This week I’ve been sharing a three-part series on a creepy topic: Bed bugs. Monday I told about our experience of finding bed bugs in our box springs and learning that bed bugs are making a global comeback . . . not simply in the midst of poverty and dirt but in the suitcases of travelers and through innocent-looking neighborhoods. Wednesday I explained what we learned about the most effective way to get rid of bed bugs and all that included for our family. Past. Present. But—what about moving forward? Today I want to discuss how you can prepare your home to protect yourselves from re-infestations.
I’m usually a pretty happy-go-lucky person who has never suffered from obsessions, OCD issues, or PTSD. But, I now have a glimmer of empathy from our brief Battle of the Bulging Bugs. 😦
The next morning after having our house treated and heated to 150°F, it was still a toasty 90°F. in our kitchen when we returned home . . . and hotter in the bedrooms. I expected to see exoskeletons of bed bugs in heaps here and there, but even with the closest inspection, we only found 2 dead bugs anywhere. In a way I was relieved, but in a way I was still creeped out. What if they didn’t all die? What if they were still hiding out, waiting for our return? I’d read that bed bugs can survive up to 300 days without a meal deal. “What if? What if? What if?” kept swirling in my head.
Thankfully, the Michigan Bed Bug Specialists were not only excellent exterminators, they were versed in mental health therapy! No matter what happens in life, you can’t stop living. Right? That’s true if you lose your mate or have a cancer diagnosis, and it’s certainly true if you’ve had trouble in other areas. It’s easy to fear driving after a bad accident, and I found it was also easy to fear traveling if there’s a reasonable risk for bringing home buggy bedfellows.
Our MBBS team wasn’t the least bit pushy, but when asked, they gave good advice. Enough to make us feel like we had a reasonable strategy for protecting ourselves and our home. In this post, I’ll tell you what they recommended. They don’t get any commissions from any companies, nor do I, so this isn’t a product placement project. This is simply passing on what they’ve found through research and experience to be helpful, and we’ve been happy to hear and take their advice. Speaking of which, if you or someone you love needs help diagnosing or curing a bedbug problem, I can definitely recommend these guys: https://michiganbbs.com/
First, make every bed an “island” so that it’s only touching the floor on its legs. Bed bugs can’t fly or jump; they only crawl. We pulled our bed away from the wall and took everything out from under the bed. We also had to buy a new box spring, but that was because I couldn’t stand having live bed bugs in our house for even a day!
Next, buy plastic “encasement” covers for all your box springs and mattresses that zip shut and cover all six sides of each item. We discovered that this is an expensive project.
The best mattress covers include “Zip-N-Click” lock covers so no bug can sneak through the zipper, and the guys from Michigan Bed Bug Services (MBBS) said that “Clean Rest” covers have a 10-year warranty and are rated #1.
We did get these “best-of-kind” encasement covers for our bed, which was the only bed where bugs were sited, but they are very pricey, so we read reviews and came up with an “almost-as-good-as” solution for the other beds, which get only occasional use.
I think you can get excellent alternatives on Amazon for about half the price of Clean Rest.
Ours for the other beds had velcro covers over the zippers that seemed about 99% likely to be sufficient.
Once you’ve made a commitment to playing the never-let-anything-touch-anything game, then you have to have a method for stopping bed bugs from climbing up the legs of your bed.
The first-place prize goes to “Blackout Interceptors,” which look like this. The leg goes in the middle of the middle. The outside surface of the cup is finished in such a way that a bed bug can climb up. However, if it tries to go over the top, it will fall into the inside, which is like a dry moat (if you can imagine your bed being your castle).
The sides are so slippery the bugs cannot get out or climb up onto the inside section, so they can’t get to you, and if you check your “traps” every once in a while, you’ll know if you have any bed bugs in your home, since bed bugs WILL find you.
Even though adults are only about the size of an apple seed, they can travel up to 4 feet an hour, so in a day or two, they’ll track you down, drawn by the carbon dioxide you exhale (similar to mosquitoes—bane of temperate climates).
Some of our bunk beds with rectangular legs were too big for the Blackout interceptors, and again—the best-rated are also the most costly. We found some highly rated alternatives for beds that couldn’t be fitted with circular interceptors.
Alan and I might have gone a little overboard, but we don’t want to exchange bed bugs with any of our children or friends, and we have lots of company, so we went the extra mile (although this wasn’t a recommendation of MBBS).
“We” (really my beloved husband) spent a solid two weeks running every bit of our bedding through the sanitation cycles on our washer and dryer to make sure every dead bug was also (hopefully) a gone bug. Again, we never saw a single bug anyway, so this may have been our paranoia kicking in, but we figured “better safe than sorry.”
Our home turned into a laundromat, and we were still churning out the last of the fresh pillows for a couple of weeks (and threw out/bought new for a bunch too).
Rather than remaking the beds, we bought a set of plastic bins and filled them with the bedding needed for each bed. This will keep them dust-free until we have company. It sure doesn’t look as pretty, so I don’t know if we’ll ever relax on this or not, but it should keep down dust mites and allergens.
Just a few days after having our home treated, we were due to fly to Seattle for a week to visit our daughter’s family. Our MBBS guy said his oldest son was on a travel hockey team, and he used to fear picking up bed bugs in hotels with all the sweaty gear and constant travel. He recommends never setting a suitcase on a bed or the floor, but instead keep them on the wire racks or on top of tables. If you have any questions about the cleanliness of your hotel room, you can leave your suitcases in the bath tub, since it also has an extremely slippery surface.
The last step we’ve taken is to buy “Nuvan Prostrips” which are highly toxic and should only be used where there’s no danger or a child or pet being exposed. What we now do when we travel is place everything inside an industrial strength extra large garbage bag (can be found locally at big box stores) and twist-tie it closed before placing it in a suitcase. We bring a similar-sized black trash bag with a sealed (ideally wrapped in foil and then in a ziplocked plastic bag) Nuvan strip already placed inside one of the white “hangers.”
Luggage stored inside industrial-strength trash bags with Nuvan strips
When we arrive at our destination, we put our suitcase in the bath tub, take our belongings out of the black trash bag and transfer them to wherever (in Seattle, our daughter lent us their big suitcase). We turn the black trash bag inside out and twist tie it, then discard it outside in the trash. We place our luggage inside the fresh trash bag after opening the Nuvan strip. In contact with air, the Nuvan strip produces a toxic gas that kills bed bugs (although it has no odor, so it’s important that you not breathe it and wash thoroughly if you touch it). We seal everything ( slightly open suitcases and Nuvan strips inside the trash bags) with twist ties and store them away from family (like a shed or garage) until we’re ready to travel again, and then we repeat the process. So far, so good. I hope this story doesn’t produce sequels, but if it does, I’ll let you know!
Finally, if you are invaded by bed bugs, or cockroaches, or whatever horrible insect, don’t let it “eat” you from the inside out. I was driving myself crazy thinking every bit of lint might be a bed bug. I bought a magnifying glass (for $10) and was inspecting every speck. Thankfully, after a few days I realized there were no bugs to be seen anywhere, and I was being unnecessarily over-vigilant, wasting time and emotional energy. I began repeating to myself the wisdom from Proverbs:
“The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord.”
Proverbs 21:31
Truly, God wants us to look to Him for our peace and rescue. Do everything we can? For sure, but no amount of vigilance will insure success. “Deliverance is of the Lord.”
Summer Setting 