Discover Ways of Eradicating Bed Bugs in Your House
Bed bugs are very stubborn insects that are difficult to get rid of. They feed on your blood, remain unnoticed, and strip you of all the finesse you have struggled to acquire over the years. When you have bed bugs in your house, you begin to notice ugly red marks on your beautiful skin, you begin to look anemic because you are losing blood to those stubborn evils. Living with bed bugs in your home is just like donating blood irrelevantly without your consent. When these bugs begin to multiply and transport themselves through the home, it is always extremely difficult to get rid of them. If you have been through this in the past, you will understand the emotions attached to this article and assimilate this article to the end if you have not experienced it. It contains ways in which you can prevent them from entering and spreading throughout your home.
Are you already experiencing the infestation of bed bugs in your home? Then you are in the right place. This article has do-it-yourself tips and guidelines on how you can eradicate bed bugs before they spread throughout your home. The tips in this blog will aid in getting your peace of mind back, stop donating blood unknowingly, and get back your beauty and balance.
Identifying Bed Bugs
Have you have been seeing this thing around in your house and have not been paying attention to it? If any of the descriptions below match what you have been seeing, you have a 100% confirmed bed bug case in your house. What do bed bugs look like?
- They have a red-brown color.
- They are usually flat, swollen when fed, and are naturally broad and oval in shape.
- They are not always very big in size. Mostly between ¼ or 2/4 inches long.
Where Bed Bugs Can Live and Survive
Just as its name implies, bed bugs upon getting into your home, make your bed their permanent home. They live in hidden places in groups. They live and hide in areas that would make it easier for them to bite you whenever you sleep at night. Other sites bed bugs have been found to survive aside from the bed are:
- Cracks in walls
- Crevices in your kitchen cabinet or your wardrobe?
- Beddings
- Your cloths
- Used furniture
- Teddy bears
- Rugs
- Wall electric sockets, and so on.
Symptoms of Bed Bug Infestation In Your Home
It is good news that there are signs to look out for when determining if there are bed bugs in your house or not. Wherever you see these signs, start the eradication process without delay to avoid further spread. When bed bugs are in your home, you begin to realize the following:
- Bloodstains on your beddings.
- Bed bugs excrement that looks like rusts from iron begins to appear on your beddings, furniture, and walls.
- Eggshells and shed skin where they live and hide.
- Offensive odor from areas they live in.
Bed Bug Bites
Have you noticed unusual changes on your skin lately? Do you feel like you have been bitten by something? Does that area of the bite seem swollen but painless and becomes painful after some time? Look through the article and let us find out if you had a bed bug bite. How do you identify bed bug bites?
- Red spots
- Swell in the area of the bite
- Burning sensation
- Rashes
- Bites can appear in a cluster.
These symptoms do not appear immediately after the bite. They develop over time. The bite seems painless at first because, before feeding, they excrete little amounts of anesthetics on you, thereby making you feel no pain at all when they feed. Bed bugs feed on your blood every single night, and in contrast, they can stay days without food, thereby making them difficult to notice.
Causes of Bed Bug Infestations
Have you ever thought of how bed bugs get into the house? Most people believe that bed bugs come only as a result of filth and dirtiness, though this is also a cause. However, this is so untrue, because the same way you find bed bugs in a dirty home is the same way you will find it in an exclusive 5-star hotel or 100% clean home.
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Travel
Most travelers who settle down in hotels or guest rooms to spend the night before getting to their destinations tend to be significant transmitters of bed bugs. The majority of these guest houses and hotels have beg bugs in their beddings, furniture, and wardrobes. Upon using these facilities, bed bugs creep into travelers’ packed clothes and other luggage, hence helping them move from one place to another until they finally get into the home.
Another case scenario with travelers is; the seats of vehicles they board that convey them to their destinations.
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Visitation
When some people who have bed bugs in their houses visit, their bed bugs come from their homes with them and pitch tents in your furniture.
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Used/second-hand furniture
Introducing second-hand furniture into homes could lead to your home getting infested with bed bugs if the furniture is infested.
Effects of Bed Bug Bites
There are really no health issues attached to bed bug bites.
- Since they feed on your blood, the aftereffect of their feeding leaves you a shot of blood, which makes you feel weak and anemic.
- Also, some people might develop allergies from the bites.
- Skin irritation can also be an effect of the bites.
Prevention and Eradication
Some chemical products like mosquito sprays seem not to have many effects on them, hence the need to do-it-yourself.
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Fumigation
This is the first on the list. If the infestation seems too much for you to handle, you can invite pest controllers over to help you fumigate your home and surroundings.
- Get rid of outdated furniture in your home.
- Items you feel are infested, like cloths, can be placed in plastic bags and left for weeks or months.
- Clean and wash beddings with detergent and other harsh chemicals that would not affect the beddings a lot.
- Vacuum your bed, mattress, and rugs, but before that, scrub them with stiff brushes to get rid of bed bug eggs.
- Plaster the parts of the house that have cracks.
- Use very hot or freezing temperatures to get rid of them. You can do this by; putting infested objects under a dryer with very high heat or placing infested objects like clothes in plastic bags and leaving them in the freezer for days. These extreme temperatures can help you get rid of them.
- If your mattress is extremely infested, you should get a new one, as getting rid of them after such spread is difficult.
- Monitor the areas of eggshell and skin shed, employ treatment methods there, and keep monitoring until you are confident that there are no more occurrences.
Home Remedies for Bed Bugs Infestations
- Rub alcohol on areas you notice are infested.
- Sprinkle baking soda on infested areas; it would help dehydrate them, thereby killing them.
- Detergents are also effective in killing insects such as bed bugs. Mix detergent in little water, sprinkle the solution on infested areas and watch the detergent do to them what salt does to earthworms.
- Combine ginger and cayenne pepper pastes and sprinkle on infested areas.
- Hydrogen peroxide and bleach are also useful home remedies for it.
- Tee tree oil can kill them and mask the human smell that usually attracts them, thereby leaving them confused. Use water to dilute tea tree oil and spray on infected areas.
- Some insecticides have proven to be effective in killing bed bugs. Spray these insecticides throughout your home. Be careful not to spray them in your eyes and on your skin. Flush your eyes and skin immediately with water when they come in contact with it. Also, keep out of the reach of your children to prevent swallowing.
- Adopting any of these home remedies for eradicating bed bugs would work wonders in nipping their spread in the bud.
Treating Bed Bug Bites
- Wash the area of the bite with water and mild soap when you notice it.
- Take anesthetics to help reduce the after bite pain.
- Apply anti-itch lotion to reduce itching.
- Try not to scratch the area of the bite.
Bed bugs infestation in your home can cause inconvenience, but leaving them to spread is a big nightmare that is capable of stripping every semblance of peace of mind and balance from you. Bed bugs do not come into the home through dirtiness alone; their spread can come from traveling. Containing them before they spread would prevent you from experiencing the hard and ugly incident that comes with their full spread. To stop them, try out home remedies as they are brave steps you can take towards getting rid of bed bugs.