Long Term Bed Bug Prevention: Pre Emptive Bed Bug & Post Treatment Recommendations

Minimalism: Less is More

Some might call this the “When in doubt throw it out” Strive for a style that reflects minimalism when it comes to your living space. Less is more, when it comes to bed bug prevention. All of the old clutter and things you have hoarded over the years including trinkets, paperwork, boxes, books, nick-nacks, kitsch items, shiny baubles and trinkets, which might be sitting in your closets along with other personal items which you never use, should be in plastic sealable bins. Your Amelda Marcos shoe collection should also be kept in sealable bins. Whenever and where ever possible the more of your items you keep sealed up, the less bed bug harborage places you create for bed bugs and the better your chances for long term bed bug prevention. Clothes you do not wear or do not fit, and you probably will not wear again in the future, bag them up, seal them up, give them up, donate them, sell them, give them away or store them safely which means sealed, sealed and sealed. When in doubt seal it up.

Use your bed to keep them dead.

What kind of bed do you have? Is your mattress on the floor? Or is it in a bed frame? Do you have a bed frame with 4 legs, or is it a captain’s bed (bed without legs)? If your mattress is on the floor or you have a captain’s bed, you have the first and second most ideal situation for creating a bed bug infestation. Having your mattress on the floor makes it so easy for the bed bugs to get to you and a captains bed (bed connects to the floor 2 dimensionally and horizontally) are known by some to have significantly higher infestation rates. It should be mandatory that for long term bed bug prevention that you have a bed with 4 legs and that you keep those legs in either climb up interceptors or you use the double sided sticky tape methodology, which has you put blue painters tape down first so you don’t ruin the finish on the legs of your bed.

Furniture leg protection: If bed bugs can’t reach you, they can’t bite you and drink your blood.

Don’t Buy Furniture that Does Not Have Legs

If you own a piece of furniture with legs, you should buy several rolls of blue painters tape and several rolls of double sided sticky tape (keep extra in case of an emergency). First you put the blue painters tape around the legs of every single piece of furniture in your living space, and then you put the double sided sticky tape over that so you do not destroy the finish of your furniture. It is essential if you have a piece of furniture with legs that you take this step without exception, because bed bugs will literally climb up any piece of furniture and potentially harbor their or lay bed bug eggs. After adult bed bugs drink blood they make love and breed like it’s going out of style producing 5 to 10 eggs per day, and if you have several bed bugs that number could be significantly higher.

Bed Bugs have even been known to climb up furniture in dining rooms and kitchens where bed bug infestations are uncommon to hide and lay eggs. Make the assumptions that bed bugs are sneaky and elusive; they are exceptionally good at hiding and will hide anywhere possible for them. If you have furniture like a captains bed (or other furniture) which doesn’t have legs it is time to get a new bed (and furniture) with 4 legs, because captains beds (and furniture without legs) are notorious for being ideal for bed bugs hiding in the underside of them because of all that well protected space which gives them easy access to your blood and a good place to harbor afterwards.

If you do not want to get rid of your captain’s bed or furniture without legs, consider putting something under them to raise them off the ground in a way you can apply the methodology discussed of keeping bed bugs from climbing up or down.

Since often bed bugs will climb up the legs of furniture including: couches, love seats, coffee tables, dressers, nightstands, furniture and definitely beds in order to infest them and then come out to drink the blood of humans, blocking their path up and down these pieces of furniture is the best way to attempt to prevent them from drinking your blood. Without exception wrap the legs of everything in your living space with blue painters tape and then put the double sided sticky tape over it as an excellent method of both blocking bed bugs from climbing up and down furniture, and it also makes an excellent detection method.

Bed Bug Sky Dive

Bed bugs have been reported to sky dive, that is to say, they will climb up the walls, climb across the ceiling and then fall or sky dive into your bed to get to you. In order to stop this, you might want to consider just before the moldings or the area where the wall meets the ceiling, putting the barrier discussed above (double sided sticky tape, you might have to forgo the blue painters tape), the configuration of double sided sticky tape there around all of the room perimeters, as a barrier shield and detection method of bed bugs as well should prevent bed bug sky diving. Though it might not be attractive, it will certainly work if put in place properly.

Electrical Plate Blockers

Go to the hardware store, and purchased electric plate blockers, these are devices that make your electrical plate’s child proof and may help in preventing bed bugs from climbing in and out of your walls through the electrical outlets. A proper bed bug pest control exterminator treatment would have put bed bug pesticide dust into your walls, by unscrewing the electrical plates. How it works is that temporarily the electrical plates are removed and then a puffing of the bed bug pesticide dust inside of your walls is done, after this has been completed, the electrical wall plates back on. With the wall plates back on it is now time for you to cover the outlets you are not specifically using as an extra precautionary measure.

