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Comment by throwaway892238 | Hacker News Reader

FWIW, diatomaceous earth works just fine against bed bugs. Cover the surface of basically everything in your home (the mattress, the floor, under the bed, the bed frame, headboard, box spring, baseboards, on top of and under carpets, drapes, whatever) in diatomaceous earth powder. Leave for 12-24 hours. Vaccum it up. That's it! You'll want to wear a respirator to keep from breathing it in (it's non-toxic but may irritate your lungs).

Borax is also effective, though it may need to be wet first and may take longer to work. Diatomaceous earth doesn't work if wet.

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> Leave for 12-24 hours

If you leave, the bugs will stay safe wherever they are since there won't be any host to attract them. And the eggs are most likely in tiny hole and won't be affected by the diatomaceous earth. Maybe it'll help to reduce the colony, but I'm skeptical it'll solve the problem.

I presume he means leave the diamotaceous earth, not leave your house. You sleep normally after putting it down.

Do you really want a respiratory irritant on your mattress? Vacuuming might remove a decent fraction, but it won’t get all of it.

Put a plastic sheet over the mattress and a HEPA filter in the room and I'd say your worries are over

The bedbugs under the plastic will also be worry free.

Encase in a plastic bag and they will die eventually

You can buy anti-allergy zippered mattress enclosures that are supposedly impermeable to bedbugs. If they’re made well, they will be permeable to air and a lot more comfortable than a plastic bag.

Can't bed bugs last 6 months to a year without feeding? Have fun waiting them out

What’s the issue with waiting them out? You’re not comfortable sleeping with a mattress protector or something?

What is the HEPA filter for, are bedbugs airborne?

Yeah, I was always worried about getting some kind of silicosis.

From[1]:

> A very small amount of crystalline diatomaceous earth may be found in pesticide products. Long-term inhalation of the crystalline form is associated with silicosis, chronic bronchitis, and other respiratory problems. The bulk of diatomaceous earth is amorphous, not crystalline. The amorphous form is only associated with mild, reversible lung inflammation.

[1] http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/degen.html

>>Do you really want a respiratory irritant on your mattress?

Once you have a bed bug infestation, your mattress is pretty much gone anyway. You have to replace it, or risk living through the nightmare in only weeks after this.

One thing to note with diatomaceous earth is it works best with an even dusting. You don't want to just spread clumps. Many but not all bags come with a little device for spraying it as a nice fine dust.

That’s how you develop silicosis while the beasts stay put in a crack in the wall.

This is bad advice, don't bullshit please. Bed bug egg gestation is ~6 days

Give the bugs another dose of poison next week, after they've begun crawling out of their eggs but before they've had a chance to reproduce. Repeat a few times and you'll definitely begin to see progress.

until eggs hatch again and you're back to square 1. It's really hard getting rid of them.

It's a long game. We're in the middle of it. Daily vacuuming, steam treatments, diatomaceous earth spray, and commercial exterminators have all been used. I think we're starting to see progress.

i heard at some party then when u got a bedbug problem, its time to change your life.

Perhaps that is true. We've not been on vacation since the trip that brought them home with us. We're not going to stay in anymore small town hotels anymore.

The funny thing is Ed Sheeran was at the same place a few weeks after our visit.

Sheeran updates his lyrics to:

"Now my bedsheet are stained of you!

First time hearing this, but after I moved into an apartment with a bad bedbug infestation, I really changed my life.

I ended up marrying the girl I was dating, finished my PhD that was going nowhere, etc.

I attribute it to seeing how bad mediocrity, and just letting things be can get.

I believe they take 2 weeks to reach maturity (when they can lay eggs), so if you treat every week you should get them all after a few cycles. Not easy, but doable.

Borax also works really well against ants. I had a terrible infestation, and put it all around where they were coming inside. It must have wiped them out at the source when they brought it back to the nest, because I never saw them again, even outside.

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