Bed bugs and Pests
Pest exterminators Dhanush Madhavan and Nalaka Daundaratne
How to get rid of bed bugs from bed and mattress
Since these blood drinking bugs prefer to stay around where they have an easy access to food or our blood, one of the primary places you would find them is on bed or around proximity. Refer to how to find bed bugs section to find specific signs of their presence and how to identify bed bugs.
Another important thing to consider is that you must be prepared to act promptly in a well coordinated fashion by taking actions to kill the bugs quickly as well as covering most possible areas at each session. This will minimize bed bugs spreading around the home making the getting rid of project less time consuming. Dhanush and Nalaka Daundaratne suggest to plan to treat, clean, wash and dry clothes, beds, furniture, and other items on the same day.
Bed bugs on bed linens and pillows
In all cases, if you can afford to throw these away, do it. When doing so, please make sure to get rid of them in a responsible way by placing in a sealable bag. Also, see if there are any specific instructions given by public health or your municipality about how to do this properly.
Where you want to reuse the linens, you must wash them and dry at the highest heat setting for at least ninety to hundred seconds consistently to ensure that bed both grown and bugs’ eggs are eliminated. Pillows must be treated according to same technique if you are unable to dispose them safely.
How to clear bed bugs from Mattress
If you have a severe infestation, probable can find larger areas of moving and accumulated bed bugs as colonies. They will be most likely to be hiding under the rolled edges and crevices that there may be in your mattress. So, first take a good peek to see how bad your problem is. Similarly, to linens, if you can get rid of it, please do so in a safe manner considering public safety elements to prevent spread. If the infestation of visibly covering over 20-30% of the surface area, it’s highly advisable to throw the mattress away. However, if you intend to keep it follow these useful tips:
Since bed bugs run fast, you must gather all what you need to get rid of them first before exposing them. Do not move the untreated mattress from its original location until you destroy many bed bugs as possible. This can minimize the spreading of bed bugs further in your home where they might not have yet started to hide.
For crawling individuals, and bed bug colonies visible on the flat surface, you can use commercial bed bug sprays, boiled water, or vacuum cleaning. Note that, at this stage, you must discard the contents of the vacuum cleaner in a sealed bag soon as you will get the opportunity. Since bed bugs are very thin and can pass through tiny spaces, they will come out on the cleaner quite fast.
As for the bed bugs hiding in rolled borders or folds of the mattress, you can spray the same pesticide that you used before or some WD40. Remember, do a skin test of each chemical product that you are using to is if anyone that will be in contact is allergic to the product. If so, please do not continue for your own safety. In addition, you can use tools as blunt head flat screw drivers to physically press against the visible bed bugs that are hiding and that might not have contacted with the chemicals you sprayed.
Once the mattress is clean at best, most ideal is to cover it with a properly sealable mattress cover. While there are specific covers to prevent bed bugs from mattress, we highly advise to use an adhesive tape over zipper or anywhere you might suspect that they will crawl out.
Covering the mattress with a transparent polythene or a plastic casing is more preferred as you can see if there are bed bugs that might have produced from any of the eggs that we couldn’t properly get rid. Also, since bed bugs have a difficulty to travel on slippery or shining surfaces, it will be a great barrier to stop re-infestation. Refer to the image captured by Nalaka Daundaratne during an assessment visit of a client where the bed bug was unable to get back. If you cannot find these covers, the best options will be using large industrial food-grade polythene rolls that you can find in major hardware stores as Home Depot. Then, simply wrap around the mattress and apply tape to connect each layer that overlaps and created a Len opening. Even though it’s time consuming, the benefit is way high in preventing bed bugs going back to mattress.
How to clear bed frames and bases
One of the challenging tasks is the completely get rid of bed bugs from commonly found box type bed bases and similar bed frames. It’s because there are so many tiny openings and spaces for them to hide from exposure of chemicals and other techniques we use. Depending on the severity of the infestation, Nalak Daundaratne and Dhanush Madhavan highly recommend throwing them away in you can afford to replace. Especially, if the bed bug infestation is visibly have taken over approximately 20-30% of the total surface area of a box bed-base.
If your bed bugs infestation is at the early stage or you cannot afford to replace it, follow these steps to clean it.
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Don’t try to move the bed base out of the room until you treat to kill many bed bugs as possible to prevent further spread.
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Spray any proven to work bed bug spray or pour boiling water on to visible bed bugs colonies.
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Don’t use hair dryers and heat guns inside your room as the air stream can push away bed bugs allowing to further spread.
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Once you are done with the top surface, flip it upside down to eliminate bed bugs that are hiding in many spaces on the back. You can use same chemicals that you used or WD40 or boiling water to treat the cracks. Make sure to be be fast and watch around for one’s that would run and hide.
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Once the treated bed base is dried, sprinkle a generous amount of diatomaceous earth all possible cracks and crevices as a point of contact pesticide. Be cautious about using this product if you have conditions as asthma that can be triggered by dust. Refer to the more information about using diatomaceous earth to kill bed bugs for a better understanding
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There is a great DIY tool that you can make to catch runners very easily. Take a piece of larger double sided adhesive tape and place into a piece of wood or a stick of a mob in a creative manner. Then you can simply catch those bed bugs who get to run away while your work. Similarly, you can use a good quality lint roller to do the same.
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If anyhow you could afford to throw away the box base, Nalaka Daundaratbe highly suggests buying a traditional type of bed with taller legs where it will be much easier to handle the bed bug issue as well as to implement preventative methods during the next days to come until you achieve complete elimination of these invaders.
Bed bugs in furniture and equipment
Furniture as chairs, sofas, tables, and drawers that are in your bedroom or anywhere that at risk of infestation are great habitats and breeding grounds for bed bugs. So, whether you see them or not, must consider that every item around you with a small space, cloth material, cracks and crevices are infested with bed bugs. Concept is, don’t underestimate these tiny blood drinkers’ survival and multiplication power.
As with all other things, if you can, throw away any furniture that you cannot clean or with significant infestation. Follow the washing and drying instruction for getting rid of bed bugs from clothes and fabrics to clear bed bugs from removable cushions, seat covers and pads. If you can’t wash them right away, place them a plastic bag that you can seal. Then, after cleaning and trying accordingly place them once again in a new bag until you finish treating the whole home successfully to terminate bed bugs. As for the fixed cushioning, vacuum cleaning is the first thing you must do to remove bed bugs. Then, treat the wooden or metal parts as guided in the next section
For the solid furniture structures, use a bed bug pesticide spray or WD40 or boiling water according to your need and availability. If it’s the summer and you have your own backyard or you live in a tropical country and have access to warmer weather and outside, for certain items like cane and wooden chairs you can brush kerosene on to cracks and crevices let dry at least for 6 hours, outside. This will allow the kerosene residue to evaporate significantly before you take them in. Remember using products like these have health and safety risks and must always follow relevant safety precautions.