Ask Mike: Bed bug problems
Hey Guys,
A friend of mine woke up the other morning to a most unpleasant surprise. Her apartment had been invaded by bed bugs.
Despite its cutesy sounding name, the bed bug is one of the vilest creatures around. It is also one of the most resilient. My friend wanted to know: How does one get rid of the pests without losing her sanity?
The good folks at Harvard suggest that before you start throwing away all your furniture, you’ll want to make sure that the “bed bugs” are indeed bed bugs. In order to do that, you’ll have to capture one, and have it examined by an expert. If the expert says, “Yep, that there’s a bed bug, buddy boy” then here’s what’s next.
Conventional wisdom says you’ll have to ditch your carpet, couch, bed, etc. Or, in extreme cases, move. However, there are many exterminators who will treat an infested home. Some services attempt to freeze the bugs. Others bombard them with chemicals. If you don’t believe exterminators will be successful, you can always purge yourself of anything that you think might be infected.
Obviously, this can be an expensive proposition. One doesn’t want to throw away items that aren’t infected. A popular way to tell if a piece of furniture has been taken over by bed bugs is to “sic the dogs on ‘em.” That’s right, there are specially trained canines that can sniff out bed bugs and (sorry for this) their feces. Near as I can tell, it’s a legit industry. Man’s best friend, indeed.
Bed bugs are particularly prevalent in hotels and other highly visited areas. When traveling away from home, some folks recommended that you not put your suitcase directly on the bed. Why? If there are bugs in the comforter, they’ll easily make the jump to your baggage and come home with you.
That’s not to say that you have to act like Howard Hughes when you travel. But, as is often the case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Got any tips on dealing with bed bugs? Please leave a comment below.
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I heard that you can kill bed bugs using steam. The recommendation I read was to steam clean your bed and then, after the bed dries, seal the mattress in plastic to prevent re-infestation. You should also wash infected clothing, bedding, etc in hot water to kill the bugs and any eggs they may have laid.
Food grade Diatomaceous earth. Cheap and effective. It can be used as a dusting powder on your pets, carpets, bedding and can even be fed to get rid of internal parasites too. Bed bugs, or any bug doesn’t stand a chance and I’ve used it to kill everything from termites and ants (i sprinkled some down a huge black ant-hole we had just three days ago, and by the next day, they were gone) to spiders and everything in between. It’s harmless to mammals and reptiles, but if you have an exo skeleton, you don’t stand a chance. It isn’t a poison, so bugs can’t build any immunity to it. Just make sure you get Food grade, not pool grade as pool grade has been chemically altered and is toxic. It’s available at garden supply and tack and feed. We buy a quantity of 50# at the feed store for only 25.00 and it lasts forever especially if you use a dust spreader. It’ll kill any bugs in your house, and it will make a barrier outside from anything trying to get in. Cheap, effective and all natural…now what more can you ask for??
I would try the least expensive route first Try raid flea products (purple can works best for direct contact). Spray down mattress and in cracks of funiture where bombs cant reach. Make sure you wear something over your face the fumes are hard on the lungs
Every single morning I wake up with a new little itchy bump on me, and I have no idea where they are comming from, I do feel little bites as I go to bed, but I’m not sure if its bed bugs or not cause I had moved three times and they are still here.
I’m pretty sure they are bed bugs because I have watched a lot of shows and everyone has the same thing I have.
Is it bed bugs or not, and how can I cure the bites I already have, cause they are not going away.
you must use encasements on the mattress and boxspring. buy the protect-a-bed brand. good housekeeping seal. cheap walmart ones dont work. i lived in infested apt. bldg. & moved to house. exterminator inspected it just in case some hitched a ride with me. he said encasement is the best thing to do, along with the diatmaceous earth. i used Mother Earth D, dusted it everywhere. you can sleep on it. delta dust works too, dont put it directly on bed. use around baseboards and electrical fixtures. you can also spray some Steri-fab on bed and use it to murder any bed bugs you see!
Well There are always bed bugs showing up in my school in Minnesota. The staff simply heat treat oir dorm rooms to high temperatures when we are in class and it kills all the bed bugs.
You can get a steamer that uses “dry steam” to kill them. Diatomaceous earth also kills them, and is safe for humans and pets. Put your mattress and boxsprings in a bedbug-proof mattress cover. Aller-zip makes one that was tested and proven that they cannot get in or out, as long as there are no tears in it. I got mine on Ebay. Some people are not allergic and don’t know they have them. Some exterminators will not treat them, and some cities have no rules saying landlords must get rid of them. It takes work, but you can get rid of them. It is worth it to learn what you can and take precautions.
About a year ago one of my tenants decided to bring a sofa he had found in the alley into his apartment. I found out later that it was infested with bedbugs. Within 2 months every apartment in the building was infested. Getting rid of them turned out to be an absolute nightmare. First, every tenant had to wash every piece of clothing and bedding in HOT water. Then everything in each apartment had to be packed, moved, and inspected. It was like moving without going anywhere. We called in professional exterminators to spray everything at a cost of $3000. Even then I had to go back and inspect and spray over and over again. All in all it took 8 months and $5000 to get rid of those little monsters. Bedbug infestations are becoming epidemic.
