In this first series about bed bug treatments and their effectiveness, we’ll examine some physical forms of bed bug treatment and how they work or don’t. Today, we’ll discuss the physical removal of bed bugs from your home.

Temporary Removal Of Furniture

Furniture Destruction

One way to eliminate an infested piece of furniture is to destroy it. And we’re not just talking about mattresses here, but bed frames, dressers, and side tables, all of which give bed bugs a place to hide when they’re not sawing into your skin and sucking your blood. The best way of doing this is to enclose the piece of furniture in a large plastic bag before removing it from the house. Once it’s outside, please take it to the dump immediately. After all, you don’t want someone coming along to see a piece of furniture that looks wholly usable and walk off with it.

What’s the downside? Well, the extreme cost of replacing all those items is certainly one reason you might want to find an all-natural spray instead of destroying your furniture. Even worse, removing your furniture won’t solve the problem because the bed bugs will remain on the carpet or along the baseboards. And once you buy a new mattress or dresser, those items become infected again and need bed bug treatment.

Wash Them Away 

We always recommend taking all bed linens that could be infected and giving them a hot wash. When you wash your sheets, many bed bugs will be washed away and down the drain.

The only downside to this is that you should always use a hot wash and a hot drying cycle, even on cold-wash items. While this might shorten their lifespans, it’s worth it if it gets rid of bed bugs, right?

Vacuuming

We’re big fans of vacuuming, especially when compared to dragging your mattress through the house or throwing away a perfectly good dresser! Vacuuming is part of the process we recommend for getting rid of bed bugs, in addition to our bed bug spray. After all, using a multi-pronged attack is the best way to get rid of as many bed bugs as possible. You’re looking to get every last one.

It’s important to remember to remove the vacuum bag after you’ve vacuumed the bed. Bed bugs (and many other insects) can crawl out of the bag, through the vacuum tube, and head right back into your house. Fabulous, right?

Are there any downsides to vacuuming? Only if you forget to remove the vacuum bag quickly or move too swiftly and dislodge a bed bug from the bed and onto the carpet.

Steam Cleaning

While we’ll discuss this more in the third blog in this series about bed bug treatments involving heat, steam is another surefire way to kill bed bugs. Such high temperatures kill bed bugs, so hitting them and their eggs with a professional steamer is a great way to kill the ones you can’t see.

The only downside to steam cleaning is using one that produces too much moisture. This can make soft materials too wet and cause mold and/or mildew to form.

Bed Bug Traps 

Why not stop bed bugs before they reach your mattress? After you've ensured that your mattress and bed are free from bed bugs, place these children's and pet-friendly bed bug traps by each foot of your bed frame. They'll not only attract bed bugs from surrounding areas but also trap them so that they have no chance of ever crawling up your bedpost in the first place.

The worst part about bed bugs is that you must get everyone through physical removal methods. A single female tends to lay around 500 eggs in her lifetime, which means thousands of more bed bugs through the generations. That's why we're big fans of the multi-faceted approach: vacuuming, steaming, bed bug powder, bed bug traps, and, of course, all-natural bed bug spray like Bed Bug Patrol. Find the ultimate removal pack right here!