How To Say Goodbye To Bed Bugs

If you’ve found yourself with some new annoying, biting roommates, you probably want them gone. Bed bugs are never welcome in our homes; as well, when we find then, we want them gone fast. Luckily, Junk Doctors are the pros when it comes to all things that are unwanted.  You can tackle your DIY bed bug removal easily by following these simple steps.

5 Steps To A Successful DIY Bed Bug Removal

Locate all infested areas

The first thing you should do if you think you have a bed bug problem is to figure out where they are. Determining where the infested areas are is very important.  Bed bugs like to hide in small, hidden areas.  You can find them in cracks in the wall, seams of your mattress, the folds of a curtain, in carpet fibers, and other tight crevices. Try to examine these areas for signs of bed bugs. Other than spotting live bed bugs, other common signs of bed bug signs include droppings, which look like dark little dots about the size of a period on a paper, and small reddish stains where you might have unknowingly squished a bed bug.

Killing bed bugs without chemical use

Now it’s time to get rid of those nasty pests. Before bringing any harsh chemicals into your home, you can try to utilize some other methods to kill these creatures. Heat kills bed bugs, so your first action should be washing and drying your affected linens, curtains, and clothing. When transporting these items to your laundry room, be very careful. You may want to put everything in garbage bags before exiting the infested room and then dump the bags straight in the machine.  To heat treat your mattress and furniture, use a steamer. Steam these areas and then steam them again. For clutter and other objects around the room, you can tightly seal these items in garbage bags and leave them outside until the bed bugs have died off. This method works best in the summer months when it’s hot outside. In cooler months, it could take several months for bed bugs to die in a garbage bag.

Minimize clutter in the infested areas

Bed bugs like all of the hiding place your clutter provides.  Picking up items off the floor and throwing away all of your unnecessary clutter is a good way to limit where these bugs can hide. Be very careful when moving your clutter around the house. Use garbage bags to remove items from the house so you don’t risk bed bugs finding their way to new areas of the house.

Turn your room into an unwelcome environment for bed bugs

You already started accomplishing this when you de-cluttered, but now it’s time to go the extra mile to make it hard for bed bugs to get too cozy. First, you’ll want to purchase a bed bug proof mattress cover to put on your mattress. These covers tightly secure your mattress so that no new bed bugs can get to it. The ones already there will eventually die inside the cover. Another way you can make your room less hospitable for bed bugs is by moving all of your furniture away from the walls. Bed bugs climb around on your furniture and use the walls to travel from place to place. If you take away this ability, you limit the number of places they can hide.

Get chemical insecticides involved

While these steps, especially using heat, might make your bed bugs disappear, there’s a good chance you’ll still have some to get rid of. This is where chemical treatments come in. There are a lot of insecticides out there specifically made for bed bugs and they’re very effective. There are other substances on the market you can try, too, such as foggers, but follow instructions very carefully anytime you’re using chemicals in some way.

Call Professional Exterminators If Needed

If you follow these steps and still can’t shake these persistent neighbors, you should probably get the pros involved. Exterminators have access to stronger chemicals than you could get your hands on. They’re also capable of performing entire room heat treatments with special equipment. These guys can make your bed bug problem go away easily if your DIY bed bug removal doesn’t do the trick. If you need help getting rid of items that were infested or damaged, Junk Doctors can come to pick them up once the bed bugs have been exterminated.