Diatomaceous earth is also effective and non-toxic. I use it to fight against roaches, but I found it effective against my mother's bedbug problem. (Last time she'll ever by second-hand furniture without a throrough check!). One application was all it took.

@jwhite "Diatomaceous earth is also effective and non-toxic"

You are dreaming! Some would have you believe that the disappearance of bedbugs from American soil was a historical accident. Wrong! It was accomplished via persistent attack with wide-spectrum pesticides like DDT. The only historical accident is that the author of "Silent Spring" died of cancer, forever burning into the minds of knee-jerk reactionaries every where the formula "any use of DDT or other wide spectrum pesticides, judicious or not =cancer".

Meanwhile, there are newer wide-spectrum pesticides available, but guess what? The government sponsored scientist frowns on reasonable use of it, and instead of a low cost solution, they propose... big government programs! What a joke! Every ill, an excuse for a massive jobs program courtesy of the federal government. Gubmint jobs! Whooohooo!

Yep, I guess we need to get rid of the EPA, since their only mission is to increase it's bureaucracy.

We should listen to Sharon Angle, when she says we need to get rid of the EPA, Dept of Education, Medicare, SS, USDA, etc. The Federal Government exists only to create it's own little empires and wants nothing to do with protecting us.

Does anyone believe this crap? Obviously.

You are pretty funny there- and I agree.

Has anybody considered that we didn't have a bedbug problem in America until Obama was elected to be our President? Nor salmonella in our eggs? Strange coincidences? I would seriously doubt it. Wake up, smell the coffee, folks.

Hahaha. Oh sweetie, there's been salmonella in our eggs and bedbugs long before Obama, or Bush for that matter.

That's right, Deanna, just pull the wool over your eyes. Bury your head in the sand. Continue to live in a cave. There has to be a connection to Obama there somewhere with these unexplained events. I'm convinced of it. I'm not some kind of crazy. Neither of me is.

Jim C-1929288 - you had me until I read the last line of your last post the second time. I guess that I am slow today.

Deanna,

That's right. But everyone wants their Bush to be bug free.

"Has anybody considered that we didn't have a bedbug problem in America until Obama was elected to be our President? Nor salmonella in our eggs? Strange coincidences? I would seriously doubt it. Wake up, smell the coffee, folks."

GWB kept America safe from bedbugs. I don't know how he did it. I didn't even know that it was part of his agenda, since he didn't pressure congress to pass any legislation to protect us from a bedbug infestation.

Maybe it was his cuts to the number of inspectors from the EPA and USDA, that helped keep us safe from salmonella. Just speculating.

Obama and his illegal immigrant and Muslim terrorist friends are responsible for the bedbug infestation.

It's all Obama's fault. A real native born American would be allowing this to happen.

Wake up and smell the Tea (as in Tea Party), folks.

LOL!!! Poor Jim C-1929288. Just how many of you are there???

"I'm convinced of it. I'm not some kind of crazy. Neither of me is."

LOL!!!!

Your advice is better than the article. Thanks.

I agree!!! Thanks to Renta Center they are coming out of my walls, light sockets, cats, bird and turtle. My life is a living HELL.

"you might also want to put rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spray the infected areasafter steaming"

Well, if this works, why not simply fill a vaporizer with rubbing alcohol and vaporize the whole house? Seems like a lot less trouble than the other suggestions made here.

Another suggestion, if you really want to use a spray bottle, is to use a pump type garden sprayer to spray your whole house with rubbing alcohol. A lot less work.

Canada does not use DDT

Malaria was practically erraticated until they stopped using DDT- Now it is back and killing thousands. All because of one book written by a scared woman.

There are many other ways to eradicate bed bugs than DDT. DDT did more harm than good, and beg bugs are starting to become resistant to pesticides so they probably would have eventually become resistant to DDT as well.

We don't have many responsible people here in the US. Look at our politicians or how many people use a phone while driving.

Yea, bring it back. Who needs birds anyways!

