Imagine yourself coming home late after a day’s work, ready to hit the hay, but only to find yourself awake and distressed due to the small insects moving over your body and biting your skin. If you have bite marks on your skin and are not aware of what’s keeping you sleepless at night, these insects may be bed bugs.
Bed bugs are tiny, wingless insects that hide in the crevices of your furniture and feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals like humans. They feed at night from midnight to 5 am, and their bite marks become visible on human skin after a period of around 14 days. These parasites are not found to carry diseases, but they can cause a lot of stress, sleeplessness, change in the quality of life, and sometimes even embarrassment.
Bed bug infestation is difficult to detect and often becomes an issue before you know it. Therefore, you must look around the house for tiny signs of their presence. Look into tiny cracks and crevices in the furniture, pillows, and mattresses. If your credit card can fit into crevices, bed bugs can squeeze into such cracks as well. You will notice rusty stains, a black spot made by their excrement or small, yellow bed bug eggs. You can even ask a professional to inspect your house if necessary. Also, you can comprehend bed bug bites that are red and raised. Often, the bites occur in a row. However, the marks tend to appear after 14 days, which is a sufficient time for the bed bugs to spread. Therefore, you must consult a doctor in time and get your skin treated.
Once your house gets infested with bed bugs, it can become quite a difficult task to get rid of them. These little creatures live in places away from human reach yet close enough to feed on them. Hence, you must follow the best ways to kill bed bugs and take preventive measures as well. Here are some best ways that might help to kill bed bugs:
Luggage
On coming home from a trip, do not keep your luggage on beds or sofas as they may contain bed bugs. Use a vacuum to clean them thoroughly and then throw the dirtbag away from the house. The bags should then be put on clean covers to prevent infestation.
Also, always choose high-class hotels that are concerned about their cleanliness. Keep your luggage away from the bed and wash your travel clothes separately. If you put your luggage on the bed, the bugs are transferred from the bags to the beds at home.
Protect the house
Change your mattress and box spring regularly. It may prove costly but not costlier than pest control. Apply essential oils in places to keep away bed bugs. Mend cracks and broken compartments. Also, use protective covers for the mattress and vacuum your rugs and carpets regularly. Taking these easy precautions at home by yourself are some of the best ways to kill bed bugs.
If your house is already bug infested, you can use some of these tricks to kill the bed bugs in a pristine way:
Pest control
The best way is to let professionals handle the issue. Call a pest control professional since they are well aware of the location where these insects hide and also know the best ways to kill the bed bugs. The professional bed bug exterminators use safe and registered insecticides as the best ways to kill bed bugs. The whole house is treated, except for the kitchen, and the house is free of bugs after a week.
Set traps
You can also set traps, which is one of the best ways to kill bed bugs, to get rid of them all at once. The hot air from hair dryers can be used to force the bed bugs out of the cracks of the mattresses. After they get into your trap and come out, they can easily be killed by using paper towels. You can also use sticky tape as a trap for bed bugs.
Launder bed clothes and linen
All the bed items that show the signs of bed bugs should be washed, such as the curtains, bed sheets, and other linen. Washing them helps get rid of discarded exoskeletons, blood stains, and fecal matters. Once you dry them after washing, keep the heat at the maximum so that the bed bug larvae or eggs are also removed.
Get rid of the infested items
Many a time, it is difficult to salvage such items because disinfectants and cleaning are not adequate. Box springs are hard to treat and clean and are home to a number of bugs. Keep them aside in a plastic bag and label them “bed bug infected”.
Using such simple and best ways to kill bed bugs will help you keep your beds bug-free for a lifetime. It is natural to ask for help, and there is no point to be embarrassed. Keep note of these best ways to kill bed bugs and also suggest them to someone who needs help.
