Bed Bug Treatment #4

This treatment came to quickly to ask for help.  Since we were in the hospital last week, I wasn't able to plan for it.  Thankfully Don was still able to watch the girls for us, so I could prep our home.  It takes about two or more hours to prep your home for one treatment.  After treatment there are many more hours of washing bedding, not to mention heating all the clean clothes that were in drawers.  Bed bug treatments can be anywhere from three to five treatments, which ours is five.  I have spent so much time on this house, I could have a full time job just for our home alone.  This has taken a toll on our family life.

So many people are unfamiliar with bed bugs and that is the one reason that these bugs are starting to become more common.  Some people don't have a reaction to them, so their home can become infested before they find a problem.  Thankfully that wasn't the case here, but one bed bug is way to many.  As embarrassing as this is, even though bed bugs aren't a sign of dirtiness.  I'm trying to create awareness for this.  So it doesn't become someones nightmare.

This is what our house looks like after a bed bug treatment!

Couch and cushions sprayed.

 

Guest room bed sprayed, even though no bed bugs live here.

Taliah's room sprayed, even though no bed bugs live here.

Bedding and clothes sealed in bags in her room.

Hallway with more bedding and clothing sealed in bags.

Books taken out of bookshelf and girls' room.

Their dresser and bookshelf sprayed for precaution.

Everything torn apart to spray.

Our room with drawers sprayed.

Our bed sprayed, hiding behind the mattress our headboard another bed bug heaven.

They have somehow migrated to our couch, which has remained bed bug free up until recently.  They disappeared from our room or we weren't getting any bites for about a month and a half until we started getting bites before the exterminator came.  Since the girls' room is the most infested now since their bed is a bed bug heaven.  We have found ourselves treating them like they have the plague in the morning.  They have to get out of their night clothes and change right away and no more jumping into our bed to snuggle in the morning.

Part of the prep work I did before the exterminator came was to scrub the girls bed off with a cleaner to take off the eggs that were sitting on the wood and clean up the bed bug fecal stains.  I found two live bed bugs while doing detail work.  One the size of this first nymph, so small that I almost missed it.  The technician was finally was able to find some dead ones, only because my vacuum is broken. 

 

It takes about a week after spraying to notice a difference.  Treatment number five is a month away, so if I notice the feeling of bed bugs before then we will have to get another treatment.  Praying that doesn't happen.  I don't know how much more I can take.  Trying to find our clothes and clothes for the girls to wear after living out of bags for a couple days, while I try to get a handle on laundry that is clean.  Then putting our house together after the chemicals are dried.  Also making sure we give ourselves 30 minutes to heat our clothes before we leave the house.  Is all starting to become unbearable.

This is absolutely awful!  I would never wish these pests on my worst enemy.  Learn about bed bugs, so you can avoid getting them or passing them to someone else.  We heat our clothes, just to make sure we don't take them out of the house.  Don't let this nightmare become yours!  God I thank you for walking with us, help us to remain strong through these trying times.  Help us to give our worries to you.  Praying for everyone who is going through this bed bug madness, especially those in other countries who don't have exterminators.