Bed bugs are unwanted house guests that can quickly take over the place in your home that is meant to be a sanctuary: your bed.
Most homeowners want to sleep in a different bed until the infestation is gone. However, that will only lead bed bugs to other areas of your home. The best thing to do is to continue sleeping in the same bed and contact a pest control specialist.
Reactions to bed bug bites vary from person to person, and they do not always show up right away. Monitoring your bites and knowing when to seek medical help is important.
Lastly, dry cleaning will kill bed bugs, but it is not an effective bed bug treatment. Working with a professional who can identify bed bug hiding places is the best way to kick these pests out of your home.
Where to Sleep if You Have Bed Bugs
As soon as you see a bed bug or notice a bite, the first thing you may want to do is sleep somewhere else until the infestation is controlled. However, that is not the right call. It feels counterintuitive, but you should continue sleeping in the same bed.
Moving to a bed or couch in a different room will spread the bed bug infestation into other areas of your home and make them harder to kick out. It’s also crucial that you do not remove any bedding from your room and put them in other rooms.
When bed bugs search for a blood meal, they will travel from room to room to find a human to feed on. Staying in the same bed is the best way to prevent them from traveling throughout your entire house. That said, if the infestation gets large enough, they may travel to other rooms anyway.
The best thing to do when you spot bed bugs is to minimize the spread and act quickly to get rid of them. Bed bugs can travel on clothing and fabric, so you have to be extremely careful not to carry them to other areas of your home.
How Bed Bugs Spread
Bed bugs spread by traveling from place to place on people and their belongings. They can make their way into suitcases, folded clothes, bedding, furniture and more. These little pests are excellent hiders and are hard to see if you are not looking for them. They often hide in seams and folds to stay out of sight. They can also stay in their hiding places for months without feeding.
In addition, it can take some people up to two weeks to have a reaction to bed bug bites. Because of these factors, some homeowners do not know that they brought bed bugs into their homes until there is already an active bed bug population.
Unfortunately, bed bugs multiply fast. Female bed bugs usually lay one egg per day, but they can lay up to seven. After hatching, female bed bugs can start reproducing after just six weeks.
Thanks to this rapid reproduction schedule, a small bed bug infestation can quickly turn into a large one. It’s crucial to act quickly when you notice the signs of a bed bug infestation.
Along with staying in the same room to minimize the spread, you should call a professional pest control service right away. Bed bugs are difficult to control without professional help, and it’s important to kick them out of your home as soon as possible.
Do Bed Bug Bites Show Up Right Away?
People react to bed bug bites in different ways. For some, the bite marks will show up as soon as the next day. However, it can take up to fourteen days for others to see bed bug bites, even if they have been getting bitten the whole time.
Bed bugs typically bite exposed areas of skin such as your arms, back, face, neck and legs. You will not feel the bites while you sleep because bed bug saliva contains substances that numb your skin.
Not everyone gets marks on their skin from bed bug bites. However, for those that do, the bites look similar to a rash. They can be small red circles that are either flat or raised. Sometimes they appear clustered together or in a zig-zag pattern, but they could also be spread out.
People with mild reactions will notice that the bites look similar to flea or mosquito bites. If you haven’t seen other signs of bed bugs, it can be hard to tell their bites apart from a rash or another type of bite. The best thing to do is look for the signs of bed bugs and call a pest control specialist.
Bed bug bites sometimes itch and become inflamed. Some people do not have any reaction to them, but they can become uncomfortable for those that do react. They can blister or, if scratched excessively, can bleed and become infected. They may also burn and cause mild pain.
While bed bug bite reactions vary from person to person, they can become serious and harmful. Contact a healthcare provider if you experience the extreme symptoms of bed bug bites. For mild reactions, washing the area with soap and water and applying an anti-itch cream a few times a day until the bites go away can help.
Do not let bed bugs continue to bite you while you sleep. Call a pest control specialist to control the infestation and take back your home.
Does Dry Cleaning Kill Bed Bugs?
As soon as you discover a bed bug infestation in your home, one of the first things you should do is wash all your bedding and clothes in high heat. You can wash and dry them at the highest temperature at home or take them to the dry cleaners. The heat needs to be at least 113 degrees Fahrenheit for bed bugs to die. Bed bug eggs die at 120 degrees.
Dry cleaning can kill bed bugs because of the high heat level and the contents in dry cleaners’ products. If you have clothing or bedding that cannot be washed with water, taking them to the dry cleaner is a good alternative to kill off bed bugs and their eggs.
However, it is important to keep in mind that dry cleaning or washing your bedding and clothing is not enough to eradicate bed bugs. These pests can live in other areas of your home besides bedding and clothing, and they are skilled at hiding.
For example, bed bugs may hide in bed frames, behind picture frames, inside curtain creases, inside furniture and even inside electrical outlets. To get rid of them completely, you need to call in professional help.
An expert pest control specialist will know where to find the bed bugs and use special tools to reach the ones out of sight. Their professional-grade products are also more effective than what you can buy at the store.
In addition to staying hidden, bed bugs also reproduce rapidly. Washing and drying your bedding, or taking them to the dry cleaners, may provide some relief but will not knock out the entire bed bug population.
Instead, you should view dry cleaning as a complement to professional solutions. You can do other things at home to help out with professional treatment, such as steam vacuuming your mattress.
It’s also a good idea to wrap your mattress in an airtight cover to kill off any surviving bed bugs. Vacuuming your floor and upholstered furniture is another smart tactic.
A pest control specialist can advise you on more ways that you can speed up the treatment process. However, you cannot fully get rid of a bed bug infestation on your own, so do not hesitate to call in the professionals.
Sleep Peacefully Without Bed Bugs
The thought of being bitten at night is never comfortable, and it can feel counterintuitive to continue sleeping in the same bed where it is happening. However, moving to a different bed will only spread the bed bug infestation and make the population harder to control.
There are several ways to control bed bugs, such as dry cleaning, but the most effective and fastest solution is to contact a pest control company. A pest control specialist can take care of the problem so you can sleep peacefully again.
ABC Can Get Your Bed Bug Problem Under Control
Bed bug problems can take a large toll on you and your family. When you notice an infestation, contact ABC Home & Commercial Services. We have multiple strategies to control bed bugs, so you and your family can be comfortable again.
