War Declared - Defenses up!

Well 4 hours last night was spent on preparing for war. The mattress and boxspring have both been covered by this protective sheet which protects against dust mites etc. I got these at WalMart. It has a zipper and fully encloses the mattress. We sprayed and vacuumed the covers again just to be safe.

The other night I put on this tape sealing the floorboard gaps. The picture might now show it but they are really wedged in the small gap. I used a plaster tool (like a spatula) to wedge them in. I am going to remove these however because I feel they will make their way down the wall to our walk in closet and I don't want them anywhere near our clothing.

I got some carpet tape and some empty yoghurt containers. I put some masking tape over the containers incase the bed bugs can't climb up the bare plastic. I also sprayed a bit of hair spray on the masking tape to ensure some traction for the bed bugs. Then if you look at the far container, you will notice a white solid ring of carpet tape near the top. This is where I am hoping they will get stuck. Each bed leg will in one of these containers.

Here is the fly tape that is meant to hang from the ceilings and catch flies. This is very sticky. It's almost like a sticky drying honey. One thing to note is that it doesn't' stick to itself very well. These will be placed on the bed legs themselves for added security. We need a dual barrier incase the carpet tape doesn't work. Mostly, this is also to make me mentally stable and ensure I get a good nights sleep.

With latex gloves, I worked with the fly tape. Do not use your bare hands as this is even hard to wash off. The fly tape needed to be tied with strings by my wife who had clean hands. This will ensure that the fly tape does not unwind. I am very confident no bug can make it up here from the ground. The bed frame was sprayed and taken apart from storage. Remember, I have not had a previous problem with bed bugs. I inherited this problem when moving into my new house.

Here we have the box spring, bed frame, and protective cups with sticky tape on them. The picture if from the feet end of the mattress. Note there is a string down the middle. This is because the protective mattress cover was sagging down and almost touching the floor. There must be nothing from bed (including pillows or sheets) that should be touching the floor. A backup pillow that was sanitized was kept outside the room incase we dropped a pillow at night. Oh yes, the pillows have protective covers also.

And here's the final product. Afterwards, I put on freshly dried sheets and pillows. The top blankets are also of 'twin' or 'double' size; not queen sized. This help ensure that the blanket does not touch the floor.

This monring, there was nothing found on the tape and no bites. The light was on though and the tape was still in the baseboards. I'll remove the tape tonight and dim the lights to almost dark and see what happens. Keep in mind, this is also mental. I need to ensure that I wean my way into something that is confortable for my mental state. Maybe the tape won't go tonight. Who knows.

I must say, I mentally am feeling a lot better now since doing this and am having somewhat of a pleasant day at work. I feel safer sleeping at night now. This also counts. Remember, there is also mental warfare here. Even If I do have bed bugs in my home, it shouldn't start to ruin my life. Let's first focus on us sleeping sound, then we can start to pull apart the carpets and walls to eradicate them.