What You Should Do When You Notice Bed Bugs in Your Home

If you have recently discovered that you have bed bugs in your home through careful evaluation of stains on your mattress, bites on your arms and legs, or the visual identification of the bugs around your bedroom, then it is time to seek the assistance of a pest control specialist. Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of, so it is best to work with someone who is experienced and capable of removing the pests permanently. Since the pest control experts are unlikely to start working on your bed bug problem right away, you may want to do a few things to control the problem immediately. 

Remove As Many Bugs As Possible

Most people are tempted to completely throw out their mattresses as soon as they realize they have bedbugs. While you may need to throw out your bed eventually, you should not bring a new mattress right away. You may not know this, but bed bugs do not simply live in beds. They live and hide in a variety of spaces throughout the home. Couches, upholstered chairs, box springs, dresser drawers, and around baseboards are just a few spaces where the bugs can be found. The bugs also may remain in your carpet and then move to the bed when you lie down at night. 

One of the best ways to cut down on bed bugs and their bites is to remove as many from your home as possible. You can do this by vacuuming your bedroom thoroughly. Use a bag vacuum cleaner if possible. Clean rugs and mattresses and use the hose attachment around the baseboards, vents, and underneath your bed.

You can also kill some of the bugs with direct heat. Temperatures between 117 and 122 degrees are needed to kill the bugs, and a steam cleaner can produce these temperatures. Most steam cleaners actually produce heat well over the 150 degree mark. Heat is only concentrated in the steam area, so the cleaners are advantageous only for spot removal of the bugs. Use the steam over your mattress, carpeting, and upholstered furniture. 

Use Repellants

Bed bug bites are the real concern for most homeowners and the reason why immediate pest control methods are often used to control infestation issues. You should know that your own body is what is attracting bed bugs to you. Warmth and carbon dioxide are the things that attract the bugs to you. There are some myths about the pests actually being able to smell human blood, but they cannot. This is one reason why it is ineffective to actively use perfumes and deodorants to mask your scent. 

However, essential oils can be helpful in repelling bed bugs due to their strong and unwelcoming taste. Some people say that tea tree oil can kill bed bugs due to its strong combination of chemical components. Tea tree oil is toxic to many animals, but it often must be used in undiluted form to kill insects. You can make the bugs ill and also make your skin taste bad by adding a bit of the oil to your favorite lotion. Add about 10 drops to a full bottle of lotion and then cover your arms, legs, and neck in the lotion before bedtime.

If you do not like the smell of tea tree oil, you can use lavender oil instead. Bed bugs will typically not like the taste of the oil, even though it will probably not make them ill. Some people have luck with peppermint oil as well.

Bed bugs do need to be professionally eradicated from your home. If you need to wait for professional help to arrive, then make sure to use some temporary bed bug control methods first. For more information, visit a website such as http://www.wasatchbugbusters.com.


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