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Info How did you get rid of bedbugs?

ctbaars

ctbaars

Golden Member
The question is in the title. I'm so embarrassed.
My wife won't let me buy a flame thrower. For the first time in my life I'm dealing with this in my daughter room, the only place they currently reside. I kicked her out of her room and removed the whole bed to outside!
Her and I both get welts and wake in the night when they bite. We didn't know what it was and we went to the doctor whom didn't have a clue. Finally we saw one and figured it out. Then panic and anger set in.
 
lemon grass oil
steamer
diatomaceous earth
shop vacuum every day
harris traps
heat has to be 115+ so typical clothes washing won't work
don't transfer them throughout your house on clothes/bedding/dolls
large sealable garment bags for the above.
 
The bed can probably be saved with steam/earth but I wouldn't just leave it around. Take it to the dump, if you have a truck.

Make sure you put the earth at the doorways/baseboards. It dries them out when they crawl through it. 24 to 48 hrs.

Eggs hatch in 7 days so you have to keep at this for a while.
 
Summer is going to make this harder. In winter you basically let it get down to like -30 for a day and that supposedly kills em all. There's some precautions you need to take for water lines.

But in summer... pretty much have to go with something more serious like CO2 gun or chemicals. High heat is an option too but that can also cause damage to paint, furniture etc. You want to leave everything in the house because all those things will be infested too.

Either way think this sounds like a pro job. Probably need to fumigate the place, wait for any eggs to hatch, then fumigate again. I imagine pros have a schedule for that to time it with the hatching time but get them before they lay more eggs. That's what makes them so hard to get rid of is that whatever kills them does not kill the eggs, and then the eggs hatch and you have more then they lay more eggs and so on. Their life/mating cycles are very fast.

Random fun fact: To mate, males rape the females by stabbing them with their penis.
 
You can call a pro. My CSR's in laws did....$2K later and they still had them. You're the only one that's going to be diligent enough. YMMV

😉
 
highland145 said:
lemon grass oil <-- impractical, I don't find the egg patches that look like dirt
steamer <-- I clean everyday. Steamer is impractical in my tiny house.
diatomaceous earth <-- Yeah, I have that stuff everywhere. Scientifically proven not to be effective enough.
shop vacuum every day <-- I vacuum every day now and dust with Diatomaceous earth.
harris traps <-- I have them on all posts of beds and furniture.
heat has to be 115+ so typical clothes washing won't work <-- Understood. I wash everyday anyway.
don't transfer them throughout your house on clothes/bedding/dolls <-- This is tough but movement is kept to a minimum and no sleepovers.
large seal-able garment bags for the above. <-- Yes, om all but essential clothes
Click to expand...
I also use Harris Bed Bug liquid spray
and I use a growth inhibitor I got through the internet. (Can't remember the name right now)
I believe I know where she brought them home from and I've alerted all the parents.
 
Heat will work. It'll be easier since it's summer. Turn the heat on in the house, and go away for a few days.

edit:
and now you know used mattresses aren't a bargain at any price :^P
 
lemongrass oil will kill live ones

the steamer is for baseboards/cracks/crevices/furniture where they hide/lay eggs

DE...not immediate but...Once it makes contact with the bed bug, it'll be dead in about 24 to 48 hours. Even after the adult bed bugs are dead, there are still eggs lingering around as well – these typically take around 6 to 10 days to hatch and come looking for blood so they'll also have to make contact with the DE.

harris traps along the walls

drying clothes for 60+min supposedly works

what state?
 
IIRC if you use high percentage isopropyl alcohol, it also works. Put a ton in a spray bottle and get all the seams of the mattress that could be possibly storing the buggers.
 
deadlyapp said:
IIRC if you use high percentage isopropyl alcohol, it also works. Put a ton in a spray bottle and get all the seams of the mattress that could be possibly storing the buggers.
Click to expand...
Yes. But studies shown that the contact needs to be a very high concentration; beyond store level. Then it's very effective but very dangerous to human and animal health too.
Iron Woode said:
has anyone posted yet to call an exterminator?
Call an exterminator.
Click to expand...
Anecdotally: Tons of money, just as effective as self-help.
UsandThem said:
I saw this at Lowes the other day when I was there.
I don't know how well it works (I've never used it), but it seems to have good reviews.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hot-Shot-1-Count-Bed-Bug-Killer/1000321845
Click to expand...
Have it. Used two gallons so far.
KeithP said:
You might want to look into where they came from. If your daughter picked them up from a friend's house then anything you do to eradicate them will be temporary at best.
-KeithP
Click to expand...
I know. That's why I've alerted other parents too and put my daughter on lock-down.

Gentrol - The other chemical I'm using. 10 bottles Hydroprene 9% concentrate.
 
ctbaars said:
Yes. But studies shown that the contact needs to be a very high concentration; beyond store level. Then it's very effective but very dangerous to human and animal health too.
Anecdotally: Tons of money, just as effective as self-help.
Click to expand...
I have had them and an exterminator got rid of them.

Takes 2 treatments. The second is after 2 weeks incase any remaining eggs have hatched.

Here's my thread about them.
 
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We had them, they came from the apartment upstairs. Exit one sofa, 2 beds & frames, tons of books etc. Add in the cost of hot water washing & drying every cloth item in the house as well as tossing pillows,sheets, mattress pads, comforters & hiring a pro & it cost a cool 5K to get rid of them.

Don’t try to save the beds, just don’t or headboards, footboards, have the pro check dressers and nightstands as well as all living room furniture etc.

This is going to be a nightmare but if you do it right you only have to do it once.

I bought memory foam beds with metal frame legs, we purchased sturdy bed bug covers to put over the new mattresses & put each bed leg in a special, dish like bed bug most dusted with a special powder to make sure they couldn’t get into the new beds, a thin coat of Vaseline on the bed legs.

I checked those moats every day for like 3 months...We got rid of them because we hired a pro & also got rid of infested furniture. We slashed the furniture, marked it bedbugs & paid to get rid of it.

Our willingness to get rid of infested furniture was one reason we were successful in getting rid of them. Don’t do what our former landlord did..he went and bought bug bombs & basically just drove them downstairs to us.
 
Lots of the flea killer stuff is supposed to be usefel also for bedbugs

We had good luck with frontline home spray for killing the flea eggs when we adopted a shelter cat that had fleas.
Not sure if it would work for bedbugs, but, maybe worth looking into/researching.
 
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