Bed Bug Eradication, Do it Yourself

Bed Bug Eradication

You can do this, I did!  

Several disclaimers first and foremost:  Do NOT try this if you do not have a washer and dryer.  Do NOT try this unless you are completely dedicated to the eradication of these pests in your home.  Do NOT try this unless you have two weeks to dedicate full days to this project.  If you do not have these three elements, call a professional immediately. See full disclaimer at the bottom of this writing. 

What You Will Need

Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade)        a 4lb bag should do.  We found ours at Ace Hardware

91% Rubbing Alcohol                            over 2 weeks I used about 2 gallons but I'm rather obcessive

Washer and Dryer                                  Prepare yourself for next months Utility bill 

Steamer                                                 Bought my hand steamer at Wal Mart for about $40

Trash Bags                                             I used 2 colors one for infected the other for sterilized 

Duct Tape

Bleach                                                    I used 3 gallons

Borax                                                     I used 20 Mule Team Borax laundry detergent used 2 boxes

Double sided carpet Tape                       a 45' roll was plenty for our needs

Old plastic containers                              Any will do, we used sour cream containers

Bed Bug shields for any mattress and box spring being kept, again Wal Mart is where we purchased.

Depending on how many Bed Bug shields are needed, the total cost of this should be less than $150 over the 2 week period (we only had one bed to cover).

This first week will be the hardest and most time consuming but you can do this if you are determined to save yourself thousands of $$$$$.  Can you put up with a couple of weeks of knowing that YOU are the bait as you sleep?  Knowingly or unknowingly you have been putting up with them long enough for them to set up a colony so what is two more weeks, really?   By understanding this you can monitor how well your eradication program is coming along.  Bed Bugs are attracted to Carbon Dioxide exhaled during our deepest sleep and body warmth (preferred feeding time 3am - 5am).  

You will most probably not even know they are there at first because they inject a chemical that numbs the area they are biting.  Try not to feel shame as these creatures have invaded our space in epidemic proportions and are master hitch hikers.  This has nothing at all to do with your housekeeping skills, even 4 star hotels have them with daily housekeeping in each room. Getting Bed Bugs is out of your control, keeping them is completely within your control.  Be sure to stop any incoming or outgoing traffic from your home for the next 2 weeks except where absolutely necessary. 

Some folks will take a marker and mark every spot on themselves including spots that look like heat rash or pimples (this is how the bites affected me personally so I did not recognize the signs until I actually saw one).  If you choose to do this it will be easy to inspect each morning for new spots letting you know if you were visited during your sleep or not. 

After you gather together the necessary weapons, put the alcohol in a spray bottle and be ready because this is your immediate, contact killer and it kills within 10 seconds of being sprayed.  Open a window in the room to prevent breathing in any more of the fumes than necessary.  Put your D.E into a bottle that can be squeezed to dust your areas, we used a picnic type catsup container, it worked perfectly but any bottle that can be squished to cause the dust to come out where you want it is good.  You want the dust to come out with some force as it needs to go into all cracks as large or larger than the width of a papers edge. 

Spoon your D.E. into its whoosh container and take it along with the steamer to the first room you will aggressively attack.  This will be a very aggressive task and excellent for ridding yourself of any (if not all) hostility or frustration toward anything going on in your life not exclusive to your current bug issue.  This do it yourself project just happens to be the best therapy of my entire life.  Who would have thought the $$$ saved in just therapy alone? 

Now bring in the trash bags and duct tape.

Day ONE... its on!!!

This is going to get messy.

Ok, you are ready but not for your room quite yet.  I want you to take your D.E. and whoosh it under and around your washer/dryer and the room in which these are held.  Hitchhikers can be hiding in the smallest of spots and we do not want to accidentally infect a clean room.   D.E. kills by drying out the little unwanted guests, it "sticks" to their fine little hairy bodies then in the next 4 to 5 hours they are toast and all you have to do is get it somewhere that they will walk into it.

Take your whoosh bottle of DE and go completely around your room including the door opening setting up a containment area.  Anything trying to escape should walk through this and DIE in the next few hours.  Generally these FAST moving creatures are slowest during the day light or when fully fed.  When they are hungry through be prepared they can move at lightening speed toward an unsuspecting target using stealth maneuvers second to no other.  

Have your spray bottle of Alcohol at the ready because anything moving (that is not a mammal or pet) gets sprayed immediately.  You may at this point receive an emotional release of adrenaline creating a type of euphoria which will help spur you onward to KILL KILL KILL.   

