Bed bugs hate scents such as lemon scents, cinnamon oil, neem oil, spearmint, and silicone. They will hide from you when you use these smells.
Lemon (Or Any Citrus)
Like many other animals, bed bugs hate the smell of citrus plants. Citrus, particularly oranges and lemons, will smell gross to them. As a result, most bed bugs will not want to stick around this aroma for too long. There are several ways to make this work for you if you want to repel insects.
Tea Tree Oil Spray
This miraculous essential oil has anti-parasitic properties, making it an effective natural insecticide in fighting bed bugs. For a quick and easy bed bug solution, mix two teaspoons of tea tree oil with 50 ml of water and pour it into a spray bottle.
Sleep in long-sleeved clothing
Lower your risk of getting bedbug bites by wearing long-sleeved pajamas with pants while sleeping. But be mindful that bedbugs can find their way to your skin under loose clothing. So wear pajamas that are more fitted around your ankles and wrists to give you the best protection.
To lure bed bugs out of their hiding spots, you can use a steamer or a hairdryer to heat areas such as mattresses. Neither of these is hot enough to kill the bed bugs, but it can trick them into thinking a human host is near. You can also keep an eye out at night to locate their nests when they are most active.
Travel – Bedbugs may find their way onto luggage in hotels and motels with a high number of occupants. If you have stayed at a hotel or other home recently, leave bags and clothes in the garage or somewhere far from upholstered surfaces, suggests Allan Bossel, to avoid unintentionally transporting them to your home.
FACT: Bed bug infestations have nothing to do with the cleanliness of the home or the people living there. While cleaning up excessive clutter and frequent vacuuming can prevent largescale infestations, the truth is that bed bugs don't discriminate.
A cluttered home provides more places for bed bugs to hide and makes locating and treating them harder. If bed bugs are in your mattress, using special bed bug covers (encasements) on your mattress and box springs makes it harder for bed bugs to get to you while you sleep. Leave the encasements on for a year.
However, you can outsmart these pesky bugs by placing interceptor traps under the legs of your bed to trap the bed bugs. This is a great way to confirm that you have an infestation and keep the bugs off your bed until you can seek treatment.
Bed bugs hate scents such as lemon scents, cinnamon oil, neem oil, spearmint, and silicone. They will hide from you when you use these smells. This is so that they can easily attack and feed off of you! Even just the threat of these scents will keep them away from your house for good.
As discussed earlier, vinegar, particularly white distilled, can kill bed bugs because of its powerful acetic acid content. However, the chemical only becomes a viable bed bug killer if it comes in direct contact with the said pest.
You can kill bed bugs with it one at a time but it is not capable of repeling the pests out of your property. Besides, overdoing the vinegar spray option will mean soaking your entire bedroom with the liquid's pungent corrosive smell. You can however, use vinegar as a supplement to other bed bug treatment solutions.
Bed bugs are easy to kill using heat. Their thermal death point is reported to be 114-115° F. Putting infested clothing in a hot dryer is an excellent way of killing bed bugs and their eggs. Heat can also be used to kill bed bugs and their eggs in furniture and carpeting.
For washable items research shows that dry cleaning, washing in hot water for 30 minutes, or tumble drying for 30 minutes on high will kill all stages of bed bugs. Non-washables are a little trickier. Items that aren't needed for a while can just be stored.
Depending on the nature and severity of the invasion, we understand that getting rid of bed bugs can take a few days to months. To succeed, you must be patient and work with your bed bug exterminator. In most cases, three to four visits can solve bed bug infestations.
Who is at risk? Any home is at risk of a bed bug infestation. Bed bugs are not a sign of a dirty home or poor personal hygiene. Bed bugs are hitchhikers - they travel to new places by hiding in furniture, suitcases, or other objects that get moved around.
Bed bugs are nocturnal, which means they are active mainly at night. They normally bite people who are sleeping or sitting still for long periods of time. However, bed bugs will not bite every night. They only come out when they need to eat, and it could be several nights or several weeks before they need another meal.
Reality: Bed bugs are not attracted to dirt and grime; they are attracted to warmth, blood and carbon dioxide. However, clutter offers more hiding spots. Myth: Bed bugs transmit diseases. Reality: There have been no cases or studies that indicate bed bugs transmit diseases between humans.
You may be thinking, can you get bed bugs from not washing your sheets? No—bed bugs have absolutely nothing to do with cleanliness levels. However, washing your sheets regularly gives you the opportunity to look for and remove any possible bed bug infestations.
While they are visible to the naked eye, bed bugs are exceptionally tiny, so you'll need to look closely in order to spot an infestation. Use a flashlight in dimly-lit areas. Look for droppings, skin casting, and rust-colored stains as evidence of a bed bug nest.