on the clothes. It worked on some of the clothes but not on others. I’ve been throwing away all my clothes if I put them on and get stuck or bitten. Now, I’m boiling them before I throw them away. If it works — fine. They would go in the trash otherwise.
I’m wondering if anyone else feels a type of “slime” on their skin, floors, carpets, bedding, or elsewhere where bed bugs have been? I feel this some time. It’s like something invisible is crawling on me. When I put either Listerine or Eucaluptus oil on the affected part of my body, the sensation goes away.
I’m sick of dealing with these bed bugs. Seems the only real way to get rid of them is to throw away everything and start over.
Found that Borax works well to kill bed bugs in clothes. Add 1/2 to 1 cup to wash water. Wash on hottest setting twice then dry clothes on hottest setting for at least 2 hours. Having clothes cleaned at the cleaners does not necessarily work. Also found that Eucalyptus Oil (the primary ingredient in Listerine) kills bedbugs and will keep them off you. Off Liquid Spray does nothing to stop bed bugs so don’t waste your money. The Off aerosol spray did work to keep bed bugs off me while I was driving and being attacked under the steering wheel. There is a commercial chemical preparation called SUSPEND that was recommended by the hotel manager where I am living.
I was forced out of my apartment by bedbugs. The best advice is take swift action. I have had terrible experiences with bedbugs including having to throw away all of my personal possessions ($40,000). Now, after starting over, I am under attack again. I have put Borax under the steering wheel area of my car. I tried “Hot Shot” spray in the apartment, it helped the bugs live. However, when I sprayed my car and left it overnight with all doors and windows shut, it worked. It is easy to transfer bugs from your home to your car so be careful and act swiftly to eradicate. The manager of this apartment just sprayed this suite and because of the transfer from car to suite, I’m going to buy Diatomaceous Earth today — but where to get it? There are almost no choices in Vegas.
The spray “GOODNIGHT . . . kills bed bugs and dust mites” is not effective. I have sprayed so much of the “Good Night” and “Hot Shot” that it is coming out in my skin and my face is now hard with a rash. Be careful. You get desperate for relief and will do anything to stop the bugs.
Thanks for all your sharing.
Be careful when purchasing clothing and bedding. I have found it is possible to purchase these items already infected with bed bugs.
OMG!! I think i just figured out that I have bed bugs. However I have not found one. But I do have the symptoms. I’m not sure how I got them exactly which is pretty scary, and I just don’t want them to be traveling around my house and into my daughters room…..i hope i can overcome this very quickly :(
Just got these creatures after a visit to New York for vacation. They hitch hiked on my luggage. I have had 6 estimates $700.00-$2500. First thing cover vacuum your mattress and box spring. Then cover them with a mattress cover on both parts. You don’t have to buy the expensive ones, the vinyl ones will do. Duct tape the zipper all the way. Put your sheets and blankets in the dryer for 20 minutes on high every night before going to sleep. There is a cheap way to detect how bad they are and you can make the detector yourself. Take a dog food bowl put painters tape all around the bowl and scuff up the tape with sandpaper. Turn the bowl upside down with the rim facing up. Dust the bowl with cotton balls filled with baby powder. Fill a 1/3 gallon jug with 2.5 pounds of dry ice, leave the jug slightly open and place on top of the inverted dog bowl. Good Idea to put a towel under jug so the moisture will not go into the bowl. The dry ice will attract the bed bugs into the bowl and the powder will kill them. This way you can see how bad it really is invested. There is a website with a video showing you how to make this trap.
