Kitchen Crafts 'n' More

Monday, April 23, 2007 How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs - Readers Questions

After a recent question about bed bugs from a reader, Toni sent in this fabulous email to me...hope anyone with a problem with bed bugs will find it helpful. :) Big thanks to you Toni!

For the reader that inquired on how to get rid of bed bugs...

When my son and I moved to the apartment complex this past June, a couple of months later in the units down the end from us, was a bed bug epidemic. Talking with professionals, along with the bitten hosts, we learned this:

Bedbugs are very hardy and live a long time. Mattresses ALONG with furniture must be discarded. Bedbugs can even live hidden well in your dressers. They will go to great lengths for food so whereever you are sleeping they will find you which means including your couch.
Sadly this is a very expensive pest to have. The residents not only threw away mostly all of their furniture (inspite of spraying as the bedbugs can hide) but it cost them a fortune to wash EVERY single article of clothing and bedding in the household. Bedbugs will also feed on your furry friends and can be deadly if you have small enough creatures not able to stand their terrible bites. The residents (4 units were infested) were so badly bitten including one of the families 14 month old daughter (that in itself would have had me gone).

As a precaution, I bought clear caulk and closed up as many gaps as I could in the apt. I also put protective foam covers under all the light switches as supposingly these pests live well in and around electrical areas ( which includes your telephone,tv and etc)

A reputable airtight mattress cover was put on the mattress along with a similiar cover for the pillow.

This truly stressed me out but fortunately none of our units on this end ever had a problem. I also went to Home Depot and bought a gallon of no scent bugspray that stated it was for use against bedbugs as well (inspite of being against this stuff but was against having BB's even more)I am being honest and truthful with my information here as it came first hand. I did tons of research and lost lots of sleep.

People generally think that bedbugs come from filth. Even your most posh hotels can have them and you can also get them from something that someone else has that have them.

I wish you all the best

Hugs,
Toni~

Labels: bed bugs, bugs, helpful hints, how to, infestations, insects, mattresses, readers help, readers tips, vermin