10 Ways To Kill Bed Bugs By Yourself - Or At Best Control Them

Killing bed bugs on your own can be quite a difficult task. They are able to hide underneath base boards, the back of dresser drawers, behind light switches... just about anywhere. The mature bed bug is about the size of an apple seed and flat, until they feast anyway. While bed bugs usually aren't a heath hazard (do not carry or transfer disease), they're more than enough to keep a person awake in the evening merely thinking about them. An individual bed bug bite can be mistaken for a mosquito bite and written off as such allowing them time to multiply. Once you see one you can be assured that you have hundreds or even thousands more.

In time, a whole blown infestation might require a professional exterminator. After all, how many will be to many? Before you decide to act, there are a few things to bear in mind. Bed bugs are able to survive a year without the need for feeding on the hosts blood (typically you). An adult female may lay 250 - 700 eggs in her life span. It generally takes an egg fifty days to develop fully. So even if you're a do-it-yourselfer or find a professional, it will take several treatments and continual observation. With that in mind... If the problem has not gotten to much out of control there are various methods to win the fight against bedbugs. The first 3 listed here are essential regardless of what you decide to do next

1* Wash every thing in site with the hottest water you can find. Begbugs begin dying off at about 114 degrees F. Then use a clothing dryer on its hottest setting. Not out on the line to air dry. Heat is essential. In very hot, dry places (Phoenix for example) it is just as efficient to put your bedsheets and cloths inside a black trash bag and set it out under the sun for an afternoon.

2* Vacuum. Vacuum every corner, crook and cranny. Vacuum the curtains, the box springs, the furniture, and so forth. Vacuum as if your life depended on it. Bed bugs aren't filthy creatures. They don't care about food crumbs or old food like cockroaches. But they need vacuumed up and then take the entire vacuum cleaner outside to switch bags... Vacuum all over again.

3* Steam Clean. Now that you have their attention, combine #1 and #2. Put hot, HOT water in the steam vapor cleaner and go over the area just as before.

4* Just as effective as high temperature is, cold temperature works also. Trouble is that it has to stay down below freezing for 2 weeks to be effective.

5* Biological warfare. Before WWII beg bugs had been all but eliminated. Around that time the federal government banned DDTs. Sense then there numbers have been increasing and required tamer chemicals and traps. There are numerous chemical compounds that you can buy but just about all of them are not meant to contact the skin. These are generally best but intended for non-traffic areas, box springs, drapes, etc.

6* Mattress Bags. Depending on the level of bedbug infestation, your best bet might be to throw out the mattress all together. For less severe cases, the chemicals from #5 can be spread on and shot into the mattress before you seal it in a watertight mattress bag. They start off at approximately $60 and go up depending on the dimensions necessary.

7* Diatomaceous Earth. This is the substitute to hard chemicals. It's an all natural dust ground up from small tiny fossils of single-celled plankton. They actually put it in dog food as a preservative. On a microscopic level it has jagged sides that cut and kill the bedbugs as they crawl over it. Basically it is just dirt.

8* Traps and Tape. This is more for monitoring but flypaper, roach traps and the like will help you to check on on how effective your time and efforts have been so far. And then from almost any shipping supply store you can pickup double sided tacky tape to place around the sides of the mattress. Yet one more way to snare and monitor bed bug traffic.

9* Thyme and tree leaf oil. These are a repellent more then anything else. It doesn't destroy them. They get a whiff of it and run the other way. But don't forget that bed bugs might live a year without feeding so they continue to reproducing.

10* Neem. Neem oil and neem extract. If you find that you've been bitten by bed bugs, this will sooth the itching and hydrate the skin. Matter of fact it is wonderful for your skin whether you have bed bugs or not. Bonus is that it keeps the bedbugs away from you while sleeping.

There we have seven ways to kill bed bugs and some ways to keep tabs on your progress in controlling bed bugs. The more you blend the above recommendations the better luck you will have before needing an pest control man. Just a word of caution though... should you break down and have to hire an exterminator, they will request you to tidy up anyway before they even show up. Get rid of clutter. ' ziplock ' bag all cloths, bedding, sheets, and so on. Vacuum and basically do everything mentioned above in 1 though 3.

In conclusion, understand that before you begin, it may need weeks and months of continuous cleaning, laundering, monitoring, vacuuming repeatedly to properly kill the bed bugs through there whole life cycle. And with a little luck you can catch it before it spreads through out the house. It just takes a few stowaways in the laundry washing, luggage, sleeping bags or any clothes that you tote around.

By: Brian McVey

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Oh yes, you realize that bed bugs are real and they're out there. At this point your next best step would be to arm your self with knowledge. Go to my Kill Bed Bugs sight for a free mini-course on how to recognize them, handle and kill them!