Bed bugs will hide in the smallest of spaces, namely in the linings of your mattress, sheets, and other fabrics. A plastic mattress, or plastic mattress cover, will either deter bed bugs from getting comfortable on your bed, or trap any existing bed bugs and keep them from spreading further.
There are cotton mattress covers on the market, but they're not nearly as effective in preventing bed bugs from getting to you because there are small spots where they may be able to crawl through and escape. Plastic is non-porous, and once it's been zipped up, they'll be completely cut off.
No other method produces the kind of results that professional pest control can. Bug bugs live in plastic, and considering adults can survive approximately five months without feeding, this removal method is not effective.
Plastic bags can kill people and most any bug by rapidly removing oxygen but even so, suffocating bed bugs in this manner is challenging. With their tiny size, bed bugs don't need much air to breathe and just enough air can be in a sealed bag to keep them kicking for months.
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.
Bed bugs are typically found hiding in cracks and crevices in bedrooms, and mattress covers are no exception. Infested mattresses, comforters, cushioned furniture and mattress covers may show bed bug fecal smears, which are the dried excrement of bed bugs.
Bed bug mattress covers work by sealing an infested mattress. Once sealed, the bed bugs may not escape. Without food, they will eventually die over time. Using a bed bug mattress cover on a noninfested mattress may prevent bed bugs from entering the mattress in the first place.
Non-chemical control tools and tactics like vacuuming are important components of effective bed bug control. Vacuuming alone cannot eliminate bed bugs (except possibly in a very limited new infestation), and vacuuming is typically used in conjunction with insecticide treatment and other non-chemical controls.
Highlights. Raid® Bed Bug Foaming Spray kills Bed Bugs and their eggs before they hatch. Foam expands into hard-to-reach places to kill Bed Bugs where they hide and keeps killing Bed Bugs for up to 4 weeks on surfaces.
You may continue to sleep on your mattress after vacuuming it and putting a bed bug proof encasement on it. Even if there are live bed bugs underneath the encasement, they are trapped inside and can't bite you. Without feeding on your blood, they will die inside the encasement.
Use Insecticides That are Safe for Your Mattress
The best way to get rid of live bed bugs instantly is to spray them with an insecticide. Most of these sprays kill bed bugs on the spot. However, once the solution has dried, there's no guarantee it will still kill the remaining bugs that come across it.
Bed Bugs are resilient, and it can take time to properly eliminate them. They can live for 1 year once they are encased in a bed bug mattress cover. Therefore, it is important to leave the bed bug mattress covered sealed for at least 1 year.
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.
Mattresses and pillows make potential habitats for bed bugs. Pillows may also be host to bed bug eggs, making them a potential point of bed bug infestations. A possible sign that bed bugs have infested pillows may be the appearance of bites.
You can either manually inspect the same areas each day, or some clients find it helpful to put a sticky adhesive trap around the bed legs which would pick up bed bugs that are on the move. If no bed bugs show up in the trap after several days, that's one indication that they have been completely eradicated.
Don't count on bed bugs to go away on their own. In theory, they can. In practice, they don't unless several highly specific circumstances occur. Your best bet is professional bed bugs treatment.
Bedding. Bugs can reside in your sheets, pillow cases, rugs, blankets as well as your mattress and box spring. Thankfully, it would be much easier to find the signs of the bedbugs on your bed than to look for them under your pillow.
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.
One of the most important things you can do to control the spread of a bed bug problem is to run your clothes, bedding, and any other infested items through a wash in hot water. Before doing so, make sure to sort the clothing and linens.
Washing your bed sheets and other bedding such as pillowcases and blankets in hot water is a simple and inexpensive way to stop bed bugs from biting you right at where you sleep every night.
Bed bugs also don't like light and will run for cover when lights are on. If the infested room is dark, and the uninfested rooms are lighted all night, it discourages them from wandering. They tend to bite exposed areas of the body, permitting a quick get-away when lights come on.
The acidity of vinegar is potent enough to disrupt the insect's nervous system and kill it. Vinegar is often used as a contact type insecticide, which means that you need to spray it directly unto the spotted bed bug to make it effective.