How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In Your Home?

After a very tiring day, we all deserve a long and good night’s sleep. But how can you do that, if you are afraid of laying down on your bed because every time you do you get these red, itchy welts from bed bugs that you can’t help but scratch. Here is what they look like, but how do you get rid of them? A combination of heat and chemical treatment is the best solution for getting rid of these pesky pests.

But before we proceed on a more detailed discussion on how to get rid of bed bugs in your home, let us first get to know the reason behind your misery.

What Are Bed Bugs?

The most distinct characteristic of bed bugs is that they are very small-measuring just a mere five millimetres across its body. They are as small as an apple seed while their eggs are as small as a dot after a sentence. And just like an apple seed, they are oval and brownish in color.

But the problem is that they can reproduce pretty quickly. In fact, an adult female bug can lay approximately 500 eggs within its lifetime. Pretty scary, right?

They are also an expert in living undetected except for the red and itchy welts you’ll suddenly see and feel all over your body, especially on exposed skin while you are sleeping.

They are particularly attracted to the CO2 being produced by their host and their hosts body heat.

They can also survive up to three months without eating at room temperature, this period is higher in places with colder temperatures.

Where Do Bed Bugs Hide?

Due to their flattened bodies, bed bugs can be easily carried into your home undetected if they are clinging onto old bed and couches, luggage, and furniture.

Unlike any other animals, they don’t build nests but they tend to hide in groups in cracks and crevices. They especially love to hide in the parts of your bed such as box spring, headboards etc. where they can easily access their hosts while asleep.

During the day, they hide in places such as couches, recliners, cracks and crevices under mattress tags, wheelchairs, buses, trains, inside books, closets, attached to clothes, telephones, radios, carpets, and other dark and sheltered places while at night when you are in your deepest sleep between midnight and 5 a.m.

These pests take about three to ten minutes to feed, but because of the chemicals in their saliva, people don’t feel their bite. After feeding, they just crawl away unnoticed.

As the result of bed bugs bite, you’ll notice these red itchy welts in the morning. If at first, you’re not sure if there are indeed pests in your home, then take these bed bug bites as a definite sign to act against these pests.

Other methods on how to check for or find bed bugs include:

• Blood stains on fabric (pillow cases, bedding, blankets, etc.)
• Dark spots on fabric and walls due to the pests’ defecation
• The pests egg shells and shed skins (use a magnifying lens to search for these)

If you are certain that there are bed bugs in your home but still don’t know where to find them, then it might be best to call for a professional.

However, to learn more about bedbugs, their biology, and behavior, you can watch this video from BBC Studios:

You can also read this article from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html

Top 4 Suggested Home Remedies To Get Rid of Bed Bugs Instantly

As a parent, I understand that you want your children’s space to be free from pests and we’ll do anything to do just that.

So, keep on reading to know how to get rid of bed bugs fast before they bite your children!

The most effective step in any bed bug treatment is to clean all the possible places where these pests live. And here’s a list of the places and things you can do to effectively get rid of bed bugs for good:

1. Start With Washable Items

Collect all washable items you can find in your bedroom such as bedding along with linens, curtains, stuffed toys, and your night dresses (for example pyjamas, nightgowns, etc).

Then, wash them in hot water. Use the highest setting of your dryer to dry them for 30 minutes.

However, if after doing this first step you found that these items are still infested, then tightly seal these items in a trash bag, and don’t open the bag until after a year. Leaving it unopened for a year will ensure that the items are safe permanently.

2. Remove Bed Bugs From Your Bed Effectively

So you’re done with your bedding, your question is how can you remove bed bugs from your mattress?

Photo by Erick Palacio

Easy! Use a steamer on mattresses, couches, and other furniture around your home to get rid of those bed bugs instantly.

Your steamer should be at 130℉ and should not have a forceful airflow or the pests or their eggs will spread even more which we don’t want to happen.

Aside from your mattress, steam cleaners can also be effective in removing them from carpets, baseboards, furniture joints, couch, bed frame, box spring, walls underneath paintings and posters, and lastly the space between wallpaper and ceiling.

