Because bedbugs are hard to get rid of, you might have to try more than one method to get rid of them all. You can use both chemical and non-chemical methods to kill the bugs once you’ve found and contained all the places where they are.
Bedbugs are very small—only 5 mm across, or about the size of a pencil eraser. These bugs are tough and smart, and they make lots of babies very quickly. They know where to hide so they don’t get caught, and they can go months without eating. In her lifetime, a female bedbug can lay up to 500 eggs.
It’s not a surprise that these little bloodsuckers can make your home a real mess. They might make red, itchy bumps all over your body if they sleep with you.
What are Bedbugs?
Bedbugs are bugs that feed on the blood of people and animals. Bedbug adults are about the size of an apple seed, dark brown, and don’t have wings. Their bodies are oval and flat. Nymphs, which are young bedbugs, are smaller and can look clear or yellow. Because of the way they look, nymphs that haven’t been fed in a while can be hard to spot. The eggs of bedbugs are very small and white.
Can You Get Rid Of Bedbugs On Your Own?
To get rid of bedbugs on your own. Be patient, because getting rid of bedbugs usually takes some time and work. If there are a lot of them, you might need to try a few different chemical and nonchemical methods.
Bedbugs can be harder to get rid of in some situations. There may be more bedbugs in your home if you have a lot of stuff lying around or if you travel a lot and bring new ones back with you in your bags.
They might need to be taken care of by a professional if you can’t get rid of them yourself. Here is a step-by-step plan for getting them out of your home.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide?
Bed bugs are able to get into very small areas because they are only about the width of a credit card. They usually hide in groups on mattresses, in box springs, and in or near bed frames, all of which are easy for people to get to at night.
They could also be in loose wallpaper, on your nightstand, or in other folds close to where you sleep.
How Do I Know If My Mattress Has Bed Bugs?
Not sure if you have bed bugs or not? You could be right. For sure, keep an eye out for these things:
- Some parts of your body are itchy that weren’t there before you went to sleep.
- You have blood on your sheets or pillows.
- You may have bed bugs if you see dark spots on your mattress or pillows.
- They might be hiding in places with eggshells or torn skin.
- A musty smell near your bed
- Bed bugs, alive or dead
You’re not the only one who has checked Google to see what bed bugs look like on a mattress but quickly closed the tab after seeing the pictures. It’s easy to miss bed bugs because they are so small. Often, they only look like a dark spot on a cushion. Take a closer look with a magnifying glass or the camera on your phone.
Do I Have To Throw My Mattress Away If I Have Bed Bugs?
If you have bed bugs, you don’t have to get rid of your mattress. It might look like the easiest choice, but it isn’t always the cheapest, unless you were already going to buy a new mattress anyway.
If you want to know how to get bed bugs out of a mattress on your own, you can do a few things, but if you want faster and better results, you might want to call in bug exterminators. Bed bugs are especially hard to get rid of on your own.
How Big Are Bedbugs?
A full-grown bedbug is about 5 to 7 millimeters long, which is the same size as the head of Abraham Lincoln on a penny.
Where Are Bedbugs Found?
You can find bedbugs anywhere. You might think that bedbugs are only a problem in poor countries, but they can also be found in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., as well as in South America, Asia, and Africa. Bugs that feed on blood can get into almost any place.
What Do Bedbugs Look Like?
Bedbug adults have flat bodies that are about the size of an apple seed. But after they eat, they get bigger and turn a golden color.
Because they are so flat, they can fit into very small places. Their bodies are about the thickness of a credit card. They can go almost anywhere as long as there is blood to eat.
Bedbugs don’t build homes like ants or bees do. Instead, they like to hide in groups. They can quickly move over floors, walls, and ceilings, but they can’t fly.
Bedbug females can lay hundreds of eggs in their lives. Each egg is about the size of a dust particle. Nymphs, which are young bedbugs, shed their bodies five times before they become adults. Before each loss, they need to eat blood. If conditions are right, the bugs can become fully grown in as little as one month and have three or more generations a year. They can live for 10 months to a year.
What Causes Bedbugs?