I would have had an older brother, but he died of leukemia at age 3 in the early 1960s. My mother swears it was from the chemicals used to treat for termites in their small house. Not sure what the chemical was, but it's enough for me to realize that you don't always see the affects of harmful chemicals immediately. DDT - not for me, thank you very much.

@madameclaws: "There are many other ways to eradicate bed bugs than DDT."

Yes, there are, and they are tremendously more expensive than judicious use of a wide-spectrum pesticide. Basically what you do when you have a knee-jerk reaction to DDT is condemn the poor to misery, because you put the solution that they can afford out of reach. Typical, rich libs brag about getting rid of DDT, but they can afford to eradicate without it. The poor can't.

J. HIll - My parents weren't rich when the landlord spayed their little house for bugs in the 60s. Looking back, I'm sure my (very conservative) parents would rather have lived with a few bugs and had their son alive and healthy. There have got to be better alternatives. BTW, not sure what party affiliation has to do with getting rid of DDT.

If DDT was brought back and only available to licensed exterminators and only for indoor use for beg bugs there wouldn't be any risk to birds or bees. Even though I personally believe there is no risk.

I remember when my city fogged the streets with DDT. We didn't have A/C and it surely drifted into the house. I'm now 48 and I haven't dropped dead of cancer. Neither has any of my siblings.

"Just lke eveything else that has worked in this country our government does away with, bring back the DDT and use it responsively!"

Getting people to use DDT, responsibly, was tried before the ban. As we have always known, people, given a choice (especially big business - BP comes to mind), will not act responsibly and will cut corners.

If everyone had used DDT, responsibly, it would probably still be in use, today.

Maybe, in other countries, the government is able to enforce the correct use of DDT. Also, we don't have much control over other government's use of known hazardous chemicals, so the argument that other countries are still using it, so it must be ok, just doesn't hold water.

But, even if it is used responsibly, DDT does not break down in the environment and eventually it finds its way into the food supply with all of it's harmful effects, some of which occurred in the US, before it was banned.

They're too small to use as bait.

lol

No its Bushes fault. Just ask any lib.

I thought that Bush is a Republican.

Bush is the Deh-vil! Vote for me!

Hi David..not everyone reacts to the bites; its similar to an allergic reaction. Could be your wife was one of those lucky ones.

I came across a bed bug in a hotel I had just checked into. Fortunately, my luggage never hit the bed, only the floor under a bright window, so, even though I am still looking, I have seen no evidence that any hitchikers made it to my house via my luggage. I obviously left that room and got another one; same hotel but this time I tore the room apart, literally, before bringing my things into the room.

I think he lives on earth. How kind of you to ram your ideolgy down everyone's throat. Didn't have your coffee yet?Or maybe coffee grinds harm the YOUR planet TOO!!!!!!

Further to Todd's comment:

Too many people are strangely unable to compute the fact that the existence of all life on earth...including us...depends upon the continuing cycles of birth, feeding, death, and through death nourishment, of living things.

And that is why, whenever we decimate entire species through our various methods of mismanagement of the earth, it matters.

For those who still don't get this, imagine trying to throw a rock into a pond without the ripples spreading across the water.

All of us live in the same pond.

(P.S. That said, I am not here defending bedbugs as a species.)

Todd and Sherri - excellent posts, especially the analogy of throwing a rock in a pond.

The morons who want to bring back DDT are forgetting that bedbugs will eventually become resistant to DDT just like bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Exactly what do they propose we do when DDT no longer kills bedbugs?

Who ever said that she was little?

@Sherri: Too many people are strangely unable to compute the fact that the existence of all life on earth...including us...depends upon the continuing cycles of birth, feeding, death, and through death nourishment, of living things."

Yeah, tell that to the dinosaurs, honey. Mother nature is responsible for all manner of plagues, pestilence, famine, tsunamis, earthquakes... you name it. Species have gone extinct, go extinct, and will go extinct without human interference. Get nature before it gets you.

