Natural Ways-How to Kill Bed Bugs _ Residential Pest Control New Braunfels
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Natural Ways-How to Kill Bed Bugs
Are you waking in the morning to find itchy red welts or a rash on your arms, face, legs – any exposed piece of flesh? Is it happening every morning? Then there is a good chance you have bed bugs. So, how do you kill bed bugs? Follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Be certain that you really do have an infestation of these little bloodsuckers. Your bites might be the work of some other beasties who come out at night like for instance bird mites.
To determine whether or not you have these bugs you will have to do some detective work. Strip back the bedding on your bed. If you have a bug infestation you will definitely find dark fecal marks, eggs (which look similar to a grain of rice), and possibly discard exoskeleton shells. You may even come across some live bugs. These signs are most often found in the folds and creases of the mattress, around buttons, handles, and along the headboard. If you come across any of these clues, it’s time to take action and kill bed bugs.
2. You will have to clear and treat the whole room, not just the bed. The bugs will take up residence in any crack or crevice which is dark, so you will discover them in cracks or holes around floors and walls, in clocks, picture frames, smoke alarms, the folds of curtains, and in furniture. So you see to successfully kill bed bugs you need to be both methodical and thorough.
Get rid of clutter. Anything you don’t need, items such as books, magazines, and newspapers, bag it securely and bin it. All clothing and bedding should be taken from the room in sealed plastic bags and laundered at as high a temperature as possible, alternatively place garments in a tumble dryer on a high setting for approximately 10 minutes. For garments, curtains, carpets, and soft furnishings which cannot be de-bugged in this way, it is best to use a steam cleaner to kill the bugs.
3. The next step to killing bed bugs is to use a vacuum cleaner. Vacuum the entire room including the bed, soft furnishings, furniture (remember to check drawers and closets.) Do this in a methodical manner and cover every inch of the room. Don’t forget to empty your vacuum cleaner immediately into a plastic bag, seal it tight and dispose of it!
4. In the same methodical way repeat step 3 using a steam cleaner. These little vampires cannot withstand heat, so steam is an extremely effective way to kill them. It kills them off at all stages of development, even the eggs which is something that not all bed bug sprays can achieve.
If you do have any cracks and crevices around floors and walls, now is a good time to have them repaired.
5. As a precautionary measure, use a spray to kill bugs that may have escaped the vacuum cleaner or steam cleaner. Some of these can be toxic so be careful what you purchase. Something like Bed Bug Patrol works well and is totally safe around kids and pets. Another option would be to use something like fossil shell dust which can penetrate the waxy skin of the bug thus dehydrating and killing it, or traps work well when attached to bedposts or furniture close to the bed. These work on the theory that bugs are attracted to the carbon dioxide we exhale so as they climb to reach their nightly meal they become stuck in the sticky trap.
If you have an infestation that is extremely bad and in more than one room to kill bed bugs in this way will take a lot of time and effort because bear in mind you may have to repeat the whole cycle more than once before you kill all the bugs. You could of course call in exterminators but this option may kill your bank balance as well as the bugs.
