Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The first thing you must realize when you learn you've got bed bugs is that you don't have a battle on your hands - you're in a FULL BLOWN WAR! Bed bugs are very tenacious insects and definitely climb the learning curve. You have to annihilate them or they'll come back. This involves hard work and commitment; but fortunately, once you get rid of them they're loathe to return. Diatomaceous earth will do the job - but if you hope to succeed you must be smarter and more persistent than the bed bugs. I first understood we had bed bugs when I saw something like a brown pill bug, but a lot faster, charging at me across the sheets. I squashed it and it exploded in a dime sized blood stain. It was then I realized to my horror that we had bed bugs - and that was the reason for the small red marks on my wife's and my arms and legs. We had what I'd consider a small to moderate infestation: 2-300 bed bugs total (for every full grown adult you see there are about ten smaller ones in various stages of development). We learned some things along the way: 1) Forget about pesticides. PESTICIDES DON'T WORK WITH BED BUGS! Bug spray doesn't work. Bug bombs don't work. Pesticides just drive them into hiding... for a while. 2) Alcohol kills them, but only a few at a time. The survivors scamper off into more remote hiding places. Extreme cold kills them too but has to be applied in such a way that none are missed. Heat kills them VERY well. Bed bugs can't stand temps above 115 F for more than fifteen minutes. Exterminators are now using 200,000 BTU heaters to heat houses, apartments and rooms to 140 F for an hour. Bed bugs can run but they can't hide from heat. However, thermal extermination is expensive and doing an entire house can cost over $5,000. Diatomaceous earth kills them too. It's the cheapest way to get rid of bed bugs - but you have to be thorough, persistent and systematic. DE won't kill them immediately as it's not a pesticide. It takes a couple days to start working - and it will take a while to get them all. 3) You're the bait! Bed bugs love us and take great risks to suck our blood. Many die in the effort. They're most active between the hours of three and four am but they'll change their schedule to whatever yours is if need be. When I discovered we had bed bugs I bug bombed and sprayed them. But it quickly became clear that while they didn't like it, it wasn't killing them. That's when I realized we had a lot bigger problem on our hands than I first thought - our own personal hell. Fortunately for bed bug sufferers the Internet has lots of information about how to fight them. After a day spent studying the problem I came up with a plan: diatomaceous earth, double sided tape - and heat. Diatomaceous earth comes in two grades: pool grade, which is poisonous to people and pets; and FOOD GRADE, which is the stuff you want to use. It's very light and powdery, about like flour. It contains tiny, glass-like shards that work their way into the soft spaces of insect exoskeletons, cutting them up and causing them to dehydrate and die. Bed bugs don't seem to recognize it as a mortal danger and once it gets on them they can't get it off. We dusted diatomaceous earth all around the bed, on the mattresses, underneath the bed and in the bed frame screw holes and any crevices, on the headboard, rails, legs and everywhere else. Then I dusted behind, inside and underneath the bedside tables and dressers, along the baseboards, in all the drawers, etc. Everywhere a bed bug might hide. Trust me, they're very good at hiding and if you make life hard for them around the bed they'll move their bases of operation to other corners of the room and bide their time. We also put plant pot saucers filled with diatomaceous earth under each bed leg. This is real important because once you've defeated the ones hiding in your bed the only way those lurking elsewhere can reach you is by passing through it. As much as possible turn your bed into an island surrounded by an ocean of diatomaceous earth. Use double sided tape around all the bed legs, on the headboard, etc. They won't try to cross it and will in fact turn back around as soon as they encounter it. What you want to do is create choke points that force the little buggers to have to pass through diatomaceous earth in order to get at you. Mattress covers for the top and bottom mattresses. These are very important. Bed bugs like to hide in mattress seams - and in the hidden recesses of box springs. Leave the mattress covers on for a long time too because they can live up to a year without feeding; and check the covers periodically to make sure there aren't any holes or tears they can climb in or out of, because they will definitely find them. Also, if ANYTHING: dust ruffle, sheet, bedspread, etc. still touches the floor or a wall, fix that because bed bugs can and will use it as an avenue to reach you. Lighter colored sheets - to see them better. The nymphs are light tan colored, tiny, and a lot harder to see than the adults - which are 3/16 of an inch long and dark brown. Dark sheets will show up the little ones better. Light sheets will show up the bigger ones. Also, after nibbling on you they poop little black spots. If you see little black spots on your sheets it's a good sign you've got bed bugs. I went with medium light green sheets which worked well as I could see both adults and nymphs and any of their poop spots. Darker sheets can hide their poop spots. Also, it's a good idea to wash your sheets daily until you clear your bed of them because these things lay eggs like crazy. We got everything out from under the bed and put ALL our clothes, bedroom stuff etc. that bed bugs could hide in, into black garbage bags, then sealed them and put them out on the back patio to heat up for a couple hours in the summer Sun. Black garbage bags absorb the Sun's rays and turn the insides into an oven. I measured the temp inside and it was 132 F! If it's cold when you learn you have bed bugs you could