How to Successfully Eliminate Bed bugs from your Home

Bed bugs feed on blood, which attracts them to humans. Their blood sucking causes bites and rashes. They like to hide in warm spaces, including the cracks and crevices of mattresses, furniture, and bedding.

It is important to identify that you are actually dealing with bed bugs before you begin a treatment. Sometimes other insects can be mistaken for bed bugs that require a different treatment plan. The good thing is that bed bugs are visible to the human eye.

Step 1 – Identification

The obvious first step is to correctly identify the bugs you are seeing. Bed bugs are very small and fit into very small cracks and crevices. This can make bed bugs hard to find inside your home. Fortunately, if you look in the right places you will generally not miss them.

Common Bed Bug Hiding Spots Inside Your Home

The tools you need for your inspection is a tool to check inside cracks. Ideally you’ll have a plastic spatula for this. It’s good to wear gloves during the inspection to protect yourself.

The first thing to know is that bed bugs are nocturnal. They are active at night. They prefer to hide close to where humans rests or sleep. Some of their hiding spots therefore are in mattress crevices, box springs, headboards and bed frames. In these spots you will not only find live bed bugs, but also spots and stains from their feces. You will also find molted skins and egg shells as various life stages of the bug will be present.

The next sign to look for is dark, reddish-brown blood stains from regurgitation and also crushed bugs that took a blood meal before getting crushed. These stains can typically be found on mattresses and bed sheets.

The Difference in Major Infestations and Minor Infestations

If bed bugs have only been present for a brief time, they will be mostly found around beds or other sleeping areas. The longer they have been around, the bigger their population has grown. As the bed bug population grows they will move further and further away from your bed or sleeping areas. Unchecked, this can lead to the bed bugs moving to other rooms inside your house.

After checking the bed, mattress, headboard and bed frame the next step is to inspect any items stored under the bed. Next, check sofas or upholstered chairs as well as any other furniture close to the bed.

A hiding spot for bed bugs that often is overlooked is behind electrical outlet plates and light switches. Bed bugs are drawn there because of the warmth that can be found there.

Cleanliness is Not a Factor for Bed Bugs

For bed bugs cleanliness of the house is not a big factor because bed bugs feed on blood alone.

Patience and persistence is the key to thorough and successful inspections.

Step 2 – Successfully Eliminating Bed Bugs

Once the inspection has identified bed bugs, the next step is to eliminate them.

Steam Treatment for Bed Bugs

Steam is an effective way to quickly kill any exposed bed bug life stages. Initially, start treating with a wide applicator. This avoids blowing the bed bugs away before the steam can kill them. To successfully eliminate them, use the steamer in a slow, steady process. You can use a spatula to hold crevices open and then insert the steamer’s application tip to penetrate the crevices where the bed bugs are hiding.

Why Most Bed Bug Infestations Require A Chemical Treatment

While there are a lot of non-chemical strategies to eliminate bed bugs, the majority of bed bug infestations still require a chemical component. Most effective are non-repellent sprays that provide a lasting residual to eliminate bed bugs over the course of a few days. Prior to applying any chemicals you usually want to start with a thorough vacuuming. Once vaccumed, you can use the non-repellent spray to treat on and around baseboards, but also bed frames, headboards and any furniture around the bed. Most sprays can be directly applied to the mattress and box spring.

Step 3 – Preventing future infestations

Once the issue is eliminated it’s important to prevent any future infestations. A good preventive measure is to use bed bug covers on all mattresses.

The biggest risk in bed bug infestations is from places where a lot of people congregate such as hotels, apartment buildings and dormitories. If you go to a hotel you can inspect the room yourself now using these instructions. If you do find bed bugs make sure that you are transferred to another room. Either way it’s prudent to keep your suitcase and personal items off the floor and on a luggage stand, tabletop or other hard surface. When you come back home, inspect your suitcase to make sure you didn’t bring anything back with you.

If you suspect that you might have brought something with you, immediately launder or dry clean all the items in the suitcase.

Another frequent source of bed bug infestations is bringing in used beds, couches or other furniture into your home. Any second hand items you purchase should be closely inspected before being brought home. If you are able to launder or place the items in a dryer, the chance of introducing bed bugs is greatly reduced.