No home is absolutely free of these awful creatures but you can get rid of enough that you don’t get bites anymore or very rarely do. Bed bugs are tiny insects that have a rounder more plump body than lice that swells with blood. Thank goodness they have no wings but they crawl about fast on floors, walls and ceilings. Their vampiric feeding mechanism freaks anyone out and it should: there is nothing healthy about getting bitten by pesky, blood sucking insects that can travel from home to home via luggage fast. And like any parasitic insect these guys are suspected to be spreading around diseases either through bacteria or virus, a risk one shouldn’t take with such insect bites. And even if they didn’t give you an illness their big, itchy, red bumps are just asking to itch, hurt, burst and open up your skin to more harmful bacteria. Sadly even if you are hygienic and do regular, general cleaning this is not enough to rid of bed bugs and not even all cockroaches.
This important paragraph list of anti-bed bug advice has pretty much everything you need to know if you want to rid of them independently and/or can’t or don’t want to work with the chemicals in fumigation. Fumigation should be the last resort, there are many available insecticides that are organic, not harmful on human skin, smells rather pleasant and really works. It is not difficult to create an organic anti-bug recipe so you should just hunt one down at the markets easily enough.
Beware of hotels, inns and other locations that accommodate a lot of short-term guests. They are sneaky which a lot of us have known growing up, inconvenienced by blistering sores. Bed bugs can get into your luggage and back into your home or someone else’s because they travel so well fabric on fabric on floor, to closet you name it. Having unwanted company in your home is not the way for anyone to live, invest in time, effort and some money to create a healthy, easier living environment for every soul in the house.
1.) First off: Inspect the house! Try to diagnose specific home problems
It is not a quick and easy journey to rid of these evil survivors but it is fulfilling and your home will be cleaner and easier to live in. General cleaning is where it all starts also so you can discover what needs to be more thoroughly cleaned and where all the cracks and holes are that you can potentially seal up. Fillers like epoxy and polytuff will greatly help with not just bed bugs but all kinds of pesky creatures that sliver through nooks and crannies. Find their hideouts can be made into a fun game where you are this gigantic creature going around their city and filling up every possible entrance and exit with cement. Well that does sound sadistic, but when we are talking about very bad people and useless, parasitic bloodsuckers it is A-OK!!
When you are hunting down bed bugs you will easily notice their remains if you get often bitten. They are gnarly and noticeable such as rusty stains on sheets from being crushed, pale yellow shells that are shed by the young offspring, little spots of red-black fecal matter, uggh!! Also they have miniscule cream-colored eggs that I strongly suggest you remove as you spot it.
Also keep in mind that they prefer living on fabric and wood instead of plastic and metal, so you must launder and disinfect all your sheets and pillows along with vacuuming and anti-bacterial wiping the floors and walls. You are their food source and that is a lot of blood for colonies and colonies living in the shade watching you, watching your parents, your dog, wishing nothing but to inflict pain. Remember to bring up the OCD and definitely get your fabrics, cushions and mattresses washed and vacuumed. These insects can be found anywhere that has a fold or is a little pocket, like loose wallpaper, chipped wood, between fabrics and cushions, cracks in the wall, curtains, headboards, etc. Check everywhere!
2.) Reduce clutter, organization and cleanliness go hand in hand
From knowing how bed bugs act obviously you would’ve guessed that a whole lot of clutter encourages bugs to thrive as they can hide easier and more hidden items are more dirtied and kept from plain sight. Careful with moving fabrics around especially if you suspect they are infected, they should be thrown straight into big plastic bags and into isolated laundering. And besides isolating potentially infected items into a safe, controlled cleaning area (that you must also clean afterwards if it’s in your home premises) you must throw away useless items, meaning they are useless to you like magazines, tattered irreparable shoes, dingy mattresses that have all those holes and gray spots and other spots we must not speak of. Rid of them! Don’t be a hoarder and trash anything that can’t be saved with any method of cleaning and is just old, worn and did its time. Take note of the bags, bag infested or potentially infested items right away as soon as it hits your head that you have to save your skin (literally!).
