Here is how to prevent bed bugs from spreading to other rooms and between people.
Bed bugs are among the most dreaded household pests to deal with. These tiny creatures can make your life unbearable as they’re nocturnal feeders that need your blood to reproduce.
Once an infestation starts, it’s pretty challenging to control. This article provides you with tips on how to prevent bed bugs from spreading to other rooms.
How to Prevent Bed Bugs from Spreading
Bed bug infestation usually starts from one location in the home and rapidly spreads to other areas. You don’t want to deal with such a problem.
Thankfully, there are effective ways to contain and eliminate the problem. You’ll need to read along as we identify some of the best ways to go about bed bug treatment in a home.
Bed Bug Infestations Happen in a Variety of Ways
Most times, homeowners are oblivious to bed bugs until the problem worsens. That is because these tiny creatures are good at avoiding prying eyes.
Besides being able to hide, bed bugs are stealth feeders, meaning they only feed when you sleep, mostly at night. Shared living spaces can be a hotspot for bed bug activity as they can move freely between apartments.
Public transport systems can be places where people unknowingly pick up these bugs. These creatures have adapted so well to human surroundings in a way that makes it easy to spread into homes.
Clothing stores and movie theatres are also places where you may unknowingly pick up bed bugs. If you visit flea markets, items sold may be infested with bed bugs.
Why Bed Bugs are Difficult to Eliminate
Bed bug infestation becomes problematic for several reasons, including low activity levels, mainly at the initial stage when they’re less noticeable due to limited feeding activity.
Over-the-counter medications like pesticides have steadily lost their efficacy due to resistance developed by these bugs. More problematic is the ability of bed bugs to hide.
Their resilience and adaptation can make them a nightmare for many. This is coupled with the fact that they’re prolific breeders and can easily hitch a ride anywhere there’s significant human activity.
If you’re currently dealing with bed bug infestation, you’ll need tips on fixing the problem. This includes ways to prevent these bugs from spreading to other rooms.
DIY Efforts May Not be of Much Help
It’s important to note that DIY efforts, though popular, may not be of much assistance as such techniques are usually ineffective in fixing the problem.
This becomes more apparent when compared to professional approaches. Based on this information, it becomes necessary to use more proven ways of dealing with bed bug infestations.
Pest control services and technicians play vital roles in bed bug containment. Besides access to specialized pest control equipment, technicians are trained, certified, and experienced.
What more? Guarantees back most treatments offered, plus treatments are comprehensive with follow-up visits included in their treatment plans.
With DIY control techniques, there’s limited knowledge and access to professional-grade equipment. The health and safety risks involved also make the DIY approach unattractive.
Based on these reasons, it’s best to adopt a more reliable approach to treatment. Professional bed bug control offers much better results and should be preferred.
How to Keep Bed Bugs from Spreading to Other Rooms
With bed bug presence confirmed in a house, you must determine the extent of infestation and whether other rooms are affected.
There are ways to prevent the spread of bed bugs to other areas in your home.
These include sealing all cracks & crevices, installing door sweeps, calling the pros, decluttering, and using designated pathways to move out infested items.
Bed bug interceptors can immensely help contain their spread to other rooms.
The same is true for bed bug-proof mattress covers. All of these actions combined can help prevent the spread of these creatures. Let’s further discuss each for more clarity.
i. Sealing All Cracks and crevices
Whenever there’s a bed bug infestation, cracks & crevices serve as ready hiding places from where these bugs spread to other areas of your home.
Some wall cracks may lead to other rooms, hence the need to have such sealed properly when an infestation is noticed. This needs to be done as part of several strategies for dealing with the problem.
ii. Installing Door Sweeps
With door sweeps, you want to create a tight seal between the door and the floor. Door sweep materials range from metal, rubber, foam, vinyl, and brush.
Bed bugs casually stroll through entrances without barriers like door sweeps to infest other rooms. Their flat bodies offer additional advantages as most doors (those without sweeps) won’t present a challenge.
iii. Calling the Pros
Whenever you suspect a bed bug problem, it’s crucial to call for immediate professional assistance. Any delay will worsen the situation as bed bugs are rapid breeders.
Experienced pest control technicians are trained in detecting bed bug presence. They can proffer urgent solutions using a variety of treatment strategies.
iv. Decluttering
The more cluttered your surroundings are, the easier it is for bed bugs to spread to other rooms during an infestation.
Cluttered surroundings reduce treatment efficiency, offer more hiding and breeding spots, and allow for ease of travel and dispersal.
No homeowner wants to deal with such a problem, hence the need to declutter to save yourself the stress.
v. Using Designated Pathways to Move Infested Items
While decluttering infested areas of your home, you’ll need to be careful how you move infested items as you may unintentionally contribute to spreading these bugs to other rooms.
By using designated pathways, you can limit the likelihood of spread as treatment can be immediately done or applied around such paths to kill off any bugs or eggs that may have dropped.
vi. Use of Bed Bug Interceptors
Though simple in design, bed bug interceptors have proven effective in containing the spread of bed bugs.
These cup-shaped devices are placed under furniture legs to prevent the free movement of these pests from infested areas to non-infested areas and vice versa.
This measure lets you keep other rooms in your home free of bed bugs.
Now you know how to prevent bed bugs from spreading to other rooms in your home. You’ll do well to apply these measures immediately.
The good part is these prevention strategies can be used simultaneously for the best results.