How to kill bed bugs at home?

Bedbugs are small, oval, brownish flat-bodied insects that survive by sucking the blood of animals or humans. Bedbugs cannot fly but they can quickly move over floors, walls, and ceilings. A female bedbug is known to lay hundreds of eggs over a lifetime. The eggs are so minute they are like a speck of dust.

What causes Bedbugs?

Bedbugs can enter your houses unnoticed through luggage or clothing or used beds etc. Because of their very small size and flat body they can easily fit into tiny spaces.

They do not build nests like ants or bees but live in groups together. The most common and initial hiding places of bedbugs are mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards etc. Hiding in these places allow them easy access to people to bite and suck blood at night when they are sleeping.

As time passes they slowly start moving across the bedroom, hiding in crevices and cracks. If they go undetected they may spread to nearby rooms or apartments also. Bedbugs survive on blood and they make their homes in places where they can easily access humans or animals to suck blood. Having bedbugs in the house is not a sign of dirtiness, they can be found even in the cleanest of houses.

How do you identify bedbug infestation in the house? How to kill bed bugs?

Bedbugs are most active at night when people are sleeping. They bite and suck blood with their sharp and elongated beaks. Each feed ranges from around 3 minutes to 10 minutes.

After completing their feed they crawl back to their hiding places undetected. When the bedbugs bite, the victim does not realize it as the bites are painless. However, the bites turn itchy after some time. In most cases, the red bites go unnoticed as they are mistaken as mosquito bites.

One needs to check the house and hidden areas to see if there is a bedbug infestation. There are many signs which can help you identify if your house is infested with bedbugs. Black dots on the mattress or the corners are most likely to be bedbug faeces.

You may also notice very tiny pieces of pale yellow coloured eggshells. Small rusty stains or blood spots on the bedsheet or mattress can be proof of bedbugs in the house.

Before you think about how to kill the bedbugs or how to get rid of them, first start with cleaning your rooms thoroughly. A clutter-free house will reduce the number of hiding places for bedbugs. Go through all the clothes to check for any infestation on your garments.

If you find any signs of infestation on the clothes or the bed, put all the clothes and linen into the laundry. For garments requiring dry clean give them to a professional cleaner and inform them about the infestation. Check all the crevices and cracks in the walls or furniture, fill them up as soon as possible.

Below mentioned are some simple home remedies to kill bedbugs and get rid of them:

Wash all the bedding, linens, curtains and clothes in hot water. Dry them in the dryer at the highest dryer setting. Items like stuffed toys and shoes that cannot be washed should be put in the dryer at high speed.

Scrub the mattress seams with a stiff brush to remove any bedbugs or their eggs in the mattress seams.

Vacuum the bed and surrounding areas thoroughly. After vacuuming place the vacuum cleaner bag in a plastic bag and keep it outside in the garbage. The cleaner bag may contain live bedbugs vacuumed from the bed.

Place the mattress and box springs in a tight zippered cover to stop the bedbugs from entering or escaping. Bedbugs can survive a year without feeding, so ensure the cover is on the mattress for at least a year. This will ensure all the bedbugs are dead.

Repair the cracks in the plaster and glue back the wallpaper to areas where it is peeling. This will leave no hiding place for the bedbugs.

If your mattress is infested, you can get rid of it and get a new one, but you will need to ensure that the rest of your home is bedbugs-free, of the new mattress, would get infected too.

Bedbug Extermination Services

Cleaning up infested areas or disposing of infested furniture may help control the bedbugs. However, to completely get rid of them and kill them one will need to use chemical treatments.

Treating the house or bed with chemical insecticides on your own can be dangerous. Handling these chemicals need specialized knowledge.

It is safest and most effective to hire an experienced bedbug pest control professional service provider for bedbug extermination in your house.

Roshan Pest Control is the leading bed bug treatment provider in Mumbai. Our team of trained and experienced technicians can inspect your house and find out the reason behind the infestation. We can offer the best solution to kill bed bugs permanently.