Did Your Guests Leave Behind Bed Bugs after the Holidays?
The holiday season is over and your guests are probably leaving one by one, but are you sure they didn’t leave bed bugs in your home? It can be the hardest game of hide and seek, but there are things that you can do to prevent these bugs from staying in your home as well as get rid of them before an infestation starts.
This can happen even if your guests are openly talking about not having bed bugs in their homes. Unfortunately, there are different ways on how they can hitch a ride on any of their belongings and get off at your home. Ask anyone, bed bugs are the worst, but a well executed integrated pest management solution to prevent and control these bugs is a must
Want to prepare your home for the next time guests are coming over? Click here to learn what you should do next time you host a party.
Tips to Prevent an Infestation in Your Home
Now that the holiday travels are over and you are not expecting guests any time soon, you should start checking if any unwelcome critters got in your home. It might be difficult to look for bed bugs, but you should start somewhere in your home to find these pesky critters and prevent them from spreading. So, do the following once your guests leave your home:
Carefully and thoroughly inspect furniture in your guests’ rooms.
When inspecting, don’t just remove the contents of drawers and shake them off. You need to check every nook and cranny of every piece of furniture to make sure that none of the bugs are hiding in these narrow spots. Don’t forget to check the luggage rack where your guests had placed their bags and suitcases during their stay.
Cover all the used mattresses and box springs.
It is highly recommended that you use mattress encasements and box spring covers to prevent bed bugs from escaping and spreading further. Doing this will also help prevent getting bed bug bites as it will be impossible for the bugs to reach you, even as you sleep on it. Keep the covers on for about a year.
We recommend using our Buglock Mattress Encasement for an affordable option or our Allerzip Mattress Encasement that offers more protection from allergens, dust mites, mould and at the same time is waterproof and breathable. Don’t forget to get our Bed Bug Box Spring Cover to prevent bugs from hiding in the box spring.
Wash all bedding and other washable items in the room
Put all bedding and washable items in plastic bags. Wash them in hot water and dry them on the highest heat setting for 30 minutes or more.
Seal cracks, crevices and cover outlet covers.
You don’t want to let bugs move from one room to another, so you should look for cracks and crevices and seal them up. Do the same on the other side of the wall to keep any bugs hiding in the cracks from escaping.
Make use of interceptors and place them under bed posts and furniture legs.
Interceptors act as a barrier for bed bugs and it prevents them from climbing up the bed or climbing down to find new hiding places. Bugs that get caught in the slippery inner wall will make it hard them to come out and spread.
We recommend getting any of our bed bug interceptors. There are various options available that can fit the size of your bedpost or furniture legs. These can be discreetly used for preventing, controlling, and monitoring the critters that are possibly hiding in your guests’ rooms.
Vacuum and steam clean the rooms completely and frequently.
Vacuum every possible surface that you can reach as frequently as possible. Use different nozzles so you can go through every item thoroughly and then dispose of the vacuum bag. Take advantage of high heat by using a steam cleaner. Steam cleaning is another way of immediately killing and sanitizing both bugs and their eggs. Just make sure that you can go through all crevices and seams in the room.
Use insecticides and place active monitors in the rooms.
To continuously kill bed bugs and find out whether there are any left inside the room, use insecticides designed for killing these bugs. Active monitors placed inside the room and other parts of your home like the Surge Bar can discreetly but continuously detect and trap bed bugs. For rooms occupied by guests, use the Surge CO2 generator that will make the Surge Bar more powerful in luring bed bugs and trapping them for months.
Heat-treating heavily infested items.
Once you find out that a bed bug infestation is starting and you notice that certain items are heavily infested, it is best to heat treat them instead. The ZappBug Oven 2 is large enough for certain pieces of furniture and other non-washable items to fit inside. It is the best option in worse case scenarios where you find both the critters and their eggs.
Despite the above-mentioned precautionary measures, it is best to stay observant as you will never know when these bugs are really dead and out of your home until the monitors are clear and have no signs of the bugs.
