How to get rid of bed bugs
Want to know how to get rid of bed bugs without reading this entire site or without spending a fortune on pest control? I’m going to explain how you can do this yourself using natural products found at most stores.
- Perhaps you live in an apartment complex and the owner feels it’s too expensive to hire a pest control company;
- Perhaps you want to erect a barrier that will prevent bed bugs from entering your apartment or condo;
- Perhaps you have been bitten, are afraid that your brought them home with you and want to prevent them from spreading?
- Perhaps you have no idea what is biting you, but want to put an end to it?
How to get rid of bed bugs is as simple as spreading around a power called Diatomaceous Earth (also know as Silica Dioxide or Silicone Dioxide). This is non toxic, can be purchased at just about any feed and supply store and as you can read from visitor comments, works great!
Some people have had luck with flea and tick power which does the same thing as Diatomaceous Earth; that is, it dehydrates the bugs and causes them to die.
You spread this around your room (create a perimeter) and when the bed bugs cross the dust / power, they coat themselves and become dehydrated.
That is exactly how to get rid of bed bugs and prevent them from entering your rooms, etc.
Just this week I read a report where a team of scientists have found a way to scare bed bugs.
Bed bugs usually don’t come out to feed until humans are in a deep sleep which seems to be around 4am. They don’t usually appear in the day and can be very hard to spot (they are good at hiding!).
By spraying an area with a synthetic version of a bed bug’s alarm pheromones, bed bugs were found to start moving within five minutes after the application regardless of the time of day!
Diatomaceous Earth works great as long as the bed bugs walk through the power; with this new discovery, the bed bugs become so agitated, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll cover themselves with dust (provided it’s applied in the right locations).
There needs to be more testing before you’ll be able to buy Diatomaceous Earth mixed with these alarm pheromones, but if all goes well, you should start seeing products very soon.
For now, the best way to kill bed bugs is by applying Diatomaceous Earth in the right locations. There are a ton of comments from visitors from around the world explaining how they got rid of bed bugs using this natural power found on our bed bug treatment page.
If you would like details on the study I refer to above, visit the Journal of Medical Entomology’s article on how to get rid of bed bugs.
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My 3 yr old daughter woke up with welts all over one side of her body. It looks like a mosquito went crazy. I gave her benadryl and put hydrocortizone on the welts. I sell used stuffed animal toys on the internet and I bring them home all the time from the Goodwill and other thrift shops. I never thought about bedbugs until today. It may be too late. I use the income from the sale of the toys to get nice things for my kids. I don’t want to stop selling. Any ideas on how to treat the stuffed animals so I can still sell them?
gosh, i slept at my brothers apartment on Friday, he was telling me that there was this one lady who had bed bugs at her apartment and then asked my mom if they could spread to apartment to apartment. so then my mom said i don’t know. then i was itchy all night, and today is Sunday. I have red spots on my face, arms, and feet. makes me look awful. I hate it because they are red, itchy and they feel hot. but then I washed myself with Nix. Head lice shampoo & I also washed my clothes twice with hot water and Nix. But idk can bed bugs live in your head too?
Honestly without using DE I would recommend a qualified professional to spray for them.. I work out of Phoenix for an pest control company, and unlike other pests, bedbugs have been more of a pandemic throughout the U.S. And like someone mentioned earlier even though DE is safe for pets and humans, don’t breath it in.. 100% organic DE is fossilized animals and can affect people who have breathing problems.
Thank you Randall. Do I just ask his doc to do a blood draw? Is what he’s looking for EG Rickettsa and coxiella? You’ve got my brain wondering and I think I’ll do a little google searching.
You may want to have autisic son checked by Infectious disease doctor. It is evolving thought that Lymes or lymes like diseases can cause autism. The increasing presence of these bugs could herald a return of some old diseases in a younger population set. While not lethal something chronically disabling may be there. For autism they speak of mitochondrial dysfunction when they should give greater consideration to infection by intracellular organisms.
EG Rickettsia, coxiella, just to name a few
Its more than the bite its whats in the bite. Good luck!
Bad news…. I just found this info about the DE made for swimming pools…. “make sure you don’t get the stuff that’s designed to be used in swimming pools. That isn’t appropriate for your bedroom even though it’s called the same thing. You also shouldn’t breathe it in directly if you can avoid it (the pool kind is bad for that, but “food grade” has a lower silica quantity and isn’t as big a risk).”
Not sure if I’m even allowed to offer this but will put it out there, I feel so bad so I will put this out there, they can delete this part of my post if it’s now allowed…. if anybody needs DE and can’t find it, I’m willing to have you mail me a money order for the DE plus shipping only and I will mail you how ever many bags you need. I can get 4.4 pound bags for $10.99 plus 6% sales tax. I’m in Mass and the tax just went up from 5% to 6%. :o( And here I was, soooo excited to find out that they use DE in pool filters, an easy find. Pool places everywhere. Sigh. If anybody needs me to get some DE please visit Diatomaceous Earth. I’m very honest and will mail you the receipt for the DE and for the mailing so you can see you paid for ONLY that, not even my time and gas. We got to get rid of these darn things and I’m willing to do my part.
