Hi, my name is Kristin,

I’m glad you found my website. I decided to write about my family’s struggles with bed bugs  and share the solution I discovered.  If you’re reading this, you probably are fighting a similar, frustrating battle. That’s why I wanted to create this website and share this simple story – Bed Bugs & How to Get Rid of  Them!

(If you’re in a hurry to get rid of the bed bugs,  click her to visit the website where I found a program to permanently get rid of bed bugs. )

It never even occurred to me that my family would have to deal with something like bed bugs – I mean, I take a clean house seriously. Until we started waking up with red splotches on our backs and arms, the possibility of having bed bugs wasn’t something that entered my mind. But it soon became something that was on my mind a lot for quite some time.

Bed bugs?!  Really?  Really. At first I was embarrassed and felt like I had failed my family. I didn’t want anyone to know about the bed bugs because I thought people would think that I didn’t keep a clean house.  But I found out that bed bugs are having a resurgence of late and have become all too common.

So, I was determined to get to the bottom of this and stop the creepy crawlies that I suspected were living in my mattresses and causing my kids to be scared of their own beds.  I’d had enough bites, enough itching, and enough of feeling unsettled in my own bed.

I did what most people would do, and I called an exterminator.  He was extremely professional and kind, but after a few weeks, it seemed like there was only a minor improvement.  After that, I tried every pesticide product I could get my hands on. I was desperate. Some didn’t work at all and others seemed to work, but the bugs would always reappear in a relatively short time.

I decided I needed to get educated and really understand what caused the problem and what would solve it. So, I read everything I could find, and when I was done I had waded through the hype and useless information and found what I to tackle my bed bug problem. You don’t need to spend the hundreds of dollars and endless hours I did trying to find the information you need to battle bed bugs. The two books that gave me the information I needed to both get rid of the bed bugs I already had, and prevent new ones from moving in, the two below, and each one is only $17.95 each!

Bed Bug Beware		Remove Bed Bugs Guide

Once I was educated about the problem and effective prevention and eradication techniques, I turned to the bed bug specialists for the products that would keep my family safe at home and while traveling. They have a great selection of productions including bedding protectors.

After a lot of anguish and trial and error, I finally found a one-two combination that worked for me – knowledge and strategies from two very good books, and preventative and eradication products from Bed Bug Supply. It’s not a “quick fix” scam, but rather an effective program that ensures that the bugs die, and stay dead.  It’s also a do-it-yourself solution, which means that you’re just paying for the product, and not the time and labor of an expensive exterminator!  I’ll be frank – bed bugs can be hard to get rid of, but I’m proof that one persistent stay at home mom can do it.

It seems like too many parents are not getting the break from parenting responsibilities that they need in order to be refreshed and keep themselves mentally and physically healthy. If you have trouble finding a babysitter, check Sittercity.com, the online babysitter registry. It’s affordable (be sure to get the Sittercity Promotion code) and they have babysitters available in just about any location. You need to take care of your children’s mother. They need you at your best.

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on how to get rid of bed bugs.  I’m trying to learn all the different methods so that I can find the one that I’m comfortable with and that will get the job done.  I don’t want to use a lot of dangerous chemicals that could hurt my two girls, but I don’t want to try a bunch of half-baked solutions that don’t really work, either.

I came across some natural solutions that sound intriguing.  We try to live sustainably and “be green” here in the house, so I first investigated natural methods to get rid of bed bugs.

• Heat. Even if you use a professional exterminator, you are going to be supplementing his pesticides with heat.  You’re always advised to steam clean everything in a room with bed bugs, including clothing, bookcases, rugs – well, pretty much anything with a surface for the bugs to live on.  Heat is going to be a part of your efforts no matter what, but the more I read, the more it became apparent that heat can’t do the job all on its own.  You must combine using heat with other bed bug extermination methods.
• Cold. Bed bugs can be frozen out, in a manner of speaking.  Temperatures below freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) will kill bed bugs, but not instantly.  If you have a room infested with bed bugs, you could choose to put your mattress, pillows, and box spring in a low temperature environment for about 2 weeks.  For most people, this is a tall order, but it is a natural solution that will work.  You still would need to treat the rest of the room in some other method, unless you can seal off the room and open the window during cold weather for an extended period of time.  This method seems impractical for many people, but it is a way to kill bed bugs.
• Dogs. I actually learned about this one from one of my girls, who was watching a TV episode on the home and garden channel about a couple trying to get rid of bed bugs!  Dogs can be trained to sniff out bed bugs, so you can target the specific location where they’re living.  The only problem with this method is that bugs could get missed if the dog trainer isn’t very careful with handling the dog.  However, you can hire a trainer and dog to come out and sniff after other treatment methods are used to ensure that all traces of bed bugs are gone.

But your approach to bed bugs should always begin with prevention, and the #1 preventative strategy is mattress protectors. I like the selection at Bed Bug Supply. They KNOW bed bugs!

I started this site because I wanted to document my efforts to figure out how to get rid of the bed bugs that had infested my home.  My two young girls were experiencing extreme itching and discomfort, not to mention unsightly red blotches all over their arms and back.  I had to act fast.  My plan of action was first to research what DOESN’T work to get rid of bed bugs, because I didn’t want to waste time with crackpot ideas from questionable sources online.

I came up with a list of things that DO NOT work to rid your home of bed bugs.

• Turning the thermostat either up or down. Though I have read all over that heat and cold can kill bed bugs, the heat and cold needed is beyond what your thermostat is capable of handling.  The heat needed is steam heat or near-boiling water temperatures, and the cold needed is below freezing.  Neither of these is desirable, or really even possible, in a house with a family, like mine.
• Fumigation. Fumigation was always the first thing I thought of doing when I had a bug problem in the home.  Fumigation can kill live bed bugs, but it is powerless to stop any sort of another infestation.  Fumigation in tandem with other eradication methods is effective, but all on it’s own, it is a gamble.  It’s also very expensive for something that may not end up working.
• Aerosols and Foggers. These methods are good for killing bugs you see in your home, but one of the trickiest things about bed bugs is that they’re so elusive.  It is hard to catch a bed bug in action, so it would be really hard to kill an entire infestation with a few cans of bug spray.  Any spray you use should be specifically intended for eradicating a bed bug infestation.
• Glue Traps. This method is best left to a cockroach problem.  As far as I can tell, there aren’t any successful stories of ridding a home of bed bugs using glue traps.

Leaving an infested room unoccupied. It’s completely understandable that you’d want to sleep somewhere else while ridding your room of bed bugs.  But, you can’t just vacate the home for a few weeks and hope that the bed bugs starve to death in your unoccupied mattress.  Bed bugs are capable of dormancy for up to 18 months, so unless leaving your home or bedroom for a few years is a practical option, you’re best off not to try this one.

Click here to see what DID worked for me to permanently get rid of bed bugs.