Next, look for a stiff brush and use that to scrub your bare mattress.

To ensure that the pests cannot spread beyond the mattress, equip your left hand with a vacuum (with crevice) and start vacuuming your mattress while using a stiff brush.

Afterwards, make sure to put the contents of your vacuum inside a trash bag, then seal it tightly and immediately dispose of it.

Make sure you clean the vacuum as well.

To prevent pests from gaining access to your mattress again, do the following steps:

• Encase your mattress with fresh bedding (with zippers)
• Make sure to you move your bed at least six inches away from your room’s wall.
• Check whether all the bedding is carefully tucked and that it does not touch your floor.
• Check if your bed legs and bed frames are free from pests.
• You can buy a bed bug interceptor to help you carefully monitor in case the pests try to climb on your bed.
• Remove the clutter (such as magazines, books, clothing, cardboard boxes etc.) from under your bed.

Place them in a trash bag, then seal them for at least a year to starve the bed bugs or you can clean them or discard them if appropriate.

If you want to put boxes inside your room, I highly suggest that you start using plastic boxes instead of cardboard boxes since the latter can be used by bed bugs as their habitat.

3. Deal With Your Walls

To ensure that your walls are not infested with bed bugs too, make sure that you repair all the cracks present. If you can afford it, you can put up new wallpapers, if not then reseal the cracks with glue or tape after cleaning them with steamer.

You can also use this same method for the area around your light and electrical sockets and baseboards.

4. Maintain Cleanliness

And lastly, get rid of all the unnecessary objects around your bed area.

If you choose to clean the items around your bed, make sure that you clean them in the same room you got them to avoid spreading the pests around your house.

However, if you opt to discard some items, make sure you put them inside a trash bag, tightly seal them afterwards, and draw or label them that clearly states that those items inside the trash bag are infested with bugs.

And lastly, make sure that you maintain cleanliness around the area too.

If you are looking for a video you can watch about these simple solutions, then here’s one:

What Chemical Kill Bed Bugs and Their Eggs?

As a parent, I know that you want to make sure that the pests are completely eliminated from your home. And one way to ensure this is if you use chemicals after you have cleaned your entire house.

Chemical treatments can become harmful if not used properly, so I highly suggest that you seek professional or exterminators’ help in doing this step.

If an exterminator is not available around your area, here are some guidelines you should follow in order to eliminate these pests with chemicals effectively:

• Always read the instructions on any pesticide product you intend to treat these pests with. If you don’t know what pesticide product to use, here’s a site you might find useful: https://cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/bedbug/
• Make sure that you use your chosen pesticide only for its intended use.
• Daily use of chemical treatment should be avoided since bed bugs might build resistance against your treatment.
• Inside door dust products such as silica aerogel and diatomaceous earth (DE) being applied to crevices and cracks should be used according to instructions. The said two products are effective in hastening the drying out process of bugs.
• According to the National Center for Healthy Housing, foggers are not effective against these pests, so don’t bother trying them out.
• Do not apply pesticides on infested items as well. Instead, you may wash them in hot water, dry them in the highest setting, or allow the sun to dry them out.
• Contact sprays such as SteriFab™ or Bedlam® are more effective in contrast to alcohol-based and soap-based sprays.
• If you’re asking how can you get rid of bed bugs naturally and fast, then plant-based sprays such as EcoRaider™ and Bed Bug Patrol™ are the answer. These products were found to be more effective compared to other sprays available on the market.

Conclusion

Getting rid of pests in your home or apartment will be easier if you know the behavior and biology of your target. As always, cleaning is the first step in getting rid of any pest present in your home. Furthermore, according to bedbugs.umn.edu, a combination of heat and chemical treatment should do the trick of eliminating these pests in your home. Let me remind you again that applying chemical treatments should be according to the instructions or labels present on your product so that you won’t put your family’s health at risk.

Looking for other information on getting rid of bedbugs? Check out my other article on this topic: https://medium.com/@crosfieldd/how-to-get-rid-of-bed-bugs-eeb5332c7523