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Having to face a bed bug infestation can be an absolute nightmare. Your bed is the most common place to find them and you usually spend the most time in it.
How to Check for Bed Bugs in the Bed
Pull back your bedding and check for any signs that indicate bed bug activity, such as fecal stains and blood spots. Inspect your mattress thoroughly and pay special attention to the edges, seams, and air-holes. Inspect both sides of your mattress.
Remember to check the bed frame and headboard and pay special attention to the staples, screw holes, corners and wooden joints.
4 Tips to Prevent and Control Bed Bugs in Your Bed
#1 Cut Off the Access Route to Your Bed
Bed bugs can’t jump or fly so they have to crawl to reach you via the legs of your bed frame, headboard, footboard and any other walls or furniture that might touch the bed.
Cutting off the bed bugs access routes to your bed will stop them biting and also block off their ability to reproduce.
#2 Set Up Bed Bug Interceptors
You can set up bed bug interceptors under the legs of your bed to prevent and trap any bed bugs that try to climb up into your bed. This will also help you monitor the bed bug population.
#3 Encase Your Mattresses and Box Springs
Use encasements to save and salvage any beds that have been infested with bedbugs. Once these encasements have been installed, any bed bugs, eggs or larvae that are still in the mattress or in the box springs will remain trapped in the encased mattress until they starve to death.
Here are a couple of other things you should consider:
● Physically remove or destroy as many bed bugs and eggs as possible before encasing your mattress. Steam Cleaners work great for this.
● Encasements can only remain effective if they remain completely intact so it is important to ensure that they do not get ripped, worn or torn.
#4 Don’t Leave Your Luggage Lying Around
Take extra precautions to avoid bringing any bed bugs home from your travels and avoid placing your suitcase on your bed as this allows bed bugs to enter it from your luggage.
Check for signs of bed bugs such as dark spots and smears or dead bugs that look like a watermelon seed.
Launder your clothes after returning from your travels at the highest temperature whereby the heat can kill off the bed bugs, eggs and larvae.
Make sure to vacuum your suitcase and wrap it in a plastic bag before storage after which you should immediately clean out your vacuum cleaner.
5 Tips to on How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs in Your Bedding and Mattress
#1 Isolate and Clean Your Bed
You can do this by moving your bed away from the wall and away from any other furniture that it is touching after which you can place bed bug interceptor cups under each of the legs of your bed. This liquid insecticide will trap and kill any bed bugs trying to get into your bed.
#2 Remove and Launder Your Bed Sheets, Pillows and Linens
Remove your infested bed sheets, pillowcases and other removable covers. Make sure that you carry them tightly enclosed in plastic trash bags to avoid further contamination on the way to the washing machine. Wash them in hot water.
#3 Heating and Steaming
Wash and dry your bedding at the highest setting which is usually effective at 113 degrees Fahrenheit if sustained for 90 minutes at a stretch. Switch up the temperature to 118 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes to reach 100% mortality.
#4 Vacuum
Vacuum your mattress thoroughly and very carefully with the hose attachment, paying particular attention to the indentations, crevices and seams where bed bugs like hiding. Empty the vacuum cleaner bag outside and clean the vacuum container to ensure that there are no bed bugs hiding in the vacuum cleaner.
#5 Professional Bed Bug Treatment
It’s best to call in the professionals as home DIY bed bug treatments simply don’t cut it when it comes to bed bugs as these methods usually cause bed bugs to move deeper into your home to hide.
Professional bed bug treatment involves steaming or heating an infested area to 118 degrees Fahrenheit and maintaining that temperature for 70 minutes which is near impossible for non-professionals.
Residential pest control services also tend to have a more specialized and integrated approach with special tools that help in killing bed bugs in any hard to reach places as well.
About the author:
When people find their homes and offices infested with pests, it is not uncommon for them to panic. Raymond Web has taken upon him the task to educate people on pest prevention and control strategies helping them keep their surroundings healthy, safe and pest-free.
Being the digital marketing manager for Take Care Termite and Pest Control, in Tracy, CA, Raymond has an in-depth understanding of people and their pain points due to pests, which he efficiently uses in his content to educate people and add value to their lives. Click here to learn more on how to find and get rid of bedbugs.