Bed bugs are nasty little creatures who crawl into your bed and feed on your blood while you’re fast asleep. When you wake up, you’ll notice a bunch of itchy and ugly red bumps all over your body. This isn’t a minor problem that you can just walk away from.
A bed bug infestation is no laughing matter. Therefore, it’s important to treat the infestation and prevent it from ever happening again.
You can use the following hand-tested products to eliminate your bed bug infestation.
However, if you want to eradicate the problem truly, it’s best to follow the following guide after the products:
- Steamfast steamer
- Cimexa dust
- Mattress encasement
- Bed bug traps
The Steps To Getting Rid of Bed Bugs
Identification
The first thing you need to do is to identify if you have bed bugs in the first place. In doing so, you would need to observe the bug itself, which can prove difficult. After all, not all of us have laser vision. And these bed bugs love to hide in places where we can’t see them as well. However, it’s important to identify the problem first before you can think of a solution.
To identify these bugs, make sure to strip the bedsheets and look in between your mattresses. Don’t forget to check behind the headboard, under your bed frame, or even along the floorboards. These are the most common places for bed bugs to hide.
When you’ve collected some specimen to check for identification, here are a few characteristics to look out for:
- They have six legs, no wings, and antennae
- When they’re young, they are seen as tiny and white-ish insects.
- When they’ve been fed, they will appear redder and longer in appearance.
However, if you don’t want to go bug hunting, then the next option is to check for other signs of a bed bug infestation. You can do this by looking out for other tell-tale signs. This includes the following:
- Specks of blood or bug feces along your pillow or mattress
- Markings along the legs of your bed frame
- Any red circles without a marked center on your body
Treatment
Once you’ve confirmed that you have a bed bug infestation, you can move forward with the treatment:
- The first step is to start washing your bed sheets and comforter.
- Make sure that you use high water temperature when washing and high heat when drying.
- Follow up with your clothes, stuffed animals, fabric curtains, etc.
- When you move your stuff from the room, make sure that it’s sealed in a plastic bag or bin to avoid transferring the bugs.
- Vacuum everything—your bed, the area around your mattress, and even around the floorboards. Make sure that the vacuum has a HEPA filter.
- After you vacuum the floors, use a contact killer. This refers to a product that kills bed bugs and their eggs on contact.
- You can also use steam to manipulate the environment for more heat, as 120 degrees will eradicate the bugs and their eggs.
- The next step is to install a mattress encasement that prevents the bug from living into your mattress and box spring.
- You can also apply a residual bed bug killer who needs to be used on an ongoing basis.
Ongoing prevention
It’s important to continue with your treatment so that the bed bugs won’t return. After all, bed bugs can multiply tremendously even with a single feeding. So, make sure to follow these steps religiously and consistently:
- Vacuum your furniture and floors daily.
- Re-apply dusting agents.
- Keep washing comforters and sheets every few days.
- Invest in bed bug traps.
Once you’ve followed through with the guide and the follow-up steps for prevention, you can kiss your bed bugs goodbye! Additionally, if you want reinforced treatment for the infestation, you can check out popular hand-tested products. At the end of the day, this is a problem that can easily be fixed, as long as you follow through with the steps thoroughly.