BuggedinOhio on "The story & the game plan thus far."

(11/20/2015)
Ok so, we caught them from our disabled sons school. Or my 4 year olds pre-school? Or possibly in public? Who knows?

All I know is when I heard the that tone in her voice "Honey....what is this? Bring a zip-lock"
I just friggen knew!

Its been on ever since! Research, research, RESEARCH!
And my conclusion? "Not a single dwelling is the same, everyone's house traffic is not the same, not all infestations are the same. Not all the pesticides work the same, Not all treatment plans are the same. The pro's are still trying to understand this pest 100%."

I learned a lot! Like did you know there are different species of bedbugs?

So, back to my family's story/situation. There are six of us living in our home including a dog full time; so technically seven of us! And every other weekend I get my other two daughters that live with my Ex; so eight of us plus the dog, live here, every other weekend.

We live in a single family two story home. Basement, ground, upstairs, and attic.

I research, then call about 3 PCO's.
Two visit back to back exclaiming the infestation is about a month or so old. Both agreed we need to move as fast as we could with prepping.

As a last resort, we called our landlord and (of course) it was the end of November (11/21/15) and he couldn't help us out. It was in our newest rental agreement that we pay for the treatment of pests.
He wouldn't budge on our deposit or last months rent to help pay to treat and protect his investment either. Nope.
I guess during the holidays he has "renters that skip December rent in lieu Christmas".

He just told us to go buy some spray at "his" pest control company, do it ourselves and if we caught them early enough, we would be fine. "He treats all his houses this way before moving in renters."
(I believe him, as he is a genuine person) We've been here six years. W ewould had something a long time ago if they were here before we moved in, one would think?

We even tried to get financing to help pay for a heat treatment. Nope. We got to have a certain credit score to get approved.

Then I came across a really smart nice Exterminator/PCO who told me he uses chemicals but prefers heat, but he cant afford the heat machines as of yet as he just started a few years back.
He said he could do a whole house treatment for $400 and would do a second and third follow up free of charge if necessary. I appreciated his honesty.
I told him we would weigh our options and get back to him.
(His # is still in my phone, just in case..)

Here is why we went with the DIY option:

So my fiance wants to argue about spending our savings on pest control vs Christmas. Even after I explain what I have gathered from research.

Arguing with the innocently ignorant..
Yey.

After much debate I knew I couldn't win. She insisted we go with the DIY method and save some money.

Still skeptical I called the pest control company and asked all the questions:
"What kind of chemicals do you use"?, "How does it work"?
"How long do we have to leave for"? "What about our dog"?
And my favorite. "Why do you want us to do it Vs your company"?
To which she replied, "Its the same chemicals we use. I am just trying to save you some money. We know how expensive this can be, and we help a lot of people who live under the poverty guidelines."

Ill tell you now. It wasn't what she said, but how she said it.
I know genuine tones, eye contact, gestures when I see it.
(Being in sales for 10+ years helps)

So I agreed.

In the meantime, we made all the classic mistakes.

We quit sleeping on the bed after seeing them walk about like little ants. (I don't know too many people who would want to sleep in the same spot!) After researching here and other sites. I learned we needed to be bait.

So, out of ignorance and paranoia, I literally poured DE all over the box springs and and basically everywhere in the house. Thinking; that if they hatched, they were going to hatch in a glass desert!
I even put double sided carpet tape along the wall and door ways to monitor travel routes.
(They are either too smart for this, or we had a light infestation?)

The lady at the pest control company calmed me down over the phone and told me we needed to make time to come in to her office for a 1-2 hr education class.
No problem!
So we came in the next day.

She repeated some of the same things I read.

