Bed bugs after treatment can be a concern especially if your experience with bed bugs has been traumatic. So what should you do next?
That is what you will learn here and easy steps to make sure to keep the Bed bugs out so you can sleep in peace and eliminate their presence.
Even if you hired a professional to get rid of bed bugs you still may have to wait up to a few weeks for all of the bed bugs to die.
You probably already know that you will need to do a lot of cleaning that is not going to be fun but necessary after treatment for bed bugs.
If your exterminator use heat treatment to kill bed bugs you can expect them to die much sooner.
One of the most important things to do is to clean up after treatment for bed bugs. You will need to vacuum and do a lot of thorough cleaning plus washing all of your clothes.
Bed Bugs Treatment – What Happens Next?
Bed bugs after treatment will lead many to expect immediate results. The problem with this is Bed Bugs are excellent hiders. So it can be almost impossible to find all of these pests.
You may actually need to retreat your home for bed bugs. This is because most treatments can take some time to work. If you don’t have any bites or notice any bed bugs for the next three weeks after treatment it’s a good sign that infestation has been contained.
Heat treatment is the fastest way to kill all of your Bed bugs in just a few hours. Once the temperature reaches 122 degrees bed bugs dies very quickly usually in just a few minutes.
If you used heat as the method of treatment you shouldn’t see any more bed bugs. That’s good news!
Bed Bugs After Treatment- Cleaning Tips
If you hired an exterminator ask them how soon is ok to return to your home after they treated your home for bed bugs.
One of the first things you will want to do is open your windows to allow air to flow into your home. You should do this for a couple of hours.
The next thing to do is launder your clothes and bedsheets. And make sure to wash and dry in HIGH heat… Very important!
You don’t have to wash everything, but I strongly recommend you do. Go through your entire wardrobe of clothing and clean all of it.
Better safe than sorry…
Using the bed bug spray I used or a homemade bed bug killer can help prevent them from coming back and get any bed bugs your exterminator may have missed.
DIY Bed Bug Treatment For Prevention
If you read my story on how I treated for bed bugs you know that I used a DIY method to get rid of bed bugs. The spray I used was very effective at getting rid of bed bugs.
Spraying on and under your mattress and furniture can help you treat bed bugs that are in your home. They usually can be found in any place you spend large amounts of time. That’s why you typically find them on beds or furniture.
Below are additional DIY methods you can use to help guard against and prevent bed bugs:
- Stop Bed Bugs From Getting Into Your Mattress With a Mattress Encasement
- Bed Bug interceptors stop them in their tracks
- Diatomaceous Earth is a fine powder that kills on contact
Combining all of these methods can really help put a serious dent to your bed bug problems and prevent them from coming back.
These methods take time and work, but DIY methods are your least expensive way to get rid of bed bugs. So if you are looking to cut cost it may be the way to go for you.
What If Bed Bug Treatment Didn’t Work?
Nothing could be more frustrating then putting in the time and effort or money if you hired an exterminator just to find out the treatment didn’t work.
How can this happen?
Pyrethroid resistance is the main reason for a treatment not working from a DIY method or exterminators treatment for bed bugs.
Bed bugs are becoming more immune to pesticides. Another reason is if the exterminator didn’t correctly do their job such as removing clutter or sealing cracks and crevices in the wall.
Another possible reason is that a stray bed bug from a neighbor or even a friends house restarted the infestation of bed bugs.
This is more common if you live in an apartment. If you have checked for bed bugs and can’t locate anymore. You could hire a bed bug sniffer dog.
If the bed bugs keep coming back you also might want to consider moving if you can. It could be likely that it’s from a neighbor and in that case you are at their mercy.
In that case, moving out might be the only solution to your bed bug problem.
And if you do move make sure to inspect your furniture so you don’t bring any bed bugs with you to your new home.
Conclusion
Bed bugs after treatment can be a nerve-racking experience. Following the tips below can help you prevent bed bugs from coming back:
- If you live in an apartment make sure to seal any cracks or crevices
- Identify the source of your bed bug problem
- Make sure to launder your clothes and sheets
- When finished vacuuming empty contents into a plastic trash bag and immediately dispose of in the outside garbage