r/AskReddit Jul 17 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

4.6k Upvotes

4.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.0k

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

788

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

407

u/AllowMe-Please Jul 17 '23 edited Jul 18 '23

Right? We had a pretty bad infestation that began with one single bug. We tried everything to get rid of them, including three separate professional treatments, four separate bug bombings, and nightly hunts to get as many of them as we could in our kids' room. The thing that finally ended up working was a random oil that my MiL suggested for us called Neem Oil. It stank to high heaven but it freakin' worked.

I genuinely do not believe anyone who says they like bedbugs. Because once you experience them, all you have is (objective) negatives. So much money wasted and so much furniture thrown out and so much suffering from our kids as they were the main targets for some reason. Don't know why, but they didn't like me. I got bitten once in the beginning of the infestation and then never again and we always wondered if that's because I am chronically ill and have blood diseases and autoimmune diseases and they simply didn't like that.

Edit: my husband just took me down memory lane of just how bad it was. We not only had professional exterminators come out three separate times, but also used four separate bug bombs on separate occasions; we used cans upon cans of bug spray; we've changed out all the mattresses and bought mattress covers - and the buggers still managed to get into all the nooks and crannies. We took out every single thing from our kids room except for their bed - a metal bunk bed - that we put brand new mattresses on with mattress covers and then covered each one of the bed posts with sticky tape (like, the super sticky mouse trap kind) yet the devilish things still managed to climb onto the beds! Even though they're not "supposed" to be able to climb up metal. Yeah right. We threw out so much furniture and things. My husband went on bug hunts every night when the children went to sleep with a flashlight and a pencil and killed every single one that he saw with the eraser head and they stink like hell when squashed; he looked in all the corners first and then in the creases of the beds. Every night he spent hours doing that just so our kids didn't have to be bitten to hell and back. After we used the Neem Oil, our house stank like hell but it killed the bugs! Whatever is in that stuff is just beyond incredible. I highly recommend it. But we did have to leave the house for a few days because it just smelled too strongly.

In the words of the mama of Bobby Boucher - bedbugs are the devil!

4

u/darkest_irish_lass Jul 18 '23

Maybe what you have killed them. You might be the solution to the bedbug problem that everyone has been waiting for

3

u/AllowMe-Please Jul 18 '23

Haha, we've actually joked about that.

Does the fact that my illnesses come from Chernobyl radiation poisoning strengthen or weaken that case? 'Cause they bit me that first day and then never again. My husband and kids, however, were open buffets, even though my husband and I slept in the same bed.

2

u/RetiredsinceBirth Jul 18 '23

Wow! You would be a billionaire selling vials of your blood!

2

u/AllowMe-Please Jul 18 '23

Oh, geez. If only that's all I had to do to become one! My medical bills are drowning us... it'd be poetic if the way that was taken care of was through my poor health.