To keep bedbugs at bay, the really old timers used to

[shraby]

put a container under the legs of their beds and had a tiny bit of kerosene in them. We have bug killers now, why not put a bit of it in the container? At the least it might keep a person from being bitten during the night.

[tabatha]

1. The feeding parts of creatures of that size get stuck

in oil. Just a physical instead of chemical barrier.

[shraby]

5. A barrier is better than getting a bite or ten.

[tabatha]

10. Bathe in vaseline, or something like that.

[TwilightGardener]

2. That's not a bad idea. I'm not sure I've ever seen one, but all the media attention

is making me ever so slightly paranoid...

[LoZoccolo]

3. I don't know if you'd want to be breathing those fumes like that.

I've seen something like that, though, where they have specially-designed cups that the bed bugs cannot crawl out of to your floor or into from the floor.

Another person here says it's good to get one of those European steam cleaners and go over your mattress with it.

[napi21]

4. That would probable work. I've also heard than Cedar maybe doesn't

kill them but it makes them go away and find a new place to infest. Listen to te ad on Randi's show. Cedarcide is the brand they're promoting and they mention bed bugs. I wouldn't suggest trying to sleep on cedar chips like many dog beds have in them, but maybe cedar spray or things like they put in closets to dispell moths might work.

[Warpy]

6. Kids and pets can get into the poison, so it's not a great idea.

Besides, if you've got bedbugs, they hide in mattress seams and tufting and in the cracks of the furniture. They're tiny.

If you get an infestation, the best thing to do is get a plastic cover for the mattress, run all bedding through the clothes dryer every morning to kill any bugs or eggs that are in it, and treat the bed frame.

DDT might have to make a comeback, carefully vacuumed up with a HEPA filter on the vacuum after all the bugs are dead. That's about all that will kill a serious infestation.

Old timers had mostly straw mattresses, so they'd pitch the straw and boil all the linens if they got bitten. They'd paint the cracks in the bed with kerosene. They'd repack the mattress with fresh straw and go to bed with a smelly bedstead and boiled, clean linens. THAT is what they did.

Today, it's got to be the plastic cover.

[blue neen]

7. It's worth a try, but from what I've been told they hide in the mattresses, too.

It's a nasty situation.

[aquart]

15. They can also hide in electronics.

How's that for a perfection of terror?

[csziggy]

8. Diatomaceous earth is supposed to work for bedbugs

I guess you could actually dust the mattress with it, though I would thorough vacuum it first, then dust the mattress and under the bed with the DE.

I'm about to try DE for the silverfish in my library and was surprised to see it recommended for bedbugs.

[gkhouston]

11. It's good for fleas, that's for damned sure. About 20 years ago, we had a bumper

crop of fleas--some freaky weather pattern contributed to the problem--and everyone had fleas chewing up their pets and snacking on people, too. It was hideous. Anyway, the DE does work a treat, but I'd recommend using a mask.

[Systematic Chaos]

12. DE will only work on eggs and hatchlings.

Doesn't do much for the larger ones because the dust is too small to "clog" up their feeding appendages or whatever.

[csziggy]

14. According to what I read today, DE works to dehydrate the critters

Not clog their breathing or feeding apparatus as I had previously thought. It removes the waxy layer of the chitin and allows more moisture to evaporate than normal. So it should work on any age insect.

[Speck Tater]

9. Mineral oil works just as good. Even olive oil works, but it gets rancid after a few months nt

[daleo]

13. If you live in a cold area

Taking stuff outside (say, an unheated garage) for a couple of days during a cold snap is supposed to work. But it has to really get cold (well below freezing).

[JCMach1]

16. Bedbugs are like vampires, they despise sunlight, that's why in the old days

they used to place their mattresses outside when the weather was good in the bright sunshine!

[xchrom]

17. Kick for information and because I HATE the very idea

Of bedbugs.

[Monique1]

18. This is what they did on the farms

many years ago when I was a child - they use to take off the bedding and put a slab of butter in a dish on the mattress - don't know if that worked but I do remember my aunt doing that. She had a dairy at the time.