How to rid your home of Bed Bugs

The first step in prevention and elimination of bed bugs is understanding what they are and where they hide. Read on for some basic bed bugs information. Bed bugs bite humans in order to suck their blood. They are the less than an inch long and are actually considered to be a tiny version of the mythical vampire.

When people exhibit symptoms of a bed bug infestation they would have traditionally taken the mattress outside for a good airing and sprayed it with insecticides or pesticides in a bid to kill them all. Nowadays it is known that this method in fact does not actually do very much damage to these little mites. Burning the bed would prove more successful, but that's not a terribly practical way to get rid of the little pests.

Just like most cases of pest infestation, there are always pest control professionals to be called. This is highly recommended, but there are also some basic things that can be done at home if you wish to avoid calling in such help. A number of bed bug sprays, dusts, and aerosol insecticides can be purchased in hardware stores, supermarkets or online and can be used to get rid of the bed bugs. These must be applied to all areas where the bugs are found, can be found, and might be found - just to be on the safe side. A professional can help one determine if the mattress can be disinfected or must be discarded. But since beds or mattresses are usually hard to clean with insecticides, it would save a lot more time to simply get rid of the bed altogether. If one is feeling vindictive, one could burn the mattress, but that is not advisable as there are sure to be laws in place that prevent such cruel and subjective punishment, even if you consider that the bed bugs and the bed itself deserve it...

Other ways to get rid of bed bugs is by washing bed sheets, blankets and even clothes using hot water. Extremely hot water is well known to have the ability to kill many things including bacteria, another thing that can be done, aside from cleaning surfaces thoroughly, is to disinfect the mattress then tightly seal it in some dark plastic sheeting and leaving it to dry in the sun for as long as possible. This method is a bit of an old wives tale and not terribly effective because the heat from the sun cannot evenly penetrate every last inch of the mattress, so many bugs may still survive. The bed is not the only place or thing that the bed bugs may call home; there are also carpets, clothing, soft furnishings and domestic pets. A brilliantly effective way of getting rid of bed bugs from home furnishings is by using a steam cleaner, the heat of which will zap them in no time.

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