6 ways to kill bedbugs fast

These microscopic unwelcomed sleep depriver organisms have been a big problem to many people since many individuals do not know how to spot an infestation. Moreover, a bigger proportion can spot a bedbug infestation and still not come up with a way to control this situation. In this article, I’m going to take you through the 6 ways to kill bedbugs fast whenever you face an infestation at your homeplace. Bedbugs can be so flexible to camouflage thus easily hiding under and inside your stuff for quite a long time without you even noticing. They are not only smart but also tough since they can survive for long even under a very complex and exposed environment. Bugs reproduce in large numbers over a very short period of time. Female bedbugs can lay a total of up to five hundred eggs in a healthy and ‘well fed’ lifetime.

These little stubborn bloodsuckers can give you sleepless nights since their bites are totally unbearable. You don’t want to wake up to red, itchy scars on your body when you wake up, do you? Depending on the size of infestation you are undergoing, you can gradually control and get rid of these bugs within a reasonable period of time. Therefore, you can get to go for chemical as well as non-chemical control methods especially if you are facing a huge infestation. You might go through a hard time trying to get rid of them if you have lots of luggage stacked together for long or if you’re recurrently moving and bringing in new bugs in baggage.

You might like: bedbug control techniques

How do I get rid of bedbugs?

If you’re having a hard time trying to implement the chemical and non-chemical methods of controlling these pests, you will have to call a professional pest control unit or exterminator to help revive the lost peace in your bedroom.

Signs of a bedbug infestation

• Waking up to itchy, red spots on your skin
• 5 millimeter long reddish crawling bugs
• Waking up to red stains on your mattress or bed sheets resulting from crashed bedbugs.
• Yellowish eggs and yellow skins shed by the bedbugs’ little ones.
• Small darkish spots on your mattress or furniture joints are bedbug excrements   

6 ways to kill bedbugs fast- step by step guideline

1.  Diagnose the infested spots

If you realize your home is infested, you would really want to work fast and get rid of the bugs before it gets late. Controlling a smaller infestation is quite easier and cheaper compared to treating a larger one. Find the spots early and take another step before things get out of hand in no time. However, small infestations can be so difficult to detect. 

Therefore, if you suspect an infestation in your homestead, search for the spots yourself or higher professional inspectors to help you do the task. Since these bugs can be too tiny even for the human eye to see, professional inspectors may come along with trained dogs to make the detection process simple. With their tiny and very narrow bodies, bugs can hide underneath curtain folds, couches, mattresses, bed-cracks and inside wood-joints. 

2. Curbing the Infestation

As soon as you’re sure you are under a bedbug infestation, find a way to keep them contained so you can get rid of them easily. The best and recommendable way to trap these bloodsuckers is by using your vacuum cleaner. Run your vacuum on the possible hiding spots including your bed, carpets, couches and even electronics. Collect and seal the vacuumed loads into a plastic bag and dispose. Make sure you thoroughly clean your vacuum before putting it back into the store.

Any infested clothes or linen should be kept inside plastic bags as they wait for washing. Put a very high temperature on your washer as well as dryer. Unwashable items should be left in the dryer for at least 30 minutes at very high temperatures to get rid of the bugs.  Anything giving you a hard time cleaning or treating should be labeled ‘bedbugs’ and thrown away.

3. Prepping for bedbug control

In advance of starting the treatment process, it is advisable to perform a small prep to make sure the step is keenly executed and the chances of success maximized. Make sure all the hiding spots have been dismantled. Thoroughly clean all your clothing, carpets, curtains, couches and even linens before hopping in to the treatment process. Avoid mixing items from an infested room with those from other cleaner rooms to avoid spreading the bugs around the house. Throw away any disposable and infested items in the house. Seal any cracks on your furniture and keep the loose wallpaper glued to the wall. Ensure your bed is 6-8 inches away from the wall to prevent bedbugs from climbing on the walls.

4. Time to kill the bloodsuckers

Try going for the non-chemical approaches since these bugs can be easy to kill using elements like heat change. You can get rid of these tiny creatures by exposing them to very high temperatures of up to 45 °C or extremely low temperatures of up to 0°C or even less.

Home cleaning methods

•  Wash your clothes, beddings or the infested linen in hot water for about 30minutes then throw it in the drier for around 30 minutes.
• You’ll have to use a steamer on hidespots like mattresses and couches since bedbugs can crouch and hide in there easily.
• Bundle up the infested stuff in black plastic bags and keep them outside on a hot day or lock them up in a car to get rid of the bedbugs easily.
• You can place the bedbug carriers in a freezer and select a temperature setting of -17°C and leave them in there for 4-5 days.

As soon as you’re done cleaning and getting rid of all visible bloodsuckers, make the environment inhabitable by the hiding ones by bringing in new bug-proof covers for your mattresses and couches. Cover the items well to make sure that bugs trapped in will die and other new bugs from outside won’t be able to get in. If these home treatment approaches don’t work, you’ll have to go the chemical and professional way. Here are a few pesticides you can go for:

a)  Desiccants

b) Neonicotinoids

c)  Pyrroles e.g. chlorfenapyr

d) Pyrethroids

5. Keep an eye on infested spots

After treating, cleaning and freshly covering the infested area, you will have to monitor the spot to make sure that the bugs are gone. Check the affected areas once in a week for any signs of bloodsuckers hanging around. It’s advisable to place bedbug catchers under bed legs to intercept any bugs trying to climb up your bed. Remember to check the interceptors throughout the year for cleaning purposes.

