Realistic expectations with DIY bed bugs

Bed bugs are a stressful pest to deal with, they invade the most personal space a person can have, the bedroom. These pest force people into other rooms of the home, buying new furniture or using extreme DIY treatments in hopes that they can deal with these pests on their own, because lets face it, a bed bug treatment is EXPENSIVE. Most people cannot afford the price of professional treatment so they feel helpless, stressed, anxious, worried and just plain miserable from the lack of sleep and the skin irritation from the bites and become desperate. But if you want to combat them in the early stages here is some key info: know the source of the infestation! If the source is unknown, you may never get rid of them, EVER! Even as a provider I have to drag it out of people how they think they had managed to get in. You can do all this and get re-infested all over again if the source is not found.

First, lets be realistic, going on a forum or a "blog" from a person who is NOT an entomologist or a REPUTABLE pest control company, is like asking a 5 year old how to do it. Common sense! Why take advice from a complete stranger you never met, know or even seen, but your trusting this person with advice on using chemicals to treat YOUR home that houses you, your kids and pets? This person has no degree in the biology of insects nor do they have a license to handle these chemicals in a safe manner. But since it "worked" for them then it has to work for you? WRONG!!

Second is the alternative or non chemical treatments that the same forums taught. Again, same rules apply as above.

My issue here is not that DIY in bed bugs is being done, but it is being done WRONG and with way to much misinformation. Do your home work on your "enemy" really do your home work. The reason exterminators charge as they do (at least those of us with ethics and morals) is because its TIME consuming and requires you to know your enemy which requires quite a bit of knowledge and equipment. Use entomologist sites or University of Entomology sites to find your information. Do not use blogging sites ( this is a blog, ironic, right?) or other pest control sites, even if it is the name brand ones, these carry way to much misinformation. I am going to give you a way to DIY bed bugs and hope you have success, if you do not, you are past the stage of DIY and NEED a professional. If it is to that point we will talk more on that later. Okay I want to discuss some DIY junk I have seen on the internet and give you the power of knowledge against your little enemy. Boric acid, borax, DE, rubbing alcohol, apple cider vinegar and so on are some of the things I have seen on top of name brand chemicals that these people in forums and bloggers are telling others is tried and true. Most all I have mentioned above will do NOTHING for you.

COMMON MISTAKES:

1) Throwing out your stuff........STOP IT! Put it down, walk away. With the amount of money spent buying all new stuff you could have hired a professional! Not to mention, the new stuff is going to get infested to because the root of the problem was not dealt with.

2) Cleaning everything........Stop now.

3) Freak out.

4) Using WAY to much of anything your applying to kill the bed bugs. Less is more. Trust me. I like to use the analogy (in order for you to understand), imagine someone just cleaned a room with really dirty mop water that is more bleach then water. What happens when you walk into that room? You smell it, cover your face, grimace, maybe gag and leave ASAP. With any bug the same thing happens, you put down to much of anything and they will sense it, grimace and leave (not the kind of leaving your looking for).

5) Bed Bug Bombs or Foggers.......sigh.........sigh........ if you buy these you basically want the problem to stay and NOT leave. All it is doing is possibly killing any that might be in its effective path, but as soon as it is set off they sense it before it has time to kill them and they go deeper and hide to avoid it. Deeper in the walls, mattress, box springs, couches and so on. As an exterminator, I cannot even treat your home if you set one of these off in the last 3-6 months. That is how much worse you just made this pest issue.

6) Trusting information from un-trusted sources.

7) Using products you think are non chemical and are safe when in reality, they can be more harmful and toxic. Take food grade DE for example: if used CORRECTLY, it is effective over time. But the issue i'm seeing is that people are just throwing this stuff all over their carpets, beds, couches and the like. Again, do YOUR HOME WORK. Food grade DE is toxic to mammals when inhaled, it causes respiratory issues when airborne. Which it will be the way it is currently being used.

8) Saturating everything in alcohol and apple cider vinegar. This does not accomplish much either, you may get some adult population knock down but in a few weeks or even as little as a few days, bam, your getting eatin' on again. Plus, the amount your using pushes them deeper like foggers and it can also cause serious skin irritation to you and your family. You may even mistake it as bed bug activity and it is really the products you used thinking they were safe. Well they were until you used to much of it which then turned something innocent into something toxic.

Tell me then genius blogger/exterminator, what am I supposed to do?

The following should be done in the rooms that are considered living areas such as: bedrooms, living room, offices or lounging areas and game rooms. No bathrooms, no kitchens. You can do the chemical part in the laundry room but it should not be needed. If you are seeing them in the bath or kitchen, stop now and call an exterminator!!!! Your wasting your time, your infestation can not be done with any DIY!

1) Get some QUALITY slip covers (they should cost a minimum of $50 each to be worth anything) and put them on all the mattresses, box springs, futons and even the mattress in the pull out couch; do them all at the same time. Even if a room does not have a bed bug issue, put one on it! This keeps the bed bugs that are infesting on these (adults, instars and eggs) trapped inside. Leave them on for one year. If one should start to rip or come apart, you bought a cheap one, get a better one and throw it over the one that is on there. DO NOT take the ripped or torn one off. Take it off and you unleash a bag of piranha that are VERY hungry and your a filet.

2) Caulk all holes in the baseboards/floor boards all the way around the room. Fix any cracks or holes in the walls. Make sure the window sills (on the inside) are caulked on top, sides and bottom. Leave no hole open.

3) Steam clean the rugs (under beds especially), if you do this your self, go very slow. heat is the most effective killer of bed bugs. But it must stay on them long enough to kill them and it will kill: eggs, instars and adults. Launder all the bedding on high heat for an hour and if a dresser is next to the bed: high heat all the clothes in it. You will also need to steam clean the couches and lounging chairs paying close attention to seems and again going stupid slow.

4) Remove all the outlets and get a cheap plastic duster, a respirator (face protector, like the ones doctors use, the cloth ones are fine) and fill the duster with Cimexa dust. Shake well and apply into the metal outlet box. enough but not to much. While your there make sure the sheet rock and the metal outlet box has no gaps, if so caulk the gaps. Put the socket covers back on. You will need to do this on all the outlets in the room. In all rooms stated above.

5) Next you want a hand held sprayer, you can get them cheap at any store in the home and garden area. You will mix the Cimexa dust with water per instructions on the label. Shake very well before each use. You will apply a LIGHT mist along the baseboards of the rooms that are affected and adjoining rooms. Apply light barriers on bed frame (remove mattress and box spring, with encasement on them of course), tip couches and chairs upright and apply a light spay to inside of those pieces of furniture as well.

6) Wait two weeks and repeat the spraying of base boards, couches, chairs and bed frames. Slowly they should start to become eradicated.

This plan only works on those dedicated to it and the infestation is in the very early stages. This is not enough for severe infestation and even moderate ones will not respond in your favor. If after a few months you still have the issue then you could either need a pro, you have not nailed down the entry source or your not sticking to the routine, skipped a step or bought a different product. There are many variables as to why the infestation could still be present. But do keep in mind it does take time to eliminate your enemy, you cannot get rid of them overnight. If you did your homework you will know this.

Those are unrealistic expectations even for a pest control company, 100% kill rate on the first treatment is RARE. More in next blog post on that one.

#bedbugs #Mattresses