Video Transcript
Getting rid of bed bugs is really stressful and time consuming. It’s important to maintain a positive attitude while removing infestations in your home and getting a goodnight’s sleep is key.
The first step is to make your bed a safe zone. This means making sure the area around your bed is free of all bed bugs and protected from re-infestation. Just the knowledge that you aren’t going to get bitten while you sleep will go a long way towards giving you the energy you need to fight your bed bug infestation. In this video we will go through everything you need to know to get rid of bed bugs and make your bed a complete safe zone.
Because heat kills bed bugs you’re going to want to strip off all of your bedding and heat treat it in a Zappbug. The Zappbug heats up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature at which bed bugs will start to die within one minute. If your Zappbug is not set up in your bedroom, you’ll want to put your bedding into plastic garbage bags. You don’t want to inadvertently risk spreading infestation as you transport the bedding to the Zappbug.
Put the entire bad of bedding into the Zappbug. Don’t put the bad on the floor and lift the bedding out. Putting the bag in the unit and lifting it away from the bedding keeps the bed bugs contained and prevents them from re-infesting your home. The name of the game is containment.
A bed bug infestation doesn’t mean that you need to throw away your mattress. Mattress encasements have a thin membrane that breathes and also is totally impermeable to bed bugs. There several brands of encasements on the market. Just be sure that your encasement says it’s bed bug proof. Your box spring should also be encased. Bed bugs can live on this as well as your pillows. it’s important to encase everything. This will go a long way towards safeguarding your bed.
You need to reposition your bed so it does not touch any walls. This is to prevent bed bugs from getting to your bed by climbing up the wall. This will also give you better sight lines around the bed as you monitor for signs of infestation.
Bed Bug Alert offers a maintenance free way to monitor for bed bugs for up to a 12 month period. Bed bugs are spreading across the country making it important to know when bed bugs are present.
Bed bugs die in one minute at 120F so we highly recommend that you heat treat all of your bedding (including linens, pillows, comforters and blankets) using either a ZappBug product or your home clothes dryer. If you’re using a dryer make sure to set it on high and run it for as long as possible to ensure you’re reaching bed bug killing temperatures, especially when treating large blankets/duvets or other bulky items.
You do not want to rely on your washing machine to kill bed bugs. The washing process itself can help mechanically remove bed bugs but the water temperature of home washing machines may not get hot enough to kill bed bugs. If you do wash, go ahead and set the temperature on hot; but you really want to think of your dryer or ZappBug as the mechanism that will kill bed bugs.
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Encasements are essential in fighting against bed bugs. By sealing in your mattress you protect yourself from any bugs or eggs currently on it and from new populations moving in to your bed. There are now several manufacturers selling Zippered Encasement Mattress Protector that have membranes which breathe, are noiseless (and easy to sleep on) and are guaranteed bed bug proof. We’ve also found encasements available in stores such as Target and even some mattress stores.
Remember to encase both your mattress and box spring. It’s best if you don’t remove the encasements for at least 18 months to ensure that any and all bed bugs are dead.
We also recommend that you encase your pillows if possible. If you’ve heat treated your pillows this step may not be necessary, but it’s an extra precaution that can help. It’s useful after heat treating your pillows while you’re fighting the infestation in the rest of your dwelling in the same way as leaving your treated bedding bagged up while creating your safe zone.
Protect your mattress against invading bed bugs, dust mites, fluid spills, and more. SafeRest mattress encasements were designed from the ground up to provide premium bed bug protection and allergy relief.
Now that you’ve taken care of your bedding and mattress/box-spring you must make sure your bed frame and headboard are bed bug free. Depending on what material these are your treatment options will vary. If you have a simple wooden or metal bed frame you will want to carefully vacuum the entire frame and check all crevices for signs of infestation. If possible you should heat treat your bed frame (see our ZappBug Room for more information).
