Me: 5
Ruby: 14 (at least)
In order to catch up (pun), I went to Wal-Mart again today and got three items: Army cot, mineral oil, and trash bags (read: body bags). The idea is that the mineral oil in these plastic containers at the feet of the cot will coat them in oil as they try to climb the legs of the cot, and they'll be too slippery to climb out of the containers. Then I wake up in the morning and say SCOREBOARD in their faces.
I have slept in my car for the past three nights. This is probably more comfortable than the cot, but (as morbid as it sounds) I need to use myself for bait. I won't be able to catch any or see if they're still in the apartment if there is not a CO2-emitting body in the place.
Last night I told my department at a reading that I had bed bugs. Two girls who've had them before agreed that the only way to get rid of them is a heat or steam treatment. Pesticides are useless, they both said.
Costs: -Cot: $43 (might be able to return this)
-Mineral oil: $1.50
That's the exact same cot that I used when I had bed bugs! Your strategy looks good. When you catch another bed bug, put it in an empty container and see if it can climb the walls. If it can't, then it's ok to use on each bed post. Because the posts are at an angle, you may have to cut the plastic so that it will fit in.
ReplyDeleteAfter I had done that to all of my posts, my bites went down from about 2/night to about 2/month. I still got bit occasionally at night and I'm not entirely sure how. They could have been dive bombing me from the ceiling. Make sure that when you're sleeping that your blanket doesn't go over the edge and touch the floor, because they will climb up it. I had to buy a sleeping bag since it didn't hang over much.
If you want to get even more serious, buy a white cover sheet and lay it over your carpet in your whole room. The bed bugs, if they are crawling about at night, will be easier to see than on a blue tarp. I remember waking up multiple times every night from 12AM to 4AM to check my floor and sure enough, I'd find one or so every night. In all I caught around 20 or so bed bugs but there were still more I'm sure.
Bed bugs can live up to a year without feeding, so it's unlikely that you'll ever exterminate all of them. Just aim to get bit as little as possible, then when your lease is up get the heck out of there.
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