My dad did a job to run some electrical for heaters they heated this house up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit to kill off the Bed Bugs. The women who had him do this job brought them home in her purse from some hotel!
From experience, i know that nothing can kill begbugs. i have the scars on my arms to prove it. i had 3 exterminators come spray the house, i threw away my leather headboard, bombed the rooms, everything. they went away when i moved to a new house but my grandmother had a period of time when her bed was infested. she used rubbing alcohol and would wash her bed with it everyday and eventually they went away. these little nasty creatures only come out at night and they crawl very fast. i captured about 10 of them to see if they fed of blood or something idk.
good luck
those bed bugs literally bring me nightmares just thinking about them!
I once lived in a place that had bedbugs. I read up what to do on the internet and tried everything. Drying the mattrasses, plastic covers to suffocate them, cleaning everything with bleach, trying all kinds of bug sprays – nothing helped. So, I got the exterminator eventually just to notice that a week later the bugs were back.
So, the only conclusion was to throw all wooden furniture away as well as the mattrass. The bugs never came back again but the nightmares remained for almost a year, constantly waking up and scratching. I am just glad it is over now and I hope to never encounter them again.
encasement is a great option. I moved from one infested apt. and took the mattress with me. I cleaned the mattress and covered in teh allergen free cover, and didnt have anymore issues with the bedbugs.
heres a great idea hope this will help tell ur friend to go on the computer and type in monsters inside me homepage when u get there go in the search box and type in bed bugs on monsters inside me tht will tell u everything u need to do and know so u can get rid of them because they can turn into one ugly parasite
let me know if u did this hope i helped bye
We had exterminators and chemicals, but nothing made a dent like the steamer. We got a Karcher SC 1402, and systematically steamed the house. It’s easy to do a room a day, which seems to disrupt the lifecycle. We also switched bedframes to metal that could be steamed, and wrapped all the mattresses in plastic, with bedsheets and mattress toppers going through the dryer routinely. I love the idea of eliminating them forever, but in an apartment building, that’s unlikely. Steaming and the other changes reduced it 95% and have the side benefit that the house is more pleasant overall. When we move soon, we’re going to put things through heat (black trash bags in the sun, or you can get specific devices that will heat things) and ditch anything that can’t be quarantined. But the steamer will still come with us just in case.
Prevention I: sleep in your vehicle. Lucky me, I have work van.
Prevention II: [WARNING! THIS IS A TABOO SUBJECT AND WILL BE UNDOUBTEDLY BE OFFENSIVE TO POLITICALLY CORRECT LEMMINGS!!! IF YOU ARE SUCH A CREATURE AND PANDER TO ILLEGAL ALIENS, PLEASE STOP READING NOW!!!] This bed-bug epidemic was likely caused by illegal aliens, as are many epidemics in the US, one of the most dangerous being the TB epidemic in NYC in the 1990′s which took $ 1 billion to stop.
Centers for Disease Control: 82% of multi-drug resistant TB cases in Usa were in foreign born people in ’07. http://tinyurl.com/yanqgcz Msnbc
You will make a big mistake if you throw everything out and expect your place to be clean, because at least a few will remain to re-infect all the new stuff you buy.
Some people get freaked out by the term “chemical,” but drink “pure” water out of plastic bottles, ingesting chemical phthalates which dissolve into the water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate
“The dose makes the poison.” Paracelsus introduced this concept of medicine to science about 1520.
The pesticides used for bedbugs are completely safe for humans. I have dealt with bed bugs many times. The dosage used to kill a bug that is so small won’t effect you. (ask for a Material Safety Data Sheet, MSDS, or get off web)
The first thing you should do is try to figure out how you got them, because that will give you an idea of the where to start. Did you travel, did you buy used furniture, or maybe you visited someone you normally don’t. Are you clothes infested? How about you shoes?
You can get rid of them, but you literally have to spray EVERY crack in every piece of furniture, floorboard, headboard of beds, etc.
You will not be able to get rid of them with one treatment, since you will never spray them all the first time, and not all the eggs will be killed. You will need 2-3 treatments to completely kill them.
My advice is to call some local exterminators, and tell them you think you have a bed bug problem, and see what they say (and cost). If they say they can do it is one treatment, they are lying or stupid.
The favorite hiding place for BBugs is under the round seal on the mattress. Pull it up slowly, and you may see clumps of them hiding their. If you see any reddish stains there about a 1/16 to 1/8 inch round, that would be BBug poop. Crevices in headboards are also good places to look.
Forget the steam, bug bombs, and “simple” cures, none of them are effective.
Pineapple skin is the answer for bed bugs. Peel a pineapple put the skin under the bed or the furnitures that are affected, the bugs will be gone before the pinapple skin dried up.
I read that bedbugs cannot live at temps over 113 degrees, if I recall correctly. As others have suggested, why not heat the rooms up to scorching temperatures and kill them, thereby saving the furnishings and avoiding the toxic chemical treatments?