"Species have gone extinct, go extinct, and will go extinct without human interference."

Extinction is part of evolution and the natural cycle of life on the planet. That doesn't mean that humans should revert back to the use of DDT and intentionally push certain species into extinction. Those of you who slept through science classes tend to forget that bird species ingested DDT by eating fish that acquired it from water running off of fields and other areas where it had been used. What do you think happens when you eat the same fish that the birds are consuming? Like Sherri said, you can't make changes as significant as using DDT without causing a ripple effect. DDT is potentially mutagenic or carcinogenic due to its deleterious action on the cell's DNA. Humans aren't immune to the these actions simply because we are the ones who might choose to use it.

Thanks to that "scared little woman" how many innocent Africans have died of maleraia because they can't use DDT? We now give them nets. The deaths are on her head. I am not as worried about bird species as I am about actual people.

JohnC - if you kill off the bird species through the use of DDT, you are also endangering your own food supply (read post #17.7). Are you seriously willing to save a few people from malaria if it means risking mutations and cancer for yourself, your children and larger populations than those affected by malaria? You really need to learn the facts before passing judgment.

J. Hill:

Yep, no argument that Mother Nature is plenty capable of decimating entire species all on her own, with no help from humans, and occasionally that does happen.

However, that's no reason for us to take a hand in hastening our demise as a species through our own reckless, short-sighted behavior.

I was a victim of bedbug infestation and, let me tell you, it is also a psychological nightmare.

At first I had no idea what the heck those "hives" were on my body. I went to an MD, then to an allergist. Both diagnosed me wrong, said I had simple allergies.

One day I woke up with just 1 or 2 bites, but by the time it was lunch I had them all over my body. (No one told me they stay in your hair.) I was so scared I went to the Emergency Room. The Dr there said "looks like bites" but I argued with him "I wasn't even outside!"

So I came home to look around for fleas, mosquitoes, anything that could explain it all. There was nothing.

I began a new job. I had these bites all over my legs and arms, wore long-sleeved blouses in the summer... once while sitting at my desk, just like that "hives" broke out on my legs. Little did I know that the bites I sustained at home wouldn't show up until hours later. Also, they probably were hiding in my clothes.

It took me 6 months to figure it all out, all the while wondering if I was dying from some strange disease.

One day I saw one, it was DAYTIME. so don't believe the information that they only attack at night! I put the bug under the magnifier, went online and PRESTO, finally had a name for my "disease." I educated myself completely, thoroughly, and sent away to a midwest company for their stuff. By the way, the landlord didn't do a darn thing.

Folks, I eventually moved out of that place, but let me give you some more facts:
1. They go 18 months without food.
2. They come up the walls in your living room, and at night when your body gives off carbon dioxide while you are sleeping the bedbugs "smell" you and their source of food. So they will crawl all the way across the house, like vampires, to the source of food.
3. They take 3 bites at a time. To them, you are Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. (At one time I thought it was shingles, which also shows up in a straight line.)
4. I put the bedposts in glasses of water so they'd drown before coming up the bed. Yeah right. Those suckers went up the walls of the bedroom, across the ceiling, and free-fell into my bed!

When I moved in the winter, I put everything in big green bags. Left all out in the freezing cold for a month. Then straight to the laundry room. Wow, they were in the seams of my jeans! They even set up home between the pages of my past tax returns, ha.

The psychological part of this stayed with me for many months, into a few years. I used to cry at remembering what I went through. Then the news started writing up on them. FINALLY, my friends and family understood what I had endured...

Suzie

I know exactly what you are talking about Suzie. When I saw that BB on the bus I was riding, I got off immediately and steamed my shoes and my bags. I also called the transit authority to let them know what I saw.

I still get creepy crawling feelings because of those things.

Best thing to do about them crawling on the ceiling and free falling is to put double sided sticky tape in a big rectangle on the ceiling over your bed. That will trap a good portion of them that do that.

Suzie -

Yours is a true horror story. I am so glad you are past that episode in your life.