3.) Let’s elaborate on our vacuuming responsibilities
Only vacuum when the place is organized of course but it doesn’t have to be super clean yet. First off, organize the clutter and toss dirty items in a sealed bin. Then you do general cleaning like sweeping lightly to sweep away the largest molecules of dirt. As for the items in your home like rugs, cushions, carpets and curtains vacuuming them for eggs and insects is the way to go before hurling them in the laundry. Now that is really making sure. Please empty the vacuum bag with presence of mind, all the eggs and beg bug bodies should be discarded somewhere safe to discard like over n infested area or a wide outdoor space. Scrape off those eggs well, be ready to have materials you can easily clean your vacuum and its attachments with. Vacuuming is recommended to be taken place in a home every week at least but this is more for houses that have a real tendency to attain bed bugs, especially if they have a lot of thick fabrics. For those who don’t have a vacuum yet maybe an occasional call for a thorough vacuuming service or borrowing one. For those who don’t really get bed bugs, once a month is a nice consideration given you generally clean at least every other day.
4.) Laundering
Hot water laundry is a risk with small children around but this is incredibly effective.If you don’t have that machine just soaking laundry in a tub of antibac soap- hot water solution with care, covering and kept away from animals and small children. But of course putting your fabrics through a hot cycle is better, in fact, a sustained temperature of 50 degrees Celsius/120 degrees Fahrenheit can help kill these pests, don’t forget to let the clothes soak in anti-bacterial soap or soap fabric conditioner to help the boiling water.
At least half an hour is a good soaking time for all your fabrics as this eliminates the chance of survival, now you double wash your load, yes double laundry to make sure your efforts don’t go to waste.If you have dryer or dryer services, proceed to this as the next step. When all else fails just let as many fan sources face and dry out the items along with the help of a blow dryer, if your items are heavy just make your life easier and submit them to cleaning services if you don’t have the equipment. Fear the moisture, what’s most important is that you double wash these items in lots of anti-bacterial soap and hot hot water and dry them as fast as you can. Leaving them out in the blazing sun all day is not bad at all if you believe you did the laundering job well.
5.) Steaming
Steaming is an effective method to kill all stages of bed bugs. Steam cleaners emit steam at a minimum temperature of 100 degrees Celsius and bed bugs generally die at 50 degrees Celsius, or about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Steaming should be a repeated process, at least doubled if you are using this method to clean off bugs. Steaming also gets rid of moisture which attracts far less bacteria as well.
6.) Don’t decontaminate small items in your freezer
Sounds crazy and looks dumb and sounds very risky. It’s also the thought that it’s quite gross and maybe the bug bits might fall on food right? Even if certain cold temperatures are proven to kill bed bugs and eggs why would you put it in your freezer with where you also place your food? Let’s face it, this crazy idea must be some old idea that was bad. Don’t be lazy and give your fabrics and house a real scrub down instead.
7.) Diatomaceous Earth
This not-that-hard to say substance is a food-grade, non-toxic powder extracted from algae. It is an organic pest killer that comes in the form of a chalky substance drawn on or sprinkled around the household to dehydrate the pests. Diatoms are the hard-shelled algae where diatomaceous Earth comes from. You may be familiar with those cheap pest chalks that are real stringy on the fingers because of the chemicals, well that’s fine too when there is no other choice and you don’t have very sensitive beings like small children, dogs and whiny ladies.
Of course this is still a dust source so be wary of that, but like the chemical pest chalks these also last for weeks but should be redrawn roughly about every 7-10 days to make sure. Spread and line this substance all around, lining the floors, walls, junctions, under cabinets and tables, kitchen of course definitely all over that. Outside your door to and around your garbage, go have fun and pretend you are vandalizing the house like a child when you are in fact saving it.A dust mask can be used applying this
for extra safety measures. But remember organic anti-bug sprays are great too and really crisp up the shells of the bugs, combined with this organic chalk it will also serve as a barrier that bugs avoid. They avoid the dust because they are so fragile to how fine and plenty it is for their systems, the dust clogs and dehydrates them by getting all over in between and inside their shell’s crevices. The chalk really dehydrates them fast, combined with a bug spray results will be much, much faster.
8.) Remember that bed bugs are not only on your bed! But please do enclose your mattress
They are named bed bugs because they bite you most when you are asleep, with your bed serving as their refrigerator and you as their food source. Bed bugs can live anywhere and prefer wood and fabric, so beware wooden floors and frames, fabrics and cushions, head boards as well. Mattress cases should be put in after the mattress has been thoroughly laundered and dried to remove these bed bugs, as much of them as possible. Wash your mattress and its casing every 3-12 months depending on dustiness of your living area, pets, children, stuff like that.