I have heard to heat up the house very high and also that they eat once a week. therefore if you go somewhere for a week or two and come back, they should starve to death,
It should also be mentioned that bedbugs lay their eggs in any type of soft environment, meaning clothing, bedding, mattresses, carpeting, etc and that their eggs can last up to 3 years! I’d go with an exterminator and major laundry doings!
For single people in small apartments, daily vacuuming of carpets and upholstery and inspection of the bedsheets goes far in controlling a bedbug infestation when the money isn’t available for exterminators or sprays. If you have an extra set of sheets, change them every 2-3 days and run the old ones through the hottest wash setting that’s safe for them. When I was dealing with a severe infestation, I always had boiling water ready in my electric kettle so I could quickly use it on any sheets or clothing I was in contact with when I got a new bite.
After a couple weeks of these practices, I was able to end the severe infestation. Instead of finding up to nine new bites a day, I saw one every few days. I never was able to save the money for an exterminator, but for the following two months I lived in that room, I was able to relax the intense cleaning and still control the number of bedbugs around.
I’ve had bed bugs actually I just got rid of them a couple of weeks ago. what u have to do is literaly bag up your life. What we did is get plastic containers and put a bag in it, put your stuff in and the tie it shut and put the lid on it. Your friend should keep her stuff in the containers for a couple of weeks at least. Bed bugs can live without a host for up to a year and a year and a half so be cautious! Also, she needs to make sure everything is out of her dresser and anything that has drawers because they love to hide in anything that has a crack or that is dark. Our family used Terminex and it took them 3 times before they actually got rid of them and it cost $1400! This isn’t much compared to Orken and other places plus because they did the whole house and the usually only do the room that you see the bugs in and the room beside it. I hope that she can get rid of the little buggers!
we used to have bed bugs a long time ago and how we got rid of it was me and my family had to throw all our sofa’s our kitchen tables anything with wood we had to throw it away just mop the house with clorox and wipe down the walls with clorox and we just look for little holes on the cornor of the walls the next day all the bed bugs was gone..
couple days later my family went to a furniture store to buy some new sofa’s,tables and beds and the sales lady told us that bed bugs don’t stick to leather sofa’s so we brought it and our beds we just kept the plastic on as for our tables just keep wiping it down…since then we haven’t had bed bugs and they really don’t stick to leather sofa’s….
hey! a year or so ago my house was invaded by bed bugs… my room -thankfully- was pretty much the only room that was bed bugs-free for some reason I fruitlessly tried to know. however, the other rooms were infected, but due to some amazing advice, the bed bugs quickly disappeared.
first, you friend should check her matresses, the comforter, the pillow covers for any signs of bed bugs ( which looks like how a paper would look if a black ink pen was pressed to it without moving. kind of a faint black stain ) now, according to what I remember, that stain is blood.. our blood which is sucked by the bugs.
now, heating kills bugs (and destroys its eggs, if any) … and of course a person can’t put all his apartment out in the sun, so the best alternative -to me at least- was using a standing steam iron… so you won’t damage the furniture (as you’re using water) and you’ll get what you want.. heat!
after using the iron on each item that has black marks, as well as on the other items that you think might be infested by bugs, you might see the little bed bugs escaping, so a slipper might be handy!
that’s how we got rid of bed bugs… hope I helped!
excuse my bad English, it’s not my first language! and don’t mind the typos please xD
Dr.Bronners peppermint soap killed the bedbugs at my house.but a strong mix in a garden sprayer and saturated everything and put it all out in the sun for the day. Then dusted with d.e. Haven’t seen them yet. Its been 2 months.
they are little blood suckers. hard to get rid of and we use all types of potions.lol
In addition to calling an exterminator, 1)Wash all bedding in hot water and dry under high heat for 30 minutes. 2)Wrap your bed in protective casing. 3)Seal your pillows as well. 4)Call an exterminator.
Passe perhaps to reiterate in the comment section, but throwing out your furniture is really an act of desperation. Yes, you may (if you guess correctly on where the bulk of their colony is living) reduce their immediate population, but long or even intermediate term they will usually regroup and continue their infestation of your lodging even without consistent followup or Professional pest control/exterminator assistance.
Hey I’ve been having a huge problem with bed bugs. I had never saw a bed bug until i few after leaving the hospital after having my son. I thought i was breaking out in bumps all over my body due to hormonal changes but come to find out i now have bed bugs thanks to the hospital. my husband and i sleep in the same bed but why am i the only one who is being bitten. We have tried the bed bug bombs and nothing happened…. and i am concerned that my now 5 month old son is now being bitten by these bugs. I was wanting to know has anyone tried using the house iron to kill the bed bugs. i want to get rid of these things but to get a professional exterminator is anywhere between $800 and $1000. Can anyone give any ideas for these pesky annoying bugs….
Concerned mother
Lala
Lala,
Please go to bedbugger.com and post and read the forums on that site. You will find tons of ueful information there. Good luck!