Bedbugs are small parasites that are love to stay in homes. They do not have wings but they can move quickly in the walls, ceilings, and floors.
Since bed bugs lay hundreds of eggs, they can flood your home and cause many problems. Anyone who has experienced bed bug infestation before will tell you that these insect bites at night and causes skin irritation. So, if you see some bedbugs in the crevices and seams of your mattress, what should you do?
How To Check Your 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. Don’t forget to check every inch of the mattress.
Depending on how deeply rooted your bed bug infestation is, you may have to pay more to get rid of them. This is simply because of how much more effort it will take to get a guarantee as a thorough job was completed. The price may also vary depending on which state you are in.
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 hair dryer is a great way to bring the heat to them. Can a blow dryer kill bed bugs? Learn about using a hair dryer to reveal and kill bed bugs.
Cleaning Your Mattress
To get rid of bedbugs in your mattress, you have to clean the fabric and other places where it leaves. First, wash the linen, bedding, and clothing in hot water and leave them to dry.
Now, use a stiff brush to scrub the mattress seams to get rid of their eggs and the parasites before you vacuum it. After vacuuming, put the vacuum cleaner on a clean plastic and take it outdoors.
Encase the mattress inside a tightly woven and zippered bed bug mattress cover; this will help prevent the entry or escape of the bedbugs.
Since these parasites can survive for up to a year, leave the cover for at least one year to ensure the bugs’ death in the mattress. However, if the mattress is too infested, you can consider burning it and getting a replacement. But clean the place thoroughly to prevent the infestation of the new mattress.
Though deep cleaning the mattress and your room may be an excellent solution to get rid of your bedbugs, sometimes the infestation is too extensive.
If that is the case, then it’s time to clear the bedbugs and destroy their eggs to prevent them from reproducing. A good way to kill bed bugs directly is with steam, which can be done with the use of a steam cleaner.
Check Your Other Furniture
Bedbugs are insects that love to stay in dark, small spaces such as closets, mattress seams, and headboards. It’s hard to spot them but you will know of their presence once you start to notice bite marks on your skin.
It’s not normal to have bedbugs in your home, and you should get rid of them. Bedbugs love staying around the beddings, mattress, and headboard. However, it’s not easy to spot them as they hide in dark, small spaces. At night, they emerge from the cracks to feed.
Also, regardless of how deeply you clean your home, you can still have a bedbug infestation. What’s only needed is a foreign bug-infested cloth or bedding, and since they hide in hard-to-reach spots, it will be hard to get rid of them.
A torn cloth or second-hand furniture from a pest-infested home can bring bedbugs into your home. Additionally, they can travel through walls, and if your neighbor has some, they can spread to your room with ease. Also, they are hardy as they can survive for a long time without feeding.
Contact Sprays and Powder
Contact sprays will kill the bedbugs and evaporate in a short time without leaving any residue. Use them on your drawer slides, baseboards, below drawers, and behind cabinets.
Once you apply the contact spray, follow with the residual sprays to enjoy long-lasting protection from these parasites. Also, apply powder in confined areas where bed bugs love to stay and will not stir to the air. However, avoid spraying the areas you will walk, touch, or sit on.
If you’re concerned about bed bugs crawling on you while you’re asleep, you can see how to repel bed bugs from biting you.
Use a Bed Bug Bomb: Aerosol Insecticides
These sprays can be used under the bed, in the infestation site, and on furniture in your room. When spraying them, open the windows and remove clothing and bedding from the room. Spray along cracks, crevices, furniture and adhere to the instructions.
Bed bug bombs are a great way to reduce the existing population of bed bugs in your home. These canisters will deploy a light fog that is toxic to bed bugs, killing them over the course of six weeks. Because this product works in a similar fashion to hiring an exterminator, you should leave your house and properly air it out after reoccupying the living space.
Pay a professional
The average price for getting rid of bedbugs in your home is $1000 to $2500. The price varies based on your home space, infestation level, and the method you use to control the parasites. You can sometimes pay even $300 or lesser and as high as $6000 to get rid of bedbugs in some homes. You can click here to read about bed bug exterminator costs.
Starve Them to Death
Starving bed bugs to death isn’t the most ideal option, since it requires you to leave your home and stay out of it for a very long time. The amount of time it takes to starve bed bugs to death varies from one colony to the next.
Bottom Line
Bedbugs are one of the peskiest parasites that bite humans. They can cause discomfort from their itching, which can make you lose sleep. And since they multiply faster, they will spread into your home and cause many problems.
The moment you suspect your home has bed bugs infestation, adopt the right measures to deal with them. These parasites can reside even in clean houses, so be careful with second-hand furniture and beddings.