Amongst the most challenging insect concerns to remove rapidly is bed bugs. Bed bugs may infest anybody, anyplace. Bed bugs do not imply that a house, business, school, or other structure is filthy.
It simply indicates that bed bugs have discovered a new home where they may hide and attack people. They might have been transported from a relative’s apartment, a neighbour’s residence, or a motel, from a couch in a medical reception area or a closet. Bed bug control is difficult, but it can be done.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to detect bed bugs in your home, how bed bug control gets rid of bed bugs on your own, how it is useful in better sleeping hours and when to get a professional.
What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs (binomial nomenclature Cimex lectularius) are tiny, flattened, invasive insects that feed exclusively on the blood of humans and animals. These unappealing insects are reddish-brown in colour and range in length from 1mm to 7mm.
They may even go months without feeding on any blood. They have a hard exoskeleton like any other insecticide, making them hard to kill using ordinary pesticides.
Because a female adult bed bug may produce more than 500 eggs in her lifespan, a significant infestation can develop in just a few weeks. Unlike mosquitoes, they are flightless insects, unlike mosquitoes, and instead, they hide during days and wait for the appropriate time to suck their meal.
What Draws Bed Bugs to Your Residence?
As we know, they aren’t attracted due to unclean or decay; instead, they are only concerned by the availability of their meal. First, we can do for bed bug control to prevent them from infesting in the first place. Here are a few leading causes of bed bugs:
- Transportation through the purchase of used couches, sofas, beds.
- Staying at hotels with bed bugs contaminated mattresses.
- The people whose homes are infested with bed bugs staying at your home may bring bed bugs along with them.
- Visited contaminated places such as resorts, hostels.
- Buying a house already infested with bed bugs.
We should be concerned and alarmed during all these situations for effective bed bug control right from the start.
Find the signs of bed bug infestation
The skin rashes that seem to be caused due to bed bugs may be due to many other reasons. The first thing to do if you are looking for bed bug control is to confirm bed bugs.
There are some signs that you should look for while detecting bed bugs:
- Look for the remains or shed skins of bed bugs. If you encounter black-reddish tiny chunks on your pillow or mattress which smell musty or pungent (locker room smell), it’s likely that they are bed bugs.
- Itchiness, red rashes, bites on your skin after you wake up
- Tiny Blood stains on your bed
If you detect these conditions, your bed is likely infested with bed bugs. Now it’s time to get rid of them completely.
Step 1. Detect bed bugs and their infested areas
The first step of bed bug control is detection. Look at the bed, window covering, Furniture near the bed, decorations, floor covering, trims, walls, zippers of the Furniture, bed sheets, mattress, cracks, etc. Use bright flashlights for detection and lookout for reddish-brown chunks.
Step 2. Prevent and contain the bed bugs using the vacuum cleaner
After you find the bed bugs, it’s time to suck the bug bugs up using the vacuum. Vacuum every corner of your Furniture, bedsheets, folded places, and every possible place where you think bed bugs can hide. After you are done, throw away the contents in the vacuum cleaner far from your home.
Step 3. Kill the bed bugs using conventional homemade remedies
Homemade remedies such as killing by heat, hot water, steam have proved effective for bed bug control. You can wash the contaminated clothes with very hot water for an hour. Also, you can keep the infested items in the freezer at zero degrees to kill the bed bugs. For items that cannot be washed, you can use steamers at all the possible infested places such as the couch, Furniture, mattress, etc. you can also use mattress covers for mattress and spring boxes.
Step 4. Go for insecticides, insecticidal dust, and bug bombs
If home cures don’t work to get rid of bed bugs, pesticides are an option. Insecticides such as pyrethrins and pyrethroids are commonly used. Insecticides have a minimal hazard to household pets and are quick-acting when it comes to insecticides. One drawback of using pesticides is that many bed bugs have developed resistance against pesticides.
Insecticidal Dust Kills bed bugs by causing exoskeleton damage (hard outer skin). Since bed bugs are constantly vulnerable to dust particles, these specks of dust function very well. They are the best choice for bed bug control at cracks.
Bugs bombs or foggers are also effective for quick and effective action against bed bugs. However, there are a few drawbacks of the usage of these. They are highly toxic and should be used while keeping the pets and children away, and because of the way they work, they can spread the bed bugs and cause bed bugs to infest new areas.
Step 5. Go for Professional help
If the situation gets out of control or bed bug control can’t be done by own, one shouldn’t hesitate to call for professional help. Professionals provide the most effective pest extraction services for bed bug removal.
Even after the complete eradication, one must keep all the precautions post- treatment. If bed bugs don’t go at first treatment, then try combinations of all methods until you have completely eradicated and haven’t seen any bed bugs for a long time.