Three Ways To Effectively Prepare Your Home For Bed Bug Removal
Posted on: 22 February 2022
Before your house is treated for bed bugs, there are several steps you can take to make the process easier. Heading off some of the more tedious work, keeping infestations isolated, and prepping your home for heat treatments will make the removal process go more smoothly and make it more effective.
Take Care of What You Can
Bed bug treatments are pretty comprehensive, but bed bugs can work their way into all sorts of items and belongings, so it helps to get a head start on clearing out what infestation you can. This is usually best done on items that can be easily washed or cleaned, such as clothes that can be put through a wash cycle or non-porous items that bed bugs can't easily get into.
When it comes to washing and cleaning your items, the soap and water you use aren't as important as the heat. Heat is the primary killer of bed bugs, which is why a wash cycle can be so effective; putting your clothes, stuffed animals, pillows, and other washable items through a heater on its highest setting will almost assuredly kill all bed bugs inside.
Go through your items and clean and wash what you can. When you're finished, put them in airtight bags to keep them safe from reinfestation. This will help you take care of a lot of the most tedious work before the bed bug treatment even begins.
Prevent Cross-Contamination
One of the ways bed bugs travel is by clinging onto things that move from place to place, such as clothing or luggage. Because of this, if the bed bug infestation is still mostly isolated to one area of your home, it's vital to prevent them from spreading.
There are a few ways you can do this. The first is to be proactive about not moving anything at all out of the room and being careful to check for bed bugs on you before leaving. Another way is to trap the bed bugs where they are. For example, if they're infesting a mattress, you can use an airtight mattress cover to make sure none of the bed bugs can leave. This has the added benefit of eventually starving all the bed bugs to death, but it primarily serves as a way to keep the bed bugs isolated until they can be removed.
Prepare for Heat Treatment
Since heat works so well as a way to kill bed bugs, many pest control professionals may use heat treatment in a house, especially if an infestation is widespread. To do this, they use several heaters to heat the entirety of your house to at least 113 degrees for at least an hour.
While effective, this should still be prepared for as necessary, since this much heat can be damaging. Remove items from your house that are sensitive to this level of constant heat, such as anything that will melt and electronics; though most electronics are built to withstand these temperatures, being exposed to them for a period of several hours can still be damaging.
For more information on bed bug extermination, contact a company like A-Alert Exterminating Service Inc.
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