What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs (or bedbugs) are an elusive, quite small parasitic insects that is in the scientific family of Cimex. They live by feeding off of blood of warm blooded animals including humans.
The name bed bug came about from the insect’s favorite hiding spot, as they are most active in the hours before dawn, therefore, beds are a great home.
What Do Bed Bugs? Look Like?
Bed bugs are approx. five millimeters long and are brownish in color. During the day, they hide and it is very difficult to spot them. However, during the night they come out to feed and they bite you while you sleep. When fully developed a bedbug is a brown reddish color, an oval shape and do not have wings.
How to Prevent Bed Bugs?
After Traveling: Check for signs of bed bugs before unpacking your luggage after being away from home. Vacuum luggage and bags that cannot be washed with soap and hot water. Hand wash other items with hot, soapy water. In hotels or motels, change rooms immediately if you see any evidence of bed bugs.
Furniture: This is the most common method of getting bedbugs. Take care when bringing used furniture and clothing into your house. Wash clothing immediately. Furniture, however, should be inspected carefully before even bringing it into your home.
How to Destroy Bed Bugs?
A bed bug infestation can be hard to get rid of. Therefore it’s important to stay on top of this as soon as you find out you have them. Speed is of the essence. DO NOT DELAY. Here is the number one 5 Step Plan for destroying bed bugs.
The 5 Step Bed Bug Treatment Plan
Step 1 – steam everything.
Steam is the number one most effective way to kill bedbugs as it gets deeper into furniture and crevices that some sprays cannot. The best steamer on the market is the Vapamore MR-100.
Step 2, use spray to kill the bed bugs.
Use this Spray and treat all the furniture and affected areas in your home.
Step 3 – protect your bedding.
This is an incredibly easy but effective treatment. Enclose your mattress and box spring inside Protect-A-Bed encasements. Pick your bed size here. Make sure you do the same for your pillows.
Step 4 – Launder all clothes and bedding.
This is common-sense as the bugs hide and lay eggs in laundry piles and even in folded clothes in your closet. Use dissolvable laundry bags for this purpose so that there is no chance that eggs fall out of normal laundry bags or get back on clean clothes during the trip back from the laundry.
Step 5 – kill the tough ones.
The first 4 steps will have killed the vast majority of the bed bugs. However it is crucial that you get the remaining ‘hard to kill’ bugs as otherwise a reinfestation is very likely. You should set traps and lay barrier tape near your bed to finish the job off!
