Faced with a bed bug infestation, it is best to entrust the case to Ottawa pest control professionals, who will eliminate the annoying insects from our home. However, professional treatments may not work well for small household items capable of harboring surviving bed bugs. Before throwing anything away, we can try to defend our belongings by heating them, vacuuming, washing, drying, freezing or isolating them for months.
What are bed bugs?
Bed bug infestations are not just a headache for the tourism industry, but also households can be affected by this re-emerging pest. People who face bed bug infestations in their homes can spread them to the homes of family and friends, to public spaces, or their workplace, through the personal objects they carry, in which the insects have been able to hide.
Professional treatments by Ottawa pest control for bed bug infestations focus primarily on the areas where the bugs are detected: walls, floors, and surrounding furniture. Faced with the risk of re-infestation in the home or of spreading bed bugs wherever we go, it is possible to take measures to eliminate them from our personal belongings if, when inspecting them, we detect signs of their presence.
Eliminate bed bugs from our belongings without pesticides
A guide published in the USA provides us with a whole series of treatment recommendations, without pesticides, for household items that can harbor bed bugs after professional treatment at home. This can save us costs and, the annoyance of throwing away important or irreplaceable things.
The document is divided into two parts. The first contains a list of household items that often need to be disinfected. For each article, the techniques that can be used are detailed and the most appropriate are recommended. Among many other objects, we can find air conditioning units, bedding for our pets, accessories such as alarm clocks, radios or speakers, paintings, baby strollers, bags or backpacks, home clothes, books, brushes, clothing or stuffed animals.
The second part lists the techniques that can be used to eliminate bed bugs without pesticides; for each technique, there is a brief description, a list of necessary materials, instructions on “how to do it”, special considerations, as well as advantages and disadvantages.
Some aspects treated in this second part are:
The inspection
Bed bugs are the first and most important step. Bed bugs are visible at all stages of their life; however, a magnifying glass can make them easier to spot. They tend to stay close to sleeping and sitting areas: the box spring, the head of the bed and the mattress are the three best hiding places for bed bugs, so it is recommended to start there, with the help of a flashlight, a magnifying glass and a long tool that allows access to cracks or crevices, looking for signs such as stains of excrement and remains of your skin or signs of activity.
Bed bugs stick their eggs when laying them, so if you detect eggs on furniture or objects that do not leave the house; it is most likely that an adult female is reproducing in your house.
Isolation
Although bed bugs can live for a surprisingly long time without ingesting food, isolation from a food source can be used to starve them or cause them to become desiccated (dehydrated), thus eliminating them with minimal effort.
Isolation techniques include installing mattress and box spring liners, placing items in sealable plastic bags or sealable plastic containers, or using traps/trapping devices. All life stages of bed bugs, except the eggs, are susceptible to desiccation, but newly hatched first-instar nymphs are believed to be the most vulnerable. The time required for bed bugs to starve or desiccate depends on several factors such as the time since their last blood meal, temperature, or humidity.
Hand wash:
Detergent washing immobilizes and eliminates bed bugs, using common household materials. For many household items, a wash with soap and water can be the solution. Soaps can break down the waxy exoskeleton of bed bugs and help to drown them by breaking the surface tension of the water. This treatment also effectively removes the shed skin and bed bug feces, which are allergens.
This technique is also recommended by Ottawa pest control for treating hard objects that do not absorb water, such as metal, plastic or wooden furniture, toys or picture frames, etc., and explains the necessary materials and the procedure to follow.
