Reduce The Number Of Bed Bugs To Reduce Bites
Thorough vacuuming can get rid of some of your bed bugs. Carefully vacuum rugs, floors, upholstered furniture, bed frames, under beds, around bed legs, and all cracks and crevices around the room. Change the bag after each use so the bed bugs cant escape. Place the used bag in a tightly sealed plastic bag and in an outside garbage bin.
How To Prevent Bed Bugs
If youve now experienced the trauma of having bed bugs, you probably dont want them creeping their way back into your home. Knowing how to get bed bugs out of a mattress is hard enough, but being able to keep them from coming back is sometimes a whole new game. To keep them away, there are some preventative things you can do:
- Clear out your clutter
- Regularly dust and scrub possible hiding places
- Monitor the affected areas closely
- Use a mattress protector
- Avoid bringing home second-hand mattresses and furniture
Sometimes, despite how clean your home may be, youll still get bugs. If you do get them, it doesnt necessarily mean your home is dirty, and sometimes second-hand furniture is too good to pass up. If you do bring some home, do a thorough inspection first and clean it outside if you can.
While they arent particularly dangerous, bed bugs can be a nuisance and extremely difficult to get rid of if not done right away. While knowing how to get bed bugs out of a mattress the DIY way may help your chances of eliminating them, its best to call an exterminator to get professional help. Alternatively, you may also want to consider disposing of your mattress and purchasing a new one.
How Do I Know My Mattress Has Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are microscopic, reddish-brown insects roughly the size of an apple seed. They cant fly, but they love to burrow in dark, small spaces like headboards, closets, and inside mattress seams. Some people dont realize they have bed bugs until they notice small bite marks on their skin.
If your itchy bites form only after youve been in bed, the issue may be bed bugs. A few other signs that point to a bed bug infestation:
- A musty odor
- Tiny dark spots on the mattress
- Bed bug egg husks or shells
Once youve noticed these things, its time to strip your mattress and investigate further. Take off your sheets, protector, everything. If you use a box spring, peel back the dust cover fabric and look at the seams. Look at spaces around your bed, like your nightstand, for other signs of bed bugs.
Time to upgrade your entire bed set? Read our guide of finding the best mattress to compare your options.
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A Vacuum Cleaner Is A Common Household Item So You Can Use It Right Now To Kill Bed Bugs
How to get rid of bed bugs in sofa. Remove every cushion and inspect each piece. Storing stuff under the bed gives bed bugs many new places to hide. Look at every seam, edge, and zipper using the sticky credit card and a flashlight.
If you find any heavy bugs there, dont be afraid to throw them out. Wash bedding and clothes in hot water for 30 minutes. The rust spots are blood stains and the black spots are bed bug waste.
About the size of a grain of rice. Here are 6 ways how to get rid of the bed bugs in your couch: Getting rid of bedbugs requires an extensive cleaning process.
Apply steam slowly to the folds and tufts of mattresses, along with sofa seams, bed frames, and corners or edges where bed bugs may be hiding. For one of the best ways to get rid of bed bugs, put an encasement over your sofa to successfully kill living bed bugs as well as bed bug eggs. You might find them in cracks and crevices.
Do not store things under the bed. An encasement completely seals the sofa, so insects like bed bugs cannot enter the couch. Once you are done with the washing, pass the cushions through a dryer if they can fit.
To install climbup insect interceptors on your couch, simply lift up the leg post and place an interceptor underneath. If youre unsure about how hot your dryer can get, then simply run it for 90 minutes. The fabric that covers the chair should be vacuumed regularly.
Throwing away your furniture can spread the bugs and you have to buy new furniture.
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Wash All Your Bedding
Remove your bed sheets and pillowcases from your bed. Put all infested items in a big plastic bag and tie a knot on top. This will prevent bed bugs from crawling out of the bag while you take the bag to the washing machine. Wash your bedding in hot water and dry it on the high heat setting for at least 90 minutes in your dryer. Bed bugs die within 20 minutes of exposure to 118 degrees Fahrenheit, but bed bug eggs need 90 minutes of exposure to this same temperature.
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How To Remove Bed Bugs In Your Memory Foam Mattress
Do you have bed bugs on your memory foam mattress, and dont know how to remove them? Do you or other family members have red bites over your body? Are you worried about bed bugs in your mattress? Then, this article is for you.
Memory foam mattresses are widely used all around Canada. However, like other types of mattresses, they are also prone to bed bug infestation. As such, it is important to get rid of them as soon as you notice their presence.
