How to get rid of bed bugs
Bed bugs are small, but they are bloodsuckers. Their bites can leave you with red and itchy skin all over. Their size can easily deceive you, but you should know better than to ignore them. They reproduce very quickly. You will be surprised to know that a female bed bug can lay up to 500 eggs in her lifetime.
So, it is highly recommended that you spot bed bugs properly and do all that you can to control their infestations before it gets too late. Here are some steps you can try to get rid of bed bugs. If there are quite a lot of bed bug infestations in your home, you need to call a professional pest control company for help.
Locating the infestations
Since they can reproduce very quickly, it is best if you can spot infestations of bed bugs in the early stages itself. They are very small insects, and they can easily hide in narrow & tiny spaces. Check for infestations in the seams of the mattress, beneath wallpapers, cracks of the bed’s frame, behind wall posters, between cushions and in any other narrow place in your homes.
Droppings of bedbugs in the form of tiny dark spots, stains of crushed bed bugs on the pillows & cushions, tiny, yellow eggs and reddish, live bed bugs are the signs you need to look out for when you want to identify the infestations of these insects.
Keeping the infestations at bay
Use your vacuum cleaner to thoroughly clean all the narrow spaces and areas under the carpet to trap bedbugs and control their infestations. Put all the bedbug-infested clothes in a washing machine and set the temperature to the highest possible heat settings to kill the insects. If these items cannot be washed or dried, it is highly recommended that you seal them tightly and throw them away.
Check your home thoroughly for possible bedbug-infestation areas. Clean whatever you can and throw away anything that you cannot clean. Treat the cracks in your bed, walls and furniture quickly to stop the entry of bedbugs. Keep your beds at least at a 6-inch distance from the walls, so that the bugs cannot climb on the beds from the walls.
Killing the bedbugs
The best home remedy to kill bedbugs is to wash the infested clothes at extreme temperature settings – extremely hot (around 46 degrees C) or extremely cold (less than 0 degrees C). You can also kill the bedbugs by putting the infested items in a bag, and leaving it out in the sun for a few months. Bedbugs interceptors are available in the market today. You can fix them on the legs of the bed so that they can trap the bugs before they get on to the beds.
Once you have cleared the bed bugs from your homes, you can cover your furniture, walls and ceilings in bedbug-proof covers to prevent further infestations. You can also use certified, bedbug-specific sprays to kill bedbugs. Look for insecticides with chemicals such as pyrethrins, pyrethroids, chlorfenapyr, nicotine, silica aerogel and diatomaceous earth. You can also use foggers, but with a lot of care, as they are extremely dangerous to humans.
Once you have followed the above steps, keep checking the bedbug-infestation prone areas at least once in a week to check for any activity of these insects.
