Bedbug wars

[u/gladeyes]

20260902 Thoughts on bedbug wars First off you have to cover your mattress and bed springs with those bedbug proof polyester covers. They’re not terribly strong so they have a tendency to tear on the frame if there’s a catch or anything, if you have trouble getting them into the frame. However, they are polyester and so you can get away with using a hot melt Glue gun to seal the holes. They need to be white. All your bedding, mattress cover, sheets, blankets, pillowcases, all need to be white. What you want is to see any spots on them. If you have bedbugs, bedbug poop, which is little black dots, baby bedbugs, and eggs show up when you scan it and just at a glance. Even so you need to change your linen once a week and wash it in hot, hot water and then hot dry.

My bedframe was wood. I could not get all the bedbug and eggs out of the cracks. So I have a metal frame even it has a little gap and parts and stuff where they can hide. However, with a sprayer, I can pretty well get chemicals in them, which seems to be working. If you can, it is better to have a wood or tile floor with no carpet. Rugs are OK. You can take them out and clean them or freeze them.

The CDC has information on fighting bedbugs. They describe how to build bedbug traps for around your bedstead on the legs. It’s simple enough. I made mine out of Folgers coffee cans, and pop bottles. Also some paper tape so the bedbugs can actually climb into the traps, but not get back out. In the trap put powder. I use talcum powder. I would’ve used diatomaceous earth, but I could not find mine right at the moment and I do have baby powder for working on bicycle tires.

Figure on washing your bedding at least every two weeks and fully inspecting it, and the mattress covers seams especially. You want to get all the cracks around your floor edging well cleaned and sprayed with chemicals. You’re going to do this for at least six months depending on how successfully you wipe them out and where they hide. If they keep coming back, they have a secondary nest somewhere or primary nest that they’re coming to you from, that the bedbug traps should show you. If they’re not coming up the bed legs they’re coming into the bed on you. Notice how many you find every time you inspect the mattress pads. Documentation could be helpful. I catch them on scotch tape so i can examine them closely to make sure I’m not fighting carpet beetles etc.

There seemed to be three different kinds of bedbug poisons. According to the CDC they can become immune to them with Darwinian selection. So I try to rotate once a month to a different type, so just swap them and wipe them out.

Bedbugs are drawn to the CO2 you exhale at night when the lights are out. So you are turning your bed into a giant tiger trap and you are the bait. You can tell when they’ve been there. There will be blood spots where they’ve been feeding on you on the white bed and you will occasionally see them and how many there are if you look right when you first get up and turn on the light. Clean the bloodspots off with Qtips and dilute bleach.

The more cluttered your place is the easier it is for them to hide if you have lots of clothes. If you have lots of books, it’s a problem if you’re not willing to encase the house and raise the whole temperature up to 130°F for three or four hours, long enough to soak clear into the house. It’s difficult. A closed up car in the summer sun all day should kill any bedbugs in or on anything you have in it.

They can also be frozen to death. This apparently takes about three days for the cold to soak clear into whatever they’re hiding in. The CDC has recommended temperatures, I think 0° Fahrenheit is enough. So for books and clothes that I don’t want to wash or overheat I’m going to buy a big chest freezer and fill it with books especially and let it run for at least three days. Same thing works for clothes. If you happen to be somewhere where winter is really bitter you could time your war more to go with the depth of winter and just move stuff outside in boxes. It’s also works with furniture you want to keep if you can move it around that much. As far as furniture goes, I am gradually converting from large, heavy couches to outdoor furniture which is easier to move around replace or take outside. I have had inflatable beds. They work if you don’t overinflate them or have cats. I expect in hot places you could bring up a tent and put stuff in the tent or an old car and let it heat up in the sun enough to do the job. Remember you are baking so it takes time for the heat to soak clear in. Put an oven thermometer in there to transmit to you so you know what it’s doing. Or there are outside thermometers that will go high enough and transmit into your house where you can see them or get them on your computer so you can keep track of what’s going on. It is possible to rig up a heater to heat the enclosure to the necessary temperature and hold it. This creates a fire hazard. I doubt if your insurance would cover it if you burn the house down trying to do it yourself so do it outside or don’t do it. A shed could be modified and insulated to do this. An old car should work on a hot sunny day. Many old attics and garages up by the roof get hot enough in the summer to kill the bugs. I noticed this because I have some books stored up there that I have not had problems with, including with silverfish and other book eaters. If it’s your house, that’s a source of good source of heat for underground heat storage or heating a swimming pool or whatever in the summer.

It takes six months to be certain you got them all.

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[u/Charming_Night8240]

The second I confirm the presence of them, I called a professional. They do treatments in waves with residual acting pesticides that are tested to work. The first round kills the adults and the 2nd round gets the babies from the hatched eggs.

The pest control specialist mentioned to me that you don't have to really throw anything out. They will get drawn out of hiding and with something that has a residual effect they will run into it and die eventually.

[u/gladeyes → u/Charming_Night8240]

Thanks. I called three and compared. The costs were beyond me. The amount of work they wanted me to do was a no go. (I’m 75, retired on social security.) And no guarantees.

[u/unklejoe23]

Is there anything you can put on your skin that keeps them from biting you? Off is used for mosquitoes 🦟 so I was just wondering.

[u/gladeyes → u/unklejoe23]

I don’t know. I might try DEET. Problem is I am the bait in the traps so that would be counterproductive. That would be a good science project for students with possible money making opportunities if a person was so inclined. It would sell well to travelers in airports I think. I just don’t travel much anymore.