Bed bugs are some of the most resilient pests that can infest your home. Apart from this, bed bugs are very annoying since they inhabit practically, any part of your home from your living room to your bedroom. They are likely to hide in your mattresses, clothes, sofas, couches, cracks on your walls, furniture seams, and other dark places. Before calling a bed bug exterminator, there are few things you can do on your own. Dealing with bed bugs on your own is not an easy task. For you to succeed, you must come up with an integrated pest management strategy, which will involve several different tactics such as chemical application, sanitation and preventive measures. Some of these measures are outlined below.
Preparation
- Remove all infested bedding and clothing items, and place them in a laundry bag.
- Caulk any cracks on your walls using plaster. In addition, loose wallpaper should be glued down.
- Pile up all furniture to create more space.
Steps to get rid of bed bugs
- Spray any visible bed bugs, as well as their eggs with rubbing alcohol to kill them instantly. In addition, treat all cracks and crevices using residual pyrethroid insecticides to kill any bugs that are hiding in there. You should pay special attention to box springs, tufts, seams, and mattress edges when fumigating. Sometimes, it is easier to just discard some of the infested items such as box springs and mattresses.
- Using the home steaming device, shoot jets of steam in the hard to reach places such as wall cracks, bed boards, bed frame and furniture seams. Steam is very effective in killing bed bugs on contact.
- Use your vacuum cleaner to remove eggs, as well as bugs from carpets, mattresses, furniture and other hard to reach areas.
- Launder the bagged clothing and bedding items at high temperatures of above 120°F to kill the bugs.
- Apply ground crystal silica gel in the infested rooms. This will stick on to the bugs and dehydrate them.