You will need to treat all areas where the bed bugs hide, including under the mattress and in all cracks and crevices. Thoroughly vacuum the whole area and remove the contents of the vacuum in a sealed plastic bag. You should wash all clothing and bedding that may have been contaminated with bed bugs at 60oC.
What Should I Do If I Find Bedbugs? If you suspect an infestation, don't ignore the problem. Call an exterminator immediately. Cleaning the mattress and other areas where you see bedbugs can help control the infestation, but you'll likely need an exterminator to eliminate them completely.
Finding one bed bug in a home is not necessarily a sign that an infestation is present. If you found a single bed bug, killed it, and can't find another after a thorough search, wait for a few days. Bed bugs don't take time off; if there are more, they will show themselves.
Since bed bugs can go a significant amount of time without eating it is strongly recommend that if you decide to vacate your home that you do so for an extended period of time. This will ensure that all of the bugs will die due to the lack of food source and the treatments provided by the exterminator.
If you've already gone inside your home, use a steamer to clean the carpets, drapes, linens, and mattress. Wrap your mattress in a bed bug proof cover. Place bedbug interceptors on the feet of your bed for a few nights just to be sure you killed everything.
Bottom line, no items should have to be thrown out during a bed bug infestation. With proper treatment, all items should be able to be salvaged. Instead of throwing out clothing and bedding, it's recommended to wash them in a hot water washing machine. High heat will kill bed bugs in all stages of life.
MYTH: Bed bugs only come out in the dark, sleeping with the light on will prevent me from getting bitten. FACT: Bed bugs activity level has nothing to do with the amount of light in a room. Instead, bed bugs adapt their activity level to the schedule of the host to amplify their feeding time.
Among the popular and most effective DIY home treatments for bed bugs is rubbing alcohol. You can dilute it and place it a spray bottle and simply spray the infested areas. The alcohol will kill bed bugs almost immediately. It also evaporates quickly, leaves no traces or bad smells.
You may be worried about getting bitten if you have to sleep in a bed with bedbugs. Although eliminating them is the best way to stop the bites, there are steps — from vacuuming and steam cleaning to wearing long-sleeved pajamas — you can take to keep bedbugs from ruining your rest.
Bed bugs are not a sign of a dirty home or poor personal hygiene. Bed bugs are not known to spread disease, but can be an annoyance because their presence may cause itching and loss of sleep. If you think you may have bed bugs, it's very important to do a thorough inspection, and to begin treatment as soon as possible.
A bed bug can bite every night and even up to several times in one night, however, they only feed around one or two weeks. If the bed bug Infestation isn't large, then people may not have to experience bed bug bites every night.
A single female can produce about 113 eggs in her whole life. Eggs can be laid singly or in groups. A wandering female can • lay an egg anywhere in a room. Under optimal conditions, egg mortality is low and approximately 97% of the bed bug eggs • hatch successfully.
How can bed bugs get into my home? They can come from other infested areas or from used furniture. They can hitch a ride in luggage, purses, backpacks, or other items placed on soft or upholstered surfaces. They can travel between rooms in multi-unit buildings, such as apartment complexes and hotels.
Although bed bugs are nocturnal and prefer to bite their host when they are asleep, they are not limited to biting their host at night. They've been known to bite people while awake during the day as long as the opportunity presents itself.
Often a single bed bug will produce more than one bite during the night so it is not always a one to one relationship where each bite represents a different bed bug.
Myth 7: Bedbugs travel on our bodies
Bedbugs do not like heat, Kells says. They therefore do not stick in hair or on skin, like lice or ticks, and prefer not to remain in our clothes close to our bodily heat. Bedbugs are more likely to travel on backpacks, luggage, shoes and other items farther removed from our bodies.
Heat Treatment – If your main concern is killing bed bugs fast, heat treatment may be a good option for you. Heat treatments can kill bed bugs in one day by a licensed pest control company. The affected room is heated to between 135°F (57.2°C) and 145°F (62.7 °C).
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.
Bed bugs live throughout the year, but there is a particular time during each year when bed bug infestations become more common. In normal years, bed bug “season” peaks in the months of August and September when most families have returned from their travels, and bugs have a chance to gain a foothold.
When bed bugs are discovered, disturbing them should be avoided as much as possible. Disturbing them is likely to encourage them to disperse. As soon as bed bugs are distributed widely throughout a property the pest control process becomes more complicated and they become harder to get rid of.