How Do You Check Your Bed For Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs have been known to inhabit certain places in our homes. These spots provide ready hideouts for them to breed and multiply. Areas like wardrobes, crevices of the wall, wooden furniture such as chairs and desks are places they can be found. Our mattresses and beds are not left out as they provide choice spots for these insects to thrive. When not feeding, our beds are one of the choice areas these bugs hide. So, how do you check your bed for bed bugs?

Once an infestation is suspected, do not hesitate to check your bed for signs. Most people use the bites on their skin as signs to look out for the presence of bed bugs in their homes, but this is not enough. Bites on the skin are generally not a good benchmark of a bed bug infestation. Bites from other insects such as mosquitoes, fleas, wasps may most times be mistaken as bed bug bites. And in some cases, people do not react at all to these bites. The next best thing to do is to commence a thorough search of your home. The bed can be a starting point.

How To Find Bed Bugs In Your Bed

Starting your search early can save you from the many inconveniences a full-blown infestation can cause. It is cheaper and far easier treating a minor infestation. However, the challenges lie in the difficulties of finding an outbreak in its infant stages. Areas in the bed where you can look include: near the piping, cracks on the bed frame, the loose stitches surrounding the mattress, seams and tags of your bed sheets and pillowcases and also the box spring of the bed.

For starters, how do you check your bed for bed bugs? You can follow the steps below:

• Turn over your bed and its bedding and search thoroughly. A flashlight may come in handy here, especially if the room is poorly lit.
• When your bedding must have been turned over, search for reddish stains on the bed sheets and mattresses. They are signs of bed bugs that have been squashed or accidentally stepped upon.
• Look out also for dark spots. These are excrement from the bugs.
• Check for eggs and eggshells. The nymphs shed them as they mature. These eggs are tiny (about 1mm) and have this pale yellow skin shade.

What Next?

Once a bed bug infestation has been confirmed, then the following steps can be taken:

Keep your bed and bedding away from the rest of the house. This will serve as a sort of quarantine measure. You mustn’t necessarily discard of your bed. Except properly disposed of, and you’re sure there are no other hideouts for the bed bugs, then disposing of your bed and bedding won’t solve your problems. There are chances that any new mattress or bed you re-introduce into the home will be infested once more by these bugs.

Vacuuming

Now thoroughly vacuum your bed and mattress. You can use insecticide sprays and dust to do the job thoroughly, as vacuuming alone won’t do.

Sterilize your bedding

Your bedding should be steam-washed at very high temperatures. This will kill any leftover bugs and their eggs.

Discard unwanted bedding and mattresses properly

If you feel your infested bed and its bedding are beyond redemption and cannot be salvaged, then you should get rid of them. But in doing so, you must be careful how you go about it. You wouldn’t want to create more problems for yourself or someone else. Bag these infested beddings properly, spray them and mark them as infested properties before dumping on the dumpster.

Treat other areas of the house

You started with the bed, now go ahead and treat other areas of the house.

In conclusion, how do you check your bed for bed bugs? Follow the steps we’ve outlined in this article, and you won’t have to sleep with one eye open anymore due to the threats of bed bugs in your home.