Bed Bugs and You: DIY Tips for Bed Bug Removal in Alaska

Bed bugs are every homeowner’s nightmare. They crawl on you while you sleep, and drink your blood. And once they’ve gotten into your home, they’re extremely difficult to eradicate.

To make matters worse, almost half of the people whose homes are currently infested with bed bugs don’t even know they’re there—which means that, when they visit their friends’ homes or go on vacation, they might be unwittingly spreading their infestation. If you’re one of the unlucky people whose home is currently infested with bed bugs, know this, you are not alone, nor are you powerless. Here are some of the best tips we could think of for tackling bed bug removal in Alaska on your own.

Isolate

If you have a bed bug infestation, you need to determine which rooms are infected. Usually your beds, box springs, headboards and sofas will have the largest percentage of bugs, nymphs and eggs. If any room is unaffected, keep the bugs from spreading there.

You should cover all your mattresses and box springs in bed bug-proof plastic covers. This doesn’t kill the bugs immediately, but they’ll starve to death given a few weeks without food. You’ll also want to spray your headboard and bed frame with insecticides, and then put bed bug interceptors under all the feet of your bedframes to keep bed bugs on the floor from being able to climb up into your bed. Google “The Climbup Bed Bug Interceptor” for more information on this.

Create a safe space

You need a clean place to retreat to while you do your cleaning and eradicating, not just so you can rest easily each night, but also because the more rooms you’re able to completely clean of bed bugs, the less likely it is that the infestation will begin again after you’ve taken care of it. Bed bug eggs are essentially so small that they’re invisible, so it’s quite easy for infestations to return without warning. But remember, bed bugs need blood to live, so if you have a safe space where they cannot reach you, eventually they will begin to die.

Eradicate

Every day, vacuum your mattresses, box springs and sofas to kill adult bed bugs and nymphs. This won’t kill the eggs, but as long as you’re killing the adult bugs, eventually there won’t be any bugs to lay more eggs, and the problem can be dealt with. There’s basically no way to fully eradicate bed bugs without using insecticides, so even if it’s against your personal philosophy, you need to use real commercial insecticides. Homemade remedies simply do not work, and can sometimes be more dangerous than the chemical stuff.

Track your success

If you use the Climbup Interceptor Cups we mentioned earlier, you can easily keep track of your success killing the bugs. Bed bugs are more active at night, and are attracted to your smell, which means they’ll try to find you wherever you are. Every morning, check the interceptor cups beneath the legs of your bed for bed bugs. When there have not been any bed bugs in those cups for two uninterrupted weeks, it’s likely that you’ve taken care of the problem.

If all else fails

If this doesn’t take care of your bed bugs, then you need to call an expert. Bed bug infestation is a serious enough problem that it simply cannot be ignored. If you live in an apartment complex or a condo, you can get in serious trouble for ignoring the problem and allowing it to spread to other tenants. And if you own your own home, bed bugs can eventually make living at home unbearable. If you’re having trouble with bed bugs, give us a call at Pied Piper Pest Control. We have got over 50 years of experience with bedbug removal in Alaska.

Categorised in: Bed Bugs

This post was written by Writer