Bed Bug Termination - how to sync with and destroy a small colony

Created: 2024-02-18 Sun

Notes on how I manage to remove a colony of bed bugs from a bed I purchased second hand.

Instructions

  1. Buy the products shown below (can skip the optional one).
  2. Move the bed away from being in contact with any walls or furniture.
  3. Install the bed legs insect traps and add enough diatomaceous earth to ligthly cover the bottom of the trap.
  4. Install the mattress cover.
  5. Once a week (the same day of the week) for 9 weeks:
    • Heat dry your bedsheets (including pillows) for 45 minutes.

      NOTE: When removing the bedsheets move slowly so that insects won't be thrown off the bed. Also put the bedsheets in garbage bags to move them to the drier. I don't want the bed bugs to be spread around the house.

    • Meticulously heat clean the bed frame

      NOTE 1: Lift the mattress off the bed and also lift the mattress box off the bed. Heat the mattres box carefully. Some plastic material might melt if you expose it to heat for too long.

      NOTE 2: On the bed frame (parts that can't melt) move the heat gun nozel slowly (1 cm/sec) so that I allow the region to heat up. Bed bugs get killed after being exposed to the hot air for about 4 seconds. Make sure they don't get blown away - they tend to squirm and try to get away just before they die. Use the flashlight to see any motes of dust or bed bugs being lifted in the air.

      NOTE 3: For parts of the bed frame that melt I add diatomaceous earths on them to prevent bed bugs from hanging out there (i.e. the plastic corners of the mattress box)

      NOTE 4: Eggs are stuck (mostly) to surfaces. Kill them using the hot air and then use a toothpick to peel them from their location.

      NOTE 5: After the heat treatment vacuum all the regions around the bed.

  6. Continue sleeping in the bed where the bed bugs live for the 9 weeks of the treatment.
  7. This should be it. Don't stress. Trust the process.

Products

product_bed_legs_insect_trap
Product Notes Pictures
Mattress cover $39

I covered my mattress so that bed bugs cannot easily hide in the folds of the mattress. 		Mattress Cover
Diatomaceous earth $10

Use food grade diatomaceous earth in case pets, kids or myself ingest it. 		Diatomaceous earth
Bed legs insect trap $28

I add diatomaceous earth in the channel of the insect trap and around the mattress box. 		Bed legs insect trap
3D print Bed legs insect trap [OPTIONAL] "free"

If you can't order the bed legs traps from Amazon or you have a 3D printer I designed these insect traps that you can 3D print. 		Bed legs insect trap
Mini Heat Gun $17

I use the heat gun to kill the bed bugs in hard to reach corners of the bed. 		Mini Heat Gun
Flash light $10

I needed a flashlight to look in the poorly lit corners of the bed frame. 		Flash light
Steam Cleaner [OPTIONAL] $87

Instead of the heat gun I also got a steam cleaner. I ended up not using it because it dripped a lot and would trip my outlet fuse. 		Mini Heat Gun

My experience

At the end of August 2023 I bought a second hand canopy bed from a seller in town. Once I brought the bed home I washed the frame with hot water and detergent and installed it in my bedroom. At that time I saw some small black dots on the bed frame but did not think much about them.

NOTE: Now I know that small black dots on wood furniture are indicative of bed bugs poop.

About 4 weeks later when I woke up in the morning I noticed a small insect crawling on my bedsheet. I killed the insect by heating it up with my phone light. After a quick search I figured out that the insect was a bed bug.

At this point I started looking into how to get rid of bed bugs. I watched Mark Robber's bed bug videos and went to the bed bugs subreddit and looked into the bed bugs lifecycle:

bed bug life cycle

And then I implemented the following treatment schedule.
My treatment schedule
Date Event Notes Pictures
2023-09-22 Observed first bed bug
2023-09-29 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 4x mature
  • 5x stage 5
  • 8x stage 4
  • 12x stage 2-3
Total: ~30
2023-10-02 Installed bed bug traps
2023-10-05 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 3x stage 4
  • 6x stage 1-3
Total: ~9
2023-10-12 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 2x stage 1-3
  • 6x eggs
Total: ~2
2023-10-19 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 2x stage 4
  • 4x stage 1-3
  • 3x eggs
  • 5x empty husks
Total: ~6
2023-10-25 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 2x stage 4
  • 7x stage 1-3
  • 8x empty husks
Total: ~9
2023-10-30 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome:
  • 1x stage 3
  • 2x stage 1-2
  • 4x empty husks
Total: ~3
2023-11-07 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome: no bed bugs.
2023-11-22 Heat blower, dry bedsheets, blanket and pillows. Approximate outcome: no bed bugs.

At this point I didn't notice any more bed bugs or bed bugs eggs. This has been the situation up to 2024-02-18.

Rationale / Recommendations

  • First I need to enforce a reproduction period for the bed bugs so that when I do my treatments most individuals will be the same age. The idea here is that I don't want mature individuals to survive. I am OK with juveniles surviving as long as they don't get to reproduce. My treatment period should be shorter than the transition to each new cycle.
  • I want to continue sleeping in the same bed where the bed bugs live. I do not want to sleep in another room because:
    • I don't want the bed bugs to spread to another room.
    • I need to keep feeding the bed bugs so they continue growing through their life cycles and they don't go into hibernation. If they enter hibernation they can live up to 1.5 years.
  • I could have used a hair drier but I decided to use an electronics heat gun because bed bugs are about the same size and weight as small surface mount electronics. From my observations if I use to strong air flow the bed bugs will be blown off the surface by the air flow before they are killed by the heat of the air.

    I also recommend using the smaller heat gun (350W only) because I didn't need extreme temperature (100dC is enough). A heat gun that uses more power (1800W) could trip the circuit fuse.
  • When doing my heat gun treatments look for bed bugs hiding spots in the frame of the bed:
    Hiding spot Pictures
    Bed box plastic corner
    Bed box plastic corner view from top
    Bed frame hinges
    Bed frame screw holes
  • When applying the heat treatment to the bed frame I used a flash light to look for bed bugs and also for eggs. I placed the flash light's beam horizontal to the frame surface to better see eggs.
  • Keep an eye out for bed bug poop on the bedsheets. Bed bugs poop soon after they eat. This can indicate there are still some juveniles around.
Good luck removing these little pests from your bedroom!