Bugs that live in your home usually come from somewhere else where they are already present. They can come from another room in your building if you live in an apartment or condo. They could ride along on used upholstered chairs. You could also bring them in on your bags or with you if you leave them somewhere with bedbugs.
They are small and can hide during the day, so it’s simple for them to get into your home without you noticing.
How Can Bedbugs Be Harmful To My Health?
People don’t think bedbugs are dangerous. There’s no proof that they can make people sick. But their bites can be painful and itchy.
If you scratch a bedbug bite so hard that the skin breaks, you might get an illness. Some people can’t handle the bites. They could get hives, boils, or really bad itching from bites. In this case, you should see a doctor.
Early Signs Of Bedbugs
Small, itchy bites on your skin, usually on your arms or shoulders, may be the first sign that you have bedbugs. Most of the time, bedbugs leave groups of bites instead of single bites here and there. But bedbug bites don’t leave marks or itch on some people.
You might also notice:
- You have blood on your sheets or cushion.
- Little pale yellow eggs or eggshells
- Black dots about the size of a period are bedbug poop.
- The bedbugs’ skin that they shed, which looks a lot like the bugs
- Eggs are white, oval, and about the size of an apple seed.
- A sweet, musty smell near your bed Bedbugs in your bed
How To Check For Bedbugs
If you think you might have bedbugs, carefully check your mattress and bed, paying special attention to the cracks. Bedbugs like to hide in these places because it’s easy for them to get to people and bite them. They could be in cracks in your bed frame or headboard or near the tags, seams, and bands on your mattress or box springs.
But over time, the tiny bugs might move farther out and hide in any crack or opening that they can find. You might be able to:
- In the seams or between the cushions of sofas and chairs
- in the folds of curtains, the joints of drawers, and the plugs and gadgets that use electricity
- In close-by flats or rooms on clothes Under loose paint or wallpaper in box springs
- Under carpeting close to baseboards in beds
- On bags and in boxes
- On beds
- On things close to the bed
- On bed headboards
Bedbugs don’t mean a room is dirty because they only eat blood. They are just as likely to be in clean homes as in dirty ones.
How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In Mattress
If you decide to get rid of bed bugs on your own, keep in mind that you might have to do it more than once. There are no diseases that bed bugs can spread, but you should still be careful because they can reproduce quickly. This can take a long time and be boring. It also doesn’t work well for big outbreaks; for those, you would need to call professional exterminators.
1. Launder Your Linens
The first thing you should do is clean everything you can, including the couch. You should wash your blankets, pillowcases, sheets, and anything else you think your little friends might be hiding in. Put these things in a trash bag with rubber gloves to take them to the laundry room or the wash.
Do not move your bedding from one room to another with your laundry box. Bed bugs can get back to your bedroom or, even worse, other places in your house if you use your regular basket. No, use a trash bag instead. When you’re done, put it in an outside trash can.
Since you shouldn’t put insecticide on your clothes or blankets, the next best thing is to wash them in hot water. When you can, use hot water on everything. For some things, it might not be the best.
2. Vacuum And Repeat
Clean your bedroom with a vacuum after you wash your sheets and put them away. The bugs can hide in the bristles of the brush adapter, so don’t use it. Use the hose instead. Make sure to clean your mattress’s small cracks and other areas of the room, especially the area next to the bed.
Do it again and again until you’ve got it right. Put the vacuum’s contents in an outside trash can and clean the can so the bugs inside can’t get back inside for free.
3. Take Your Bed Frame Apart
To get even more dirty, if you can, take your bed frame apart and clean every part of it. There are many places where bed bugs can hide, so it’s important to get rid of them. You can get a better look by using a flashlight and magnifying glass to see inside cracks. Should you find any cracks in your wooden bed frame, you might want to fix them so that bed bugs can’t use them as a place to hide.
4. Use Insecticides That Are Safe For Your Mattress
Before you use an aerosol spray, make sure the room has good air flow and that you understand the directions on the bottle. Also, make sure you have an insecticide made just for beds and not an aerosol that can be used for anything. Afterward, you can spray the bug killer on the area where the bugs are and on any other items in the room.
