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Do you have bed bugs in your home? A treatment by a professional pest control company may not be in your budget or work with your schedule. Luckily, it is possible to treat a bed bug infestation yourself without spending a fortune. You must be diligent and committed to the treatment process, but you can do it yourself! Read our guide below for the 4-step process to treat for bed bugs.
Not sure if you have bed bugs or where to find them? Read our guide on what bed bugs look like and our guide to finding where bed bugs hide in the home before you begin to treat.
Before you begin your own bed bug treatment, you will need to prepare the room or rooms where bed bugs have been found, in addition to rooms that share walls with the infested rooms. Remove any items in the room that you absolutely cannot treat or that have already been treated. Cover items that will be removed from the room in plastic bags before moving to the next room to prevent any unseen bed bug from infesting another room.
Remove any paintings or art from the walls. Be sure to thoroughly check any item that is removed from the room to prevent bed bugs from being transferred from room to room.
Step 1 - Prepare the space that needs to be treated. This is probably the hardest part for most folks, but whether you hire a pest control operator or do your own bedbug treatment, THIS STEP CANNOT BE SKIPPED. It's time to take a hard look around the room. Grab a few trash bags and bag up anything you have decided you do not want to keep. Remember, every item left in the room must be treated in some way to get rid of hidden bedbugs so if you don't need it or love it , TOSS IT! Be sure to seal up the bags before carrying them out of the room to avoid transferring bedbugs to other parts of the home
If you have a mattress that is heavily infested, we recommend covering it with a bed bug proof mattress cover or bed bug mattress encasement before moving. You will also need to cover your box spring with a box spring encasement.
If your mattress needs to be disposed of and replaced, be sure to cover the mattress with plastic before disposing to protect sanitation workers. Labeling a mattress or covering with "Bed Bugs" is also helpful.
Infested sheets, linens, and garments should be washed and then dried in a household dryer on high heat (over 120 degrees F), as the heat will kill bed bugs. Any garments that cannot be washed may need to be dry-cleaned or discarded as insecticides cannot be used on these materials.
If stuffed animals, books, or soft toys are infested, place those items in an air-tight bin along with vapor strips to kill the bugs.
To treat your mattress for bed bugs, use an aerosol spray labeled for bed bug treatment, such as Bedlam Aerosol Spray, and spray or mist the product onto the mattress. Focus on the seams, tufts, and folds of the mattress and spray until the mattress is damp. Allow mattress to dry before remaking the bed with freshly laundered sheets that have been run through a dryer on high heat.
After treating a mattress or box spring for bed bugs, we recommend encasing each in a bed bug proof cover. This will prevent re-infestation and will make future inspections and treatments easier. Be sure any product that has been sprayed or applied to your mattress is dry before you cover the mattress with a bed bug proof cover. You can make the bed with your freshly laundered linens over a bed bug proof mattress cover.
After encasing, you will not need to re-treat your mattress or box spring further. If you are not encasing your mattress or box spring, you will need to reapply the aerosol spray every 7-10 days until you do not see any further bed bug activity.
You can follow the initial aerosol spray treatment with an insecticide dust. Dusts are great for hard to reach areas like the corners of mattresses and where mattresses and box springs meet. Dusts also last for several months.
Don't forget to dust your box spring as well. Remove the dust cover from the bottom of the box spring and dust in corners and crevices.
Again, we highly recommend encasing your mattress and box spring to avoid having to re-treat.
As mentioned above, high heat kills bed bugs. A bed bug or bed bug egg must have direct contact with hot steam to be killed. We recommend using a bed bug steamer to steam your mattress, box spring, and other furniture.
Steaming is a great option in rooms and areas where the use of pesticides must be limited due to health or other concerns. When using the steamer, take your time and slowly move the steamer across the item you are treating for the best possible treatment. We still strongly recommend you follow-up with an insecticide labeled for bed bugs in areas where it is permissible to do so. All steaming should be done prior to covering a mattress or box spring with a protective cover and applying insecticides.
Once Step 2B is complete and the insecticide mixture is dry, you can follow up with a bed bug aerosol spray. Bed bug aerosol sprays are insecticides that have fine particles that get deep into cracks and crevices. By using both a liquid concentrate insecticide mixture and an aerosol spray, you can treat bed bugs that may have built up a resistance to one product but not the other.
Bed bug aerosol sprays come with a straw applicator to make it easier to apply into the cracks and crevices of furniture and mattresses around the affected rooms. Don't forget to apply in drawers, picture frames, bed frames, and any other cracks you can find. Again, you will want to allow this part of the treatment to dry before moving on.
Some areas to pay special attention to:
After spraying with an insecticide and following up with a bed bug aerosol, the next step in the bed bug treatment process is to apply a bed bug dust insecticide. As the name implies, bed bug dust is insecticide in a powder form. Because the dust is a slow kill, we recommend using other products in addition to the dust (see steps 2B and 2C).
Bedbug dust can be applied with a hand duster into cracks, crevices, behind wall outlet covers or faceplates, and other hard to reach spaces. While the application of dusts in hard to reach spaces may be tricky, dusts are ideal because they last for months or even years, depending on the product.
Some areas to pay special attention to:
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How To Get Rid of & Kill Bed Bugs - DIY Bed Bug Treatment
