How To Get Rid of Bed bugs
(Step-by-step Guide)
Treating Bedbugs
Bed bugs can be notoriously difficult to eradicate. The first process of eradicating bed bugs is establishing whether you actually have bed bugs. The easiest way to find out is by inspecting your bed and bedding. Bed bugs will leave telltale signs, like blood spotting on your sheets and mattress. You may also find their excrement on the bedframe, which is small black spotting. You will particularly see these black spots on the wooden slats of a bed frame.
Bed bugs will predominantly hide in the nooks and crannies of a bed frame, headboard, and bedside cabinets, often defecating around the surrounding area where they like to hide. Another sign that you have bed bugs is if you find their moults. Bed bugs come in five stages of nymphs, meaning each time they grow from one stage to another, they shed their skin. You may also find bed bug eggs, especially at the back of the bed’s headboard, which is a favourite hiding place for them. These eggs are tiny, white, and approximately the size of a grain of sand.
Of course, what will lead you to believe that you may have bed bugs in the first place is if you are bitten. Bedbug bites are similar in nature to mosquito bites. They may leave a reddish bump on the surface of the skin that can be itchy. However, it should be noted that not everyone shows signs of bedbug bites. Approximately half of people exhibit no symptoms after being bitten by bed bugs.
Once you have established that you have bed bugs, it’s imperative that you remove all of the bedding, bag it, and launder it at 60 degrees. The same must be done to the clothes. The bedside cabinets, drawers, and wardrobes must be emptied of their contents, with the clothing bagged and laundered like the bedding at 60 degrees. Always disregard the bin liners/bags used to bag the items, as bed bugs and their eggs may be in these items.
Once you have stripped the infested room of the bedding and clothing, it is time to treat the furniture, bed frame, headboard, and mattress with a treatment designed to eradicate bed bugs. The only problem with over-the-counter insecticides is that the pesticides that are available to the public only contain a small amount of the active ingredient(s) that professional products contain and have been blamed for the rise in the insecticide resistance, as the bed bugs often survive and pass on the resistance to their offspring.
The other issue with people attempting to treat bed bugs themselves with over-the-counter insecticides is that where the infestation is only in the one bedroom, unless the infestation is dealt with professionally with professional products, the infestation can easily spread to other rooms and often even spreads to a property’s lounge, where the bed bugs infest the sofa and feed from those who fall asleep on the sofa.
While it is understandable for people to want to save money and attempt to treat for bed bugs themselves, while it is possible, there is also a risk that the infestation will spread, which means a lot more work and a more expensive treatment.
If you need professional bed bug removal, contact PestEx Professional Pest Control today for a free quote.