Get Rid of Bed Bugs with Diatomaceous Earth

Kill Bed Bugs Naturally – Be Safe to Pets and People

Bed bugs are EVERYWHERE!! Get rid of bed bugs safely with Diatomaceous Earth. Bed bugs are an epidemic! Bedbugs are not your fault -you can pick up bedbugs from hotel rooms and infected places and innocently bring bedbugs home. To kill bedbugs naturally and get rid of bed bugs safely, use our Diatomaceous Earth. You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get rid of bedbugs with an exterminator and spread dangerous and often ineffective chemicals, or you can kill bedbugs naturally using safe, inexpensive Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth to get rid of bed bugs yourself! Diatomaceous Earth is both effective and safe.

Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth is totally organic and safe. Diatomaceous Earth is Mother Nature’s product with no harm to the environment, pets or to people. Diatomaceous Earth is not actually an “earth” but it is the fossilized remains of microscopic shells created by one celled plants called DIATOMS. Diatomaceous Earth Kills Pests Naturally – No Synthetic Chemicals, No Odor or additives of any kind. The microscopic DE particles are deadly to the bedbug. The particles attach themselves to the bed bugs body and physically “scratch them to death!” Because DE kills them mechanically, they cannot become immune to it like they do with so many of the chemicals today. Because it’s a mineral once you put it down it stays there and keeps working. You may want to clean it up once and while and add more to get rid of the dead bugs and parts they leave behind but DE lasts forever.

To treat you bed bug infestation safely, do the following:

1. Wash all bedding in hot water—add a little Clorox with the soap. Dry in dryer on the highest heat setting. If you can, use a steam cleaner on your mattress and box springs.
2. Make sure bed is not touching any walls. Also make sure there is no skirting or any thing other than the 4 legs touching the floor.
3. With you hands or an applicator, dust some food grade Diatomaceous Earth into the mattress and ridges on the outside of the mattress. Dust some DE between the mattress and box springs also.
4. Spread some DE all over the room, working into the carpets and corners of the room. Yow may have to remove the bottoms of furniture and dust some in them also. Put a large pile around each of the 4 legs—since bed bugs cannot fly, the 4 legs are the only way the bedbugs can get to you. Repeat this once a week for 4 weeks.
5. You can also take off the outlet covers and using a plastic dispenser—like our pest pistol–puff some DE into the walls. Bed Bugs love to live there and are the main way they spread from room to room. Be very careful—use nothing that would conduct electricity and shock you.

Some Interesting Bed Bug Facts:

1. Bed Bugs are usually no more than 1/4 inch in length in their adult state and can engorge themselves with human blood in less than 15 minutes causing their bodies to fill to as much as three times its usual size. Fully engorged bed bugs bear little resemblance to their original state and are often thought to be a different insect altogether.
2. Bed bugs can lay between one and five eggs per day with an incubation period of 10 days in warm weather (slightly longer when cool). These newly hatched bed bugs will require five significant blood feedings to reach adult size. They will molt in between feedings by shedding their exoskeleton. One mature they will begin the process of laying new eggs.
3. Adult female bedbugs can lay more than 200 eggs during their lifetime and the new generation of bed bugs will immediately seek a blood meal and they might be looking at you through hungry compound eyes. When they are finished eating they leave tiny sores to remind you of their midnight binge.
4. There are other types of bed bugs including the bat bug, the chimney swift bug and the swallow bug. All of these relatives survive on blood feeding, however these secondary parasites thrive on either bats or birds as their primary victims.
5. Bed bugs feed on the blood of human beings but can suck blood from other animals as well. Birds and mice are the most common animals. Bed bugs most often feed at nighttime when people are asleep. When they feed, they inject a salivary secretion into the wound to prevent coagulation. The fluid can cause a person’s skin to itch and even become swollen. Scratching can cause sores which often become infected. Bed bugs are not known to transmit any human blood-borne pathogens.
6. An adult bed bug is about 1/5-inch long, oval in shape and flat. They?re generally brown except after sucking blood. Their body then becomes swollen and the color changes to a dark red.
7. Bed bugs like to hide in the cracks and electrical outlets in walls, behind wallpaper, base boards and picture frames, between beds and around the creases of mattresses and in bedding materials. They have a rather pungent odor which is caused by an oil-like liquid they emit. Bed bugs are often carried into houses by clothes, luggage, furniture, and bedding. Or sometimes even by humans.
   Bed bugs seek harborage in cracks and crevices. Common harborages in hotel rooms and cruise ship cabins include: folds & creases in bed linens, seams, tufts & under buttons on mattresses, in drapery pleats & hems, beneath loose wallpaper, in headboards, desks, entertainment centers and nightstands, behind base molding in wall-mounted artwork, etc.

 

Bed Bug Bites

The words “bed bugs” are enough to send most of us running with skin all aquiver at the thought of little blood-sucking creatures crawling all over us as we sleep. These little bugs are pests, to be sure, and they can be difficult to get rid of once they have decided to make your house their home, hiding during the daylight hours in cracks and crevasses where they are almost impossible to excise.

