How I got rid of bed bugs w/o an exterminator

since I've woken up with those horrible bumps all over my body. The BBB for Bed Bugs worked, but in the meantime I followed up on my mom's initial finding of Diatomaceous Earth, food-grade quality. BBB seems to work just fine, but it began giving my mom a headache after a few days' exposure, and the D/E doesn't. 

Also, since it's food-grade (and doesn't contain Pyrethins, a common flea-killer) I can spread it everywhere around my dog's bed, as well as put some in her ears for some organic ear mite removal! Not to mention feed it to her along with her dinner if she ever gets worms somehow since this D/E stuff will deworm your pets for you after a few uses, and doesn't hurt whatsoever!

[This is my blog, my story, of how I am defeating bed bugs without the help and costs of a professional exterminator. Cont’d from “Remember that $300 Futon?”]

We still owed $100 on our first ever piece of furniture, and it's sitting out by the dumpster. People say all the time to not toss your infected furniture when you have bed bugs.. Those people obviously haven't suffered the psychological effect I did so far. The $300 'I didn't have to be throwing away like that' was so worth it when I believed it would rid me of the nightmares and paranoia of having bed bugs. I was squinting across the room at pieces of fuzz on the carpet afraid they would crawl toward me, I was checking everything I sat upon in public places, I was jumping at any other bug that DID crawl, jump, or fly even if I saw it outside a window. Bed bugs never, not once left my mind because even though I got rid of that dreaded, infected futon.. I didn't know where else they were hiding in my house.

My mom was researching too, at work, since she has access to a computer and the internet, as well as a coworker she had confided in. Together they found this stuff called Diatomaceous Earth, and sent me a link to some info about the stuff in a youtube video. I had never heard of it, didn't know how some powder crap could work, didn't have the patience to watch the video or read up on it, and dismissed that completely. But it gave me an idea- What an IDIOT.. why didn't I just look up how to kill these things on youtube?! I even have a tutorial account with tons of subscribers that got put on hold in this whole newborn-baby-having-bed bug-having process. I searched "how to kill bed bugs" and found a video with this man and woman with a bottle of powder they were using to cover their house and make perimeters around stuff. The guy claimed 1 bottle would do your house 4 times over, contained Diatomaceous Earth, would never become less effective as bed bugs cannot build immunity, only costs $15 per, and all you had to do was what he showed and it was guaranteed to work. No professional needed. Way too good to be true, but I was desperate. I got on the phone and begged my mom to front me $30 for 2 bottles (just to be sure), and order it for me. She complied. I don't know if it was the visible welting she had seen on her kids, the sound of my voice in desperation or that without having been bit, she could see how truly insane I was going, having to feed and care for my now 3-4wk old baby as well as every bed bug in my home.

[This is my blog, my story, of how I am defeating bed bugs without the help and costs of a professional exterminator. Cont’d from “The beginnings of a purge”]

So I just had my baby, and had come home after a failed epidural and 7 stitches (ouch). I'm hard-headed and SWORE my child would never sleep with me in bed, so my bf slept in our bed in the bedroom, and I was spending the first week with the baby (we named him Asher) on the futon since he woke every hour to eat. He wasn't the only one. These horrid bugs did, too and I woke up almost every time with a new bite! By the time he was 2 weeks old, I had been bitten just so much. I was losing so much sleep. I was afraid to go to bed.. I couldn't sleep for fear of these things, I began having nightmares and total insomnia. I felt sick in the head, and so lost for a solution. I was convinced this was my new life, a new life with a newborn and bed bugs and it was only a matter of time before they began attacking my baby. I got so over it, I took the futon and put it in the spare room, and replaced some typical folding chairs for sporting events as our sitting arrangement in the living room and continued my constant cleaning. For the first month of Asher's life, I forever: cleaned house, nursed baby, changed baby, did laundry, bathed baby, bathed me, cooked, washed dishes, took out trash, nursed baby, changed baby, did laundry, cleaned house, did laundry again, then laid awake at night waiting to be eaten alive. I had moved back to my bed in the bedroom, and had Asher sleep in his swing. I was still being bitten while my bf remained untouched. I was reading about bed bugs on a daily/nightly basis trying to find SOME solution that didn't require a multi-hundred dollar consultation and professional treatment. We even signed a contract upon move-in with our apt. management that all bed bug and bat bug problems would be our own responsibility to report, forfeiting of deposit, or immediate dismissal of our lease. This meant having management cover the costs was null and void, unless I couldn't find a cheaper solution than our deposit ($775 even). I came across some random website claiming rubbing alcohol kills bed bugs on contact. I almost dismissed this idea, because it didn't promise me that they would be forever repelled. I welcomed it by the next night, ha ha. My mom, boyfriend, and I went to Walmart the next day and bought:: 2 squirt bottles, 3 91% rubbing alcohol containers and a bottle of Salty Watermelon UV vodka.