BIG Bravo Zulu for Diatomaceous Earth(DE for short)! There is more info on this short post located at the bottom of this page, there’s two posts written by me on today’s date, 8-14-09.
http://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-faq/
Here’s the short and sweet of it…..as I said, if you want to read more, click the link above…..
I know a lot of people have been having problems with finding DE since we have been told here that it is found in feed stores. I even had quite a bit of trouble #1 finding a feed store since I live in the city then #2 when I would find a feed store, they didn’t carry DE. Well in mentioning the DE to my mom, my dad said that they is what he uses in the pool filer system. I haven’t looked at it but make 100% sure that somewhere on the containor that it says that it is NOT TOXIC and if you have a pet/s that it says PET FRIENDLY or PET APPROVED. That bag I got at the feed store says Pet Approved. It also says ORGANIC, so that would be something else to look for if you buy the DE used for the pool filter. Since the DE my dad uses is for the pool filter is for the pool and not used as an organic bug killer for plants as the ones in the feed stores are, not sure if it is safe for humans and or pets to breath. So if you can’t find DE where you live, go to a POOL STORE and check out their DE. Read the containor and make sure that it is DE only with nothing else added. I just thought that this would be interesting info for those of you having trouble finding DE. :o)
Jennifer, how long does it take to work? Knock on wood, I’m 99.9% sure that they bugs are out of my son’s room as I have the mattress and boxspring double covered(long story). I got the DE, I vaccumed everything then put the DE around the corners of his room, under his whole bed, around all four legs of his bed, along the rails where you fit in the box spring, and between the boxspring and mattress. Anyway, the bugs seem to be in the couch where I sleep.
I only figured it out when I was waking up with bites, this was before I got the DE. Anyway, as I said before, I’m disabled and can’t pull the couch out from the wall to vaccum behind there. I pulled out all the cousins, inspected them, saw nothing but still vaccumed the heck out of each cushion and all parts of the couch I could see.
I put the DE under the cushions, as much under the couch I could get, under my entertainment center as much as I could. I also put it in every doorway in my apt. I then covered my couch with sheets as I thought it would keep the bugs in and make them go through the DE but NOOOO. Every night I try and fall asleep around 9 or 10 then wake up around 2-2:30 as the bugs seem to come out around 3-4. Although, after 4 one morning, I had fallen back asleep and woke around 5 as something was itching around my cheek.
I lifted my head to 3 yes THREE bed bugs running around on my pillow. :o( Everyday I seem to add more DE and another sheet, blanket, or comfoter over freshly laid DE on my couch over the last thing that covered it. I know I read the bag and it says that it takes the bugs 2 days to dehydrate after coming in contact with the DE so I thought that by now, they would be mostly gone but daily, even during the middle of the day, I find new baby ones. Every one I find, I kill and put down the toilet.
I did remember yesterday that I forgot a major thing that I was supposed to get and do. I forgot to get the steamer thing. I don’t have the money right now but will get one when I get paid my disability on the 1st. I’m gonna try and get the couch away from the wall best I can and stick the steamer behind the couch and hopefully can get a small enough one that I can steam under my couch too.
I just can’t wait to be rid of these darn things. :*o( :*o( :*o( I NEED SLEEP!
The Diatomaceous Earth works! It didn’t cost much and the dust isn’t harmful to people or pets because its all natural. I treated my apartment for bed bugs but i covered my mattress after that because i wanted to prevent future bed bugs. You can get it at your local pet store.
Jen, I’m willing to live with white dust over bed bugs any day. I live in the city and am having a VERY hard time finding Diatomaceous Earth or any of the spays with it in it. I went to a place today and they told me of a place not to far away that should have DE and I am going there today. I don’t have much money as I’m a disabled veteran and single mom to a disabled child so I don’t have the money to have an exterminator so I’m just going to put the DE everywhere til the bugs are dead and gone dust and all.
I did get the tea tree oil that was recommended and I put it on my son and myself every night; I think it works ok…. better then nothing at all. I think I have gotten one bite on my forearm and my son on his thigh since I have started using the tea tree oil. Actually, I’ve been up all night lately as
I can’t sleep thinking of these bugs crawling on my son and myself at night. I kill approx 5-10 bugs a night (those lil buggers are fast), all different sizes. I check my son through the night too with a flash light but haven’t seen any on or around him. I do have a mattress cover on his mattress and box spring that I clean and vaccum every 3-4 days. I kill my back doing it but I can’t have these vermin crawling on my “baby”.
I will write back after I get the Diatomaceous Earth and spread it around. Oh and just to be 100% sure, does anybody know for sure that this stuff is NOT piousness? I have an 8 year old son with autism and 2 cats; I don’t want to get anything that will hurt them in any way.
I dunno about DE…not a lasting treatment, unless you’re willing to live with white dust everywhere. I spread a ton of it in every nook & cranny of my room & furniture, plus Borax. Made a huge mess, but I lived with it for a week before vacuuming. As soon as I cleaned, the bugs were back with a vengeance. Just had Terminix come & spray, but not sure the guy spent enough time spraying every crevice…Got rid of bed (even though no visible signs of bugs) Afraid to sleep back in room. I am so drained, I hate the previous tenant (I know I didn’t bring it from anywhere) & the dufus landlord.
Thank you Jim. You are so kind. I will try the Diatomaceous Earth and let you know how it goes.