How Long After Spraying for Bed Bugs Is It Safe
Whether you did the bed bug spray treatment or had a pest control specialist perform the treatment, you should know how long you should wait before you can return to your home. Staying away for 24 hours is more than enough. Usually, staying out for about 4 to 6 hours is enough for the pesticides to completely dry.
The use of bed bug sprays is the most common bed bug treatment that many people are using for decades now. Yes, the use of spray kills bed bugs. However, it may require a couple of treatments before the bugs and their eggs die.
Heat treatment where high heat is used to deal with bed bug infestations is a popular option, but it is undeniably expensive. This is the reason why chemical treatments are opted for by those who are stuck with working on a budget for treating bed bugs.
If you are among the firm believers of this treatment and had the bed bugs sprayed in your home, you are probably wondering how long after bed bug spray treatment is done before you can re-enter your home. Well, the answer depends on the type of spray used and the active ingredient in your chosen spray.
How Long Should You Wait after Spraying for Bed Bugs?
Most specialists have different instructions on how long before you can enter your home. The main goal after every treatment is letting the liquid products dry completely.
Some specialists may use stronger chemicals and may require you, especially your children and pets, to stay out for hours. This is also the main reason why you should only contact a reputable company to perform the treatment to ensure that you are putting your home’s safety and security to professionals.
If you are doing the treatment on your own, make sure that you read the label on the bottle carefully. These are instructions and not merely suggestions, so you need to follow these instructions to avoid putting the health of everyone in the house at risk. For educational purposes only, you can also search online about the product to know the proper application.
What to Do Upon Re-Entering a Bed Bug Spray Treated Property?
You want to make the bed bug spray treatment work, and one way to do this is to let the products settle down in all treated areas. Aside from asking how long they should stay out of their properties, some are asking whether they should clean after the treatment.
Well, the answer is no. You do not want to remove the insecticide that was applied around your home to kill all bed bugs living with you.
Most of the time, experts would do assessments of exposure to come up with the proper doses to use during the treatment. These assessments will include the consideration of children, the elderly, or pets that will be exposed to the chemicals. This way, you can guarantee the safety of everyone regardless if they come in contact with the treated areas.
For it to be effective, you need to leave the sprayed insecticide on and avoid cleaning it off. If insecticide dust was also applied, avoid using the vacuum cleaner to sweep it off. All of these were applied to kill and prevent bed bugs from coming back to your property.
Below are some of the precautionary measures that you and the entire family should do after getting a bed bug spray treatment in your home:
- For babies, children, senior citizens, and pets must be kept away from all treated areas. You may let them stay with your relatives especially when their bed frame, mattresses and box springs were also treated.
- You should let the service provider enter the property first. Ask them about the things you must do after treatment.
- Patients with respiratory ailments and pregnant women should also be kept away from the treated areas.
- Stay out of the treated areas as recommended by your service provider or as stated on the label.
- Let the professional wipe the treated areas first and then by yourself once the normalcy in your house is back.
On your first visit after the treatment, check on all surfaces and if you notice that there are still wet areas, you can wait for additional time. If you forgot to remove food items during the treatment, you should throw it away.
At times, you may not be able to sleep in your bed right away since you need to let the insecticides work. It would usually take several treatments before your home completely bed bug-free since there could be young bugs after the remaining eggs hatch in their hiding spaces.
There is still a chance that surviving bugs will still climb on the legs of the bed, which is why it will require several spray applications in treating the bed bugs before the infestation is solved completely.
