How to Get Rid of Bedbugs

Sleep tight and hope the bedbugs don’t bite. A humorous saying if don’t actually have bedbugs. These are tenacious little creatures with an uncanny ability to hide in the deepest crevices of your home.

If you’re battling bedbugs, this guide will help you get rid of them. It’s not always easy to get rid of bedbugs, but with these tips, you stand a fighting chance of getting a good night’s rest and ridding your home of those nasty pests.

Steps to Take if you Want to Get Rid of Bedbugs

It may take some time to completely rid your home of bedbugs. Be meticulous and patient if you’re going to succeed.

1. Find the Infested Areas

Prevention is always better than cure. Finding where the critters are early will help prevent them from spreading throughout the home. Bedbugs are able to seek refuge in the smallest places, like in seems and tight cracks. Make sure you do a thorough search in all the places where they are likely to be hiding, like:

• Around mattress tags or the box spring
• Cracks in the bed frame and headboard
• Baseboards
• Inside electrical outlets
• Between couch cushions
• Under posters and paintings
• Joints in furniture
• Under loose wallpaper

You can identify bedbugs by their reddish-brown color, they’re about ¼”. You may also notice pin-size droppings and red staining on your mattress from crushed bedbugs.

2. Isolate the Infestation

Once you know where the bedbugs are, use a vacuum cleaner to collect as many as you can. Running the vacuum nozzle across infested areas will collect the intruders in your vacuum cleaner bag or canister. Seal the dirt collected in your vacuum cleaner using a plastic bag and dispose of it immediately.

Wash your bed linen at the highest temperature setting. Steam clean your beds and furniture. Items that cannot be cleaned in this way should either be thrown away or kept sealed in plastic until the bedbugs die.

3. Prepare Infested Areas For Treatment

Getting rid of all visible bedbugs is only the first step. You will need to kill any that may still be lurking unseen.

Before you begin this process, seal up all cracks where the critters could be hiding. Make sure loose wallpaper and baseboards are secured. Try and isolate infested areas from the rest of the home by keeping doors and windows sealed.

4. Killing Bedbugs

Heat is one of the best ways to kill bedbugs without using chemicals. Steam clean every part of an infested room. Items that cannot be steam cleaned, like books and electronic devices can be sealed in plastic bags and then left in the sun until the bedbugs die.

There are many foggers and insecticide sprays that you can use to kill bedbugs. Although some may smell quite noxious, it would be a good idea to use a natural or EPA-approved chemical product that is recommended specifically for killing bedbugs.

5. Inspection and Monitoring

Bedbugs are notoriously resilient and are able to breed at an alarming rate. After following all the steps to get rid of bedbugs, remain vigilant. In the months following your bedbug extermination campaign check all of the areas that were infested every week.

If you notice any signs that bedbugs are reappearing, take immediate action as they will multiply quickly.