Carbon Dioxide and Heat Traps

There are a number of different traps available on the market for catching bed bugs, their effectiveness is around average to above average in terms of bed bug detection and capture. Some of these devices use a combination of both heat and carbon dioxide, but mostly these bed but traps use carbon dioxide. The reason they use carbon dioxide is that bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide slightly more than heat. Given that heaters, radiators and so forth put out heat and cannot be pieced, punctured for blood drinking, bed bugs have adapted to be more attracted to carbon dioxide.

Mattress, Box Spring and Pillow Encasement

One of the most effective ways for keeping bed bugs out of infesting your box spring, mattress and pillow cases is to put them into bed bug encasement covers. These are specially designed covers that enable you to close up and fully seal your mattress, box spring and pillow cases so bed bugs cannot get into them or out of them. They also make identifying bed bugs much easier, because these items are generally white and white is the best color of identifying if you have bed bugs, especially because after bed bugs drink blood they often release bed bug feces which is dark colored and will stain your bedding & covers. Bed bugs are dark in color there is a much higher contrast between them and your bed making them easier to identify. Sometimes when bed bugs drink your blood they cause you to bleed a small amount. It’s easiest to see blood stains against light colored bedding covers as well as sheets and general fabric bedding like pillow cases, sheets, blankets, and all other bedding materials that go on your bed (keep your bed shielded).

Mattress and Box Spring Encasement Covers

White Sheets, Covers, Blankets and Towels

As we discussed concerning the bed bug encasement items we will now talk more about your bedding. What color should my bedding be? If your bedding is any other color than white, it will often make it more difficult to identify blood stains, bed bug feces and the adult bed bugs themselves generally speaking. Even bed bug babies and nymphs which tend to be translucent can be much easily seen on white bedding because they often have a dark stain on their backs after their first meal or are bright red after feeding.

Eggs and newly born nymphs, could potentially be difficult to see on white bedding, but generally if there are eggs and nymphs, there are adults close by and also bed bug feces, so therefore you have the best advantage when all things are considered with your bedding being white. Bed bug feces, human bleeding caused by bed bugs and adult bed bugs (brownish red) are most easily seen on white bedding. Being able to see the blood that leaks from your body after bed bugs bite you or being able to see the bed bug feces released often by bed bugs, is one of the first essential steps to identifying that you have bed bugs, because not everyone shows indications of bed bug bites on their bodies

Knowledgeable about bed bugs

It is essentially that you know everything there is to know about bed bugs, that you read everything you possibly can about them from books, articles, texts and essays about them from reputable web sites, universities and government sites. We can provide these reading materials for you and send them to you by email, just request it and we will send it.

Communicate with your land lord and neighbors

We all know how embarrassing it is to have bed bugs, but we have a duty to inform other people, so that our immediate neighbors in every direction can be informed and given the opportunity to put in place a bed bug preventative strategies, this is the best way to prevent the problem from spreading. Right now we are in the midst of a bed bug epidemic.

Don’t buy used furniture or refurbished mattresses

Used furniture, especially mattresses is one of the ways bed bugs can spread. Try to avoid buying used furniture if you can and if you do buy used furniture you should consider getting these items inspected and treated. If you see a rare antique put out on the side walk in front of someone’s home, think twice about picking it up, you might bring bed bugs into your home. In fact, one of the ways bed bugs spread very rapidly is that if someone gets an infestation they put their mattress and furniture on the streets without label warnings on them and someone else often comes along and picks these items up inadvertently bringing the a new infestation into their home without knowing it.

It is mandatory that you have the tools you need to protect yourself and wage war against this parasite.

From here on out for the rest of your life if you live in a bed bug infested city you have to mandatorily own a vacuum at the very least and optimally own some kind of hand held steam cleaner that can be utilized in many different ways. You need to have a good flash light, magnifying glass, and some kind of good poking device as you explore the nooks and crannies of your living space. Be sure to buy blue painters tape, double sided sticky tape, climb up interceptors, carbon dioxide bed bug traps, white sheets, pillow cases, mattress and box spring covers, make all your bedding white if you can. Consider if you have the money and space, to get a hand held steamer and a good steam cleaning vacuum, along with your normal vacuum that has good bristles at the end of the hose.

If you have ideas or suggestions on how to improve this guide, please email them to me Professor Mark at profmark@gmail.com