FWIW, diatomaceous earth works just fine against bed bugs. Cover the surface of basically everything in your home (the mattress, the floor, under the bed, the bed frame, headboard, box spring, baseboards, on top of and under carpets, drapes, whatever) in diatomaceous earth powder. Leave for 12-24 hours. Vaccum it up. That's it! You'll want to wear a respirator to keep from breathing it in (it's non-toxic but may irritate your lungs).
Borax is also effective, though it may need to be wet first and may take longer to work. Diatomaceous earth doesn't work if wet.
If you leave, the bugs will stay safe wherever they are since there won't be any host to attract them. And the eggs are most likely in tiny hole and won't be affected by the diatomaceous earth. Maybe it'll help to reduce the colony, but I'm skeptical it'll solve the problem.
Yeah, I was always worried about getting some kind of silicosis.
From[1]:
> A very small amount of crystalline diatomaceous earth may be found in pesticide products. Long-term inhalation of the crystalline form is associated with silicosis, chronic bronchitis, and other respiratory problems. The bulk of diatomaceous earth is amorphous, not crystalline. The amorphous form is only associated with mild, reversible lung inflammation.
>>Do you really want a respiratory irritant on your mattress?
Once you have a bed bug infestation, your mattress is pretty much gone anyway. You have to replace it, or risk living through the nightmare in only weeks after this.
You can buy anti-allergy zippered mattress enclosures that are supposedly impermeable to bedbugs. If they’re made well, they will be permeable to air and a lot more comfortable than a plastic bag.
One thing to note with diatomaceous earth is it works best with an even dusting. You don't want to just spread clumps. Many but not all bags come with a little device for spraying it as a nice fine dust.
Give the bugs another dose of poison next week, after they've begun crawling out of their eggs but before they've had a chance to reproduce. Repeat a few times and you'll definitely begin to see progress.
It's a long game. We're in the middle of it. Daily vacuuming, steam treatments, diatomaceous earth spray, and commercial exterminators have all been used. I think we're starting to see progress.
Perhaps that is true. We've not been on vacation since the trip that brought them home with us. We're not going to stay in anymore small town hotels anymore.
The funny thing is Ed Sheeran was at the same place a few weeks after our visit.
I believe they take 2 weeks to reach maturity (when they can lay eggs), so if you treat every week you should get them all after a few cycles. Not easy, but doable.
Borax also works really well against ants. I had a terrible infestation, and put it all around where they were coming inside. It must have wiped them out at the source when they brought it back to the nest, because I never saw them again, even outside.
Borax is also effective, though it may need to be wet first and may take longer to work. Diatomaceous earth doesn't work if wet.