An pesticide spray is the best way to get rid of live bed bugs right away. A lot of these sprays kill bed bugs right away. But there’s no promise that the solution will still kill any bugs that come across it after it has dried.
In the same way, some poisons have chemicals that let bed bug eggs hatch, but the chemicals kill the bugs soon after. Other materials aren’t very good at killing the bug once it hatches or stopping the egg from hatching. Do some study ahead of time to find out what will kill bed bugs and their unhatched eggs the best.
Also, be careful not to put too much insecticide around where you sleep, since it does contain chemicals that are bad for you. For about 15 minutes after entering the room, many pesticides say to leave and close the doors and windows. Then, they say to come back in and open the windows to let air flow.
5. Steam Your Mattress
It needs to get to 120 degrees or higher for steaming to get rid of bed bugs correctly. It’s not the best way to get bed bugs out of a mattress because most people don’t have steamers that strong, but it can work if you do.
6. Encase Your Mattress And Box Spring In A Cover
If you’ve decided that buying a new mattress is too expensive and killing the bugs yourself is too risky, you might want to buy a special mattress cover and box spring cover. These very specific covers make it almost impossible for bed bugs to get out. For this method to work best, leave the cover on for a year to make sure that all of the bed bugs inside are dead and can’t reproduce.
If there are bed bugs only in your mattress, this method works best. If there are bed bugs in your bed frame, table, or anywhere else in the room, it won’t help.
How To Prevent Bedbugs
Here are some ways to get rid of bedbugs and their bites:
- Protect your mattress and box springs with a cover. Check it often for holes.
- Get rid of extra stuff in your bedroom so that bedbugs don’t have many places to hide.
- You should vacuum your mattress, rugs, curtains, and upholstered furniture on a regular basis.
- Don’t put your bag on the bed or the floor when you’re not at home. Instead, put it on a dresser, table, or suitcase stand. Wash and dry all of your trip clothes in a hot machine when you get back home.
- To keep your skin safe from bites, wear pajamas with long arms and pants.
- Before taking used upholstered furniture inside, make sure it is in good shape.
- Do not buy used bedding or pillows.
- When you use shared washing rooms, put your clothes and linens in plastic bags. If you can, bring clean clothes home to fold them.
- Put up barriers under your doors and fill in cracks around the walls if you live in a building with other units.
Takeaways
It is important to make sure you don’t bring bedbugs home with you since they can live almost anywhere and are easy to move around. Learn how to spot bedbugs and stay alert if you think you have an outbreak. If your home is infested, it’s best to get help from an expert. If you think the bites are making you sick, you should call your doctor.
Bed bugs FAQs
Do Bedbugs Stay On Your Body?
Not at all. Bedbugs usually don’t hide on your body. Instead, they like to stay on things like clothes and mattresses.
How Long Do Bedbugs Last?
Bedbugs can live for several months at room temperature if they are not killed. That’s why getting rid of them quickly is so important.
Are Bedbugs Visible To The Eye?
Bedbug adults are big enough to see with the naked eye. They are, however, very small—about the size of an apple seed.
What Is The Fastest Way To Kill Bed Bugs?
Wet laundry in hot water for 30 minutes is the fastest way to get rid of bed bugs. Then dry them for about 30 minutes on the highest heat setting.
How can I get rid of bed bugs with no professional help?
Get rid of everything that has bed bugs on it, block off any places they could hide, vacuum and steam, and then cover blankets and pillows with plastic. Finally, use safe pesticides to kill the bugs.
How Can I Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In My Home?
If you think bed bugs are in your clothes or bedding, wash them in hot water, vacuum the furniture and bedding, use a steam cleaner to get rid of the bugs, and use tree oil, which kills both lice and fungi.
What’s The Best Way To Check For Bed Bugs?
Make sure the sheets don’t have rusty or shredded marks or dark spots. Also look for eggs, eggshells, pale yellow nymph skins, and/or live bed bugs.
How can I check for bed bugs on my couch?
Bed bugs leave behind feces that look like small black dots. You can find these near the seams, under chairs, and in the cracks and crevices of your furniture.