BEDDING — Inside the Home

Red Bed

Getting Rid of Bed Bugs - 12 Steps to a Bed Bug Free Home

You wake up in the morning with itchy red welts on your arms, legs, back and face.  Upon inspecting your mattress, you begin to find red specs and black spots of blood and fecal matter.  Then you notice a tiny red bed bug, no bigger than a carpenter ant, as it scurries back into the safety of your mattress.  It's many home owner's worst nightmare.  What to do?

You can always call an exterminator that specializes in bed bug elimination – but they're expensive, they spray potentially harmful chemicals around your home, children and pets and the treatment doesn't always solve the problem the first time.  My basic philosophy in the fight against bed bugs is NO CHEMICALS.  Substances not found in nature cannot be introduced into the world without affecting our ecosystem or into our homes without affecting our health. So, keep it green, and follow these steps to rid yourself of your unwelcomed guests!

Step 1.            Start in the bedroom.  Bed bugs can live in sofas and other upholstered furniture, but they will gravitate towards your bed – close to their food supply (You!).  Closely inspect the room to locate visible infestation sites so you can focus more effort in those areas.

Step 2.            Remove all clutter and trash from the room.

Step 3.            Wash all bed linens and clothing in hot water and dry on high heat.  Store the clean items in plastic bags to prevent them from being reinfested before you finish cleaning the room.

Step 4.            Thoroughly vacuum the room.  Hot spots are carpets, draperies, mattresses, box springs, pillows and other cloth surfaces in the bedroom.  It's best to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.  Dispose of the vacuum bag in a sealed plastic bag immediately after using.

Step 5.            Buy or Rent a steam cleaner.  Bed bugs are very sensitive to heat and heat is a natural way to manage bed bugs in all stages of their development; with both live bugs and eggs.  The thermal death point for the common bedbug is around 120 degrees Fahrenheit.  Raising the temperature for an hour or so will eliminate most infestations.  A commercial steam cleaner will cover a larger area and allow for longer steam treatment because of the water capacity; however they are very costly to purchase so you might want to consider renting one.  There are many affordable hand-held steam cleaners on the market that will reach the necessary temperature but they take longer to do the job.  When using the steam cleaner you must be sure to let everything you steam cleaned dry thoroughly or else a mold issue could develop.

Step 6.            Start at the top of the room and work downward.  Begin by steaming curtains and drapes.  Work your way to the bed and other furniture.  Be sure to steam in all crack and crevices in furniture, and don't forget baseboards and crown moldings.  CAUTION:  Don't steam electrical outlets, steam and electricity are not a good mix.

Step 7.            Stay focused on the task at hand, steam is dangerously hot.

Step 8.            After steaming and thoroughly drying the mattress and box spring, conduct a another thorough inspection of the room.  Any bed bugs or eggs that the steam cleaning missed can be killed with an application of 50% water/50% Isopropyl Alcohol.  CAUTION:  Don't smoke or have any candles lit in the room while spraying with this mixture – alcohol is flammable!

Step 9.            Let everything dry completely before moving your clean belongings back into the room.

Step 10.          Repair cracks in plaster, glue down loosened wallpaper, caulk cracks or openings in furniture, baseboards and moldings to eliminate bed bug harborage sites.

Step 11.          Invest in bed bug proof mattress and box spring protectors.  If there are any bed bugs remaining in the mattress they will be trapped inside the cover, and no new bugs will be able to get into the mattress.  Having high quality mattress protectors designed to defend bedding againts bed bugs is absolutely vital in curing and preventing infestations.

Step 12.          Do not let bed covers touch the floor and place bed bugs traps under the legs of your bed.  These preventative measures will insure that, if you missed any bugs in your cleaning, they cannot crawl back in your bed.

ENJOY YOUR CLEAN, SANITIZED AND BED BUG FREE HOME!

About the Author

David Thomas is one of the founders of The Bed Bug Registry, and is considered to be one of the foremost experts on the recent spread of the bed bug epidemic.  Visit http://www.american-wellness-supply.com for highest quality selection of bed bug mattress protectors, pillow protectors and more.

where can I find a crimsom/bright red bed set?

I'm looking for a bright red/crimsom colored bed cover/quilt/duvet cover. anyone have good websites where I can find this at? I would also like some fancy sheets/blankets. Maybe black/red with lace? and what about decoration pillows? thanks so muchh

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Branches-Spice-Red-3-piece-Comforter-Set/4324087/product.html
Check out some of the others on this site too.
Good luck.
Also try target, walmart and lnt.com

Electrik Red - Bed Rest

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 6:43 pm and is filed under bedding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.