Readers Respond: Got a Surefire Method to Murder Bedbugs?

Responses: 229

From Kathleen Crislip, former About.com Guide

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Go to the $1 store and get lots of white durable garbage bags (white so you can see what's in there), lots of bottles of rubbing alcohol, an empty spray bottle, double sided tape, duct tape, a big tarp, also it helps to have a good vacuum that does not use bags. i also purchased a few California king sized white bed sheets (the cheap ones are fine). Ok, so first off wash/dry and bag everything you can. Stuff what you cant wash in bags and put outside in the heat for at least 24hrs. Then empty a bedroom of everything. When completely empty, vacuum very well. Spray alcohol on entire carpet, lay down the tarp, put all the bed frames back in on top of the tarp with double sided tape along the legs and spray w/alcohol, spray mattress also, put in a bed bug protector cover. Dont put blankets back on until minutes before you go to sleep. Repeat this same process in every room only put the white sheets over your couches, vacuum everything 3x a day and lastly pay an exterminator to do the heat treatment..this works :)
—Guest brenna

I went and got home heaters. I brought some thermometers for each room and cut on my house heat and stove to get the degree I needed to kill the bed bug so my house got to 195°. it worked great; I threw nothing out, I just burned them out.
—Guest Blue star

To kill bedbugs you may want to put the thermastat to 200 degrees to try to kill them. After that you may want to be out of the house for 8-10 hours. After that, when you come in your home you feel heat in the house and put it at a proper temperature. Last,be outside for 5 hours and when you think it is normal for you and you will be shocked at how many bedbugs were killed. BY:Sufiyan Mannan
—Guest Sufiyan Mannan

My good friends had bed bugs and we got them because of that... they used bed defense to get rid of there bed bugs and then we did as well and it seems to have done the job. No more bites, rashes or anything. Give it a go.
—Guest Mary K

Threw out beds, used the 50/50 alcohol/water mix, did the bombs, currently using Diatomaceous (food grade) earth on perimeters of all rooms. Have replace the 2 other beds, & the couch. Now, I'm looking at dressers & reducing the storage/clutter in each bedroom. The devil's creation! Very hard to get rid of & emotionally, it's been hell. We see them maybe once a week now. it's usually only one or two small ones, but they are still there. absolutely disgusting. we have a clean home, we each take showers on a regular basis & wash our clothes after wearing them. The person who brought them to our home knew they had bed bugs! They would say, look at these bites, do you have fleas here? How does a person deal with another person like that??
—Guest disgusted

I've been dealing with bed bugs for months ..they are not gone.. I heard plenty of people say its pointless to get an exterminater .. its a waste of money and they're still there.. well I've sprayed down all beds with rubbing alchohol then saran wrapped them and sealed all ends with tape..then wrapped in foil, sealed that with masking tape and did the saran wrap again and seal with masking tape..put foot of bed frames in bowls with oil in em and put double sided tape up and down legs of beds and now we can sleep like a charm..we spray down all furniture with rubbing alcohol..but do note this is very flammable so don't smoke or use fire around anything you spray.. I also sealed all cracks with tape..we did eliminate them..
—Guest WAR w BED BUGS ideas from me

A steam cleaner works best!! I did sooo much research online finding a good steam cleaner with continuous operation and myvaporclean.com turned out to be the best company. They have commercial / residential Single boiler and continuous fill. They are a full service company and there customer service was AMAZING! They walked me through every detail to pick the steam cleaner for me and my tasks at home ( witch was killing bed bugs). I steamed everything form my mattress to my base boards and haven't had a problem with bed bugs since. I hope this helps!!
—Guest Emily Daiek

One cheap and easy way to get rid of bedbugs on clothes and small articles is to put them in a closed car on a hot sunny day. The heat easily reaches 130 in a short period of time.
—Guest Katt

You can get a form of cat litter that's pure silica gel and it dehydrates and kills them. Just grind it to a fine powder and lay a perimeter in cracks around bed etc. This is a preventative; if they are on your bed already that's a different story.
—Guest begbug killer

Alcohol works but you have to do it every day if they are in walls, coming from apt to apt, it's worse.
—Guest Barb

Killing Bed bugs really is not that difficult if you have the knowledge of how to do so correctly. Using a bed bug bomb or a fogging machine is the worst thing to do and will just spread the problem. Also, anyone that tells you they found an amazing bed bug spray on the web and they never saw another bed bug in their life is probably advertising ha. Just read up on bed bugs, their habits, where they harbour, how often they breed, or just call a decent pest control company, check their webistes, mice has some bed bug videos that may help you , do not watch before bed though lol
—Guest Essex Pest Control and Bird Control

Another tip to try to keep them off you. Have a fan running blowing on or across you. This will help to dissipate the CO2 you exhale and also your body heat. The bugs locate you this way.
—Guest buggeroff

Never enter an R.V. without checking for bed bugs. i install cable and that's how we got bed bugs; it made our lives unbearable.
—Guest mike

Been reading some posts on bed bug forums saying that taking a Vitamin B-1 supplement about 100mg about 2 - 3 hours before going to bed will keep them from biting. I've been doing this for about a week and no bites that I am aware of and I would be aware because I react pretty badly to them. I also did replace my frame and box spring with a metal frame platform bed. Yes they can climb metal no problem but so far no new bites. Anyway if anyone here tries this post a response as the B-1 evidence is just anecdotal so far.
—Guest buggeroff

Thanks 4 the advice I'm doing the alcohol ammonia solution, I've been fighting these suckers for months. I've sprayed bedbug spray I got @ ace westlake,I've bombed and spraying again,I've vaccumed, did laundry. Bbites have gone down considerable. I even encased mattress and boxsprings. I have no idea where they came from.
—Guest traci