Bed Bugs...

I thought they were myth... things of fairy tales or something like that. They are very real and they want your blood.

For about 6 weeks I had a strange rash on my forearms. It itched like crazy. The only thing that would alleviate the itching was running very hot water over my arms. Yes, hot water burn baby but like I said it minimized the itching when anti-itching creams and lotion wouldn't. At first I thought it had to be something environmental since it was only appearing on my forearms which are usually exposed 24-7. I wanted to wash all of my bedsheets, blankets and pillows when I started getting the rash but the dryers in my apartment building don't work... it's been more than 2 months now since they've worked... I'm so glad I'm able to work from home sometimes. I eventually started to get the itchy bumps on my ankles and calves as well and even the back of my neck... and eventually I figured out that it wasn't a rash.

Do some web searches for bed bugs and you'll learn that they're becoming a major problem in many areas. Here in the Columbus area the Ohio Agricultural Department is trying to get an industrial pesticide approved for home use against the bed bugs. You'll read all kinds of horror stories about people dealing with not having a safe place to sleep and incompetent pest control officers that are only good at getting rid of your money - and money is a huge issue for me... I can't afford to do much of anything right now but research. I've tried a common pesticide that you can find in the garden section of most stores... to say it's 100% effective is wrong but that's okay because the company who makes it doesn't claim it kills bed bugs. The reason I tried it was because of a small group of people on a bed bug forum that claim the stuff is a godsend. Hitting the bugs with it directly will kill them but this stuff is the kind of thing that's not supposed to be used in that way... so I probably won't keep using it.

I learned about these Climb Up Interceptor traps and they sound like a great idea. $60 for 12 isn't completely outrageous but during my trip to the hardware store (I was getting painter's plastic to wrap up infested things and throw them out) I came up with something that's definitely cheaper but I'm still not sure how effective it will be.

Paint can drip catchers. They cost me about $1.50 each. Empty drip catchers are no good though and I figured if mineral oil works for killing fleas then it should work for bed bugs as well. I don't have any regular mineral oil but I do have some baby oil which is just mineral oil with fragrances added. You could have 12 traps with mineral oil for $20 or less.

The effectiveness of my traps can't be 100% proven yet. I'm not sleeping on my infested furniture right now. These little fuckers fed on me for over a month and bred like crazy! It's disgusting how many bugs I have in my furniture! Just looking at it makes me want to itch. I still put the traps in place. After 48 hours not a single bed bugs but it looks like I got some carpet beetle larvae in my DIY oil filled isolator traps under the couch legs. If I sit near my couch for about 20 min or so bed bugs will start coming after me. I have not seen one crawl down into the oil traps yet and I can't help but wonder if the fragrance in the baby oil is causing them to avoid it. I've seen them make their way down as if they're going to the floor to get to me but they always turn around and go back up the couch leg at about 3 or 4 inches above the traps. One clever bug tried something different though. This brave little bastard made his way to a piece of the fabric such that he was on a negative incline. He then let go of the fabric to fall to the floor. Unfortunately for the bug he fell right into the baby oil trap! He sank immediately and never moved again. Finally I feel like I have achieved a small victory in my battle against these bugs. I have nowhere I feel is safe to sleep in my tiny, crappy apartment. I slept in my bath tub twice... that was just unbearably uncomfortable though. For now I'm sleeping on a closet door raised up off the floor with milk crates. No, it's not very comfortable even with a sleeping bag and blankets between me and the hard wooden surface but I'm not getting eaten alive every night and that's what matters to me right now.

My plan is to eventually get plain mineral oil to try... and hope the baby oil fragrance is a turn off to bed bugs and that's the only reason I'm not getting any bugs in them yet without me trying to entice them into the traps. Once I get a new couch I may buy the real interceptors but will probably use my home made oil traps as well... right now the bugs left on my couch (I've bagged and trashed the cushions the frame is all that's left until I can get help moving it out of here) don't seem to be coming off the couch via the legs... and the scary thing is that they're smart enough to let themselves fall off of the couch to reach the floor. Do not underestimate the intelligence and determination of bed bugs. You will regret it.