I WAS plagued with these horrible insects for 1 year… i tried everything…. i spent so much money on stuff that never helped then one day my moms friend who considers herself “oakie” suggested we use BOROX 20mule team mixed with salt…. so we used an seasoning container for the holes at the top and mixed 1/2 borox and 1/2 salt…. we pulled out mattresses to garage and started sprinkling boroxsalt on top and you just seen them pop off instantly…. then sprinkled carpet house tile anything everything especially between cracks…. thoroughly vacuumed and left another round of mix all over house for the night….. we brought our mattresses back in and finally had a good nights rest…. then a couple weeks later repeated the sprinkling of mix and haven’t seen 1 since. borox and salt and a sure solution for bed bugs hope this helps!
hi i found out we had bed bug back in november and they (landlord) sprayed the apartment and three weeks later they were still there my landlord toke two mths before the sprayed again well to my surprise there still here were completly fed up so now were trowing out the mattress’s my question is can i use bleach on the bed frame and head board would that kill any remaining eggs adults feces ?
to be honest were tired of sleeping in the living room on a blow up mattress .
All i can say is that its so irritating, I’ve got my legs swelled up and i don’t know how I’m going to treat these bed bug bites and solve this itch problem… i really hope i could figure this out asap because I’m telling you its not looking good…
In February 21st I went to a birthday party of my niece, the next day i had 8 bites around my neck. I was allergic to it and my neck swelled up. I went to the Dermatologist that Wednesday and she said she wasn’t 100% sure but considering i had three bites in a straight line (breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) she gave me a cream and allergy medicine to take the swelling down.
Next day I placed my sheets and clothes in plastic bags and went to wash them. I sprayed the room with 90% rubbing alcohol. My boyfriend didn’t get a single bite and thought i was over reacting. I taped all the electrical outlets and any open area in the walls and floor. I placed my pillows and mattress in a encasement and checked my mattress before this and saw nothing at all, even tried using my blow dryer on high and let it blow on the cracks of the wood furniture. Nothing.
I slept on the sofa and my boyfriend slept on the bed, and still no visible bites. On Feb 28th we went back the apartment that my niece had her party at. we found that one of the other children has a bed bed problem at home. I didn’t know they could travel like that but i really didn’t know much about bed bugs anyway.
My boyfriend was convinced it was something else because he had no bites. when we got home that day I noticed him scratching like crazy and he lifted his arm and he had three bites. WE then again washed all our clothes and sheets. Since then i have been sleeping covered from head to toe except my hands and head is uncovered. No, bites on either of us.
Yesterday was such a beautiful day i opened all the windows, at night I closed them and when i went to fix the curtain I saw a adult bed bug. I squashed it and placed it on a white tissue then placed them into a sandwich bag. To say the least we slept on the sofa. Could this mean we could have eggs or smaller ones? Is there a way to tell in the bites if they are from an adult or smaller bug? If they are in my bedroom and we are in the living room, do you think they will come to the living room?
Because i don’t see so many i am assuming we are not infested. I am freaked out and tired, we plan to clean tonight and over the weekend. Is there anything else we can do, besides call exterminator?
Please help!
After finding a bug crawling on me in just before dawn it became clear to me that these weird red patches I’ve had on my arms and legs in the past couple weeks must be bedbugs. I caught the blood filled critter and bagged him, researched and confirmed my suspicion.
I studied up a bit on here and some county extension sites and decided that I needed Diatomaceous Earth and some spray of some sort. I did not disturb where I thought the most likely places they would be but took off to ACE hardware once they opened. I bee lined for the chemical aisle and already had the Diatomaceous Earth in hand when I was approached by a clerk asking what I was wanting to kill.. told him I had the bedbugs. (they are apparently very common in my area) He advised that I did have the right thing in hand and also suggested a bottle of JT Eaton bedbug spray, (label says it lasts for up to 16 weeks)
There was a huge display of several bedbug choices right as one walked in the door, so I felt a bit better knowing I was not the only one facing this embarrassing situation. I took the spray containing Deltamethrin .03% and the Diatomaceous Earth bottle (Safer Brand) home and formed a game plan.
