To lure bed bugs out of their hiding spots, you can use a steamer or a hairdryer to heat areas such as mattresses. Neither of these is hot enough to kill the bed bugs, but it can trick them into thinking a human host is near. You can also keep an eye out at night to locate their nests when they are most active.
Inspect luggage: Check any luggage or bags used while traveling and thoroughly inspect these items before bringing them inside your home. Check cracks and crevices: Bed bugs can hide in the tiniest of spaces. Make sure to check the corners of ceilings, baseboards, wall molding, and carpet or rug edges.
Visual inspection: Look for bed bugs or signs of bed bugs, such as small brown or red stains, shed skins, or eggs. Pay particular attention to seams and tufts of mattresses and box springs, and under the edges of carpets. Use a flashlight: A flashlight can help you spot bed bugs that are hiding in cracks and crevices.
Bed bugs don't have 'nests' like ants or bees, but do tend to congregate in habitual hiding places like mattresses, box springs, bed frames and headboards. Characteristically, these areas are marked by dark spotting and staining, which is the dried excrement of the bugs.
Inspect the bed in detail including the headboard, frame, and box springs. If you have a metal bed frame using a flashlight to illuminate the interior of the metal tubing. Closely inspect the grooves in hardwood flooring, especially beneath or around the bed. Look along the bottom and top of the baseboards.
Flashlight to look in dark gaps and cracks and on dark surfaces. Sometimes the light startles bed bugs. They'll stop moving for a few minutes and then move quickly to get away from the light. Magnifying glass to make it easier to see and confirm that they are a bed bug.
Blood Orange Oil
This essential oil is proven to be one of the most effective solutions when bed bugs are the matter as it can kill the pest successfully.
Don't sleep on another bed or the sofa. Bed bugs may follow making it much more difficult to get rid of them. Don't try to kill bed bugs by using agricultural or garden pesticides or other unregistered products. Using pesticide products to kill bed bugs that are labeled for outdoor use can make humans very sick.
In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains. In drawer joints. In electrical receptacles and appliances. Under loose wall paper and wall hangings.
Pyrethroids are synthetic chemical insecticides that act like pyrethrins. Both compounds are lethal to bed bugs and can flush bed bugs out of their hiding places and kill them.
Answer: “Hitchhiking” from an infested location or item to a previously non-infested location or item are the main causes of bed bugs.
Strip your bed and wash all bedding on a high-heat
This should kill all bed bugs and eggs within them. Follow this by high-temperature drying in a tumble dryer, if possible. You could also place bagged-up laundry in the freezer for three days, as this can also help kill off the pests.
Encase mattresses and box springs in protective plastic covers. Vacuum frequently, especially in areas near where you sleep. Cut down on clutter in your home, which will eliminate some hiding places for bed bugs. If you live in an apartment or other shared housing, try to close off your unit.
Fill an old coffee cup with ten tablespoons (150 grams) of sugar, two tablespoons (30 grams) of yeast, and one and a half quarts (one and a half liters) of water, and put it in the middle of an upturned dog bowl. Voila! You have just made a bedbug detector that beats others on the market and is much cheaper.
The best method to exterminate bed bugs is through heat treatment. In this professional service, technicians bring your home to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bed bugs do not like to climb or stay on smooth plastic materials. Placing small items in plastic containers or in sealed heavy-duty plastic bags will prevent bed bugs from infesting the items. In an infested home, placing clutter in plastic containers will make bed bug elimination efforts easier.
In addition to certain blood types playing a part, warm blooded creatures have certain blood types that emit a particular scent to insects, which means people with type o blood (for example), may cause the bugs to feed on them apart from another person with a different type of blood.
Although it sounds like a grim choice, it is best to continue sleeping in the infested area using the population reduction methods described above, until the bed bugs are eliminated.
If bed bugs have one weakness, it's that they're intolerant of extremely high or low temperatures. Washing clothes and bedding at the highest possible setting followed by drying for at least 30 minutes at high heat should do the trick. You can also freeze clothing or other objects you suspect of being infested.
Pyrethrins and Pyrethroids: These are among the most common insecticides used against bed bugs. Pyrethrins, derived from chrysanthemum flowers, kill bed bugs on contact, while synthetic pyrethroids provide longer-lasting effects.
Bed bugs are sensitive to strong smells and certain scents can help keep them away. Essential oils like lavender, tea tree and peppermint are popular choices. These oils not only smell good but also act as natural repellents.
Use your flashlight and flat-edge tool to investigate cracks and crevices where bed bugs might hide. Remember the bed frame and headboard. Use the flashlight to examine the bed frame and the headboard. Bed bugs are often found in small cracks and crevices.
Bed bug bites on exposed skin either in a line or in a cluster. Bed bug droppings (AKA fecal matter, feces, poop, etc.) that look like black ink stains. Blood stains on your pillowcases, sheets, and other bedding that are reddish-brown in color and may appear smeared.