probably use a blow dryer on low setting. You just have to get the temp in the bags up to 115 F for at least fifteen minutes. Eggs take longer to kill but they can't survive 115 F for more than an hour. The more heat you create the faster they die. Vacuum your bedroom floor 5-6 times a week until you defeat them all. You want to suck up any that might be crawling around or any eggs that have fallen to the floor. Concentrate on the spaces under and around your bed. If you've got hardwood floors it'll make your job easier as there are fewer places for them to hide and you can see them and signs of them better. If you have a canister vacuum it'll give you a good idea of the extent of the infestation by how many you're killing. Re-apply DE as necessary. I used a paint brush and turkey baster. DE is powdery and floats like dust but it doesn't take much to cover a large area. Some have complained about how dusty it is, but ask yourself this: what would you rather have to deal with, a little dust or bed bugs? Even after all this we were still getting bitten - though much less than before. We found a few hiding between the new mattress covers and killed them. A few days later we were bitten again. Taking the bed apart we found a half inch hole in the box springs cover where it rested against the slats. There were poop stains near it. They'd had found the hole and came out to dine. We sealed it with scotch tape. Then my wife found some crawling up a table lamp cord! I've no doubt they were headed for the sheets that were brushing against the table. I moved both bedside tables a foot away from the bed then dusted the lamp cords and around the electric receptacle boxes (they will use them as hideouts). Even now we still got some bites - though fewer than ever. We took the bed apart again and using a flashlight, magnifying glass and dentist's mirror, searched every nook and cranny. Sure enough, some were hiding in screw holes. We'd already treated the bed frame and screw holes with diatomaceous earth but missed some spots... and that's where they were hiding. I killed these and we put the bed back together. About a week went by without any bites but we were still paranoid and took the bed apart again. Lo and behold two adolescents were hiding in a tiny worm hole in the underside of one of the slats. I killed these and prayed we were finally nearing the end our disgusting problem. But just to be sure we took the bed apart and thoroughly inspected it weekly another four or five times. By now we were familiar with every nook and cranny of our bed. We also checked all possible hidey holes around the bed. All told we spent over a month and a half in our bed bug war. BUT WE WON THE WAR! - and have been bed bug free since September 2011. We didn't think we'd ever get bed bugs but we learned better. They're everywhere now. If you're waking up with small red marks, and/or your sheets start showing little black spots, you need to ACT FAST. At the first sign of an infestation take your bed completely apart and INSPECT EVERY INCH OF IT: mattress, frame, inner box springs, headboard, legs... everything. A flashlight and magnifying glass are helpful here. You may be shocked at how many you find. You can vacuum them up and/or squash them with paper towels. Squashing them is messy but hydrogen peroxide will clean up any blood stains. Toothpicks work well on the ones hiding in crevices and holes. You'll learn to be impressed by how cleverly they hide. Don't go light on the diatomaceous earth either - this is total war. Once you've cleared your bed of them (you'll get most of them within a week) the ball's back in your court. But you can still pick up eggs on your feet and carry them back into the bed - thus the importance of vacuuming religiously. If you go a week without getting bitten it shows you've made good progress, but the war ain't over yet. Many are still lurking around, so you need to keep checking for them. If you go a month without getting bitten you've probably won the war but it's a good idea to leave diatomaceous earth in the plant pot saucers under the bed legs, and along the baseboards too, for several more months - just in case some are hiding out. And inspect your bed a few more times too, if only for peace of mind. I might add that if any of your co-workers, family, friends or visitors report bed bugs at home - or at *their* workplace - immediately buy some diatomaceous earth in anticipation of them showing up at your home. Pre-emptively dust your base boards, especially in the bed rooms, because they use base boards as highways and hideouts. Most of them stick pretty close to the bed but for some reason some go solo and you can find them anywhere in your house. I can only assume that the people who neg diatomaceous earth are less intelligent and/or persistent than bed bugs. Or maybe they're exterminators. Who knows? Diatomaceous earth is a real deal killer for exterminators if it's used properly. The key to defeating bed bugs is to understand you're up against a wily and resourceful adversary who's not going to leave without a fight. A hit and a miss doesn't work with them. The sooner you get started the better because the more there are the harder they are to get rid of. If you decide to go with diatomaceous earth you must learn their habits and hideouts. You make life at your place deadly for them and kill them off by percentages in a series of running battles until all of them are dead. There may be multiple battlefields: your bed/mattress/pillows, frame, anything under your bed, baseboards, bedside tables, chairs, pictures, electric boxes, loose wallpaper, lamps, curtains, etc. Your main objective is to first get them out of your bed and turn it into an island sanctuary; then go on ruthless search and destroy missions for stragglers. Remember... you're the bait! But by using yourself and your loved ones as bait you'll lure bed bugs into a diatomaceous deathtrap. It's a great feeling to lie peacefully in your bed again; not worrying if you're being silently stalked.