Cedar oil products found for bed bug control, other insects

[sassenach]

I was reading an article in an Australian paper online about the US ( finally) declaring war on bedbugs. This topic is something where I once found myself, while hospitalized in the VA hospital in San Francisco, actually it was outpatient care but was for several weeks, but I stayed within the hospital in a bed there, and it took quite an episode, working with the CDC dept. head of said hospital to figure it all out.

I evidently am allergic to bedbug bites, and was sleeping in a bed that had them in the creases of the bedsheets under the mattress edges. The mattresses were plastic lined.

Bedbugs hide like that, they come out at night when you are asleep and bite you and leave a trail on the sheet when they leave your body. I broke out in literal nickel-sized welts and when I went to the ER they weren't sure what to make of me. I was instantly given a mask, gloves and put in one of the special rooms that sucks the air out and filters it to remove possible air born contagions. Right where the bites were, it looked like some kind of strange chicken pox or measles bite, inside the big welt. It scared the heck out of me.

 

It took about a week to figure out it was bedbugs after I found them in the sheet edges. Yep, a whole durn family was there. The darn sheets had not been changed for a long time.... and evidently a person had been in the bed before me, and dropped some bedbugs off I guess.

I found out from other patients who went outside for sunshine and fog and a smoke, that SF had alot of bedbugs. I knew alot of homeless vets who had survived outside in the rural/park areas of the city and stayed in shelters there.... the bedbugs could come from any source though, but that was probably the most likely start to it. I spent a number of times rewashing and drying in a hot dryer my clothing and they had to go in and fumigate the whole ward as well it was finally decided when other room occupants found them too. All the mattresses were replaced and every bed sheet and pillow case and blanket replaced with brand new items. The problem was, was that I knew from other patients, those who had surgeries and other procedures said that they too had experienced the bites. So it was more widespread in the VA hospital than even the dept. heads or other staff knew about. I also began to hear from residents outside the hospital that there were homes, decent homes in various areas of SF that also had the same problem. So it ran across all standards of living.

 

When I read this article I was thinking how bad a problem it was becoming now, just several years later, with the news of this article. When I looked below the article there was this link for a substance that was heralded as very effective and safe environmentally to kill bedbugs, fleas, ants, roaches, ticks, lice, scorpions and will chase away snakes in the yard.... so I went to it.

 

I looked over the site and watched a video on how fast and effective it was, that our troops in Iraq used it to save themselves from mosquitos and such and it has replaced DEET products the military uses, as a safe alternative. It is cedar oil and quartz stone in the ingredients. This site has various sized control packages, and I figured I should post it here. I think it might be a great prep and day to day item to use. I know I will be getting the spray and probably the personal kit to use in the home. Others might find it useful for pets and yard/homestead usage as well.

 

http://www.cedarcide.com/ProductGuide.asp

[Purdy Bear]

In the BBC Series called Victorian Farm, they suggested using Turpentine and Salt to remove bed bugs. You dip a scrubbing brush in the Turpentine then dab in the Salt and scrub the bed down with it.

 

Im sure Tannin in tea works in a similar way - I know it works for dust mites.