Some headboards will be much more difficult to treat than others. We recommend that if possible you do not use a headboard which is upholstered with fabric or has a lot of hiding places for bed bugs (for example, a wicker headboard) unless you are able to heat treat. Even with rigorous vacuuming, it is very difficult to ensure that upholstered headboards are bed bug free, because bed bugs can penetrate deep into the upholstery. Also headboards that have a lot of crevices and potential hiding places are a bad idea, because it is very difficult to know for sure that vacuuming has effectively gotten into every nook and cranny. Heat treatment will work in these conditions so if you have an upholstered headboard that you would like to save we highly recommend treating it and then sealing it to prevent re-infestation until your house has been treated.
Once you’ve taken care of your headboard and you’re putting your box spring and mattress back onto the frame we recommend spreading diatomaceous earth between the box spring and mattress. For more information on that see Step 4: Diatomaceous Earth.
The ZappBug Room™ is a bed bug heat treatment chamber that uses a thermal chamber to exterminate bed bugs. The ZappBug Room™ has the largest capacity of any portable bed bug heating system available on the market today. Measuring at 80″ x 111″x 57.5″!
With bare floors you are going to mechanically remove any possible bed bugs by vacuuming. Follow these steps:
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Sadly you cannot put a wall-to-wall carpet in ZappBug for heat treatment so you’re going to need to mechanically remove any potential bed bugs by thorough vacuuming and if possible carpet shampooing. Follow these steps:
Use a carpet shampooer. After vacuuming, clean this area with a carpet shampooer. You are doing this in an abundance of caution to get any bed bugs that vacuuming might have missed. Like vacuuming, shampooing the carpet won’t kill bed bugs but it will help mechanically remove them.
After thoroughly cleaning as we described above, put down some more diatomaceous earth in this area where your bed will go. Your bed is going to cover this area of the floor/carpet anyways, so it won’t be unsightly. Until you get the bed bugs under control, it’s a good extra precaution.
If you have shampooed the carpet as described above, remember to first let the carpet dry before laying down additional diatomaceous earth.
JT Eaton Natural Bed Bug Powder kills bed bug by attaching itself to the outer shell of the bed bug where it dehydrates and kills the bed bug. What’s great about the powder is there are no resistant strains of bed bugs to this treatment and it’s all natural.
Think of creating a safety perimeter as creating a layered defense. You are building several layers of defense to prevent bedbugs from getting back into your bed; if a bed bug manages to penetrate one layer there are still many more between it and you.
We recommend the following:
It is extremely important to observe very strict protocol in regards to keeping your bed a Safe Zone. Although these protocols are likely above and beyond what is necessary we find that with bed bugs you can never be too careful, and knowing that your bed is a safe area that you can get a good night’s rest in is incredibly valuable for your own health and well-being.
Never cross the bed perimeter without first stripping off all of your clothes. When you are going through the process of ridding your home of bed bugs, you want to always assume that clothes you have been wearing around your home are contaminated with bed bugs. Are there actually bed bugs on your clothes? Probably not, but it’s impossible to completely rule out so for the purpose of keeping your bed a Safe Zone, you must think of anything you are wearing as potentially contaminated. The only clothes that are safe are those that have been laundered/heat treated and which are subsequently stored in sealed plastic bags. Before going to your bed, strip off all of your clothes outside of the perimeter and then, only when you are totally naked, step over the line of diatomaceous earth to get into bed. Have your freshly laundered/heat treated pajamas in a sealed plastic bag waiting for you on your bed.
Hint: We love giant Ziplock bags for storing freshly laundered/heat treated clothes. When sealed shut the bags are impermeable to bed bugs. And they also open easily, allowing convenient access to your clothing.
Climbup Insect Interceptors are a unique and easy-to-use monitoring system to aid in the early detection of bed bug infestations. These specially designed plastic cups are pesticide-free with polished walls that are too slick for the bugs to crawl out.
Disclaimer: Some of the procedures outlined in this guide may be dangerous and should be undertaken at the readers own risk. Readers should consult all material safety data sheets for any products they use in their own attempts at pest control and consult with the manufacturers of all products regarding best usage practices. This guide should be construed as theoretical advice. ZappBug and its employees will not be held responsible for any injury due to the advice offered herein. This guide cannot be construed as formal advice and ZappBug will not be held liable in any instance of an action resulting from this story. This disclaimer assigns the readers all responsibility for their own decisions.
