When you are resting in your bed, the most annoying thought that comes to your mind is that you might be infested by bed bugs during your night’s rest. Unfortunately, the number of bed bugs in homes has increased drastically in recent years. As a result, at least one in five Americans suffers from the presence of bed bugs in their bedrooms. But there is no need to worry because we have put together this article to show you how to get rid of bed bugs easily.
If you have no problem paying specialized companies to fight bed bugs, it is better to leave this work to them. This is because they use special equipment that you do not have access to. However, if you do not want to use the services of these companies, you should carefully follow the steps below to get rid of these cruel little insects. In How to get rid of bed bugsarticle, we present some simple but effective techniques for controlling bed bugs.
What do bed bugs look like
Bed bugs are tiny, elongated, brownish insects that feed on human or animal blood. The flat bodies of adult bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed. However, after feeding, their bodies enlarge and take on a reddish coloration.
Although they cannot fly, bed bugs are able to move quickly across floors, walls, and ceilings. During their career, they hide in cracks and crevices of walls, floors, and furniture during the day, as well as on beds (mattresses, box springs, bed frames, and headboards). They come out again in the evening. A female bed bug can produce hundreds of eggs, each about the size of a speck of dust.
When Bedbugs Bite
Bed bugs usually bite their victims when they are asleep and are most active at night. After piercing the skin to feed, they ingest blood with their elongated beaks. The bugs feed for three to ten minutes, becoming indecently full, before crawling away unnoticed.
Bed bugs are small insects that can hide well in the seams and strips around mattresses, pillows, and clothing. Therefore, it is not easy to detect these tiny insects. You can recognize the presence of these insects by the following signs.
Early signs of bed bugs
- Bed bugs shed their skin very frequently and quickly, black spots or dead skin remains of these insects are one of the most important signs.
- Bed bugs usually bite a particular part of the body about 15 times during an 8-hour sleep. As a result, closely spaced red spots appear on a certain part of the body.
- Since bed bugs stick to people’s clothes, they spread quickly throughout the house, so after a few days usually, all the inhabitants of the house have bite marks on their bodies.
- If you see tiny blood stains on your pillow or bed sheets, they are probably the footprints of bed bugs.
- Large numbers of bed bugs in the bedroom cause mold odor, be sensitive to this smell.
How to get rid of bed bugs -Steps
1- Identifying the spaces where bed bugs are present
It can be very difficult to identify bed bug-infested rooms when the population is very small. If the population of bed bugs increases, it is easier to identify them, but it definitely becomes much more difficult to eliminate them. We advise you to prevent the spread of bed bugs in your home, and if any of the above symptoms appear, take action to get rid of them as soon as possible.
To detect a bed bug infestation, first carefully examine the following areas with a magnifying glass and flashlight, looking for live and dead insects, insect skin, tiny drops of blood or black spots on fabric surfaces, and very small yellow eggs.
- Seams of mattresses and pillows.
- Seams and indentations of furniture.
- Under carpets.
- Behind the loosened and stripped wallpaper from the wall surface.
- The closets
- Under the old books
- Old cardboard surfaces
- Car seat covers
- Woolen fabrics that have not been washed for a long time
- Towels that have not been washed for a long time
- Behind signs and posters
- Electrical sockets
Deep gaps between parquet floors If you find a live insect, place it in a sealed glass of alcohol and show it to an entomologist who will suggest the most effective poisons to get rid of it or search the insect’s picture on Google to identify it.
2-Preventing the spread of bed bugs
While you are looking for bed bugs with a magnifying glass and flashlight, you should use a vacuum cleaner to clean all the joints in each room you examine once. And every time you turn off the vacuum cleaner for a long time, immediately take out the bag, put it in a plastic bag, close the lid and take it out of the house.
Wash all suspected textiles such as sheets, pillows, sofa covers, carpets, clothing, car seat covers, towels, sofa covers, and sofa cushions with the highest possible water temperature. Then put them in the dryer for at least 40 minutes at the highest possible temperature. Items that cannot be washed, such as books, can be placed in a plastic bag and then placed in the freezer for 72 hours.
Put unnecessary supplies that are in a suspect location in a plastic bag, seal the lid, make sure there is no compartment, and then put it in storage or another location outside the home for at least three months.
3- Destroy the house of bed bugs
At this stage, you should clean and fill all the seams in the house, especially the suspicious places. For example, seams and holes in parquets, seams between wallpaper sheets, seams between cabinets, electrical outlets should all be opened and checked, etc.
4-Kill the remaining insects
If you have read the article from the beginning, you know that we focus on non-chemical washing and cleaning methods. Washing textiles with high water temperature and drying at a temperature above 50 degrees Celsius, using a freezer and temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius for non-washable appliances, and using a vacuum cleaner were all methods that eliminated a high percentage of bed bugs in your home.
But to be sure that all bed bugs are gone and the possibility of their reproduction is close to zero, we must use chemical insecticides.
- To choose the most effective chemical agent, you should first submit a sample of the bed bugs found in your flat to an entomologist for consultation.
- Secondly, you should make sure that you use standard chemicals.
- Thirdly, find out in advance how to apply the chemicals.
- Fourth, when using chemical poisons, wear a mask, gloves, and special protective goggles to prevent these substances from entering your body.
- After applying chemicals, leave the house for a few hours and then use air conditioning to prevent the toxins from entering your lungs through breathing.
5- Evaluate your effort
To find out how effective your bed bug extermination efforts are, place bed bug traps next to your bed and check them every 5 days. Continue this for at least 3 months. As soon as you notice signs of bed bugs in your home again, contact an expert so they can help you more with their equipment.
6-Prevent reproduction of bed bugs
If you do not see any new signs of bed bugs in your home, it means that you have managed to get rid of bed bugs from your home and you have done an expensive job with minimal cost and saved a lot of money.
- From now on, you should sweep the carpets regularly.
- Do not put clothes on the floor
- Wash the curtains regularly
- When you return from a trip, wash all your clothes as soon as possible
- Try not to enter the house wearing other people’s clothes
- Check the electrical outlets regularly
- If you have a pet, bathe it regularly
By following simple measures like the ones above, you can greatly reduce the likelihood of bed bugs reproducing in your home.
Summary
Bed bugs are insidious and harmful insects that multiply rapidly and feed on your blood during the night. Unfortunately, their small size and high reproduction rate make them difficult to control. Sometimes you can use several methods to control these insects. If you read this article carefully and follow the techniques described in it, you have a good chance to get rid of bed bugs without paying for a pest control company.
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