How to get rid of bed bugs

The feeling when discovering bed bugs in the house is terrible. It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep knowing these tiny bugs are crawling everywhere. While certainly difficult to eradicate, bed bugs are, to some extent, relatively harmless. Bed bugs do not transmit diseases like ticks or mosquitoes unless you are allergic and pose no danger. ^{[1] X Trusted Source Centers for Disease Contrp and Prevention Go to the source} While bed bugs are hideous, rest assured they won’t harm you, and there are steps you can take to deal with them.

Table of Contents

Take the first steps

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Notify your landlord or property manager if you are a tenant. Skip this step if you live in your own home. If not, call your landlord or manager right away. Depending on where you live, they may have to cover or assist with the cost of getting rid of bed bugs. Even if they don’t pay, you need to let them know what happened in their house. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Although not very common, bed bugs can spread to other floors in a building. If you live in a condominium, contact the management to let them know there is a problem in the building.
Leave the furniture in place and don’t rush into anything. If you remove furniture from an infested room, you will only spread bedbugs. You have a high chance of saving all the furniture. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Tip: Bed bugs are a fairly common problem, and unless you’re dealing with a first-time renter, they’re used to it. The appearance of bed bugs has nothing to do with hygiene and is not your fault. Most landlords know this and will sympathize with you. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Quickly move your pet’s crate away from your bedroom. If you have a dog or cat but haven’t seen them scratch much, it’s likely that they haven’t been attacked by bed bugs and haven’t been infested with bed bugs (bedbugs prefer people and rarely cling to pets). However, they can transfer to your pets while you treat the mattress. Keep your dog’s kennel on the other side of the house to keep them safe. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

You just need to do this until the problem is resolved. You may have to put up with your pet whining for a few nights, but it’s still better than letting bugs jump on them!

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Get a quote from a pest control service to see if they can handle bed bugs professionally. In the US, this service costs around $1,000-2,500, depending on the severity of the problem. Of course, you can treat bed bugs yourself, but hiring a professional is much easier. Ask for prices at 4-5 places to see where for the best price. ^{[6] X Trusted Source Centers for Disease Contrp and Prevention Go to source}

If you hire a service, they will come to your home, check for infection and treat your home for you. You will probably have to find another place to sleep for 1-2 nights.
This is the only solution that works if the whole house is infested with bed bugs. It is very difficult for you to self-treat bedbugs in an “amateur” way when they are present everywhere in the house. Fortunately, bed bugs usually only appear in bedrooms.

Mattress and linen handling

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Wrap bed sheets, blankets, and bed bug-infested clothes in a sealed garbage bag. Look for some garbage bags with tight ties. Tuck bed sheets, blankets, and all bedbug-infested clothing in a garbage bag and tie it up. Use multiple bags if necessary and take them to the laundry room. ^{[7] X Trusted Source United States Environmental Protection Agency Go to source}

Don’t worry about bed bugs spreading in the laundry room if you’ve tied the bag tightly and don’t throw your clothes around, and don’t throw your clothes straight into the washing machine. ^{[8] X Research Sources}
You can leave clean clothes hanging. Sure, you’ll have to wash everything in the drawer, but that can be done later, as bed bugs and bed bugs aren’t a concern at the moment.
With an average bed bug infestation, about 70% of bed bugs will be in the mattress. If pest control services haven’t arrived yet or you’re still thinking about it, you should at least clean your mattress before bed so you can get a good night’s sleep. ^{[9] X Research Source}

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Wash and dry clothes, bed sheets and blankets on high heat. Take the fabric bags to the washing machine, put them all in the wash on high heat with soap. When you’re done washing, put it in the dryer on high heat. Wash multiple batches if necessary. This step will kill any bed bugs and their eggs in clothing, blankets, and bed sheets. ^{[10] X Research Source}

Do this step for all clothes in the drawer for 1-3 days.

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Place non-washable fabrics in a plastic bag and freeze for 4-12 days. If you have any non-washable items or fabric-lined items, you can put them in a sealed plastic bag and put them in the freezer as cold as possible. Place these items and small items in the freezer. If the temperature in the freezer reaches -18 degrees Celsius, you can leave the bag in it for 4 days. Otherwise, you should leave it for about 8-12 days. ^{[11] X Trusted Source United States Environmental Protection Agency Go to source}

This applies to teddy bears, jewelry accessories or small fabrics that cannot be washed in the washing machine.
Bed bugs will be frozen to death, and the eggs inside the item will not hatch.
Freeze in batches if you don’t have a large freezer. Make room for more space by removing ice and eating frozen foods.
This step is only really important for items near the bed. Cloth items left on the table or elsewhere are probably not infested with bed bugs.

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Vacuum the mattress, bed frame, spring frame, and carpet to get rid of any bed bugs. Empty the trash bag in the vacuum, then use the small end of the hose attached to the machine and vacuum everything. Vacuum each side of the mattress 2-3 times. Vacuum all the sides and bottom of the bed frame. Next is vacuuming the floor. Push the brush head on the carpet 2-3 times. This step will get rid of any adult bed bugs crawling around the bed. ^{[12] X Trusted Source United States Environmental Protection Agency Go to source}

If possible, use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter or a trash bag. Bed bugs will not be able to crawl out of the garbage bag after being sucked into it.

