In my previous email, I have tried to list out all the things we did. All I can say is, we are not getting these parasites biting us in the night, not that we have gotten this in total control yet. That might be a good start.
We are clearing up clutter, thrown away a bunch of stuff - and trying to be very systemic in going about. Based on the horror stories I have read, we have not seen the end of these bugs....all we can do is to be pro-active and instead of a feeling of hopelessness, try to go with a killer attitude and hopefully we can end up victorious (I know, easy to say, hard to do).
But I remember the agitated state of mind we were in when we first discovered
it, but we are feeling more in control after making a little progress. If we outsource this to a PCO, we will never know how to deal with this, and given the state of the world, these buggers have made a huge come back and it is definitely not the last we will see of them in the next few years. Might as well learn to deal with them and figure out for ourselves what works and what does not work. I was very tempted to throw $$ at these over zealous PCOs, but I was hesitant because they don't offer any warranty for their work and secondly, was not sure how harmful the chemicals they use will turn out to be. After all the PCOs are not living in my home, but I will have to bear the long term consequences of whatever they apply inside my bedrooms.
Thus, empowering myself to take responsibility and act was the only way out.
OTHER THOUGHTS and suggestions.
- Do not every buy used furniture or mattresses.
- If you are coming back from a vacation - laundry everything. Vacuum the suitcase.
- Be wary - very wary. Inspect bedding at hotels before you sleep. keep your suitcase on a hard surface, like a table, to avoid infestation. Do not unpack.
- Any area of the house where you spend significant time at - get that area inspected minutely. They are known to sit inside the computers you use. Guerilla warfare at its finest.
- Getting a gecko as a pet? May not work very well.
- Try to increase your room temperature to 120 degrees or open up the windows (if you live in winter land) to let these bugs freeze their butts. This is difficult unless you rope in the professionals.
- Bounce on your beds to dislodge them. They are slow moving and will take all night to come back up. Will work only in a hotel room if you don't have other choices. Worth a try.
- Bed bug bombs don't seem to work. The bed bugs have this weird survival instinct and will scatter at the first sign of trouble. They will come back very angry - be very careful.
- Get an iron bed. Bed bugs can climb shiny surfaces where they can get even the slightest grip.
- Visiting bookstore or coffee shop with those inviting padded chairs - choose a plastic one.
- Purchase an oil burner. Bed bugs can't stand the smell of the burning oil, but for humans it's very easy to select a scent you find pleasant.
- Paint furniture with turpentine - this is very drastic. Or use kerosene.
- Try them all - steaming, spraying Rest Easy, sprinkling of food grade diatomaceous earth, spackling, laundry, black sealed garbage bags in the sun
- Throw away your wooden frame / bed. Wrap them up before you drag them out otherwise you are spreading infestation. Or spray them prior to dragging the furniture. Do not leave them curbside otherwise you are giving this trouble to someone else and that is bad karma.
- There are a few sprays available that seem to work and are non-toxic like BedBug Terminator by Kleen-Free.
- Purchase BT and spray - Many of the transgenic crops being planted in American corn and cotton fields are supposed to give plants do-it-yourself resistance to insects. This trick is done by inserting a gene that makes a protein that injures the gut of chewing insects. The protein, normally made by a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, does not affect mammals, fish, or the beneficial insects that eat crop pests. The many advantages of Bt's crystalline proteins have made the material a mainstay of organic agriculture and the largest-selling biological insect control. Supposed to work well with bed bugs. Give it a try.
- Select furniture and headboards that have very few cracks and crevices for bedbugs to hide.
- Run a bead of caulk around the wall plates, and plug each one with a child safety outlet cover, just in case.
- Keep a LINT-REMOVER. Set a daily alarm for 2am and you would be able to catch them with the lint remover.
- Cryonite spray is the new thing - low temperature CO2 to freeze the heck out of these bugs
-Tip to know if you have bed bugs: check the corner of your fitted sheets. If there are bed bugs you will see small red stains/ pale red/ in the corner.
-bedbugs CANNOT crawl up smooth surfaces like glass or stainless steel, so major appliances are an obstacle to them, walls and furniture ARE NOT. Another obstacle to them is petroleum jelly (one of Pronto's ingredients is a petroleum product). Smearing the legs of tables and chairs with petrolatum creates a
barrier which they don't like and have difficulty crossing. Buggers are repuled by petroleum jelly.
- Sevin. That stuff will kill anything and did. Is it toxic…..yeah. use it carefully or not use it at all.
- Vacuum everything, inside and out, wash all the bedding, then spread diatomaceous earth at floorboards, under the bed, and between the mattress and the box spring. DE is not exactly non toxic and DO NOT INHALE.
- A tablespoon of tea tree oil in a pint-sized spray bottle of water works wonders! And it's a non-toxic, safe solution.
- The best remedy is a great attention to detail (bedbugger.com has lots of good advice. No cutting corners, only you will pay
- Put on clean linens with pale colors such as grey, blue, green, yellow (so you can see blood or other stains more easily).
-If you have a wood bed frame and throwing is not an option, take it completely apart, if you can, and wash it down (every inch) with Murphy's Oil Soap. Spray the Murphy's on and wipe it off.
Don't just spray it on a rag and wipe. The Murphy's will kill bed bugs on contact, if you douse them. I don't know what a light spray will do.
-Captain's beds (with drawers underneath a wooden platform) can be a bed bug nightmare. Consider destroying and carefully removing them. Otherwise, every piece will need to be disassembled, cleaned and sprayed with pesticide (by a PCO). A PCO who knows bed bugs will be able to advise about which items you should discard and which can be treated successfully.
This was news in San Francisco over a year ago. As per SF Chronicle - laundromats were being besieged by people bringing in large amounts of bed linens to be dried (not washed - only dried).
This is a great link below - read through the 198 comments. It is certainly a major threat - they have made a *huuuuge* comeback after a few decades - we will eradicate it completely this time around.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/bedbugs-itch-itch-scratch-scra
tch/?apage=1
Check out how many recent news items have cropped up recently
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22bed+bugs%22
Interesting research at Ohio State
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090602133555.htm
NY State IPM's bed bug site:
http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/whats_bugging_you/bed_bugs/default.asp
Test whether your skin lesions are due to bedbugs as opposed to other bites or human infestations such as scabies. A good reference for the appearance of the bedbug lesions on the skin can be found at:
http://www.visualdxhealth.com/adult/bedbugBite.htm
- bedbugger.com and read FAQs.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/bedbugger/
http://blogafornia.blogspot.com/
Link
here a few links to some products worth considering
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Earthworkshealth__W0QQ_armrsZ1
http://allersac.com/
http://www.bugzip.com/
http://www.beyondbeds.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=138
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753568&utm_source=googlepro
duct&utm_campaign=2753568&utm_medium=cse&mr:trackingCode=80CC2C64-C881-DE11-B712
-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA
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