6. Do a retreat as required

These little creatures are known to be very stubborn and hardy pests. Therefore, before you conclude that they are completely gone, you need to look-see that they’ve really left the area. Do a check after every seven days just to make sure there’s none left. Try the home treatment methods stated above and if they still won’t work; you will have to reach out to the exterminators. The bug-treatment companies will give you prep instructions to make the treatment approach simpler.

Lastly, make sure you try as much as you can to keep the bedbugs away and gone after the treatment. Now that you’ve mastered how to kill bedbugs fast, prevent them from coming back by covering your mattresses and furniture with bug-proof covers; seal cracks and clear up any mess around your house to keep these bloodsuckers off your lane.

Beyond having an infestation at your homeplace, it can all get worse to worst if you don’t know how you can get to control these little unwelcome visitors. What kills bedbugs instantly? It’s always been recommendable to go for the pest control companies if you don’t have any idea on how you can get rid of bedbugs and other pests at your homestead. However, going for the pest control service option can be unfavorable to some affected subjects since it is relatively expensive compared to other control methods. 

The rapid comeback of these little pests in the United States of America has given a vast number sleepless nights. 

However, less than a tenth of bed bug cases called out by individuals have actually been proved to be a bedbug infestation. It’s therefore advisable to take your time and know if it is an infestation or not. These creatures can crouch down on and into your luggage and you can end up moving them into your house unknowingly. Other than taking rides on luggages, you can easily give them a ride on second hand furniture, clothing, pillows and even mattresses as well. Make sure you inspect your stuff carefully before moving into your house. Furthermore, you can go for mattress covers and pillow covers to keep these foreigners off your property. 

What attracts bedbugs?

Whether you have a neat or messy surrounding at home, all the bedbugs care about is their all-time source of food nearby i.e. human beings. Therefore, all you need one or two people and a bedbug or two to start an infestation. Sleepless nights and waking up to an itchy-red skin have always been the major signs of an infestation. You don’t wanna have nights like those, do you? Luckily, there haven’t been any cases of infection caused by bedbug bites yet. 

Can clothes shield you from Bedbug bites?

Too bad your clothes can’t act as a savior during this itchy and irritating moment. Waking up to several bites on your skin beneath your pajamas has been a big-time redflag for bedbug infestations. Wearing clothes to prevent these midnight terrorists from having a piece of you would only make it better for the creatures. However, some people act as hosts for these bedbugs therefore not experiencing the biting part more compared to their partners who may get exposed to them. Reports of bed bugs in hotels, stores and movie theatres in the US has made headlines and all the people want to know is, what kills bedbugs instantly? 

How to get rid of bedbugs instantly

1.Call in a professional

After making sure you’re having a bedbug infestation at your home place, take the shortest time possible to call the appropriate professionals to control the problem before it’s too late. Infestations can be treated easily at early stages. Leaving them for a longer time will mean a bigger infestation thus bigger problems when trying to get rid of these stubborn pests. Therefore, to prevent spreading of the bedbugs since they will likely produce fast at a very short time; call the professionals for help as soon as you can to curb the problem easily. 

2. Written reference quotes from professional exterminators 

Get three quotes from professional bedbug exterminators concerning the treatment course, types of pesticides and traps as well as heat treatments that will be used (how, where and when). Some people prefer going for pesticides and other treatment chemicals over the counter rather than calling exterminators for advice or help. Some insecticides can be repellant, useless and very dangerous when misused. This can make the whole process useless thus giving the bloodsuckers more time for reproduction and spreading all over the place. It’s advisable to ask the experts questions concerning the problem so that you would know how to handle the infestation.

3. Check your furniture and other infested areas

Look out for the black spots on your mattresses, couches and every piece of furniture to see the status of the infestation. Examine cracks on your furniture, wallpapers and even walls to search for the infested spots in your house. This will help you implement the treatment process since you’ll specifically know which areas are affected and act accordingly.

4. Contact Bug-treatment services

DIagnose the infested parts of the house and make a call to the professional bedbug cleaners to help get rid of these bloodsuckers from your beddings and furniture as well. Calling experts helps maintain accuracy since you’ll be able to know which areas need action so you can act accordingly.

5. Cover and Seal the infested areas and items 

After doing some cleaning and trapping these tiny pests, put the infested items and seal them in plastic bags; ready for dry-cleaning as advised by the bug-ID professionals. Wash the sealed content in your dry cleaners at high temperatures which can not be withstood by the little creatures. Put the bags inside the cleaners for about 50-60 minutes to kill a bigger proportion of these bugs. What kills bedbugs instantly? Extremely high temperatures as well as low temperatures can help you kill these bugs within a very short span of time. Make sure you dispose of the used bags immediately and transfer the treated clothes into new plastic bags to take control of the infestation. Remember to keep the clothes in the cleaner as long as possible until the whole problem is successfully under control. 

6. Intensively vacuum your furniture and items

Starting from the racks, carpets, rugs and all furniture items to control the bugs population. Put the acquired content in black plastic bags and then seal them. Throw the contaminated vacuum bag away outside to prevent the bugs from getting back to your items. Make sure you always take control as soon as possible when the infestation is still at its early stages to increase chances of success in your bedbug treatment process.

Get in touch with the professionals as soon as you recognize an infestation in your homestead to ensure the whole process is undertaken with caution and profession;  thus a higher success probability. After understanding and knowing what kills bedbugs instantly, I believe the whole bedbug treatment process won’t be a bother to you anymore. 

Also Read: What kills bedbugs instantly?

References

Wikipedia: Bed bug control techniques