Because of this, you may not realize right away that bed bugs are the source of the annoying sores on your legs when you wake up in the mornings. Bed bugs are attracted by both warmth and the presence of carbon dioxide, which is what we exhale in breathing. The bugs climb up onto your skin and pierce you with two hollow tubes, one of which injects anti-coagulants and anesthetics. The other tube is used to withdraw your blood, feeding for about five minutes before returning to their hiding places.

There may be a cluster of bites instead of singular ones when you awake, and this is typically caused by disturbing the bugs while they feed, causing them to detach and return to feed momentarily. A well fed bedbug can live anywhere from four to six months, while a dormant one might live without feeding for up to 18 months.

The bites can be found just about anywhere on your body, with exposed bits of skin being the preferred feeing ground for the bugs, making your face a target along with arms and legs. The bits cannot be felt at first, but as the anesthetics wear off and the skin begins to react to the injections, the bites can make themselves felt minutes or even hours after the bedbugs have returned to hiding.

If you have bedbugs, your infestation can get worse very quickly since a female bedbug can lay up to five eggs per day, and up to around 500 eggs in her lifetime. Since it takes only five weeks for hatched nymphs to grow to maturity, your problems could expand exponentially within a relatively short period of time, and infestations can be hard to control.

The History of Bed Bugs:

Bed bugs have been around for centuries. Documentation reaching as far back as the 17th century has told about infestations of bed bugs. In the United States, bed bugs were very common until about World War II. With the introduction of such pesticides as DDT, a great decrease in infestations occurred. It was not until the last decade that reported cases gave an indication of a possible rise in bed bug infestations.


Authorities believe that the rise in reports can be attributed to the extermination tactics of pest control today. Today, many pest control experts use baiting tactics for in home infestations of such things as ants, roaches, and spiders. These baiting tactics work well for their intended subjects, but since bed bugs are blood feeders, they do not fall for the baiting tricks used. This change in exterminating technique has contributed to the rise in reported bed bug infestations.

Identifying a bed bug:

Adult bed bugs are generally flattened and reddish brown in color. They resemble apple seeds in appearance and size. Newly hatched nymphs look very much like adults. Although they are almost colorless, they gain their reddish brown color as they mature. The adult bed bug may lay up to 5 eggs daily. These eggs are almost impossible for humans to see with the naked eye, and resemble a flake of dust on a dark surface.

A quick look at the facts:

• Bed bugs are small bloodsucking insects that feed on humans & other warm-blooded animals.
• Bed Bugs often hide in mattresses but they can also survive in furniture, behind wall coverings and pictures/paintings. They will crawl and nest inside tiny crevices anywhere indoors, as long as there is a source of food (blood).
• While bed bugs do not transmit any pathogens or diseases, their bites usually result in swollen red, itchy welts.
• Bed bugs are typically nocturnal insects (they creep about at nighttime).
• There are other types of bed bugs including the bat bug, the chimney swift bug and the swallow bug. All of these relatives survive on blood feeding, however these secondary parasites thrive on either bats or birds as their primary victims.
• Small reddish or brownish spots on one’s linens are often the first sign of an infestation. These spots are the bed bug’s droppings. Another sign is swelling where you’ve been bitten.
• Bed bugs are not necessarily a sign of unkempt/dirty homes or buildings.
• A female bed bug can lay as many as 500 eggs during her lifetime.
• Bed bugs are less than 1/4" in length, flat, and oval-shaped like; a bit like a sunflower seed.
• Bed bugs can go up to a year without a blood meal
• A bed bug’s saliva features an anesthetic to numb the pain as it?s biting. It also contains anti-coagulant to keep the blood of it’s meal host flowing.
• Furniture that is inspected should be inspected thoroughly. Remove pull out drawers and inspect any and all small creases and openings.
• Taking apart furniture is often advised you want to get at the source of the bed bugs infestation. Doing this in a garage or outdoors is preferred if possible.
• The covering on the bottom a box spring bed should be taken off for inspection and treatment measures. If the infestation is severe, you may want to dispose of the mattress.
• Bed bugs are many times also found underneath the edges carpets, where ceilings and walls meet, behind light switch covers and outlets, in clothes, inside appliances, and behind baseboards and carpet stays.

Itching:

There are a number of things you can do to stop the itching.

1. Apply a calamine lotion to each bed bug bite of area of bites.
2. Do not scratch the bed bugs bites. Everyone will react differently to bed bug bites. Some people may not even notice them. Others will have a very intense itching sensation. Scratching only makes the itching worse and can actually cause an infection.

Bed bugs dangers:

When a bed bug bites it injects an anti-blood clotting chemical into the skin. Some people may actually be allergic to bed bugs and the degree of itching is determined by how allergic a person is. If you notice any signs of infection, call your physician IMMEDIATELY. Scratching the bites can also result in an infection. If you do not get an infection, the bites are simply an irritating nuisance. It may take a few weeks for the itching to subside and for the welts to disappear. BED BUGS DO NOT CARRY PATHOGENS as mosquitoes or ticks do!