Steps to Take After Bed Bug Exposure

Five Steps to Take if You've Been Exposed to Bed Bugs

Discovering that you have been exposed to bed bugs can be quite upsetting. Exposure to bed bugs can happen anywhere, from your local movie theater to a stay at a hotel or an outbreak at your child’s college dorm. The good news is, if you find that you have been exposed to bed bugs, following these simple steps from Bed Bug Heaters can keep them from spreading.

Five Tips for Dealing with Bed Bug Exposure

1. Educate yourself and anyone else who lives with you about bed bugs so an infestation can be identified early. See “Ways to Detect a Bed Bug Infestation in Your Home” information below for details.
2. Wash all of the clothing that was worn that day and dry them on the hottest dryer setting. If the clothing has been put into a hamper, then you should wash all the clothing the hamper contained.
3. If the exposure happened at school, empty out the backpack and other bags outside or in a garage. Put the backpack and bags in the dryer for 30 minutes on the hottest heat setting safe for the material.
4. Thoroughly inspect books that come into the home because they are an easy hiding place for bed bugs. If you find some in your books, isolate them until they can be heat treated.
5. Remember, bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers. They spread so rapidly because of their inborn ability to hide in your belongings. It’s easy for them to hide in cracks and crevices and wait until the time is right to feed on their host. They get their name because they are often found in the bed, but bed bugs can infest any area of a home and can be found in soft furnishings including couches, draperies, bedding, clothes, and luggage
   
   

Ways to Detect a Bed Bug Infestation in Your Home
Determining if your home is infested with bed bugs is usually a pretty easy process. Look for these signs:

• Small blood smears from bed bug bites. These often look like someone sprinkled pepper on your mattress, sheets, or pajamas.
• Cast skins, fecal stains, or crushed bugs. These are often found in the seams of the mattress or anywhere in the mattress, box springs, or bed linens. In homes with carpet, these may be found in the carpet as well, particularly where the carpet meets the baseboard.
• Strange bites or itchy welts on the body. Some people may not react to bed bug bites, so it is possible for two individuals to live in the same house, both be bitten, but only one show signs of a reaction. The bites usually appear as small, red marks that burn or itch. Bed bug bites are often grouped together in clusters.

Go With a Heat Treatment from Bed Bug Heaters
A heat treatment is the easiest, safest, and often the most affordable bed bug treatment. Bed Bug Heaters has a large selection of units to handle your bed bug problem in no time. For more information, give us a call at (937) 506-6940 or contact us online today.