Here’s How to Take Control & Get Rid of Bed Bugs from Your House

Bed bugs are small, wingless insects that feed on the blood of humans and animals. They crawl out at night to bite you while you sleep, leaving behind red, itchy bumps. Although they cannot fly, bed bugs can move quickly over floors, walls and ceilings. As they are not attracted to dirt, a bed bug infestation has nothing to do with personal cleanliness.

These hitchhikers are most commonly found in short-term accommodations like hotels and inns. They tend to crawl from the infested bedding and furniture into your luggage, ready to infest your home when you return. Once introduced in your home, they can spread easily from one room to another.

There are no quick fixes to get rid of a bed bug infestation. It can take weeks to months to control the problem completely. Depending on the nature and extent of infestation, you may also have to hire a professional pest control operator.

Here are a few things that you can do to get rid of bed bugs.

1. Inspecting

Identifying these annoying creatures’ hideouts is crucial to their extermination. When inspecting for bed bugs, check for live and dead bugs, rusty stains caused by the bugs being crushed, small spots of reddish-black fecal material, tiny cream-colored eggs, and pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow.

The most common places where you are likely to find the signs of infestation are:

• in your mattresses (the piping, seams and tags)
• behind headboards, in the folds of curtains
• cushion seams
• between cushions
• along carpet edges
• under loose wallpaper
• the junction where the wall and ceiling meet
• in electrical receptacles, cracks in wood molding
• other dark cracks and crevices

Bed bugs most often hide near where you sleep because you are their food source. Also, remember that they tend to prefer wood or fabric over plastic and metal.

After inspecting, vacuum and disinfect any infested areas. Plus, seal up any cracks or crevices around baseboards and molding that the bed bugs might be using to hide.

2. Reducing Clutter

Cluttered areas are excellent for bed bugs to hide in. When fighting bed bugs, reducing clutter in your house is critical. It will also help make inspection and treatment easier. However, make sure you do not spread the bugs by moving clutter to other rooms.

A good place to start when removing excess clutter is to get rid of all the magazines, newspapers and items like clothing that you no longer use. Discard infested items that cannot be washed, heated or steam cleaned. Replace an infested mattress if it has holes or tears. For heavily infested items, bag them before discarding.

3. Vacuuming

After identifying the infested areas and removing the clutter, vacuum your house to help suck up most of the bugs as well as their eggs. You may also have to scrape the end of your vacuum attachment over the infested areas to help dislodge the eggs. As soon as you empty the vacuum, make sure to get rid of the trash in a sealed bag.

Vacuum the floor, carpeting and your entire house, particularly the areas that are infested. Also, vacuum your entire mattress, bed seams, box spring, bed frame and joints. As wood and fabric are bed bugs’ favorite habitats, make sure to vacuum items made of these materials, even the ends of your curtains. Make sure to cover all the cracks and crevices before vacuuming so they can’t run there to hide. Vacuum your house at least once a week.

4. Laundering

Washing infested clothes and bedding in hot water and drying them on a hot cycle is a simple yet effective way to get rid of bed bugs. In fact, a sustained temperature of 50 degrees Celsius or 120 degrees Fahrenheit can help kill these blood-sucking pests at all stages of the life cycle.

Wash all your clothes, sheets and other bedding at the hottest possible setting for 30 minutes or more. To eliminate the chance of survival, wash the entire load twice. Then, place it in the clothes dryer and run it on high heat for at least 20 minutes. For items that can only be dry cleaned, use a hot dryer for at least 30 minutes.

5. Steaming

Steaming is an effective method to kill all stages of bed bugs. Steam cleaners emit steam at a minimum temperature of 100 degrees Celsius and bed bugs generally die at 50 degrees Celsius, or about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Steam clean infested mattresses, upholstery and plush items that cannot be washed. You can opt for dry steam or a low vapor steamer that leaves behind less moisture. To be effective, steam treatment should be used for a sustained period and may need to be repeated.