Home remedies for bed bugs5/15/2023 Reduce clutter in your bedroom so bedbugs don't have many places to hide.Use a protective cover on your mattress and box springs.How to Prevent BedbugsĪ few ways to stop bedbugs (and bedbug bites) include: It's usually best to hire a professional exterminator who has experience with bedbugs. Don't treat mattresses and bedding unless the label specifically says you can use them on bedding. Make sure you use only pesticides that are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and whose labels say they're meant to control bedbugs. While these techniques can help to control bedbugs, getting rid of them completely often requires chemical treatments. But first, take the above precautions for the rest of your home so bedbugs won't get into your new mattress. If your mattress is infested, you may want to get a new one. Get rid of clutter around your bed, and move your bed away from your walls and other furniture.Repair cracks in plaster and glue down peeling wallpaper to get rid of places bedbugs can hide.So keep the cover on your mattress for at least a year. Bedbugs can live several months without feeding. Put a tightly woven, zippered cover on your mattress and box spring to keep bedbugs from entering or escaping.Afterward, immediately put the vacuum cleaner bag in a plastic bag and place it in the garbage can outdoors. Vacuum your bed and the area around it every day, including windows and molding.Use a stiff brush to scrub mattress seams to remove bedbugs and their eggs before vacuuming.Put stuffed animals, shoes, and other items that can't be washed in the dryer and run it on high for 30 minutes or more. Wash your bedding, curtains, and clothing in hot water and dry them on the highest dryer setting.To get rid of bedbugs, you can start by taking some steps at home: To confirm a bedbug infestation, you must find and identify the bugs. You may think the itching and welts are from other causes, like mosquitoes. Also, the bites don't have a red spot in the center the way flea bites do. Unlike flea bites, which are mainly around your ankles, you'll find bedbug bites on areas of skin that are exposed while you're sleeping, often your face, neck, or hands. You may not notice bites right away, as it can take up to 2 weeks for marks to develop. It can be harder to see them on dark skin.īedbugs tend to leave groups of bites in a straight row or zigzag pattern, but they can also be in a random pattern. On people with light skin tones, the bites usually look red. If you have a bedbug bite, you may notice an itchy spot on your skin. The bugs feed from 3 minutes to 10 minutes until they're full, then crawl away. They pierce the skin and take your blood through their long beaks. You are as likely to find them in immaculate homes as in messy ones.īedbugs are active mainly at night and usually bite you while you're sleeping. In the seams or between the cushions of sofas and chairsīecause bedbugs live only on blood, they're not a sign of dirtiness. Bedbugs like to hide in these areas, where they have easy access to people to bite. You might find them near the seams, tags, and piping of your mattress or box spring, or in cracks in your bed frame or headboard.īut over time, the tiny bugs may move farther out into any crevice or location that offers a hiding place. If you suspect you may have bedbugs, inspect your mattress and bed carefully, especially in the crevices. White, oval eggs that are about as big as an apple seed. The bedbugs' shed skin, which looks a lot like the bugs themselves.Bedbug poop, black dots about the size of a period.But for some people, bedbug bites don't cause any marks or itching. Bedbugs tend to leave clusters of bites rather than single bites here and there. The first sign of bedbugs may be small, itchy bites on your skin, often on your arms or shoulders. They can live from about 10 months to a year long. Under favorable conditions, the bugs can develop fully in as little as a month and produce three or more generations per year. They require a meal of blood before each shedding. Immature bedbugs, called nymphs, shed their skins five times before reaching maturity. They don't fly, but they can move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings.įemale bedbugs may lay hundreds of eggs, each about the size of a speck of dust, over a lifetime. This means they can get just about anywhere so long as there's blood to feed on.īedbugs don't make nests like ants or bees, but tend to live in groups in hiding places. Their flattened bodies make it possible for them to fit into tiny spaces, about the width of a credit card. After feeding, though, they swell and turn a reddish color. Adult bedbugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed. Bedbugs are small, oval, brown insects that feed on the blood of animals and humans.
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