4 Effective Ways To Keep Bed Bugs Out Of Your Home
Bed bugs may be tiny, but these blood-sucking insects can wreak havoc in your home. Since bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers, you can easily pick them up at the thrift store, hotel, or yard sale. Once they find food and ideal temperatures in your home, you can't get rid of them easily. So, you should do everything possible to keep bed bugs out of your home.
You can use the following strategies to prevent a bedbug infestation in your home.
1. Get Rid of Clutter
Unused things lying around in your home can create perfect places for bedbugs to hide, which makes it harder to eliminate them. Donate to charity, recycle, or simply dispose of all the stuff in your house that's no longer useful.
As for the things you still use, organize them properly and keep them off the ground to avoid giving bedbugs more spaces to call home.
2. Cover Your Mattresses
You should cover your box springs and mattresses with a pretreated mattress cover. However, the cover does not eliminate the infestation. It only prevents bedbugs from reaching you while you sleep.
When purchasing a mattress cover, ensure the fabric is of top quality and not easy to tear or fold. A tear can give trapped bedbugs an easy way of escape, while a fold can provide a perfect hiding spot. Also, consider a light-colored cover that allows you to spot a bedbug more easily.
3. Vacuum Regularly
Bedbugs often hide in places that aren't easily accessible. Vacuuming can help get to these spaces where these pests could be hiding.
As you vacuum, concentrate on the bedbug harborage areas such as floors, rugs, carpet, under the bed, and inside all cracks in your rooms. Afterward, empty the vacuum contents into a tightly sealed plastic bag and dispose of it in an outdoor garbage can. This way, stray bed bugs will not escape and find their way back into your house.
4. Store Clothes in Vacuum-Sealed Bags
Every time you travel, pack your clothes safely in vacuum-storage bags. This step saves space and also blocks bedbugs from accessing the contents inside the bag.
Don't forget to clean your clothes, backpacks, and luggage after traveling to eliminate any bedbugs you might have picked up on the way. You should also store spare blankets and seasonal clothing in air-tight vacuum bags to avoid bed bug infestations while in storage.
With these strategies, you will successfully keep bedbugs out of your home. However, if you notice any signs of an infestation, such as blood spots on your beddings or itchy bites, call a pest control service for extermination before the problem gets out of hand. Bedbugs multiply pretty fast, so the sooner you call for help, the better.
Contact a pest control service near you to learn more.