How to get rid of bedbugs from your mattress is the biggest problem once you have a bedbug infestation. Beds, and in particular mattresses are a favorite hiding point for bedbugs.
You can remove bedbugs from your mattress with a few different techniques, with steam cleaning it being the most instant and effective technique. Other ones include homemade solutions to drive them away or professional pest control.
We look at a few of the techniques below.
To get rid of bedbugs from your mattress, you need to be able to identify them. They are small insects that hide in cracks. After a meal, they may look red or dark. Before their meals, they are a pale yellow. They have 6 legs and don’t have wings. They are oval and have a hard protective shell.
How To Remove Bed Bugs From Mattress
- Inspect mattress to confirm the presence of bedbugs
- Scrub with a stiff brush
- Vacuum the mattress
- Kill bedbugs with homemade solutions
- Cover the mattress
- Continuous monitoring for infestation
Identify Part Of The Mattress The Bedbugs Are In
When bed bugs infest your mattress, you need to first identify the part of the mattress they are hiding in.
The first thing to look out for is to check the part of your body that is most bitten by the bedbugs. If your legs are the most bitten, then the bedbugs are hiding in the lower part of your mattress.
When you know where the bedbugs are in the mattress, then it becomes easy to get rid of them.
Scrub With A Stiff Brush
Scrub the whole mattress with a stiff brush to remove both the bedbugs and the eggs they have laid on the mattress.
Make sure to wear gloves and other protective clothing when carrying out this task. It ensures that you don’t get bedbugs on your clothes and put them back in your bed or home.
Vacuum Your Mattress
Heat is a good way to kill the bedbugs. Vacuum your mattress to kill any bedbugs still hiding in it. You can use a steam cleaner to vacuum your mattress. It produces enough heat to kill the bedbugs and their eggs in the mattress.
Also, vacuum your mattress base, the bed, and your bedroom. Ensure to throw away your vacuum bag or even burn it to avoid a re-infestation.
Use Homemade Solutions To Kill The Bedbugs
There is a range of homemade solutions you can use to kill bedbugs on your mattress and in your home. Essential oils such as tea tree, lavender, and plants and herbs such as cayenne pepper can be mixed with water and sprayed on the bedbugs or the mattress and bed.
Bleach, diatomaceous earth, vinegar, and baking soda are some of the easily available household materials you can use to get rid of bedbugs from your mattress.
Encase The Mattress
Cover the mattress with a closed mattress cover. You can use a mattress cover that doesn’t need to be washed. You will encase the mattress for about a year to suffocate the bedbugs.
Monitor
When you have successfully cleared the bedbug infestation from your mattress, you need to check it regularly. Use a hard brush to scrub the mattress to see if there are any signs of bedbugs or their eggs.
Also, air your mattress and clean your room and furniture regularly to ensure that a bedbug infestation doesn’t recur.
When To Hire A Pro To Get Rid Of Bedbugs
Bedbugs double in number in sixteen days. If you have a bedbug infestation you can’t finish with homemade solutions, you should call a professional exterminator.
They are trained and licensed to clear a bedbug infestation. They have the skills and tools to eliminate bedbugs from your home.
If you and your neighbors have a bedbug infestation, homemade solutions will not get rid of the infestation. It is better to call professional exterminators to get rid of bedbugs from you and your neighbor’s homes.
Professionals can use temperature treatment by heating them with a vacuum or freezing the bugs and their eggs. They can also use human-friendly chemicals to eradicate a bedbug infestation.
How do you hire a pro to get rid of bed bugs in your home?
Use This Free Tool
Gotreequotes.com is a free tool that connects homeowners to professional pest exterminators in three easy steps.
- Enter your zip code
- Fill in the form to offer details on the kind of service you need.
- Receive 3 quotes from professional exterminators for the service
From the three quotes, choose and contact one of the exterminators to remove the bedbugs from your home.
How To Prevent Bedbug Infestation
Preventing a bedbug infestation is easier than removing or exterminating them from your house. Here is what you need to do to prevent a bedbug infestation.
Remember, bedbugs can live anywhere whether it is clean or dirty.
- If you travel often, you are likely to bring back bedbugs to your home. So, whenever you are in a new place, home or hotel, place your suitcase on a stand to prevent bedbugs from entering it. Also, wash your clothes in hot water when you come back from your travels. Check for bedbugs on the bed in the new places you sleep.
- Declutter your home and bedroom. Remove all unnecessary things from where your room. Also, create space between your furniture. Make sure your bed doesn’t touch the wall.
- Do not buy used furniture. It may transfer bedbugs from the seller to your home. Bed Bugs hide in small spaces and cracks that can be on the furniture.
- Open the windows in your home regularly to allow for the entry of fresh air.
- Cover your mattress. Use a plastic cover on your mattress to ensure that bedbugs don’t get into or out of the mattress.
- Seal any cracks in your bedroom or house
- Air your mattress and clothes regularly.
How To Identify When You Have A Bedbug Infestation
Signs of a bedbug infestation include:
- Bed bug bites on your body
- Blood spots on your sheets
- Bed Bug fecal matter
- When you spot bedbugs on your bed
- Bedbug eggs and eggshells.They are pale and yellow.
- A musty odor in the room
You can observe these signs on your bed and other furniture. You can also see these signs on your electronic devices, carpets, and cracks in the walls.
FAQ's
To prevent a bedbug infestation remove anything from the house that comes into contact with the bedbugs. Keep it in a sealed bag to prevent the bedbugs from crawling away. Then, wash and dry the items in hot water and air them to kill the bedbugs and their eggs.
Discard furniture from which bedbugs cannot be removed completely. Also, ensure trash swept from the house is properly discarded.
Bleach, baking soda, alcohol, vinegar, cayenne pepper, tea tree oil, lavender, and mint leaves are some of the homemade solutions you can use to kill bedbugs. Their effectiveness is seen when used several times. Identify the cracks in which the bedbugs hide and apply or spray these homemade solutions for about a week.
Bedbugs can be found anywhere. Unlike what many people think, the level of cleanliness does not cause bedbugs. You will get bedbugs at the cleanest hotels as well as the dirty ones. An infestation will occur in a neighborhood easily. Bed bugs are easy to carry. They walk fast and if you place your luggage or sit on the furniture with bedbugs, they can easily hide in your clothes and take them to wherever else you will go.
Bedbugs rarely transmit diseases. The worst you can get from a bedbug infestation is red, itchy, and swollen bite marks.
You need sufficient light to check for bedbugs in your mattress. If you are doing it during the day, open the windows to let light in. If you can’t get natural light, use a flashlight to check the seams of your mattress.
Also, look in cracks on the bed and bed sheets for signs of bedbug presence. Check your pillows and pillowcases. Inspect everything that is often placed on the bed.
Check your other furniture and wash them if need be. Additionally, check the edges of your carpet and cracks around the home in areas of high traffic.
Warmth, CO2, and a ready meal. Bedbugs feed on blood. When you sleep, you breathe out CO2 that they breathe in and your body produces warmth. Thus, the mattress is an ideal location for bedbugs to live. They can get everything they need to survive.
