Discovering bed bugs is a nightmare for a homeowner. Unfortunately, bed bugs are very hearty pests, and they can easily travel into a home. If you have bed bugs in your house, getting the infestation under control quickly is key. But is it worth getting an exterminator for bed bugs?
Being proactive and taking proper measures will help eliminate bed bugs from your home.
Use the following tips to get rid of bed bugs for good.
Identify the Area of Infestation
In order to deal with bed bugs, you need to know where they are located in your home. If you find evidence of bed bugs in a room, it is important to do a thorough inspection of your house. Take the time to inspect all of the mattresses in your home, as well as the headboards and the baseboards surrounding the beds. In most cases, a bed bug infestation begins in one room, but it is possible for bed bugs to spread.
Wash Linens on High Heat
After finding bed bugs in a room, the first step is to launder the bed linens. However, you need to transport the linens from the infested room to the laundry room carefully. Make sure that you place the linens in large garbage bags and tie them shut. Doing so will help prevent accidentally spreading bed bugs to other areas of your home.
When laundering linens from a room infested with bed bugs, wash them on the highest heat setting your washing machine has. It is recommended to use a heavy wash cycle. Then place the linens in the dryer, again on the highest heat setting available. The high heat from the washing cycle and the dryer will kill any bed bugs or eggs on the linens.
Vacuum the Infested Area
At the first sign of evidence of bed bugs in a room, make it a point to vacuum thoroughly. Vacuum the carpet in the room, but also use attachments to vacuum the baseboards, headboard, and the mattress itself. A strong vacuum will pick up any bed bugs in the vicinity. Immediately after vacuuming, empty the contents of the vacuum canister into a bag, seal it, and place the bag in an outdoor trash can. It is also a good idea to leave the vacuum cleaner outdoors for a few days after using it to vacuum up bed bugs.
Eliminate Hiding Spots
When bed bugs are not feeding, they tend to hide. If you want to get rid of bed bugs in an infested room, you need to take away their hiding spots. You can do this by removing clutter and picking things up off the floor of the infested room. However, do not make the mistake of moving items from an infested room to another room in your home. Doing so can just spread the bed bugs into another area.
Invest in a Cover for Your Box Spring and Mattress
It is not uncommon to be alarmed when you discover that bed bugs are living in your mattress. One simple thing to do is to purchase covers for your mattress and box spring. Look for covers that are designed for bed bugs. These covers fit tightly on the mattress and box spring and zip closed. The covers will contain the bed bugs in your mattress until you can schedule extermination services.
Hire a Professional
While you may find DIY bed bug control tips online, they are rarely effective. Bed bugs are very hard to kill. Wasting your time on DIY bed bug control methods just gives bed bugs more time to reproduce, as well as more opportunities to spread to other areas of your home. When bed bugs are discovered, the best option is to hire a professional bed bug exterminator.
A bed bug exterminator will assess the infestation and determine the best course of action to eliminate the bed bugs. In some cases, insecticides, such as pyrethrin, will be used. However, heat treatment is often recommended to get rid of bed bugs fast. With heat treatment, specialized machinery will heat the infested room to 117-122 degrees Fahrenheit. Bed bugs cannot survive in high heat, so one heat treatment typically gets rid of a bed bug infestation.