If You Find One Bed Bug; But No Other Signs, Start Monitoring. If you search your entire home and don't see any more signs of bed bugs, it's time to start monitoring and deep cleaning. We advise that you put bed bug traps all over your bedroom and close to the area where you saw the bug.
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. If you find even just a few bed bugs, you need to call in the professionals.
Finding one bed bug in a home is not necessarily a sign that an infestation is present. If you found a single bed bug, killed it, and can't find another after a thorough search, wait for a few days. Bed bugs don't take time off; if there are more, they will show themselves.
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.
Bed bugs reproduce very quickly! A bed bug infestation can become a full-blown population within months. They also pop up in places you do not want them to exist, such as on your bedding or bed itself. The bed bugs that cause this problem will not go away on their own unless there is no food supply.
Extreme temperatures are the best way to kill bed bugs. Washing your clothing and bedding in a high heat wash should effectively kill off any bugs, as well as any eggs they've possibly laid. It's important to exercise caution in moving infested linens during the process to avoid spreading the bed bugs to other rooms!
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.
It's best to keep the infestation localized to as few rooms as possible. This will also make remediation easier. Do continue to sleep in your bedroom after identifying a bed bug infestation. If you move rooms or start sleeping on the couch you run the risk of contaminating these other areas of your home.
Bed Bugs will try to live as close to their food source as possible. They can often be found directly on the mattress in the tufts and folds, along the seam, and even inside the mattress. They can also be found in the box-spring, bed frame, headboard and furniture near the bed.
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.
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.
Third and last, vacuuming does help you to remove bed bugs but it doesn't mean that you instantly getting rid of bed bugs. What you're actually doing is to suck up the visible bed bugs and make them trapped inside the vacuum cleaner tools.
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.
Bed bugs are solely attracted to anywhere blood can be easily accessed, so no matter the cleanliness of your bed, you'll still be at risk. This myth may stem from the fact that bed bugs are harder to identify in a dirty bed, so by the time an infestation is discovered, it has become extensive.
Get a mattress and box spring cover
An effective way to keep bedbugs that are hiding inside your bed from biting you is to invest in a good-quality covering for your mattress and box spring. The best option is to use a cover with a good seal that zips around your mattress and box spring.
Bed bug bites will turn into small, sometimes itchy, red welts on your skin. Now, many insects can bite you during the night, but one common indicator that a bed bug has bitten you is if there are a series of three or four welts in a row. Different people will also react differently to bed bug bites.
Although bed bugs are nocturnal and prefer to bite their host when they are asleep, they are not limited to biting their host at night. They've been known to bite people while awake during the day as long as the opportunity presents itself.
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.
Technically, bed bugs are unlikely to live on the clothes you're wearing, but they can quickly take up residence on items in a suitcase, and even what's in your drawers or on your floor.
Generally, bed bugs only crawl on humans when they are still (like when they're sleeping), and instead lay eggs in mattresses, bed frames, floorboards, and walls.
Technically, bed bugs can live through a cycle in the washing machine. The truth is that while washing your clothes or linens will kill most of the bed bugs, the heat of drying your items is what will ultimately exterminate any and all remaining bugs. As we mentioned above, bed bugs do not tolerate heat.
Bed bugs tend to hide as close to the bed as possible, so only launder the fabrics in the immediate area – your bedding, and clothing in dressers near the bed. Hanging clothes in closets can usually be left there, but wash anything on the floor.
Repeated vacuuming will help control an infestation. Bed bug eggs are usually hard to remove, and adult bed bugs congregate in areas that have been previously infested. Check and re-check these areas to help reduce the bed bug population in your home.