Madameclaws -

What an ingenious solution. Sometimes I am just blown away by the things I learn on the Internet!

Thanks Madameclaws and Sherri2012:

No one can possibly understand what a person has gone through unless they've walked in their shoes.

It was just one long nightmare of dealing with an invisible enemy.

I use to take those sticky strips to work, stick one under my desk to "catch the fleas" or whatever it was that was biting me. Nothing ever showed up. That is when I began to think I had a mysterious disease. I thought about that horrible skin-eating disease, wondered if that would happen to me...I mean the imagination works overtime when you don't know what you're dealing with.

In desperation I begged the landlord to find out where they were coming from since my exterminator (paid for by myself, sigh) did what he could. We found out that the old guy living under me has hundreds of bites on his legs, he was house-bound and no one really visited him. I guess the infestation started there and just branched out in the 20-apartment complex.

As I said the exterminator did what he could, but the company out in the midwest, I forget their names too, had this white powder and it really did help. it was nontoxic to animals and children as well. I used that everywhere, but after a while you get sick of having white power spilled all over the place. You were supposed to created a white line of powder that the nasties would have to walk through, and once it got on them it killed them.

I think getting back at the "enemy" got to me because I now remember how I caught a few, put them in a jar, and threw some white powder in and watched them convulse and die. What GLEE!! I laughed and cackled like a witch LOL. But it was short-lived as I realized these suckers were not going to go away and I would have to move.

My sister who lived around the corner from me, asked me to NOT come into her house. I understood why and didn't really get mad at her, but you're left alone with no kind of support. This is a time when everything about who you are gets truly tested.

I used to sleep on the recliner until the nasties found a way to crawl up to me. They sure were hungry. I can't forget all the mornings of feeling horrible from bachache, lack of sleep, and the bites. And I had a HUGE reaction to those bites! huge welts that itched like crazy. They didn't go away on my body for 2 weeks, but new bites happened every day.

I found a device on the Web, it really did help. You turned it on and it got hot and you applied that to the welts. Wow it helped. I forget the name of it just like I sort of mentally tried to forget everything about that period of my life because to this day, thinking about it brings tears to my eyes (have them now) and, like I said, the psychological aspect is the worst part. And the thing is I am a very strong person, but somehow the tiniest of creatures got me down, sort of like a David and Goliath thing.

so thank you for understanding and let's spread the word as much as we can to help the other victims.

Suzie

@winnette "In old days people put there bedpost in a jar lid of kerosene,the bugs wouldn't crawl up the bedpost.It worked."

That sound's like an entertaining way to live! Living in constant strife with pestilence is far more entertaining than network television, or cable!

Thanks for the wonderful advice

madameclaws--great advice.

Thank you for taking the time to put all that info out there!

Hi madamclaws,

You and I must have been typing at the same time. The steam machine works great and kills fleas also - we were flea free for 11 years until we stayed at a friends house with cats and our dogs have had a horrible time with them. Frontline made two sick, so we stoped and looked for alternatives. I have posted those below.

You mentioned Diatomateous Earth. I have to tell everyone about it - so they understand. The particles in the powder are so tiny - it did two things - made my nose bleed when I was applying it and also one of my dogs got an upper respiratory infection from it. The powder if breathed in can cause problems. This was a trial and error on our part. We did however use it outside around the foundation and I believe that helped if there were any bugs coming in. Just be careful around pets.

madameclaws,

I live in Northern Kentucky and work in Cincinnati. According to TIME magazine Cincy is bed bug central here in the US.

I'm so sorry you had to go through all of this! But, you've come out the other side all the wiser...THANK YOU for sharing your story and wonderful advise. I'll keep it handy...just in case...

I think we were typing at the same time as well. :) I would agree with you on being careful with the DE. I remember the first time I applied it, I didn't stop sneezing in my place for a good two hours after I put it down, but it definitely works and it's less toxic than what exterminators use.

My cat fortunately has not had a reaction to the DE or the spray that I use.