1: Bag all clothes, clean and dirty.
2: Dry all clothes, one bag at a time in dryer on high heat for 1 hour then placed back into a bag to either be washed or put away later; if clean.
3: Clean up all clutter and throw away all trash.
4: Throw out all cardboard and paper. They love to lay eggs there.
5: Buy about 5-8 bottles of 91% alcohol and a few spray bottles. "Kill anything that moves!" And use it to sterilize non-clothing items. "Alcohol wont kill the eggs" (We couldn't steam treat due to the wood in the house being so old, it could cause mold)
6: Wipe all video games, pictures, movies, and books with alcohol and place in totes with DE and seal with packaging tape. "Not Duct-Tape!" AND don't plan on using the books for 18 months!?!
7: Wash all dishes and place in totes and seal them in a tote as well, until we are definitely in the clear.
8: Wash out the cupboards and shelves, leave them clean as if moving.
9: Sleep in the same bed or they will move to find us!?!?!? (We tried! We couldn't. And thats partly why they moved to the couch.)
10: Then Vacuum thoroughly every day until the day of treatment. Using the sweepers crevice tool along the baseboards and in corners and along the mattress folds and other tight corners/hiding spots. Then immediately empty the sweeper in the trash outside!

So we did all this.
What I thought was going to be a single weekend ended up taking almost 2 weeks!
My fiance and I threw out, a lot of persona, sentimental possessions.

We threw out our king-size-pillow-top-Mattress and box springs($1k). Wrapping them in 4mm thick plastic we bought from Lowes before moving them throughout the house.
We wrapped and threw out our sectional couch and ottoman(1k). We threw out my sons bed, her sons bed($450). His wooden frame. Our papasan chair($80). Shelves I had in the basement. Old toys. The kids stuffed animals that couldn't go through the dryer. Yes that was all the Disney and elmo stuff. Barbies et cetera. Probably another $1k?

The day of treatment (11/29/15), we went to the pest control company and went over what we did to prepare for our (first) treatment. She explained this was a 3 step process.

• 1: Prep work (cleaning/storing)
• 2: Treatment
• 3: Monitoring

We would do two treatments. And possibly more depending on what we seen.
I guess, the rule of thumb FOR US is: You start the two-week wait over; If you see any, then you do a follow up treatment, continuing the every two week pattern if more are hatched. (this was using their chemical. Not all chemicals work the same, so this advice will not apply to everyone. Especially if you use a different chemical.

Upon explaining what we did to prep, she said she needed all her customers to be like us. That was a little reassuring.

So we sent the dog and our three kids off to friends' and the in-laws' houses, and got down to business.
We shook the mix for 2 minutes and dumped it into one gallon pesticide sprayers from Wal-Mart.
Then we adjusted the nozzles to spray in-between mist and stream setting.
We treated furthest from the infested zones first.
Starting with the Attic. (no way I wanted them in that wood!
Then we went to the basement. We treated but didn't treat below the infested area until we were ready to leave the basement.
(we basically wanted to squeeze the lil bastards into a central zone. Eliminating any chance to escape to an untreated area.)
Then we treated the upstairs bathroom , closets, daughters' room, then finally our closet and our complete bedroom.
Then we moved to the ground floor and we treated the kitchen, living room, closets and then the infested bedroom and couch area. (man I wished we wouldn't have moved to the couch..but I kinda think they were already there?)

Whew! The whole house was treated.

We sprayed everywhere.
Between and under box springs, baseboards, in the cracks of our tables, around the washer and dryer, in holes in chairs, behind stove, under around fridge, the fireplace was shot with bedlam and pesticide, the sliding door frame got bedlam as well as spray. Window frames, heater vents. On top of the heating duct work in the basement.
I (literally) lost 15 pounds during this whole process!
Afterwards we grabbed clean clothes from our totes, grabbed a shower and went to join the kids.
We stayed overnight. Returned and spread more DE along/behind baseboards.

Week two/Follow up spray:
12/13/2015
We thought we were in the clear. Nope. About two days earlier we were still seeing them.
Sneeky. little.....^#%#$....

So I bought Cimexa. (Don't inhale this stuff! Its nasty, and don't use it where dogs and kids play! Just simply follow the directions on the bottle)
I'm done playing around! You want war? WE GO TO WAR!!!

So we repeated the same steps, same areas and then some new ones, finding spots we missed and might have missed.
I undid all the outlets, put on my NIOSH mask and puffed to the left and right in the wall outlets and then just a little on the outlet itself.
I did this on every outlet, switch in the home. I even cimexed the behind the wood panel in our bedroom and in a few other non-disturbed areas.

