You are probably familiar with the old bedtime pleasantry that goes, “Sleep tight! Good night and don’t let the bedbugs bite.” No one is sure where this charming phrase was originally coined, but it is connected to a very disturbing fact of human sleeping accommodations — bed bugs.
As their name implies, the bed bugs enjoy the warmth, comfort, darkness, and cosiness of mattresses and other forms of bedding. Bed bugs thrive in dormitories, hotel rooms, and even the home. These minuscule terrors are hardly visible to the naked eye — until engorged on a feast of blood.
Checking for bed bugs to ensure you aren’t bitten is not a part of most nightly routines. However, there was a sudden resurgence of bed bug infections in 2019. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), there are some important things that sleepers can do to protect themselves from the voracity of these blood-thirsty nocturnal visitors.
Many pest control specialists say that bedbugs are especially difficult to eliminate. Not only are they able to see and hunt, but they have developed an immunity to a great portion of the extermination techniques we employ to keep their numbers in check. If you have found yourself assaulted by vampiric insectoids from the night, here are some tips to id yourself with the menace.
Prevent the Spread — if you suspect a single mattress, bed, couch, or room has developed a bed bug plague, don’t move anything. Clothes, books, and any other item you can think of may carry eggs or bugs that can establish themselves in new locations. If you want to be sure an item of clothing or bedding doesn’t have bed bugs, throw it in the dryer or give it a good ironing.
Debugging bedding — wash all your blankets, sheets, mattress covers, pillowcases, and all other items of bedding in hot water. Then, place these items in the dryer in the highest possible settings. Dry all your bedding thoroughly and place them in black trash bags away from anything that could conceivably contain bed bugs.
Clothing can be addressed in the same manner, wash your clothing and then dry it thoroughly. Clothing that can’t be placed in hot water or the dryer can be dry-cleaned or inspected very carefully. Do not place anything in infested areas or rooms until the threat has been completely removed from the location.
Curtains, stuffed animals, and all other fabrics that are present in the room can then be washed and dried similarly. Make sure that all items have been placed in black bags and double bagged to keep them safe from bed bug infestation.
All items that can’t be washed, like books, pictures, frames, plastic toys, or electronics, must be carefully inspected. If you plan on using insecticides to address this issue, then make sure that all children’s toys are carefully cleaned afterwards to prevent accidental ingestion and poisoning. If heat will be used to clean any items, make sure they are not going to be damaged during the heat treatment.
Store all cleaned items away from infected areas of the home until treatment has been completed and all bedbugs eliminated. Vacuum all floors and other surfaces like furniture and mattresses. To keep vacuum bed bugs from escaping, place the vacuum bag into another plastic bag before disposal.
Take extra special care when vacuuming the mattress and box spring of the bed that you suspect is infested by these tiny terrors. Double bag and immediately discard the vacuum bag in a trash can away from your home. Mattresses can be encased to keep them safe from bed bug infestation. The encasing is thick and secure and prevents all insects from entering or escaping from the inner mattress.
Before your home treatment can begin, all chairs, couches, and other furnishings must also be vacuumed. Bed bugs are easily transported from one place to another and are often found in the living room furniture and other seating accommodations. Vacuum all of these furnishings as well as you possibly can and from all possible angles. Move furniture and vacuum the areas around them as well. Once you have completed it, place all vacuum bags in a double plastic bag and discard them.
A cluttered home is more susceptible to bed bug attack than one kept in a semblance of order. To reduce the possibility of this threat, keep your home cleaned and decluttered at all times. Make sure that any items you have cleaned are also thoroughly inspected to make sure that no bed bugs are being transported from one part of the home to another.
While it may not be possible to remove all bed bugs from your home in one single intensive cleaning, the population can be brought down to manageable levels. Furthermore, you will have the experience in identifying and properly locating your quarry, and the next culling will be far more effective.