The first one I saw was perched, Lord of all it surveyed, atop my pillow. It looked like a tiny black dot that had no right to be there, but something told my sleep deprived brain that it was significant. That sixth sense we all have that reminds us that something is out of place in our own home wrenched me out of bed at 2am on a Tuesday.
I switched on my bedside lamp (the brass one that I was so proud to have discovered at a car boot sale ages ago), and spotted them. No – not just one. Several small insects peppered across my white duvet cover.
My internal organs plummeted earthwards as I realised that this was not going to be a two minute ‘nuisance beetle’ job. Bedroom insects are surprisingly difficult to identify when you’re half asleep, wearing pyjamas and squinting at black moving dots.
Grabbing my phone torch, I leaned over my bed closer than was sanitary and examined them in detail.
They were tiny dark brown beetles, about the size of an apple seed. They shuffled rather than crawled which was enough to send me into full-on panic mode. The body shape was oval, flat…bed bugs.
Okay, so maybe I overreacted slightly. But with horror stories of people who’ve spent thousands on expert pest control services to rid their homes of bed bug infestations complete with fumigation and binning mattresses, it’s not hard to see why. I calmed down enough to put my phone down and do some research instead of calling the exterminators or hunting for my nearest flat ads.
First things first, I stripped my bed and found more of them. Clinging to the mattress seams; tucked into every crevice they could find. A few of them were congregating near the head of the bed where I lie every night, but there were also darker stains on the sheets – poop, I learned later.
Great. Investigating further I noticed small reddish-brown blotches on my pillow case and sheets where I’m sure I’d been crushing them in my sleep. Trying to work out where they came from is the difficult part.
Had I stayed in any hotels? No. Bought any second hand furniture?
Nope. Had any visitors stay overnight? Um, no…I suddenly remembered I’d purchased some old second-hand books from a charity shop earlier that week and left them, piled up, on my bedside cabinet.
Right next to my head. Ahha! DISCLAIMER: Try the following at your own risk.
I’m no expert but this worked for me! What I did before calling the professionals: There’s always a reluctance to call in the professionals – and quite frankly, I couldn’t afford it at the time. Hopefully, these tips will help you as much as other advice blogs helped me.
Heat is your friend! Wash, wash, wash! Okay, first thing’s first; empty your bed.
Grab all your linen that goes on your bed and throw it in the washing machine. On as hot a cycle as possible. Preferably 60 degrees for at least 30 minutes.
Your duvet too. Pillows. Any blankets or throws you keep on your bed.
Get it all hot washed. Anything that you can’t wash, throw in the dryer for 30 minutes at high heat. I stuffed my leather jacket into the dryer – it hadn’t made contact with my bed since I found them, but it was hanging over a chair in my bedroom so I didn’t take any chances.
Vacuum EVERYTHING! Next, grab your vacuum cleaner and go to town on your bed. Not just the mattress – every seam on the bed frame too.
Run the vacuum over your skirting boards and along your carpet edges – bed bugs love to hide in dust. Get the crevices of your bed frame too using the brush attachment to gather any strays inside your wooden bed frame. And don’t forget to remove the vacuum bag!
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Seal it in a plastic bag before disposing of it outside. Bed bugs can bite through plastic… Sprinkle, then vacuum My friend used this trick for flea control in her home. It’s called diatomaceous earth.
Apparently, it absorbs the oils from their outer shell essentially dehydrating them until they die. Food grade is perfect and is easily available online. Sprinkle it around your bed legs and along your skirting boards then vacuum it up after 24 hours.
It can’t hurt and it’s definitely cheaper than calling in an expert. Steam steam steam If you don’t own a steam cleaner, buy one. Preferably electrostatic.
Those dry clean your carpets and furniture by spraying a fine layer of water that dries super quickly. One of those. Or borrow your Mum’s handheld version (the one she uses to strip wallpaper).
You want to steam clean every inch of your mattress, your bed frame, and any nearby furniture. They can’t survive high temperatures so you’ll literally be killing any bugs that you find with your own eyes. Home remedies I resorted to all sorts of home remedies once I’d washed and vacuumed everything.
A lavender oil and water mixture in a spray bottle seems to repel them – but I’m not sure it kills them? Tea tree oil was better at killing them but my bedroom smelled of engine oil for weeks. Not unpleasant…but noticeable.
Get some protection This was the best thing I could have done besides calling an exterminator. Get some good zippered mattress and pillow protectors. Cover your mattress and pillows so that even if there are a few bugs lurking in the depths of your mattress they won’t be able to reach you to bite you at night.
About £40 for some decent ones. Move your bed away from the wall, and pop some interceptor traps underneath each of your bed legs. Bed bug interceptor traps are little dishes that the bed bugs can crawl into, but not back out of.
Buy them from various sources online or make your own using shallow dishes and a little petroleum jelly around the rim. I checked mine every morning when I woke up for a good few weeks. Got rid of a few more hiding bugs that way.
It took about three weeks for me to stop finding new ones. The first week I was finding plenty every day – but once I got into the routine of washing, vacuuming and spraying everything down I stopped finding them. By three weeks I wasn’t finding any new ones at all.
Tips and advice: – Don’t just focus on your bed. Once I finished my sheet run to the launderette I found more hiding in my curtains, behind picture frames and dammit even in the binding of a book on my shelf. Once they leave the bed during the day to hide, they tend to scatter and hide anywhere and everywhere.
So be sure to treat your whole room. – Will I call in professionals next time? Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong, it worked.
But it took up my life for three weeks.
Everyday I was checking, washing, vacuuming and spraying everything down. An expert could have come out and done it for me in a couple of days with the right tools.
Professional heat treatment or fumigation. Prevention is key: These days I cheque any second hand purchases before they come into my house – beware of second hand books, clothes and furniture. I even cheque hotel rooms before I get into bed.
I lift the sheets at the corner of the mattress and cheque the seams. It’s a tiny bit obsessive but once you’ve had bed bugs, there’s no living with them again. Peace of mind.
I left the interceptor traps under my bed legs for months after. Every time I hoovered my room I emptied them. Nothing ever lived inside long enough to escape.
Trust me, it’s worth the minor inconvenience of hoovering around them.