Updated!! I apologize for the previously confusing post, so I tried to organize what each of these are real solutions to when dealing with bed bugs.

For BITES:: (Before banishing me to hell, please keep in mind I had terrible allergic reactions to these bites, as did my brother, so this is what worked for US. My bf and mom on the other hand hardly showed for bites, and never itched.) --Calamine Lotion. On a scale 1/10, I would rate this as a 5. It was highly effective for a few minutes, but then proceeded to dry out my skin, make me smell like rust, and then when it wore off and would scratch, the dryness of the skin would get cut. So we had bed bug bites, as well as cat-like scratches all over. --Children's Benadryl Cooling Gel. 7/10, when allowed to dry and applied twice. This stuff was actually really nice as it made you feel instantly better with the cooling (menthol, or camphor, I believe) agent. It lasted anywhere between 1 and 5 hours. --Pure 100% Aromatherapy-grade Lavender Oil. 9/10, and I WISH I had listened to the person who suggested this when the bites FIRST appeared. It costs about $6 for .33oz on Amazon, and you don't even need a drop. Put a little smear over each bite, smell great and be welt AND itch-less for up to 24hrs. This stuff saved my ass, --Benadryl + claritin capsules/pills. 0/10. For some reason, these did not work for either of us. Simply made us too tired to stay awake, go to bed and get bit some more. Plus on my part, nearly dimished my breastmilk supply for my 3wk-old baby at the time.

AS A REPELLENT:: (Heads up, none of these worked. obviously. But this is what we tried for at least 2 wks, up to 5wks, over the 7mo time period we had bed bugs.) --Vitamin b1 supplements. Orally + ground and put around bed. --Deet and Citronella - containing insect/bug repellent, Off! brand for hiking. Sprayed everywhere. --Vitamin b12 supplements. Orally (supposedly downgrades the ability for bugs to smell the CO2 you release in your sleep). Also ground up and put around bed. --Raid and HotShot brand of foggers. (Meant to repel insects for up to 2mo's after fogging) --Raid and HotShot brand bug/insect spray, sprayed as perimeters througout house. --Garlic supplements. Orally + ground up and put around bed. (This DID however keep mosquitos away, AND I was pregnant. That was super relieving during this shitty time, lol)

As a Killer::(The following I have personally either seen work to EFFECTIVELY kill bed bugs, or have seen the RESULTS within 48hrs) Rubbing Isopropyl Alcohol 91% or HIGHER. This worked 100% when sprayed from one of those travel-section-bought squirt bottles, undiluted, directly onto the eggs, larvae, nymphs and full-grown bed bugs. It not only killed them on contact, but after spraying our futon down, brought the hiding ones out to escape the fumes. We learned then that the fumes slow them down, and will make them leave the folds of cloth. "Bye Bye Bugs for Bed Bugs" brand of insecticide, ordered from freshwaterorganics.com. We purchased two 5oz bottles (approx. $15), and watched the full-length video on YT for specific use directions. This began working within 3 days. Only one bottle was needed for our apartment but I'm a clean-freak, so I vacuumed after a few and reapplyed, and then used the 2nd on my mom's townhouse + garage. (We stopped the use of this brand, as it contains Pyrethins, a common flea-killer, and was giving my mom headaches from the dust remaining in the air) Pure 100% FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth, ordered from Amazon.com. I purchased one, 3lb jug container for approx. $15. I applied in the same places that was recommended for the above insecticide, except with the D.Earth, I applied using a teaspoon, which caused much less dust in the air. This seems to be working so far, since my mom and brother who also have BB's have moved in, in the past few days but there have been no recorded bites so far. I still have OVER 3/4 of this jug left, after treating my apt, her townhouse and the garage and boxes that were packed!!!

Bedbugs don't make you sick. But some of the poisons used to kill them CAN. A government study released Thursday found that dozens of Americans have fallen ill from the insecticides, and a North Carolina woman died after using 18 cans of chemical fogger to attack the tiny blood suckers.

[This is my blog, my story, of how I beat bed bugs w/o an exterminator]

My mom's house, to be exact. Which is where my boyfriend and I got them from. And my mom got them from her upstairs neighbors because she lives in a townhouse of 4 units and shares a garage with them. They were kind enough to NOT MENTION they had bedbugs but began bagging their shit, thinking this is a working method and putting the infected items in the shared garage. It obviously didn't take long to spread, but now, 7 mo's later I am having outstanding results in exterminating this pest problem without an exterminator- while her neighbors have had this problem for over 10 mo's and are still paying a professional to visit on a monthly basis (lol).