Five tips for Bed Bugs
1. Don’t panic! Make sure they’re really have bed bugs… not fleas, ticks or other insects.
It’s important identify the source before a simple “problem” becomes an “infestation.” Ask a professional pest control company to investigate problem areas. Their training allows them to quickly assess the situation.
Eliminating bed bugs is difficult but not impossible. Rule number one: Do not discard items! Most of them can be treated and saved. Replacing items is expensive and stressful. What’s more, you may actually cause more trouble by allowing bed bugs to migrate into other people’s homes!
2. Think through your treatment options.
Freezing can kill bed bugs, but it’s not a reliable method because temperatures must remain very low for a long time. Typical home freezers may not get cold enough. Putting infested items outside during freezing temperatures sometimes works…although many factors affect the
success of this technique. If temperatures rise during the day, or items are near a heated structure, a few bed bugs will probably survive and be carried back inside.
Also, if you put a lot of items into a bag, those in the center may not freeze!
A lot of care must be used when killing bed bugs with heat. Bed bugs die when their body temperature reaches 113°F. The affected room, luggage, container, etc., must be even hotter to ensure enough heat reaches the bugs no matter where they are hiding. Simply raising the setting of your indoor thermostat, or adding space heaters, will not work. Special equipment is needed to safely generate sufficiently high temperatures for a long time.
Wrapping items in black plastic bags and placing them in the sun sometimes kills bed bugs in luggage or other small items. This technique is most successful in the summer.
If you choose to freeze or raise temperatures, you should also use a chemical treatment to make sure that eggs are also killed. Bed bug eggs are not affected by temperature changes. Once temperatures return to normal they will hatch, and you’ll have to repeat the process!
3. Eliminate hiding places.
Bed bugs love clutter! It gives them more places to hide during the day. Treatment is much harder in a cluttered environment. A few preventative measures will go a long way in controlling a bed bug problem…
– Put special bed bug covers (called “encasements”) on your mattress and box springs. These make it harder for bed bugs to reach you at night.
– Wash and heat-dry your sheets, blankets, bedspreads and any clothes that touch the floor.
– Remember to clean laundry containers/hampers. Bed bugs and eggs can hide in them, too!
– Carefully vacuum rugs, floors, upholstered furniture, and bed frames. Clean under beds, around bed legs, and all cracks and crevices around the room. Change the vacuum bag after each use, and place the used bag in a tightly sealed plastic bag, the deposit in an outside garbage bin.
4. Don’t pass bed bugs on to others.
Bed bugs are good hitchhikers. If you throw out a mattress or furniture that has bed bugs in it, you should slash the top (or make it unusable in another way) so that no one takes it.
5. Turn to the professionals.
By far the best way of eliminating bed bugs is to hire a responsible pest control professional. Be sure the company has experience controlling bed bugs, and has a good reputation.
Your brand and safety are too important to ignore a problem. If your hotel, motel, AIRbnb or B&B has a pest problem, contact us! Maybe you found bed bugs in your home after a trip…give us a call! We’ve provided pest control to commercial and residential customers for over 38 years, and have extensive experience removing bed bugs. We can help eliminate your problem.
