Princeton NJ Home Improvement Articles

Bed Bugs Facts & Tips

If you suspect you have an infestation, you should contact a licensed exterminator. You can try to do it yourself using the tips found here, but your odds are a lot better letting a licensed professional handle it.

Here are the facts about Bed Bugs:

• Bed Bugs are flat, brown, wingless and about 1/4 of an inch
• They have 6 legs, shiny reddish-brown but after a good serving of your blood, they appear dark brown and swollen as in the picture below.
• They can be seen with the human eye, but do a great job at hiding
• Bed bugs are not known to carry diseases as of yet
• They feed on human blood preferring to do it in the dark when you're sleeping
• Simply using chemical treatments will not remove the infestation
• These bugs love to hide in the seams of your mattress including:
• Sofa seams
• Cracks in the bad frame and or head board
• Under chairs, couched, beds and dust covers
• Under rugs, edges of carpets, drawers, baseboards and window casings
• Behind light switches, electrical outlet plates, cracks in plaster
• Televisions, radio clocks and phones
• Backpacks, Sleeping bags, Cloths
• Behind wallpaper, picture frames and other dark areas

Quick tips to help remove bed bugs

The best way to deal with bed bugs is by sealing your mattress and pillows with a plastic or hypoallergenic zipped cover. This traps the bugs that are inside your pillow and prevents them from feeding and kills them over time - remember, a nymph can live for two months without feeding, an adult can survive more than 12 months!

Do not apply any pesticide to mattresses or surfaces that would come in contact with the skin unless the pesticide specifically states that the product can be used in this manner.

Wash all your linens and place them in a hot dryer for 20 minutes (or you can freeze them at -5 C or below for five days).

You can vacuum to capture bed bugs and their eggs, but because the eggs are embedded to the fabric, you may have to scrape the surface. Once you have vacuumed everything, immediately place the vacuum bag into a plastic bad, seal it tight and dispose (outside).

Seal items mentioned above to prevent the bugs from hiding. You can place glue boards or sticky tape around your bed and in the room to catch the bed bugs as the move around; this gives you a way to monitor the effectiveness of your efforts.

A few ways to prevent bed bugs from getting into your home include:

* Hang clothing in the closet farthest from the bed
* Place luggage on the folding rack found in most hotels
* Place luggage in the dry cleaning bad found in the hotel.
* Most important, don't bring home a mattress that has been used by unknown sources.