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Cover the mattress before sleeping. After vacuuming everything, wrap the mattress in a plastic cover that’s specifically designed to resist bed bugs. Cover the mattress and change the pillowcase with a new one. You’ll sleep better knowing that the chances of a bed bug bite tonight will be extremely low. A few bed bugs can get in, but you probably won’t have to wake up with bites all over your body. ^{[13] X Research Source}

Find another mattress cover to cover the spring frame if your bed has springs. ^{[14] X Research Source}
Store your laundry in a clean area of the house that is frequented by you and free of bed bugs to isolate items.

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Place bed bug traps along the foot of the bed to catch bed bugs that roam. Bed bug traps will suck in bed bugs and keep them from crawling around. Buy 4-8 traps and place them at the foot of the bed. These traps will prevent bed bugs from climbing into the bed while you are asleep. When you wake up, check the bed bug trap to see how many bed bugs you are dealing with and throw the trap in the outdoor trash. ^{[15] X Research Source}

This also helps you predict the level of infestation of bedbugs. The more bed bugs there are, the more serious the problem is.

Warning: To be clear, you haven’t completely solved the problem. All you’ve done is clean the mattress and get rid of the adult bed bugs in the surrounding area. Some bedbug eggs or adult bed bugs may still be lurking somewhere.

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Repeat this process on the day you will treat all bedbugs. These will prevent bed bugs from crawling into your bed, but your work here isn’t done yet. When you’re ready to kill the bedbugs one last time, repeat all of these steps. Vacuum everything, wash dirty clothes and freeze all the things you left behind. This will make it much easier to get rid of the remaining bed bugs. ^{[16] X Research Source}

The only thing that you don’t need to redo is the upholstery and frame springs. Once you have wrapped these things, you can leave them as is, no need to remove the mattress to vacuum again.
If you’ve completed all of the steps above and don’t have to sleep through the night or have to wait for pest control services to arrive, you don’t need to do it again.

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Use a steam cleaner to clean walls, furniture, and carpets at 54 degrees Celsius. On the day you last kill bed bugs, use the steam cleaner to clean everything. Fill the machine with water and turn on the highest heat to clean the entire bed frame, floor, baseboard, carpet and wall only. This step will kill any bed bugs that come in contact with the steam. ^{[17] X Trusted Source United States Environmental Protection Agency Go to source}

Use a steam cleaner to clean high-risk areas for bed bugs to kill any bed bugs and eggs that come into contact with the hot steam.

Kill aphids

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Buy silica airgel or diatomaceous earth to kill aphids. When it comes to bed bug repellents, there are two safe options available to you. Silica airgel is an insecticide that envelops any exposed bedbugs and suffocates them. The more popular choice is diatomaceous earth, a powder that is toxic to any bedbugs it touches. Both substances are safe to use indoors. ^{[18] X Research Sources}

Organic or “natural” remedies like tea tree oil or homemade solutions are not effective against bed bugs. ^{[19] X Research Source}
Insecticidal mists or “bombs” are generally not recommended for bedbugs. These convenient treatments are tempting, but bed bugs are very good at hiding in crevices where the spray doesn’t reach. ^{[20] X Research Source}

Warning: You must wear gloves and a respirator when working with pesticides, but these powders are not toxic if you are not submerged in them. You just need to read the product label carefully and follow the instructions for use to be safe.

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Spray insecticide into every crevice, baseboard, drawer, and carpet. Cut off the nozzle of a pesticide bottle and spray quickly under baseboards, around bed frames, inside drawers, and around corners in your home. If there are cracks in the wall, pump the powder inside. Treat all hidden and hard-to-reach areas and let the powder do its job. ^{[21] X Research Source}

You may want to just spray the entire house, but this is no more effective than just spraying on targeted areas, where bedbugs often crawl around.

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Leave the insecticide in place for a minimum of 10 days before vacuuming. You should let the medicine stay for at least 10 days, which is enough time for bedbug eggs to hatch. However, the longer you can keep it, the better. When you are sure that the bed bugs are gone, you can use the vacuum cleaner to remove the smoke, put the clothes back in the drawer and rest assured that the problem is solved. ^{[22] X Research Source}

If you get bitten again or you discover new bugs, you need to repeat the whole process. You may need to do this 2-3 more times to get rid of bed bugs completely.
If bed bugs continue to re-infest despite repeated treatments, you may need to bite your teeth and hire an extermination service.

Advice

Bed bugs are scary, but that’s basically what they are. They pose no significant health risk, so you don’t have to worry about getting sick while you sleep. ^{[23] X Trusted Source Centers for Disease Contrp and Prevention Go to source}

Things you need

Garbage bag
Washing machine
Dryer
Sealed plastic bag
Pesticide
Bedbug trap
Glove
Face mask

Steps

Take the first steps

Mattress and linen handling

Kill aphids

Advice

Things you need

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