How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

Discovering you have bed bugs can be a scary experience. It may be hard to get a good night’s sleep with the knowledge that there are tiny pests crawling all over the place. While they’re certainly a pain to get rid of, bed bugs are relatively harmless in the grand scheme of things. They don’t spread diseases like ticks or mosquitoes and unless you’re allergic, they aren’t dangerous.^[1] While they’re certainly gross, take solace in the fact that bed bugs won’t harm you and there are steps you can take to get rid of them.

[Edit]Steps

[Edit]Taking the First Steps

1. Alert your landlord or property manager if you don’t own your home. If you own your home, skip this step. Otherwise, call your landlord or property manager right now. Depending on where you live, they may be required to pay or assist with treatment. Even if they aren’t, it’s important to let them know what’s going on with their building.^[2]
   
   • It’s not super common, but bed bugs can travel to other floors. If you own a condo, contact the head of your condo association to let them know what’s going on.
   • Leave your furniture where it is and don’t do anything hasty. If you start taking things out of the infested room to get them away from you, you’re only going to spread the infestation. The odds are high you’ll be able to salvage all of your furniture.^[3]
2. Keep any pets crated far from your bedroom for the near future. If you have a cat or dog and haven’t noticed them scratching a lot, they probably haven’t been attacked and are not infested (bed bugs prefer humans and rarely go after pets). While you’re treating your mattress, the bed bugs may go after your furry friend instead. Leave your dog or cat in a crate for the night on the opposite side of your home to keep them safe.^[4]
   
   • You only need to do this until you can handle the problem. You may have to deal with a few nights of a whining pet, but it’s better than letting bugs jump all over them!
3. Get quotes from exterminators to see if you can get the bugs professionally removed. Depending on the scope of the problem, professional bed bug removal will cost $1,000-2,500. You can certainly remove the bugs on your own, but it’s much easier to have a professional do it. Get at least 4-5 different quotes to see who has the best price in your area.^[5]
   
   • If you do hire an exterminator, they’ll show up, inspect the infestation, and treat your home for you. You’ll likely need to stay somewhere else for a night or two, though.
   • This is the only real solution if an entire property is infested. It’s really unrealistic for a non-professional to treat an entire home. Luckily, bed bug infestations are usually only found in the bedroom.

[Edit]Treating Your Mattress and Fabrics

1. Seal your sheets, blankets, and infested clothes in airtight garbage bags. Grab some garbage bags with tightening handles. Stuff your sheets, blankets, and any dirty clothes inside and tie the bag off. Use multiple bags if you need to. Take these bags to your laundry room or local laundromat.^[6]
   
   • You don’t need to worry about spreading bed bugs at a laundromat so long as your bags are sealed, you don’t dump the clothes on any surfaces, and you place the clothes directly in the washing machine.^[7]
   • You can probably leave any clean clothes you have hanging up. You definitely need to wash whatever is in your drawers, but you can handle that later since these bugs and eggs aren’t the main concern right now.
   • In an average infestation, roughly 70% of the bed bugs will be in your mattress. If you can’t get an exterminator out today or you’re still weighing your options, at least treat your mattress before going to bed to get a good night’s sleep.^[8]
2. Wash and dry your clothing, sheets, and blankets on high heat. Take the bag to your washing machine and place your blankets, sheets, and dirty clothes in the washer. Wash them with laundry detergent on high heat. When they’re done, dry them on high heat. Use as many loads as necessary. This will kill any bed bugs and eggs in your clothes, blankets, and sheets.^[9]
   
   • Repeat this process for all of the clothes in your drawers over the course of the next 1-3 days.
3. Freeze un-washable fabric items in a plastic bag for 4-12 days. If you have any delicates you can’t wash or fabric-lined items, place them in an airtight plastic bag. Set the plastic bags in the freezer and set your freezer to the coldest setting available. Keep these objects and smaller items in the freezer. If you can get the temperature to , leave the bags for 4 days. Otherwise, leave them for 8-12 days.^[10]
   
   • This applies to teddy bears, hacky sacks, trinkets, hats, or any small fabric item that can’t be placed in a washer.
   • The bugs will freeze to death and any eggs that are trapped in the item won’t hatch.
   • Do this in batches if you don’t have a particularly big freezer. Open up as much space as you can by dumping the ice out and eating whatever frozen meals you have left.
   • This is really only important for things near or on your bed. If you have fabric items on your desk or something, they’re probably okay.
4. Vacuum your mattress, bed frame, box spring, and carpet to remove any bugs. Clean your vacuum bag out. Then, get a thin hose attachment and vacuum everything. Go over each section of your mattress 2-3 times. Vacuum the sides and base of your bed frame. Then, vacuum the floor. Go over carpeted areas 2-3 times. This will remove any adults that are hanging out around your bed.^[11]
   
   • If possible, use a HEPA vacuum or vacuum bag. The bed bugs won’t be able to climb out of these bags after you suck them up.
5. Encase your mattress in a protective cover before you sleep. After you’ve vacuumed everything, get a plastic mattress cover designed to keep bed bugs out and wrap your mattress in it. Seal it and put a new set of sheets on. Rest easy knowing the odds are now extremely low you’ll get bit up tonight. A few new bed bugs may get through, but you shouldn’t wake up with tons of bites.^[12]
   
