How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

The recent past has seen a resurgence of bed bugs and people have tried many methods to get rid of them. These pesky pests are difficult to spot as they are very tiny and hide in small places making it hard to locate them. Though prevention through vigilance is the best way to get rid of bugs, if your home is already infested it can be eliminated. Find below some easy tips to eradicate bedbugs:

First, try to Identify the Bed bugs

Identifying the pest is the first and foremost step to control them. By finding these bugs at an initial stage helps to control them effectively because they tend to multiply very fast. A sore point is that all bugs look almost alike to the untrained eye and hence recognizing them becomes difficult. The main difference is that bed bugs do not pose any serious threat or diseases, like fleas and ticks. A bed bug is very tiny and is less than 1/4th of an inch long, fleas are about 1/10th of an inch while ticks are 2/5th of an inch.

An adult bed bug is long, flat and oval-shaped and looks like an apple seed. They are reddish-brown in color and look like tiny balloons if they are well-fed. These bugs can last long even without enough food, they can survive for many months on one meal. But to continue with egg production, they have to consume food at least once every 2 weeks. A regularly fed female can produce as many as 200 to 500 eggs in her entire life and lay 1 to 3 eggs every day. 

Some of the other characteristics of these pests are:

• They cannot travel long distances by themselves, hence they attach to moving objects like clothing, boxes, furniture, etc.
• Bed bugs are not limited to residences, it can thrive in hotels, offices, gyms, etc. 
• They are mostly active during the night
• They feed on human blood
• When they are in large numbers they give out a musty odor
• They cannot survive in extreme temperatures

Detection

After learning how to recognize these pests, the next step in getting rid of them by finding their hideouts. The article www.custombedbug.com/blog/how-to-get-rid-of-a-bed-bug-infestation/ gives better insight regarding the elimination of bedbugs.  This also helps in understanding the severity of the problem. Bug bites happen mostly during the night and they tend to live within 8 feet of where people sleep. The mattress is the most vulnerable item to get infested and they hide in the piping. 

A person bitten by a bed bug will have lesions on the skin which can be up to 5 cm long accompanied by severe itching. There may also be bloodstains on the bedsheets. Other areas to check include under a carpet, the sofa, curtains, furniture cracks, behind dressers, or a peeled wallpaper, cracks in walls, etc. Check bed bugs in every crevice be it the walls or furniture to spot them. If you see any brown stains, droppings or eggs you are more than likely to be infested. If you find these pests moving, use adhesive tape to capture them. Deep clean the area using a vacuum, clean with soap water any dropping, dead bugs, eggs or skin. Declutter the room as it is a safe haven for these pests. 

Elimination of Bed bugs

Bed bugs feed on human blood and lives within 8 feet of where they sleep, the mattress and bedding should be the first place to clean. 

Killings Bugs in your Bed

Strip the bed of all the bedding and seal them in plastic bags to keep the bugs from escaping to other places. Do a heat treatment on the mattress if it can withstand. That will aid in killing the eggs or any bugs hiding. Laundry the bed linen using the hot water option.  

Use a vacuum cleaner to remove the droppings, dead bugs, skin or eggs that are along the seam of the mattress, and along the crevices of the headboard, frame, and foot-board. Use a streamer along the bed-frame to kill the eggs and bugs with heat. Experts suggest that pesticides should be sprayed on the headboard, foot-board, and bed frame joints. Follow the instructions specified on the spray for effective and safe use. After the mattress and the bed frame is dry, seal the mattress with beg bug encasement and put the bed back on the frame. Any remaining bed bugs will die of starvation so you get rid of them.

Now that the bugs in your bed are killed, it should be kept from getting infected again. Since bed bugs can be hiding in many places like the cracks in the walls, furniture, etc one should find a way to keep them out of the bed. To do that move the bed away from the walls or any furniture so that you cut out their food, that is human blood. That will prevent its reproduction and breeding making the treatment effective. There are many bug interceptors that can be used so that bugs don’t climb up from the legs of the bed and stop them from reaching the mattress. 

Cleaning the room

Vacuum and steam the room: Declutter the room by removing clothes, books, and other personal things by sealing them in bags. Clothing present in drawers should be dried using high heat and again sealed in bags so that they are not infested again. They should be kept in a cleanroom. 

Clean and Vacuum those areas where the bed bugs are likely to be present like the furniture, cracks in wood, under the carpet, etc. First, clean the room, then vacuum it and later steam those places so that it prevents the bed bug population from surviving. 

Seal the cracks and crevices: Seal and caulk all cracks, crevices, and holes where wires and pipes penetrate. Fill the cracks in the headboard, foot-boards or baseboards to reduce areas where bugs harbor. Use sprays or powders to kill and reduce the population of bed bugs. Reapply the sprays a couple of weeks after treatment so that any eggs hatched are killed. 

By following all the above-mentioned steps and also reapplying the spays the bed bugs can be eliminated. If at any point you feel that the infestation is too much for you to handle, it is always better to seek the help of professionals and get rid of bed bugs.