Eradicating Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are almost certainly the most ghastly of household pests in most peoples' eyes. Cockroaches are bad enough, but they do not suck on you. Mosquitoes suck blood and are annoying, but we accept them more than bed bugs. But bed bugs suck your blood whilst you are asleep and then defecate in your bed as a thank you note.

Luckily, these insects do not carry any human diseases that we are aware of, so they are quite 'safe' in that way, whereas there are quite a couple of deadly diseases that you can get from mosquitoes such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever amongst others. Still, the majority of of us prefer mosquitoes to bed bugs.

If your house is infested with these bugs, you will surely like to eliminate them, so you will need to know something about the lifestyle of these creatures. Bed bugs like to hide themselves during the day time in cracks, crevices, torn wallpaper and linoleum, fractured plaster, a ripped mattress and stacked clothing, books, magazines etc..

The common belief prevalent until a few decades ago was that bed bugs just liked dirty households, but this is not the case. Cockroaches like to search for fallen food as do ants, but bed bugs just consume blood and do not even have mouth-parts to consume fallen food if they were famished.

Therefore, bed bugs do not need to live in a slovenly house, just in one that is run-down, poorly taken care of or cluttered. If you would like to clear up an infestation of bed bugs, the first thing to do is wash all your clothing in hot water or dry-cleaning fluid and then store them in sealed plastic bags.

The next stage is to repair anywhere they could be hiding. Stick back or replace any ripped wallpaper and seal off any wobbly woodwork such as skirting boards and architraves with a bead of mastic or filler. Close up the woodwork top and bottom, so that any bed bugs hiding in there will not be able to get out again. This saves trying to kill them.

Put away all books, piles of newspapers, toys and general clutter and inspect your furniture for loose joints. For example, if a chair or table is a bit ricketty, tighten the screws or mastic the joints together. Plug nail and screw holes with filler or mastic.

Roll up your carpets and check the floor boards. Plug the joints, fill screw holes and check the line of mastic at the base of the skirting boards.

Check the framework of your bed and renovate as mentioned above. Are there red or brown smears on your mattress? if so, they could be living in your mattress. Sew up any tears and seal the mattress in a mattress cover which can be zipped closed in order to seal any bugs inside. Otherwise, maybe it is time to replace it.

Normal pesticides do not have a lot of effect on bed bugs, so be careful what you buy. You want something that has an abrasive element in it. Some use finely ground up glass, which might pose a health risk to you or your pets.

Diatomaceous Earth is safer. Sprinkle or spray it under your carpets and about the base of the skirtings, where bed bugs like to run. Relay your carpets and steam clean them.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of topics, but is now involved with pictures of bed bugs. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Picture of Bed Bugs.