   • Get a second mattress cover to encase your box spring if you use one.^[13]
   • Set anything you clean or wash aside into a clean part of your home where you’re positive there aren’t any bed bugs to keep these items quarantined.
6. Place bed bug traps along the base of your bed to keep stragglers off. Bed bug traps, known as interceptors, will draw bed bugs in and keep them from moving around. Pick up 4-8 interceptors and place them around the legs of your bed frame. This will keep any bugs from climbing up the bed frame while you sleep. When you wake up, inspect the traps to see just how many bugs you’re dealing with and throw the traps out in an outdoor bin.^[14]
   
   • This should give you an idea of how bad the infestation is. The more bugs you see in the traps, the more serious the problem is.
7. Repeat this process on the day you’re going to remove the bugs entirely. All of this will keep the bugs off of your bed, but you aren’t done yet. Once you’re ready to get to do your final extermination, repeat all of these steps. Vacuum everything, wash your dirty clothes, and freeze anything you forgot about. This will make it much easier to eradicate the rest of the bugs.^[15]
   
   • The only thing you don’t need to repeat is the mattress and box spring wrapping. Once those items are encased, leave them. There’s no need to take your mattress out and re-vacuum it.
   • If you completed all of these steps and haven’t spent a night resting or waiting for an exterminator, there’s no need to do them again.
8. Steam-clean your walls, furniture, and carpets at . On the day you’re going to eradicate the bugs, get a steamer and load it with water. Turn it to the highest heat setting available and run the steamer along your bed frame, floors, baseboards, carpets, and crown molding. This will kill any bed bugs that come in contact with the steam.^[16]
   
   • Steaming high-risk surfaces will kill any bugs and eggs that come in contact with the steamer.

[Edit]Eradicating the Bed Bugs

1. Pick up some silica aerogel or diatomaceous earth to kill bed bugs. There are two safe options when it comes to bed bug pesticides you can apply yourself. Silica aerogel is a pesticide that will coat any bugs that come in contact with it and suffocate them. The more popular option is diatomaceous earth, which is a powder that will poison any bugs that touch it. Both are safe to use in your home.^[17]
   
   • Organic or “natural” remedies like tea tree oil or homemade sprays are not effective at combatting bed bugs.^[18]
   • Foggers and bug bombs are generally not recommended for bed bugs. These all-at-once treatment options are tempting, but bed bugs are pretty good at tucking into nooks and crannies where the aerosol or gaseous insecticide won’t reach.^[19]
2. Apply the pesticide to every crack, baseboard, drawer, and carpet. Snip off the top of the nozzle on your pesticide. Squirt a quick puff under your baseboards, around your bed frame, inside your drawers, and around the corners of your home. If there are any cracks in your walls, squirt the powder inside. Treat every hidden and hard to reach area and let the powder do its job.^[20]
   
   • You may be tempted to just completely coat your home in this stuff. This isn’t any more effective than just applying it to the targeted areas where the bed bugs are hanging out.
3. Leave the pesticide for at least 10 days before vacuuming it up. At a minimum, let the pesticide sit for 10 days, which is how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. However, the longer you can leave it, the better. When you’re convinced they’re gone, vacuum up all of the pesticide, put your clothes back in your drawers, and take solace in the fact that the problem is gone.^[21]
   
   • If you do find new bites or spot new bugs, you’ll need to repeat this entire process. It may take 2-3 attempts to get rid of bed bugs.
   • If the bed bugs keep returning no matter how many times you fight them off, you may need to bite the bullet and hire an exterminator.

[Edit]Video

[Edit]Tips

• Bed bugs are pretty gross, but that’s basically all they are. They don’t pose a significant health risk, so don’t worry about getting sick in your sleep.^[22]

[Edit]Things You’ll Need

• Garbage bags
• Washer
• Dryer
• Airtight plastic bags
• Pesticide
• Bed bug interceptors
• Gloves
• Dust mask

[Edit]Related wikiHows

• Kill Bed Bugs With Steam
• Get Rid of Fleas
• Get Rid of Roaches

[Edit]References

[Edit]Quick Summary

1. ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/faqs.html
2. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
3. ↑ https://thewirecutter.com/blog/what-to-do-if-you-have-bedbugs/
4. ↑ https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare/bed-bugs-and-pets-faq
5. ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/faqs.html
6. ↑ https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/do-it-yourself-bed-bug-control
7. ↑ https://www.bedbugs.umn.edu/bed-bug-control-in-residences/laundering
8. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
9. ↑ https://youtu.be/vcpoy8kiePY?t=49
10. ↑ https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/do-it-yourself-bed-bug-control
11. ↑ https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/do-it-yourself-bed-bug-control
12. ↑ https://www.bedbugs.umn.edu/bed-bug-control-in-residences/controlling-bed-bugs-by-hand
13. ↑ https://www.bedbugs.umn.edu/bed-bug-control-in-residences/controlling-bed-bugs-by-hand
14. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
15. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
16. ↑ https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/do-it-yourself-bed-bug-control
17. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
18. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
19. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
20. ↑ https://youtu.be/CWiu07UDH50?t=29
21. ↑ https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/
22. ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/faqs.html