Bed bug infestations can only be eliminated with professional treatments. It takes at least two treatments to make sure that all the bed bugs are killed, including babies that hatched after the first treatment. In order for the bed bugs to die, the pesticide needs to contact them. The best way for the pesticide to get to the bed bugs is after you get your home prepared.
Do Laundry, Laundry and More Laundry
Bed bugs can live in clothes, stuffed animals, corners of clothes drawers, drapes and just about anything you can imagine. The washer and dryer are effective killers of adult and juveniles. Empty drawers and closets make it easier for exterminators to apply their pesticides. Launder in hot water all clothes, curtains, linens, bedding, small pillows, soft-sided luggage and (if possible) shoes and stuffed animals.
Don’t place your nice de-bugged items back in place. They need to go in clean plastic re-sealable bags. This keeps the items safe from bed bugs looking for new worlds to conquer. The bags also protect your clean stuff from getting sprayed on with pesticide.
Move All Furniture
Bed bugs love to hide where walls and floors meet. They also love to hide in all of the bumps and crack in walls, wallpaper or wall hangings. Exterminators need easy access to all walls and where they meet floors in order to best apply their pesticides. Remove everything from the walls. If you have loose wallpaper, ask your exterminator if you need to remove that, too.
Move all furniture, storage totes, cardboard boxes and anything else resting against the walls to at least two feet. This gives enough room for your exterminator to get behind there with his or her equipment. Do not give them to other homes to store during the extermination process because any bed bugs in there will infect the other homes.
Vacuum and Vacuum Again
High heat is a good bed bug killer, although it often will not kill eggs. Get rid of some of these pests with a good vacuum cleaner. Vacuum floors, furniture and (if possible) beds. After finishing, immediately empty the bag or canister into an outside garbage can. Although it rarely happens, eggs inside the vacuum can hatch and the babies crawl out of the machine.
