Bedbug Infestation: A Bedbug Victim Goes to a Bedbug Convention

Our writer revisits the horror of his bedbug infestation when he evaluates the latest bedbug-fighting products, and he's frightened by how little the products do.

In 2008, my Brooklyn apartment got bedbugs. After two failed extermination attempts, I went insane and moved out after throwing away everything I owned except for a laptop, an iPod and two garbage bags of clothes that had been washed in antiseptic. I wrote about it for ShelterPop, and it was clear from the story that the bedbugs had left me on edge and generally not "OK". More recently, ShelterPop asked if I would cover the National Bed Bug Prevention Media Showcase -- yes, this is a real event -- and I agreed. That was a poor choice.



I walked into a storefront in Soho and found five tables set up in a wide open room, every inch of which was painted bright white. Reps from various pesticide companies were on hand to present the latest in bedbug prevention technology.

I first met Steve Bessette, President of EcoSMART Technologies, the company sponsoring the bedbug showcase, and entomologist Dr. Gretchen Paluch. They proudly presented EcoSMART's bedbug spray as a natural solution made almost entirely from essential oils extracted from plants like rosemary and thyme. In fact, they have a pesticide exemption from the EPA as there is nothing toxic to humans in any of their products. To stress the point, they had the plants displayed on their table.



Dr. Paluch explained that the oils attack the bedbugs' central nervous system and are powerful enough to kill the bugs on contact. While being completely harmless to humans, applying the spray to a mattress can repel bedbugs for up to eight hours at a time. That seemed all well and good, but as someone who's had bedbugs before and had great difficulty killing them, I would have much preferred if their table looked like this:



When I had bedbugs, I wanted them dead at any cost. Safety for myself and those around me became a very distant second priority; I wanted something that could kill me, but diluted down to a bedbug-killing level. So while the botanical spray from EcoSMART seemed like an effective way to keep bedbugs away from me when I stayed in a hotel, it wasn't a weaponized solution for an infestation in your home. As I left the table, Dr. Paluch offered me a dead bedbug entombed in plastic. It now resides in my freezer.



At another table was a product made by a company called BugZip. They make plastic bags that you can put your luggage in while on vacation so that bugs from a hotel infestation can't hitch a ride on your suitcase and follow you home. Smart.

Then I met Genma Holmes, or "The Bug Lady," a former model and now head of a pest control company in Atlanta. Terrible nickname, awesome lady. She had set up a number of diagrams showing some of the most common bed bug hiding places: Behind bed boards, under the seam of a mattress, in your FREAKING ALARM CLOCK. Also, the alarm clocks pictured in the diagrams were all cleverly displaying times such as 1:00 and the infamous 2:25 A.M. moments at which one is likely to wake up scratching themselves. The Bug Lady and I had a good laugh about that, and we're now Facebook friends.




At the last table were two brothers, Daniel and Scott White. Like the others at the show case, they had bedbug prevention products like a ClimbUp Insect Interceptor and a bed bug proof mattress cover. But, unlike the others, these guys had actual experience in extermination, and Scott had even been through an infestation himself.

Excited to finally be talking to people with an actual bedbug eradication background, I launched into questions about other rumored bedbug exterminating tactics. They had answers.

"What's the deal with bedbug sniffing dogs?" Apparently, the dogs can be effective in locating bedbugs, but they're only as good as their trainer.

"How about the freezing option?" Freezing bedbugs can also work, he said, but it only kills on contact; if you miss a spot where bedbugs are hiding, they will remain there. "And heat?" Heat can be a good option too, but it's expensive. A treatment where they heat your whole apartment in order to kill the bedbugs can cost up to 50 percent more than a regular extermination. "And is it appropriate to freak out when you get bedbugs, throw away all your belongings and stay crazy for the next three years?" Maybe not so much.

I left the showcase with mixed feelings. It's encouraging to see that there are people working to fix the ever-expanding bedbug population. But here's the scary truth: If I ever got bedbugs again, there is not one singular and surefire way to get rid of them. The consensus of all the experts at the showcase seemed to be that bedbugs aren't going anywhere any time soon, and until there is a better solution, containment is about the best we can hope for. In other words: Take a deep breath. Bedbugs just might kill us all.

For more great cleaning and organizing ideas, don't miss:
Are You an Organizing Extremist?
Home Office Org: 7 Tips
Spring Spruce Up: Organizing Jewelry

Here's a video on how to tell if you have bedbugs.