Washing in water above 60ºC (to ensure every bug stage will be killed) and drying infested linen in a dryer is an effective method of killing bed bugs. It is recommended that clothes be placed on the hot setting and dried for at least 30 minutes.
It can be difficult to eliminate bed bugs, but it's not impossible. Don't throw out all of your things because most of them can be treated and saved. Throwing stuff out is expensive, may spread the bed bugs to other people's homes and could cause more stress.
There are no two ways about it—spotting even a single bed bug in your home is cause for concern. While you may think that just one tiny speck of a pest may not be a big deal, it can signal you have a full-on infestation growing under your nose.
To succeed, you must be patient and work with your bed bug exterminator. In most cases, three to four visits can solve bed bug infestations.
If you want to get rid of bed bugs for good, you need to be proactive about treatment and prevention. Ultimately, calling a pest control service in Barrie is the best way to eradicate an infestation. But, there are also some things you can do to effectively ban bed bugs from your home permanently.
Following treatment, you should install bed bug monitors under each leg of your bed to screen for surviving bugs. The interceptors are inexpensive and effectively trap the bugs as they try to enter or leave the bed. Check the traps every day for evidence, if your treatment was effective there should be no bugs.
Wash everything on a high temperature or sanitary cycle for at least 30 minutes. Placing everything in the dryer on the hottest setting for 30 minutes will also kill bed bugs and larvae. Immediately after you're finished putting clothing in the washer, tie up and throw out the empty garbage bag in an outdoor trash bin.
If One Room Has Bed Bugs, Do They All? Bed bugs are one of the worst pests when it comes to the spread of infestation. Bed bugs can move up to 25 feet per day, so if they really wanted to, so it's safe to say that you have a high risk of bugs in every room of your home.
Travel – Bedbugs may find their way onto luggage in hotels and motels with a high number of occupants. If you have stayed at a hotel or other home recently, leave bags and clothes in the garage or somewhere far from upholstered surfaces, suggests Allan Bossel, to avoid unintentionally transporting them to your home.
Light Bed Bug Infestation
Few sightings and blood stains noted if any, 1-2 caught as specimens for identification, minimal irritation from bites.
Those individuals who are not sensitive to bed bug bites may not know they have an infestation. Because bed bugs are nocturnally active, it's hard to see other signs of their presence—unless you're accustomed to waking up at 3 A.M. and taking a census.
Strip the bed of linens and wash thoroughly in hot water. Keep the mattress and box spring where they are. Moving or removing them can spread the bed bugs. Contact a bed bug exterminator to treat it with heat or another treatment.
Heat Treatment – If your main concern is killing bed bugs fast, heat treatment may be a good option for you. Heat treatments can kill bed bugs in one day by a licensed pest control company.
And most bed bugs live approximately 4-6 months. So initially they may seem to spread from room to room fairly slowly, which is why the best time to eradicate bed bugs is as early as possible, especially when considering that it can take as much as 3-6 weeks to completely eliminate bed bugs from your house.
Lemon (Or Any Citrus)
Like many other animals, bed bugs hate the smell of citrus plants. Citrus, particularly oranges and lemons, will smell gross to them. As a result, most bed bugs will not want to stick around this aroma for too long. There are several ways to make this work for you if you want to repel insects.
Also, be sure you have insecticide specific for mattresses, rather than a general-purpose aerosol. You can then spray the insecticide on the infestation site and any other furniture around the room. The best way to get rid of live bed bugs instantly is to spray them with an insecticide.
DIY treatments include high heat, bleach, alcohol, and diatomaceous earth. Rubbing alcohol, salt, baking soda, and boric acid are not effective. Certain essential oils repel bed bugs but won't kill them. Diatomaceous earth is an effective passive method of bed bug treatment.
Vacuum the area, but don't expect optimal results. Considering how quickly bed bugs reproduce, this is a real concern. Vacuuming the pests that you can see can seem simple, however, with bed bugs, there are a lot that you will not see. Vacuums cannot remove all of the hidden bed bugs as well as any eggs.
You can prevent bed bugs from reaching you, e.g., with pajamas and mattress encasements. You can deter and repel them by using substances and sprays that they don't like. Or you can kill them with heat which is the best way of stopping them from biting.
No. You should not throw out your mattress after a bed bug attack. Besides that being one of the easiest ways to spread the infestation even further, it also won't solve the problem. Unfortunately, bed bugs are not limited to mattresses.
Bed bugs are natural hitchhikers, so it's likely that if you encounter an infestation, you could bring bed bugs home with you through your luggage or other belongings. Initially, once you learn you have been exposed to bed bugs you must not panic. Not everybody who encounters bed bugs will necessarily bring them home.