Bed bugs are one of the most common pests in the world. Bed bug cases have been reported in virtually every region on Earth, including Toronto. Although their numbers fell into decline during the mid-20th century, a renaissance of bed bug infestations began in the 1980s and has largely continued till today.
Dealing with bed bugs on your memory foam mattress is not a complicated process. With a few simple steps, you can eliminate these pests. In this blog, we will discuss how to get rid of bed bugs in your memory foam mattress. More importantly, we will also discuss how to prevent future bed bug infestation.
Where Bed Bugs Hide
Bedbugs may enter your home undetected through luggage, clothing, used beds and couches, and other items. Their flattened bodies make it possible for them to fit into tiny spaces, about the width of a credit card. Bedbugs do not have nests like ants or bees, but tend to live in groups in hiding places. Their initial hiding places are typically in mattresses, box springs, bed frames, and headboards where they have easy access to people to bite in the night.
Over time, however, they may scatter through the bedroom, moving into any crevice or protected location. They may also spread to nearby rooms or apartments.
Because bedbugs live solely on blood, having them in your home is not a sign of dirtiness. You are as likely to find them in immaculate homes and hotel rooms as in filthy ones.
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What Damages Can A Bed Bug Cause To The Mattress And Your Health
Bed bugs are one of the most tedious house pests that usually thrive between the mattress folds, between the joints in the bed, and other places where humidity and heat are more, but the light is almost nil. They only come out from their hiding places once in a while or when you are sleeping, and the lights are off. Most people consider them to be a nuisance and nothing more, so they ignore the first few sightings of the bugs. Then, they only take action when the population of the insect grows beyond control.
However, such delays can cause a lot of problems, both for your bed and your health. In the below section, we will talk about the dangers of having bed bugs.
- Firstly, these bugs bite, and hence, you can see red marks on your skin after waking up on most mornings.
- Secondly, the bugs can penetrate deeper into the mattress if a small crack or hole in the top later.
- Thirdly, the space in between the mattress layers serves as the best place for their breeding grounds.
- Bed bugs can multiply quickly, and hence, controlling their population is quite difficult.
- Lastly, having bed bugs make the entire ambience unhealthy and unhygienic for you and other sleepers.
Do The Hair Dryer Test
Bed bugs hate heat. They prefer to live in cool, dark places. By exposing them to light and heat, they will begin to scurry to find a more suitable place to hang out. Plugging in your dryer is a great way to bring the heat to them. Just be careful when putting too much heat on your mattress as to not set it on fire, despite how badly you want to get rid of these pests.
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How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In Furniture
Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and they can go months without a meal. Bed bugs can infest furniture, especially sofas and recliners where people tend to sleep, and bedside tables, and dressers.
Be especially careful when bringing a used piece of furniture into your home, bedbugs can hide in the smallest of cracks in furniture. If you have bedbugs in your living room sofa or recliner that is usually a sign of a more severe infestation.
With careful inspection and treatments, you can get rid of bed bugs in furniture follow these tips to succeed.
Encase Your Mattress And Box Spring In A Cover
If youve decided that getting a new mattress is too expensive and DIYing your extermination is too dangerous, consider purchasing a special mattress cover and box spring cover. These highly specialized covers make it virtually impossible for bed bugs to escape. For this method to be most effective, leave the cover on for a year to ensure the bed bugs inside are all dead and are no longer reproducing.
This method is best if the bed bugs are only in your mattress, but it wont do anything if bed bugs are in your bed frame, nightstand, or anywhere else in the room.
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Preventing Bed Bug Infestations
It’s important to inspect used furniture, particularly bed frames and mattresses before bringing it into the home. Mattresses, in particular, carry the greatest risk of harboring Bed Bugs and their eggs. You should be wary of acquiring used furnishings, especially beds and couches.
A practice that we have incorporated in our traveling is to inspect for bed bugs in hotel rooms. If possible, carry a flashlight with you and inspect the bed area completely as described above. Also, you may want to inspect or vacuum luggage when you arrive home to prevent tranferring bed bugs to your home.
ActiveGuard Mattress Liners, impregnated with Permethrin will prevent bed bug infestation on beds.
How Do I Check My Mattress For Bed Bugs
First, take your mattress outside and check it thoroughly. Observe the tufts and seams along its edges carefully.
Also, flip the mattress and inspect the bottom. And if there are rips in the mattress and other beddings, then look for small brownish insects. A flashlight would come in handy, especially if you are checking at night.
