Lots of posts here about getting an exterminator, but this costs loads and doesn’t guarantee the bed bugs will be gone.
I live in the UK and found bedbugs a couple of weeks after a holiday trip. I managed to eradicate them by doing the following:
Learn about bedbugs, how to spot them, where they live, the eggs, everything. Information is power and you want to eradicate all of them. Is it a spec of dirt or a bedbug? Doesn’t matter it needs to go, be overly aggressive with your cleaning.
Clean the affected room(s) and treat it as a contamination area, anything you move out of that room into another spot, you will have to clean that spot too.
Bin all cardboard or fabric you cannot wash or freeze. This includes memory foam pillows and toppers I’m afraid. Fabric like curtains that you can’t wash at 60°c needs to go in the freezer for 4 days to kill the eggs. Wash everything, doesn’t matter how free of bedbugs it looks, wash it anyway.
Your mattress needs to be steam cleaned, on both sides, but do this after you’ve cleaned everything else. Remember your mattress needs to dry too.
Use thin bleach solution to wipe everything down, focus on any woodwork like skirting boards, cupboards and bed frames as they burrow into the surface. Remove any rotten or loose wood completely.
Get some good bug spray, you’ll need a few cans and spray this on the cleaned surfaces. If you can find where the bedbugs came from and follow that to the bed, spray this area with prejudice.
You can use a bug bomb, but remember this will only reach some areas, it won’t cover under the bed or in cupboards, hence why wiping those yourself is more effective.
Vacuum every floor, sill, nook and cranny, imagine you’re a terminator eliminating all existence of life (because that’s the plan) If you think you’ve vacuumed enough, you haven’t. Bleach the vacuum and wash the filters after.
Sleep somewhere else, in fresh clean bedding that has been nowhere near the contaminated room (all my bedding was affected so I had to sleep under a towel the first night) the cleaning process takes time so you might be sleeping elsewhere for a while. Remember to de-contaminate your new sleeping area as well after you’re done.
Extreme heat or freezing kills the eggs but the gestation period is 2 weeks so you will need to stay vigilant for this long, continue cleaning and treating everything as a contamination area until you’re certain you’ve done all you can and there is no sign of them.
I spent about £200 on laundry service and cleaning supplies, but that was a lot less than an exterminator and I successfully got rid of them.
ecoboff1 t1_j88111g wrote
Reply to How do deal with an early sighting of bedbugs? by CamDaMan100
Lots of posts here about getting an exterminator, but this costs loads and doesn’t guarantee the bed bugs will be gone.
I live in the UK and found bedbugs a couple of weeks after a holiday trip. I managed to eradicate them by doing the following:
Extreme heat or freezing kills the eggs but the gestation period is 2 weeks so you will need to stay vigilant for this long, continue cleaning and treating everything as a contamination area until you’re certain you’ve done all you can and there is no sign of them.
I spent about £200 on laundry service and cleaning supplies, but that was a lot less than an exterminator and I successfully got rid of them.