How to Prevent Bed Bugs from Spreading to Other Rooms
Bed bugs can live in beds, box springs, mattresses, furniture, and clothing. Once they get into your home, they can easily start spreading from room to room. They will easily find a nook to stay and start breeding. When the living condition is favourable, they can continue breeding and cause a large infestation.
These critters are good crawlers, and they are extremely fast especially in the dark. You might feel them biting you at night but locating them right away when you felt that bite will be difficult as they will immediately go back to their hiding spots.
Bed bugs move quickly and would easily go from one room to another through cracks. An infestation may also start if you are the one bringing home these critters after a visit from a friend’s home or any public area.
You can also get them from travelling as they can hitchhike on suitcases, packaging boxes, and clothing. This is how bed bugs move. They simply hitch a ride, and they cozy up in your home. Now, if you think you have these critters, you should act fast and control bed bugs before they spread and make the problem worse.
Preventing Bed Bugs from Spreading to Other Rooms
Yes, you can look for ways to kill bed bugs, but you should also learn how you can control bed bugs from spreading to avoid continuous infestations around your home. Below are things that you can do to prevent bed bugs from spreading in rooms:
- Declutter
The first thing that you should do is get rid of clutter that will encourage bed bugs to hide. As much as possible, you do not want to give them more narrow spaces to breed. This is one way of getting rid of bed bugs.
- Avoid Bringing in Second-Hand Furniture
You do not want to bring in any furniture especially upholstered furniture that you never know where it came from. This is among the common ways how bed bugs and their eggs get in your home. Without knowing, the furniture you bought is infested that is why it was being sold or left out in the first place.
- Use Protective Covers for Your Mattress and Box Spring
Bed bug encasements for your box spring and mattress will prevent the critters from climbing on it and finding a hiding space in it to easily feed off you when you are sleeping.
- Wash your Bedding Sheets
Schedule a regular day of washing all the bedsheets. Make sure that you are always using the high heat setting of your washer and dryer to kill all the adult bugs as well as the eggs.
- Regularly Vacuum Your Home
Regular vacuuming will help capture bed bugs stuck on your carpet and other parts of your home. It can also help capture even their eggs. Just make sure that you throw the vacuum bag properly and secure it inside a plastic bag just to contain the bugs captured and prevent it from spreading.
You can also use bed bugs HEPA vacuums as these are known to be effective in capturing and containing bugs and eggs from any surface.
- Learn How to Avoid Bed Bugs When Traveling
One way to avoid bed bugs whenever you travel is by inspecting the bed frame and your entire sleeping area before you settle inside your room. If you find signs of a bed bug infestation, talk to the manager and request that you stay and sleep in another room instead.
Before going home, pack all used clothes and belongings in plastic bags. Check out this blog about preventing bed bugs in hotel rooms.
- Use Shared Laundry Facilities Wisely
Bring your clothes in a plastic bag and throw them straight into the washer. Once done, immediately remove the clothes from the dryer and into another clean plastic bag and do the folding at home.
- Seal cracks and crevices in the walls
Cracks are common places where these critters crawl to get into the next room. Seal them properly to prevent them from infesting neighbouring rooms.
- Avoid moving items from one room to another
This will minimize the chance of spreading the bugs more through furniture or other items.
Follow these steps to keep an infestation controlled and keep other rooms as bed bug-free as possible. This will also minimize the area that will be treated and keep on a lookout for bed bugs. The infested room must be treated and should not be left in isolation as it will encourage the bugs to come out and move to another room looking for a blood meal.
BedBugSOS.ca Recommendations
The main cause of widespread bed bug infestations in most homes is the lack of knowledge on preventing the spread. The first thing you should do is cleaning up your room and preventing these bugs from finding a place where they can hide.
You want to minimize the movements of these bugs in your room and around your house. So, when transporting items like your laundries, put it inside the plastic bag or water-soluble laundry bag that you can put directly in the washing machine.
Make sure that you vacuum all nook and cranny of every room and the entire house. We recommend that you use a HEPA vacuum as it will capture and contain bed bugs effectively. Also, it comes with nozzles and accessories that will help you vacuum even the narrowest areas for them to hide.
As you vacuum every nook and cranny of your home and bed, make sure that you also protect your bed using bed bug mattress and box spring encasements. These are important in bed bug proofing your room and preventing these critters from continuously feeding off you.
Containing Bed Bugs in One Room
Isolating bed bugs may not be possible but there are things you can do to keep them from spreading to other rooms in your home.
One thing you can do is application diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of the infested room. Pour the powder through the baseboards and it will help prevent them from crossing to another room and spreading the infestation.
See more of our bed bug diatomaceous earth here
Now, the door is the only exit point left. Since the powder will most likely be scattered when placed on the doorway, we recommend that you place interceptors at the end of every line of the powder. It will intercept the bugs that will try to escape through the door.
Check out our collection of bed bug interceptors here
As much as possible you want to lessen the chance of you spreading the bed bugs around the house. So, we recommend that you leave whatever you have inside an infested room and avoid bringing it to other rooms. Unless you are going to put them in the washer and dry them at the highest heat setting, you can carefully put them in a plastic bag and get rid of the bugs and even the eggs there.
Also, avoid bringing in things you wore or brought from other places especially from public places. If possible, put your work clothes in the washer instead of bringing them in or even sleeping in them. No matter how tired you are from work, it is best that you still observe these things before getting inside your home to avoid the possible spread of bed bugs.
Placing detectors around your home is also a great way of constantly checking if there are already bed bugs lurking in your place. It will also help you determine if your efforts in keeping them away or controlling an infestation are working.
Let us know if you have more questions regarding preventing these pesky critters from spreading in your home.