By now you have determined if the bed is worth saving or not.  If it is not lift it, do not set it down anywhere and take it directly out of the house as far away as you can to await a trash pick up.  Sometime today you will need to take plastic out there and wrap it tightly because no trash service will pick it up unwrapped.  You could also wrap it BEFORE taking out outside of the containment room (I just had to get ours out RIGHT NOW).  Be sure to place large signs on it that it is Bug Infected then IF someone decides to pick it up to take it home, you can rest comfortably knowing they were warned.  If you have taken this as the perfect opportunity to buy a new mattress and box springs (sometimes we just need an excuse) the new items should come wrapped and you can use that wrapping, if not cut up trash bags that have been taped together will do.  DO NOT put an uninfected mattress or box springs into your infected room until you are CERTAIN the situation is contained. 

If you are going to 'Save' the mattress and box springs, apply a liberal coating of D.E. to the top then slowly insert your mattress/box springs into the sleeve.  I duct taped the zipper portion just as additional insurance.  Your mattress/box springs will need to stay in the sleeve for at least a year but I am guessing that with the use of D.E. everything will be dead within 6 months as they try to come to the surface (their normal pathway) to feed.  

Bed Bugs feed every 2 to 4 days and can not "molt" without feeding.  What this means is that a baby bed bug must feed to get to stage 2 of its life and it takes 5 stages to become a breeding adult.  It takes about a week for an egg to hatch so after getting the breeders we are waiting out the hatchlings (which is why this takes so long).   You will know how long it has been since the pest has last fed by its color.  Celebrate anything that is lighter than blood red or mahogany.  It means they have not fed in a while.  They are born a white or straw color. 

Place all washable items in the "infected" trash bags.  I did bedding first then the clothing we would need for the week and worked the laundry from most needed to rarely used.  This can be done over the next couple of weeks for the rarely used items but do NOT let them out of your room outside of a trash bag because this is your contained area. 

Here is the rules about killing Bed Bugs AND Eggs.  To kill both they must be heated to over 120 degrees for a minimum of 20 minutes (the time has varied on the web so I just set my dryer for the max setting and let her rip for about 45 minutes).  A blast from your steamer will also kill so with these two facts firmly under your belt be assured that YOU CAN DO THIS.  The eggs look like a grain of salt with a tiny little eye.  Each egg produces ONE off spring and each adult can lay (the numbers vary greatly on the web) from 1 to 12 eggs per day with the agreed upon number of 5 being an average.  The eggs can be deposited anywhere with a sticky substance to make them glue where ever the Lady Bed Bug has decided to put them and often are found in clusters of up to 50 but as often just a few or even ONE. 

Take your curtains off the walls along with your bedding and wash them in the highest temperature you can.  I wanted to be certain that it killed so leaving the lid of the washer UP they sat there until I was ready to finish the cycle.  By leaving the lid of the washer up, YOU can control how long your items sit in that steaming HOT water.  Liberally bleach any items that you do not care what color they end up being.  After the infestation is eradicated treat yourself to a nice shopping trip with the money you just saved. 

Most dry clean only items can be put in the dryer alone so rest assured that you will not be required to find a new dry cleaner soon.  IF you do need to dry clean any items, call ahead to be certain they will take the items and how they should be packaged for delivery.  Everyone knows how infectious these things are and many will not take items from a KNOWN infected dwelling.  

Take off the wall plates around electrical sockets and light switches, swoosh in D.E. then replace.

Pull all the dressers apart checking for nests.  Steam each crack and crevice of the dresser then place D.E. in the bottom of the drawer, cover with a liner (I used newspaper) and put the now sanitized dresser back in place ready for sanitized clothing to be placed inside of it.  If you find a nest in a dresser and want to keep the dresser, Alcohol the piss out of it, wait until that dries, steam it then vacuum.  Inspect it carefully for any signs of eggs, use a cleaning brush to get into cracks and crevices. 

There is a nest or two somewhere in the room.  Hopefully it is not under the carpet or floor boards.  Even if it is under the carpet or floor boards, you are going to apply enough D.E. to get them as they come out to feed.  If you have carpet, whoosh D.E. into the carpet then use a broom to get it into the fibers.  If you decide to vacuum leave your vacuum in the infected room for the remainder of your 3 weeks initial kill.   Check closely any place under your bed they can hide, open it and if it is not essential, put it in a trash bag, seal it then toss it.  If it is essential or you are just warped and twisted like I am fill the bathtub with hot water, plug in your steamer and then watch as these scourge die in front of your very eyes.  This can be quite therapeutic. 