I have an upholstered suede headboard from floor to almost ceiling with lots of tufts, buttons and folds so I figured that’s probably a favorite hiding spot. Sure enough, after noticing some poop marks and trails, I was sure of it. I started checking it out and there were about 10 creepers that I caught and bagged. I wanted to make sure the spray killed the suckers so I gave them a dose in the bag and they were all incapacitated immediately and died soon after.
I then took the vacuum hose and sucked in every crevice in the headboard and then took the bed apart, loaded up the washer on hot and threw in the sheets and mattress cover and bagged the wool blanket. The bed springs of this king bed sit directly on the short tight woven carpet so I figured I would find a bounty there, but did not. The mattress showed no signs of infestation, whew….. I sprayed the headboard, I don’t care if it kills me or not!! I spayed around the bed, under it and inside the box springs. I then caught a couple more adults wandering around in a stuper.
I vacuumed the entire room at least 12 times over, cracks, crevices, mattress, box springs, headboard EVERYTHING!! I sprayed around all the base, door entries, bathroom and closet. Then I dusted all the door entry ways in case some tried to run out, they would be coated in the dust. I set the box springs and mattress up on edges and let everything dry. Then I laid out lines of the dust and since it only made heavy lines, I took a broom and went back and forth to throw it all in the air— I stuck my face in my shirt since the whole room filled up like smoke. This coated EVERYTHING with the dust, which was my intention.
I then laid lines along the baseboards and swept it up under all the base, put some in the air returns and also turned on fan on the HVAC unit and pumped some of the dust in there in case they were hiding out in the vent system. Everything I have read and trust me, I read all day, states that this Diatomaceo Earth dust is really effective in long term due to its action of dehydrating the bugs and killing them naturally within a short period. This would include the new hatches as they come along, but I plan on vacuuming it up and re-applying in 2 weeks.
I don’t care what they say, I am not sleeping in that room for at least a week. I am in the spare bedroom which someone had recently been sleeping in with white sheets and there is not one single sign of a bug anywhere in there. I figure if they are going to come after me in that room, they are going to have to go through A LOT of the dust to get at me so this might actually work in my favor, making them chase me down thus making sure they get a good dose of the dust on the way.
I am now off to scrub the headboard with hot water and laundry detergent and am going to use a scrubber brush. Will report back with my results. I really appreciate this forum and thank you all for your contributions. I really couldn’t afford to get an exterminator and I feel good about my decision to take this on myself, but couldn’t have managed without help from you all. !! I am in Denver, by the way! Thanks..
FYI folks:
Bedbugs do not live only in the beds or mattresses, they hide out, especially during the day, in walls, furniture, carpets, floors, wherever….then they come out to feed in the bed at night.
If you are trying to get rid of them, throwing out your mattresses and blankets and sheets won’t do it, you have to eradicate them from the entire room.
good luck!!
I have read on several sites that have information on how to get rid of bed bugs that they recommend using diatomaceous earth. It is a natural, inexpensive, non-toxic insecticide. You want to be sure you don’t breath it when you are applying it, and don’t ingest it, but other that that it is very safe. Just dust it on the floor under your bed, on your box springs and on baseboards. You can also dust your mattress & box springs with it and then enclose them in plastic covers that are made for them to reduce allergens.
I have not used it for bed bugs yet, but I have used it to get rid of aphids on my tomato plants in the summer and it works very well.
Note: Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth
Hi, before I share my story I’d like to make a suggestion. I haven’t read every last post yet so I don’t know if anyone has already mentioned this but there is this product called “Miraculous Insecticide Chalk” otherwise known as “Chinese Chalk.” It is mainly used to kill cockroaches but its supposed to kill bed bugs also. It used to be sold back in the 70′s but it was banned because children were mistaking it for regular blackboard chalk, swallowing it and having seizures.
Chinese Chalk looks like regular chalk so if you have children you MUST keep it out of reach. You can order it on Ebay or across seas like I did and it is very inexpensive. I used it for roaches and it was a MIRACLE, got rid of my roaches in ONE night and I haven’t seen one since. It affects insects’ nervous system and basically makes them go crazy and die.
