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One of many, many reasons I don’t take tenants. But I know plenty of people who do, and their exterminators also.

It appears the favorite poison is diatomaceous earth. It’s not toxic to pets or humans, yet it kills bugs rapidly and decisively. I tried it on my carpenter bees once. Once was all it took.

Exterminators prefer multiple weaponry. One dose of this, another of that. You can safely handle the DE yourself and save a few hundred dollars.

Don’t go heating plastic, although slip covers and pillows in a hot clothes dryer will help. Bugs don’t survive the heat. See that you do.

But to be truly safe, don’t take tenants. Get a hefty deposit on an installment contract for the deed. More than they care to lose. If they default and leave you bugs, at least the forfeited money will pay the exterminator.

I looked into diatomaceous earth too, but it's apparently not very effective against bedbugs. Even though boric acid is great for killing cockroaches, bedbugs evidently aren't affected much by that either. That's why I don't use those two, much cheaper, substances instead of Cimexa. The search results for diatomaceous earth that you see in Google are misleading. Some people just want to believe in "natural" pesticides, and others want to sell them. :-)

BTW, it would appear that cockroaches eat bedbugs. That evokes entertaining images of an insect war, doesn't it? A disgusting, nasty war. Cimexa and Ortho Home Defense on the entire lot of them! Or a flame thrower. -_-

Roaches Eat Bedbugs, Toads Eat Roaches (New York Times)

Oh, yeah. It occurs to me to point out that you need the version of Ortho Home Defense formulated specifically for bedbugs, ticks, and fleas. It's the purple-white bottle, and it says "bedbugs" right there on the label. The cheaper stuff in the red-white bottle may not work nearly as well. I have to order the right version for store pickup. The top post has the correct link for Walmart. Amazon has it too. If you buy both versions, you'll see that the ingredients are different. I say again — open all three of the safety chokes. Bottle choke, wand-tip choke, and the internal choke that opens when you flip up the wand.

https://amazon.com/dp/B01JYT16AA/

Also, Cimexa has to be kept dry, or it loses much of its potency. But if you apply it correctly, away from moisture and strong breezes, the ever so thin layer will cling for months, silently killing every bedbug that touches the stuff. Happy-happy-joy-joy!

And the heat gun is just fun. I love hearing the tiny screams of roasted bedbugs. Wait, no, I don't. The stink ... yeech. But die, die, die!

That is all.