How to get rid of Bedbugs. My story on how I got rid of bedbugs using a simple solution. Also information and photos of bedbugs, and bed bug bites. Shows what bed bugs look like.

Several years ago our house was infested with bedbugs. We never did figure out where they came from. I remember sitting on one of our stuffed chairs and feeling itchy all over. I leaped up and found one crawling on me. Our beds had been invaded too. Every time we sat or laid down a crowd of bugs would flow out of the furniture and attack us. The bedbug I found on me looked a little different from the photo but it may have been a young one because it looked more clear than brown.

But what to do? We always avoided using pesticides, bug sprays or anything along that line that could harm us, but something had to be done immediately. We also didn't have the funds to call in an exterminator and besides that they would use harmful chemicals.

Our solution was this. We choose the least harmful solution we could find. Cat flea powder. Since flea powder wasn't supposed to kill our cats and the humans handling them, we figured it would be the least toxic to us but still kill the bedbugs. It worked! We generous sprinkled flea power on each bed mattress (under the bottom sheet) and under each cushion on the chairs and couches. I don't remember if we had to reapply any but the bedbugs were gone much to our relief.

Bedbug Facts

Bedbugs prefer to feed on humans. Ugh :-) And tend to be most active at night and can feed on you without you noticing.

The bed bug bites can cause skin rashes, psychological effects (just thinking of something crawling out to feed on us!) and allergies.

Bed bugs were almost wiped out in the 1940's but since 1995 have come back with a vengeance. Probably because of world travel. You can go from a third world country to the United States in hours bringing the bedbugs with you through your luggage. It doesn't matter how clean you are; bedbugs don't depend on hygiene.

Adult bed bugs are reddish brown, flattened and oval shaped. Baby bedbugs are translucent and light in color. This was probably the type of bedbug I found on me.

Bedbugs can live up to a year without eating so good luck at trying to starve them out. When the food is available they feed every 5-10 days. Dogs can be trained to detect bedbugs and have 97.5% accuracy in finding them. They can find them in minutes while a pest control agent would take an hour. As of 2009 there were about 100 bed bug detection dogs in the United States.

Photos - This 2006 photograph depicted an oblique-dorsal view of a "bed bug nymph, Cimex lectularius", as it was in the process of ingesting a blood meal from the arm of a "voluntary" human. The second photo comes from the same place.

This image is in the public domain and thus free of any copyright restrictions. As a matter of courtesy we request that the content provider be credited and notified in any public or private usage of this image.

Date 2006

Source:   http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp

Author: Content Providers(s): CDC/ Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert; Dr. Harold Harlan; Richard Pollack. Photo Credit: Piotr Naskrecki

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Susan Dietel
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