Take your containers, put D.E. in the bottom then set everything that has legs into the container.  No it isn't pretty but this is WAR.  If your bed does not have legs swoosh D.E. around the entire bed and under it.  You want to catch anything that might crawl into your bed, uninvited, on its way to you.  Take your double sided tape and run a circle around each leg above your containers, if no legs then you will want to tape around the entire bed.  The bugs using the bed as a ladder will get stuck to this tape and never make it to you.  Do NOT Alcohol or D.E them in the morning because you will weaken the tape and need to replace it.  They will die, no worries (if they are not already dead) because they walked through your D.E. to get to you.  

When you replace your curtains, D.E. the top of them.  Our drapes touch the floor and they were a favorite place for the bugs unable to climb into our bed to try to climb.  Anything touching the floor will be climbed up on as these bugs are use to climbing UP to get to YOU, their next meal. 

Ok now you are most probably EXHAUSTED and itching every where.  While you have been tearing things apart the dust mites that you did not know were there became quite agitated.  Time for your bath.

Bathe yourself in a full tub of water, 1 cup of bleach to 2 cups of borax.  Soak for 15 minutes fully submerged.  This fight is going to be ugly and you need to stay as sane as you possibly can for it.  Sleeping thinking about these things is not going to be easy until you inspect your sheets and find no evidence they have visited during the night.   As this initial time transpires, you may want to soak daily in this solution.  Be aware though, the D.E. you are being exposed to, the bleach and the borax WILL dry out your skin so lotion yourself liberally daily.  

If you are a die hard (like me or just ewwwww enough said) set your alarm for 4am and begin doing early morning bed checks.  If you see ANYTHING crawling, squish it immediately, dose those sheets in a nice layer of alcohol, put them in your infected bag and replace with a fresh sanitized set of sheets then try to sleep if you can.  You are going to need your rest for this fight.  In the morning you will determine how the little buggers breached your bug free barrier and repair it.  One word of advice, sleep naked!  You do not want to a hitchhiker to join you within the confines of the "safe zone". 

Day 2 through the next 2 weeks will be similar to Day 1 except that you have already torn apart every possible place they can be hiding and they are dying, mark my words they are dying.  

If you have pets, make certain that they are protected because Bed Bugs prefer human blood but if they can not get it, they will get it from any other possible place.  We only have dogs as pets, they were given a fresh bath and the next day I applied D.E. to them directly (now vigilant to anything small moving I saw a flea) which will kill any type of bug trying to get to them.  Try to keep them from inhaling the dust as much as possible and do not do their face as we don't want this stuff in anyone's eyes.  Pets bedding should be sanitized then D.E. placed around their area if they are confined (crated) during the day or night. Check their area every couple of days for any sign of infection.  Most probably, you have contained them within the bed rooms on day one.  

I have read that D.E. is NOT safe on ALL household pets so be certain to do your homework BEFORE giving your pets a D.E. Dusting.  If still uncertain after looking at the internet, call your vet or the manufacture of your D.E. before using on your pets. 

If you have mice (I'm still trying to figure this one out) get rid of them.  Bed Bugs will (in a pinch) make their homes in the mice beds to feed off of them.  Even though mice eat bugs, the bugs can reproduce faster than the mice can find and eat them.   

You may vacuum and dust the infected areas of your home every couple of days but be certain that the vacuum you use is contained in the war zone and use a second machine for uninfected areas.  Be certain to reapply the D.E. to any and all areas which have had their dust vacuumed up.  I just opted to leave it as it is until week 3. Yes it is a HORRIBLE mess BUT because I am not allowing anyone into my home, they will never know.  I also get a very sick, twisted and perverted pleasure of seeing their little dried up corpses.  

Adult Bed Bugs can live up to a year without feeding.  When the infestation is gone make certain to reapply D.E. around your carpet edges or under the molding edge monthly, keep your containers on legs of furniture and check that dust also monthly.  Chances are the Bugs have gotten hungry and knowing food was close tried to get to you BUT do you really want to go through this again within the year?  I for one do not want to do this again in my entire life time but if I need to, I know, now, how to do it.  If you see ANYTHING moving that looks even remotely close to a bed bug after the first 3 weeks, call in a professional to finish what you started and they will take care of it all from there. 

BIG DISCLAIMER:  I am not a medical or bug professional, any and all of the above are from personal experience.  If you are allergic to any of the above items that we used do not even try this... call a professional and they will take care of it from there.  I will not be held liable for any damages of any kind due to anyone deciding (of your own free will) to get rid of your Bed Bugs in the same manner as we did.  Everything you do is AT YOUR OWN RISK and use some common sense.  

That being said, happy hunting and I know you can do this..... we did. 

6/24/2013