Then I sprayed the porch where the dirty bags were with pesticide. Placed Some DE between the porch and the bags, and we showered and called it a night. We went out with friends to occupy our minds.

We spent the night with family during the holidays, as we no longer had a tree or decorations to put up.
This was a blessing and a curse.
We purged so much stuff.
We also threw about $1k in yard sale items away. And we also donated clothing that was heat treated and re-washed and re-heat treated to "Planet Aide". No sense in throwing unaffected clothing away if we could treat it.
We spent the next two weeks trying to catch up on the possibly affected laundry to get it rotated.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We were becoming super stressed out.

The anxiety. Social stigma. Fear of infesting others. The aching muscles from moving furniture and cleaning/picking up trash moving items. The dried out feet from the DE. The chest colds and headaches from all the alcohol used to sterilize. The staph infections from bedbugs. (had to be) The throwing away of sentimental items, toys, and furniture. Arguing over how to treat. Arguing over money.
Sleepless nights. Explaining to a two-year-old and a four-year-old that Thanksgiving wasn't going to be here with family; like it always was.
Explaining, that her Birthday was going to be celebrated somewhere else. Explaining why we threw everything away and why we don't have a Christmas tree. It was taking its toll. On our relationship, wallets and our family in general. Even the dog was freaking out.

Over the next week and a half, we adjusted to living out of totes and eating out of disposable plates and fast food.Sleeping on air matresses. Except the girls, their mattress was unaffected, so we bought a BB cover and placed it on the mattress. And no toys..
(They did have a wonderful Christmas at grammy's though!!)

Enter 12/26/2015:
My mother drops off an electronic Elmo doll for my youngest's birthday/Christams present. Asking if we have seen anything. I tell her no. "I think were good, But IDK I have welts on my arm, could be from anything. Dry skin"?
She leaves. I go inside and prop my feet up.
And low and behold, a adult sized bedbug on my dresser beside my PC.
See, we watch the PC as a television and I game to help keep my sanity as a stay at home father. (back injury and special needs son)

Now, Im kinda pissed. But I also understand that we have to get inside their life cycle.
When your bed is on the floor. Surrounded by a ring of DE like some kind of Voodoo ritual, you dont have too many option but to feed the damn things.

So yeah thats where we are today. Prepping tommorow so we can spray and exit for a third treatment tommorrow.

Oh and for the singles out there complaining. I tell you what. I know if your in the big city renting an affordable apartment is hard. Ive been there. But Id treat , and get the heck out once I was in the clear. And try to get an actual house.

I know its easier for a single family home to recuperate. But hear me out.

I have:
A dog who is oblivious.
A woman who works 12 hours and is too exhausted to do much when she gets off work.
Wood paneling throughout the house. (they love nesting behind this I hear!)
And we also have carpet in every bedroom.
A two-year-old and a four-year-old that are also oblivious, dragging covers around, getting int things,(don't worry, the chemicals are locked in a cabinet.) They leave dirty clothes lay on the carpet and play in "hot-spots".

I also want to point out that me and my fiance have never been so upset/depressed. She has wished death on me, and threatened me in arguments. We are so exhausted; mentally, physically, emotionally and monetarily. In fact, we have a councilor that comes to us every Wednesday. (This epidemic has almost destroyed my family.)

I am not 100% worried. As I know what to do. (for the most part)

YOU MUST REMAIN PROACTIVE!

I figured Id share my crazy journey into the world that is bedbugs with others who might be struggling to wrap their head around some of this.
This, like all things, will pass.
Ill keep you guys updated.

Were using this Good Site if you know what chemical is being used

*disclaimer*
This is no way intended to be a guide for anyone. I do not endorse DIY options. This is just a shared personal experience. Talk to your PCO about what route of action you should take and what chemicals to use. Remember what I said in the begging: "Not a single dwelling is the same, everyone's house traffic is not the same, not all infestations are the same. Not all the pesticides work the same, Not all treatment plans are the same.The pro's are still trying to understand this pest 100%."