The directions say that if you’re using it for bed bugs to take your mattress and put it on the floor and draw a circle around it and leave it there for a few days so when they come out they have to walk across it. I would, for extra measure, also draw lines around the rest of the bedroom or whatever area is infested and leave it there for about a month.
When you draw your lines you have to make sure they are thick so that when the bugs walk across it they will get the chalk dust all over their body. Also, remember not to draw lines in places that children or animals will come into contact with. Clean up is also a breeze, you just use water. I hope this helps some people.
Now for my story…There are 3 different sites for my job and I have recently become the floater so if someone calls out at any of the sites, I fill in for that person. Well, I had been covering in this particular location since last Thursday. I was there Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. I had been working with one other guy (an old man who refuses to retire), who’s not the cleanliest person in the world. I had been hanging my coat next to his each day I was there.
Wednesday I saw a bed bug crawling out of the pocket of his jacket and I freaked. I left everything there in the office and went home with the t-shirt on my back. Now I am really paranoid that I may have already brought a bed bug home with me as our jackets were touching each day I was there.
I haven’t seen a bug or noticed any bites but I fear that my infestation might be in its infancy. For anyone who knows all about bed bugs please tell me what are the chances that I probably brought a couple home with me????
Thanks
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Hello Jessica,
I think you’ll be fine with the bed bugs not jumping to your cloths, but if I were you, I’d would not wear you work cloths home and instead bring a clean pair to change into, or sweats, etc. Use a plastic bag to put everything into and seal – you want to isolate your work cloths from home, then when it’s time to clean the work cloths, make sure to wash in hot water – take some time and read the comments here – you find some great ways to make sure you stay bed bug free.
*** WARNING: DANGER ***
Here is information from the government on Insecticide Chalk that is illegal in the United States! In a nutshell, they say:
I also found this statement from:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1026725/pdf/westjmed00130-0076a.pdf
For those of you reading, please beware of these warnings. Consider using Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth instead – there are a number of comments on this page with more information about this all natural product!
I use steam cleaner with 1500 watts + vaccum cleaner and it reduces them. Is there any way by which I can detect their places?
Dear people, please avoid chemicals as much as possible.
I have lived in many places, NEVER have I had to deal with these horrible creatures before!
They tell me my sister brought them to my dads apartment inside her stereo speakers and she had done it before to someone else’s home…shame on her.
Anyways, I came to stay with dad and to get rid of these things. I bought the Bayer spray from Lowes and spayed and sprayed and sprayed (always use a respirator/face cover, do not breathe in the vapors). It seemed to work some but the temperature in this house is 86 and I cannot use the spray anymore because I cannot take Dad out of the house. The bugs are EVERYWHERE!!!! Its horrible day or night all over! My son had one on his lip when he went to take a drink! My grandson had one on his finger when he was at the table eating!
##BTW SPECIAL NOTE: Bed Bugs DO drop from the ceiling and walls ##
I will go today to get the natural products you have listed and get some storage bags and a steamer. I will let you know how I make out .
Hello,
Back in October me and my family move into our new home. well about two weeks later one of my daughters came to me me and said something was biting her, not thinking about bedbugs because she has a infant and she was getting bit we threw out her bed and that was it.
Well, about two weeks ago i noticed bumps on my arms and they were itching like crazy! I just thought it was from something that i ate. It wasn’t getting better and there were more bite marks. It’s now January 20th 2010 and i couldn’t sleep well so I pulled back the covers and there it was! At first I thought it was a cockroach so i killed it then i saw the blood started checking the covers. Sure enough, there were many more and decided to get on the internet and look up bedbugs, found your site and they match exactly!
I put all my blankets in the trash, I’m calling my doctor in the morning for treatment and i will be calling the landlord! I think that this house was already infected because the people that lived here before me were very dirty! I am terrified to go to sleep and want to move!