Sleep tight! Don't let the bed bugs bite...seriously.

So...confession...I was 28 years old when I found out BED BUGS were a real thing.

Okay, don't judge me because you knew, but I honestly didn't think they existed in my corner of the world. HA! Was I wrong! Ironically, these little critters showed up in my home just days after I taught my then 2 year old son picked up that popular saying: Goodnight! Sleep tight! Don't let the Bedbugs bite!

Why do we even think this is cute to say?!

In case you're not sure what Bed bugs are: Bed bugs are anything but cute. They're tiny and everywhere and make ones life absolutely miserable!

So how did I realize we had bedbugs?

For several nights in a row, my last son, was consistently waking up around 11 pm or later. He would toss and turn and fuss and just wouldn't get back to sleeping. I would be so tired and figure it's just mosquitoes or that he only wanted to come on my bed. So eventually I would pick him up and bring him over to sleep with my husband and myself, and then he'd finally settle down.

But on the 8th night of this ridiculous routine, I had finally had enough. That faithful night when he got up, I put him on my bed, turned on the light and decided to search his bed expecting to find mosquitoes chilling out and ruthlessly squash them.

To my surprise, I found multiple little, black bugs crawling over my sons mattress! My husband instantly recognized what they were and we soon realized -- they were everywhere: in the bed, on our couch, in our closet, in the walls...EVERYWHERE! It was awful my friend.

How did we get 'em? My kids had been on a sleep over a week before and turns out, that house had Bedbugs and they came on over--- totally uninvited.

So here's how you'll know you have bedbugs:

1. You get bitten. Hard. Every night...or day. That's right it's a myth that they only come out at night and only stay in bed. Bed bugs can be anywhere they can hide and will live at least five feet away from whereever their host goes for a snooze (bed or couch). The good thing is they will not live ON the host.

2. 'X' marks the spot. The corners of your bed sheets or couch covers will have 'x' like dark marks. Your clothes too, if they found they're way into your closet. This is their defecation aka 'poop' and you may notice a musky smell associated with that as well. By the way, speaking of smells. If you squish them between your fingers they have a stinky aroma and now you're really want to get rid of 'em.

How to get rid of them?

Are you ready for this? Dishwashing liquid! Or maybe any detergent.

As you know you can wash your sheets etc to get rid of the suckers. BUTTTT! Did you know that if you put 1:1 water and dishwashing liquid you can spray the infested surfaces and the bugs die INSTANTLY?

Further more, the solution kills any eggs in hiding by dehydrating them. Win Win!

So really, I got rid of them in about 3 days of spraying my bed down in every. inch. completely.

Also, I read that putting grease on the bed legs would trap and keep them from leaving the bed and migrating to other places to share the love.

I can't believe the fix was so easy but I'm glad it worked and I've never had an issue like that again.

I do still wish my kids a pleasant, night's rest. But just like that...no fancy bug summoning rhymes...