Three Things You Can Do To Rid Your Home Of Bed Bugs
Bed bugs can become a serious problem in a person's home. Unlike other insects, they don't hide behind walls and under the floors of your house. Bed bugs live near where you sleep, sit, and lay down. They bite and feed off your blood in a manner similar to a mosquito. Although they are not known to carry disease, their bites can cause severe itching. They breed rapidly, so you may need the help of a pest control company. The following are a few things you can do to eliminate the problem yourself.
Determine how bad the infestation is.
Find out where they are nesting. It is possible that it is only a single nest of bugs. You need to look where you spend your time in the house, but start with your bed. Keep in mind that bed bugs do not travel far from their food source. It is possible that they may be living in a night table or dresser near your bed as well. But you should start with the place you sleep. Look at the seams of the mattress, and flip it upside down. You also need to inspect the box springs. You are looking for oval-shaped, brown bugs or their feces. The latter are small specks of black material. Sometimes they will be smeared and only a stain on the bed. Also, keep your eyes open for small, round, white specks of material. These are the eggs.
Your two most important weapons.
There are bed bug sprays that can be purchased at the hardware store, but they will vary in their effectiveness. The problem is that bed bugs can hide deep in cracks and small places where the spray may not reach. The other weapon to kill bed bugs is heat, and they cannot hide from the heat. Use a hair dryer on the hottest setting, and make sure you apply the heat to the area of suspicion for a few second of extreme heat.
Wash and dry your bedspreads, sheets and blankets.
This will kill any bed bugs you did not see along with their eggs. Keep in mind that washing is not as effective as the drying. It is the heat from your dryer that the bed bugs cannot survive. You can purchase a mattress cover that will completely seal the mattress, so any bugs that survive will be trapped inside and starve to death.
With the three ideas above, you may be able to rid your home of a small infestation, but if your infestation is large, you will need to call a pest control company. You will need to work with a technician. You will need to wash certain fabrics and perhaps empty dressers and night stands so they can be sprayed. In addition, this process may need to be repeated.