Also, dismantle the bed frame to complete the treatment of your mattress. Since bedbugs can hide in even smaller places, take apart the bed frame and search every inch of it. This will enable you to locate these tiny parasites. Also, use a magnifying glass and a flashlight to get a better look. Dont forget to check every inch of the mattress.
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Hire An Exterminator For Heat Treatment
Bed bug exterminators usually use one of two methods. Theres the use of pesticides, which can be highly effective. Also, they can use heat treatment, where the temperature of your house/apartment is raised to 140 degrees or higher.
Heat treatment is the best because it penetrates through mattresses, furniture, and anything else in your home that might contain bed bugs. This means that if there are actually any bed bugs inside your mattress, then the heat will be able to kill them. The same cant be said for pesticides.
The only problem is that heat treatment requires specialist equipment. It also requires at least four to six hours of work. While the air temperature rises quickly, the core temperature of mattresses and furniture rises slowly. Therefore, this increases the time spent heating up the room. These two points mean that heat treatment is often more expensive than pesticides.
Bed Bugs And House Guests
Telling Aunt Harriet not to come for Christmas is probably not going to work , but you can still boss your kids around. Send your kids off to college with the information they need to inspect for bed bugs in their dorm room. And include as a parting gift a package of a few detection traps.
Instruct those returning scholars to bag up their mountains of dirty laundry and leave the bags in the garage until transporting them directly to the washing machine. Wash clothes in hot water and dry thoroughly.
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How To Rid Your Mattress Of Bed Bugs
Theyre small, vicious, bite and can ruin sleep. What are they? Bed bugs! Despite being just the size of an apple seed, these pests have the ability to make sleep a dreaded activity. According to a 2018 survey by the National Pest Management Association, 97 percent of pest professionals treated bed bugs in the past year. The professionals also say that overall bed bug service and the prevalence of pests are rising. They noted that the most bed bug complaints were in summer, probably because bed bugs thrive in hot weather. Its also the season people travel and unknowingly spread bed bugs from holiday destinations to their homes. What can you do about it? Quite a bit, as it turns out.
Bed bug hatchlings are incredibly tiny and can even enter mattresses through stitch holes. Yet, that doesnt mean all is lost it just means you need to be aware and keep your mattress clean. Here are some things to watch out for and a few tips to get rid of bed bugs and keep them away in the first place.
How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In A Mattress With Heat And Cold
If you have a heavily infested mattress, home remedies often do not do the trick to fix the problem.
Therefore, its time to call an exterminator to perform a heat treatment in your home. While they eliminate bed bugs throughout your home, the bedding still requires handling.
- Freezer
Place your sheets and pillowcases into the washing machine and add the usual amount of laundry detergent. Wash the fabric using the hottest wash cycle, transfer them into the dryer, and dry them with high heat to kill all bed bugs.
Repeat the steps with your blanket and any other bedding materials. Washing your mattress cover is important, too. If the items are not machine washable, place them into a plastic bag and freeze them at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or less for at least four days.
Washing and drying your bedding is also a great way to eliminate a dust mite problem. Although bed bugs are tiny, they are easier to see than dust mites.
How small are dust mites? Unfortunately, these annoying bugs are almost microscopic, and the only way to tell if you have an infestation is by exhibiting an allergic reaction.
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How Do I Throw My Old Mattress Away
If your mattress has bed bugs, do not put it in the nearest dumpster. In some places, you can get fined for doing this, so check with your local waste disposal organization for ways to get rid of your mattress. And of course, do not donate it or give it away to a friend. There are some mattress disposal companies that will come pick up the mattress and dispose of it for you.
Do I Have To Throw My Mattress Away If I Have Bed Bugs
You dont have to throw your mattress away if you have bed bugs. While it may seem like the easiest option, it isnt always the cheapest unless youve been planning to get a comfy new mattress anyway.
Otherwise, there are a few DIY things you can do if you want to know how to get bed bugs out of a mattress yourself, or consider bringing in the bug exterminators for quicker and more thorough results as bed bugs can be especially hard to get rid of on your own.
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Can I Sleep In My Bed After Bed Bug Treatment
You may continue to sleep on your mattress after vacuuming it and putting a bed bug proof encasement on it. Even if there are live bed bugs underneath the encasement, they are trapped inside and cant bite you. Without feeding on your blood, they will die inside the encasement.
If you spray chemical or plant-based insecticides on your mattress, we recommend checking the instructions on the package. Some may require you to stay away from the room for 6 to 8 hours or more after spraying.
