[Sonsowey]

I got bedbugs

It was January in NYC and I started getting big red sores. They were like the worst horse-fly bites you could ever get, hot to the touch, they would swell up very large and last for almost two weeks.

I thought at first that maybe there were mosquitoes somehow. My girl was sure they must be something else, not bedbugs. Ticks?

Eventually, I spotted one, crushed it. It crunched when I crushed it, did not squish. I googled the images and yep, it was a bedbug. I began losing it, this is every New Yorker's worst fear. They say they can live in the cracks between floorboards, the eggs can be hidden anywhere, they could be anywhere. I was freaking out.

Who knows how I got them, it could have been any restaurant, anyone's clothes in the subway, any chair in a doctor's office, no idea. I actually had seen a really nice dresser set out on the street corner near me and took it in, I needed another dresser anyway and this was an old one with beautiful hand carvings. When the bedbugs thing started I got rid of that. I don't know if this was the cause but their arrival happened a few weeks after this so it's possible.

I only got bites at night, I would wake up with new ones. I was never covered in dozens, it would be one day I would wake up with a handful of new bites that would last for a couple weeks. Then I wouldn't get any new bites for a while, and would begin to think it was all over, then get some more.

My mattress is atop a metal frame with a boxspring under it. When I bought it I got a bedbug protector, a breathable cover made from some synthetic fabric. What did I know about bedbugs, the guy said this would work, I believed him. So I suspected that perhaps they were not actually in my mattress, but just on my bedding. I washed all my bedding regularly and several times washed all my clothes, cleaned out all my dressers with lysol, etc.

Nope they stayed around.

I began reading about how you get rid of them.

One service offered to basically bag up everything you own, put it in a hot house and bake it until they all died. The service would cost over a thousand dollars and offered no guarantee at all of its effectiveness, since the eggs or bedbugs themselves could literally be between your floorboards and you could very well bake to death all but one and have your infestation continue the very next day.

Other services would fumigate your house, steam your mattress, again, over $1,000 and no guarantee at all. I wasn't about to do that shit, and moving wasn't an attractive option at the time.

After much more googling I discovered Diatomaceous Earth:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

What is this stuff? Wikipedia says:

"Diatomite forms by the accumulation of the amorphous silica (opal, SiO2·nH2O) remains of dead diatoms (microscopic single-celled algae) in lacustrine or marine sediments. The fossil remains consist of a pair of symmetrical shells or frustules.[1]"

Why does this kill bedbugs?

The chemical structure of it apparently kills them through death by a thousand cuts. They have a waxy shell around their exoskeleton which keeps in moisture. The chemical structure of diatomaceous earth punctures this waxy shell and they die from dehydration. Here's what it looks like up close:



I bought "food grade" diatomaceous earth, which literally means you can eat it. This stuff is not poison. Some people advocate mixing it with water and drinking it to cleanse yourself. I never tried that. It is apparently also used to treat pets (and I would guess humans) who have parasites in their digestive systems. Also used in gardens, sprinkled around freely to kill pests that might eat your plants.

Anyway, I did not do any of that stuff, I just used it to kill bedbugs.

So heres what I did:

I already had a covering over my mattress. I did not want to get rid of my mattress if I could avoid it. I still did not know if they were actually under this covering and in my mattress or if they were just getting onto my bedding. When I actually saw them, one was on my curtains, and one was on the floor. So it did seem like they were out and about and not necessarily inside my mattress.

At first I sprinkled it all over my floor, literally everywhere, I wanted it to get into every crack and crevice. This is kinda insane because your footprints will be white and your whole place will be covered in white footprints but compared to the creeping insanity of having bedbugs, it's worth it.

Eventually I cleaned it up a bit and left a border of it around the corner of my room. I still have it there, months after my last bite, just incase.

I also put it on top of my mattress and between my mattress and my box spring.

However, after a week or two of this, I did not see the bites stop.

Some people say you should put this everywhere, like inside your electrical outlets, literally every single place in your house. I did not go so far.

What I did do was buy vinyl, unbreathable coverings for both my box spring and mattress. I sprinkled the diatomaceous earth liberally over my box spring then wrapped it in this vinyl covering, zipped it up, and covered the zipper with duct tape. It's still like that.

Then I took my mattress, with the original breathable covering on it, covered that in diatmoaceous earth, and put that too into a new vinyl covering.

Then I sprinkled more on top of the vinyl covering and between my mattress-pad and the mattress, then on top of the mattress pad as well.

Doing this you can taste it, this is a very fine powder and it will get in the air. It will be in your lungs and on your tongue and you will taste it and feel like you're losing it a bit breathing this stuff in.

But it worked, at least for now. It has been months since my last bite, I still have this powder lining my room and no bites.

I bought "bed bug detectors", tiny plastic things with a sticky substance in them that is supposed to attract and trap bed-bugs, so you could tell where they are. You put it in your drawers, under your mattress, or wherever, to see if bed bugs are around there.

I put them in my closet, in several drawers with clothes, between my mattress and box-spring, and under my sofa cushions. In none of them did I ever find one bed-bug. This was weird because I did this at the time I was getting bitten. Perhaps they just don't really work. But I never had a huge infestation either. It further suggests to me that possibly they weren't actually in my mattress but just wandering about freely and getting onto my bedding.

After I stopped getting bit I did see and kill 2 more walking on the floor. But I have been several months bite-free without seeing any, and I no longer feel crazy about them.

I hope anyone who gets them tries diatomaceous earth before going nuts with poisons or spending a ton of money. The product itself costs like $10-20 so it's no sweat off your back if it doesn't work and you need to call a professional.

Sleep tight.