UPDATE: One Month Into the Nightmare

We're finally starting to see an end in sight!

I know we still have a long road ahead, but for the last month, we figured we would just have to burn the house down and move. (No, really - that was an actual thought.)

We're starting to see dead bugs. I can't express how happy we are.

Some images of the fallen soldiers and our method.

Purchases:

• CimeXa, 6oz used so far - Ordered from Amazon - $17.99 for (2) 4oz. bottles
• Bellows Hand Duster BHD001 - Ordered from Amazon - $14.59
• Mattress Encasement - First, got a cheap vinyl one from WalMart, but it ripped easily on our King. Ended up ordering a nice, lab tested bed bug proof encasement from Amazon - $35
• Box Spring Encasement - Used 2 twin vinyl encasements on them individually, then put them both in a king vinyl encasement from WalMart - $10
• Pillow encasements for 6 standard, 4 king, 3 TempurPedic, and a body pillow. Got cheap vinyl ones from WalMart, but after what happened to the mattress encasement, it gave me more peace at night to have better ones. Plus, the vinyl is extremely hot and not breathable. Ordered some lab tested, bed bug proof encasements from Amazon. (Total $80) Some might find this excessive, but we love our pillows.
• Face masks from the 99 cent store - $0.99
• Storage bins from WalMart - (6) for $30
• Glad ForceFlex Extra Strong Outdoor Drawstring Large Trash Bags, 30 Gallon, 50 Count from WalMart - $13

TOTAL (so far): $201.57

Method:

1. Moved all clothes from inside the dresser drawers (24 drawers total) into black ForceFlex bags. Placed in the garage for holding.
2. Removed all other items from nightstand drawers and put into black ForceFlex bags. Placed in the garage for holding. We live in Houston, Texas. Daily temperatures reach 100. The temperature in that garage is 115-120 easy during the day.
3. Removed all bedding, washed and dried at hottest temperature. Placed into storage bin and closed.
4. ONGOING - Washing clothes from the garage, and placing in storage bins. Worst part about this is deciding what you might wear for the next 3 months and separating out into the correct bin.
5. Used the duster to cover everything in the room - All around the baseboard, around the posts of all the furniture, inside every crack in the headboard, foot board, side rails, under the bead in the carpet, inside every dresser drawer, nightstand drawer. If it wasn't moving, or a direct path for walking to the bed, or to the bathroom - it got dusted. The dust in the room was heavy. Thank goodness we had the masks.
6. ONGOING: Every night when we get home from work, we take off all the outside pillow cases (not the encasements), our blankets, sheets and mattress pad (not the encasement) and dry them on high heat for 40 minutes a piece.
7. ONGOING: We take a shower before bed and put the clothes we were wearing into a black bag to be placed in the garage in a holding pattern with the rest.

I now know what it feels like to be OCD.

We started to give up hope when none of this seemed to be working. We didn't see any dead bugs, still felt them at night, I still got multiple bites every night (my husband doesn't get any effects) and couldn't find any evidence of eggs or multiple bugs hanging about. That's when we'd have to remind ourselves that there's no quick fix for bed bugs without an expensive heat treatment, and more than likely these little bastards were probably hiding in the last place we'd look.

We were quoted from 3 different places between $1500 and $1800 for that treatment. We just can't pay that much. We could, but that would have to be our absolute breaking point of sanity. I'm too frugal to pay that much. If you ask me - I think the landlord should be paying to have our house heat treated. But alas, in our lease it states that we are responsible for any and all extermination services. If it was your property - wouldn't you want it taken care of correctly? Hmpf.

Thanks so much to everyone in this sub for the support and advice so far. If you're going through this as well - don't give up. THERE IS HOPE!!

I'll update again in a week or so.