This is the third and final part of my personal account of my experience with bed bugs, and how I finally got rid of them. To read my detailed account about how I discovered I had them in the first place, check out part 1 – my personal experience, and for some more detailed knowledge about bed bugs in general, I recommend you check out part 2 – knowing the enemy.

Now, the first and most important thing that you should do, after you are absolutely certain that you have bed bugs in your residence (hopefully, you’ve been collecting the ones you’ve managed to catch or kill), is call an exterminator. If you are living in a managed apartment dwelling, you will need to contact your building manager or owner instead. Your building owner is required, by law, to cover the cost of treatment for any apartment that has a bed bug infestation. So don’t be shy or embarrassed about telling him, unless you actually enjoy sharing your apartment with human blood-sucking insects.

Exterminators have a lot of experience with getting rid of bed bugs. They have more first-hand knowledge about the kinds of places bed bugs like to hide, and most importantly, they have much better chemicals then you’re going to be able to buy at your local convenience store.

When the exterminator came to our place, we had to leave for around 4 hours. He came in carrying this big sprayer, and I had no idea what was inside it, except that it was going to be filling our apartment with dangerous fumes for a few hours. I got to experience a bit of it when I had to come back to my apartment to get something around an hour later, and after the exterminator was already gone. I tried to hold my breath, but I inhaled a bit, and it was really strong and almost choking.

Well, we returned to our apartment at the end of the day, and the smell wasn’t too bad anymore. We wondered how effective it was. Our furniture was turned over, things were pulled away from the wall, and our bed mattresses were standing up on their ends. The exterminator had also said that his spray was residual, and should continue to kill bugs that he may have  happened to miss or that haven’t hatched yet, for the next couple of weeks.

The next day, we noticed something strange. Before our apartment was sprayed, we would never see a bed bug in the daytime, but all of a sudden, we were seeing them sometimes. A few of them climbed up the wall right in front of us, most likely because they were sick from the chemicals. Of course, we killed at first site, any bed bugs that happened to make an appearance.

We didn’t just rely on the exterminator, though. From our own experience, and after doing extensive research on the internet, we learned of things we could do ourselves to help prevent ourselves from getting bitten. One of those things was to make it almost impossible for a bed bug to reach us in our bed. We started collecting large coffee cans and used them for putting our bed frame legs inside. Then we put some oil inside the can. That would definitely stop them from crawling up our bed frame legs to reach us.

Maxwell House coffee cans make good bed bug shields

There is another way that bed bugs can reach you in your bed, too. They can crawl on the ceiling! I think it is a bit difficult for the bigger ones to crawl on a smooth ceiling, but I definitely saw the smaller ones crawling on the ceiling right above our bed, probably just getting ready to drop down. Our solution for this was to put double sided tape around the perimeter of the bed. I know that at least one time, this worked, because one morning I found a bed bug upside down right below the tape. If a bed bug is on its back, it can’t do anything except move its legs, and one of the only ways that could have happened is if it fell directly down on its back from the ceiling. Just make your own double sided tape using some cheap, wide packaging tape.

Looks ugly, but will stop anything from crawling above your bed

Besides doing all that, we spent a lot of extra time vacuuming the baseboards, checking and vacuuming under the couches and cushions, putting our mattresses up on their sides to vacuum them, and also vacuuming the crevices of the bed frame. Spraying with Raid was also part of the regular routine. We sprayed all the same places that we vacuumed. The kind of Raid we used was one that claimed it could kill bed bugs, and also said it would leave a residue for 2 weeks that would continue the killing.

This raid claims to kill bed bugs

Now, it has been more than two years since that night when I first discovered we had a serious bed bug infestation, and I’m completely confident they are long gone. I would say it took around two months after the exterminator’s visit, combined with our own efforts as described above, to finally feel comfortable living and sleeping in our apartment again.  However, even now, if ever I feel a tingling feeling, even if it is just one of my little toe hairs touching against my skin, I will still get down and check just to be safe. It’s best not to become careless and complacent, and I definitely don’t want to go through all the stress and trouble again.