If you see bed bug bites, fecal spots or a live bed bugs, take immediate action.
Purchase a set of mattress encasements (these are zippered covers that enclose mattresses and box springs) to keep bed bugs from getting inside. Also, consider purchasing interceptor cups to place under the legs of upholstered furniture.
Inspect Your Mattress
Once a bed bugs fly has been identified, it is vital to contain it as much as possible so that the bugs don’t spread to other parts of your home. This means thoroughly searching for and treating all items in the room where the infestation is occurring.
First, strip the sheets off your bed and look for small blood spots, discarded exoskeletons and signs of excrement (bed bug excrement looks similar to coffee grounds). Also check the seams of your mattress and any folds, tags or cracks. If you have a mattress protector, be sure to examine the seal and any labels on it for signs of an infestation.
Then move to the bed frame and inspect all surfaces, joints, corners, crevices and hidden areas. If your bed has a headboard, disassemble it and search for signs of an infestation in the space between it and the wall. Also, be sure to thoroughly inspect and empty nightstands and dressers that sit close to your bed, as these can be hiding places for a bed bug infestation.
If you find any items in the bedroom that are infested, take them outside and double bag them. Then, place the bagged items in the sun for a day or so. This will heat up the contents and kill any remaining insects and their eggs. Alternatively, you can place the items in the chest freezer (0 degrees F) for 8-10 hours, which is lethal to both bugs and eggs.
Inspect Your Furniture
Bed bugs are hitchhikers that can find their way to your home via pet fur, stuffed inside clothing or luggage or through tiny cracks in your window frames. Once they have made it into your house, they will seek out comfortable places to set up camp. Furniture is one of their favorite places to hide and nest. So before you bring a used piece of secondhand furniture into your home, it is important to inspect it for signs of infestation.
The first thing you need is a good flashlight that can help you see in dark corners, crevices and seams where these pests like to hide. A magnifying glass also helps in the inspection process. Next, look closely at the creases of the furniture. Bed bugs can hide in the tiny spaces between slats of a couch or underneath loose paint on a frame. Also, be sure to look behind any wall-mounted items such as picture frames or shelves. Shining a light into these areas can reveal bed bug feces or exoskeletons that may indicate a problem.
If you do discover a bed bug infestation, the best thing to do is to take the furniture outside where it can be bathed in sunlight. Afterwards, vacuum the furniture along with its seams, folds and hidden areas. You can also spray the furniture with a bed bug spray if you have it available.
Remove Clutter
Getting rid of clutter in your house can help to keep bed bugs away. Clutter provides more hiding spots and makes it harder to treat an infestation.
For example, a stack of clothes on the floor next to a bed can give the bugs a place to hide while waiting for you to go to sleep. Also, cluttered spaces allow the bugs to spread from room to room more easily. Moreover, a messy house can make it difficult to see signs of a bed bug infestation like blood or exoskeletons.
Inspect any secondhand or rental furniture before bringing it into your home and inspect any upholstered items that you buy new. Look in nooks and crevices, including the back of kick plates or foot rests on recliners and couches.
If you have an infestation, vacuum every nook and cranny of your home at least once a week. Don’t forget to empty the vacuum bag and dispose of it in an outside trash can.
Remember, bed bug solutions are not fast crawlers. They move very slowly and they are only interested in finding a warm-blooded host to bite. The carbon dioxide your body emits while you are sleeping attracts them, so make sure to remove your clothing from the bedroom before going to sleep and keep your bedding clean.
Seal Cracks
It’s common for people to think of bed bugs as a problem associated with hotels and motels, but they also invade homes, schools and college dorm rooms. People can unintentionally transport the pests home in their luggage, backpacks, purses and dirty clothing, the EPA reports. Look for nooks and crannies where bed bugs like to hide, such as around the piping or seams of mattresses and box springs, on headboards, and in cracks.
Keeping clutter to a minimum and regularly vacuuming the area surrounding your bed can help prevent the bug infestations. It’s also a good idea to use caulk to seal cracks and crevices in your walls, floors and around outlets, which is especially important for homeowners and those who live in multi-family dwellings where the pests can spread from neighboring units to their own.
You can also try using a zippered mattress and box spring encasement to keep the pests from entering or escaping. Wash any contaminated clothes, bedding and curtains in hot water or run them through the dryer on high heat to kill the bugs and their eggs. If you can’t wash the items, isolate them in a sealed bag with a sock and leave them in the sun for 2-5 days to kill the bugs (they cannot survive without blood for long). If your bag gets too warm while the item is inside it, take the stuffed sock outside and place it back in the sun.
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