by Barbara Kasey Smith

Created on: November 22, 2009

Preventing bedbugs...

*Keep a watchful eye for bedbugs:

The first thing a person should do is to periodically look at the edge lining of your bed mattress and in the folds of the mattress. Look for blood spot on the bed, and if there isn't any thing to account for the blood stains, you just might have bed bugs. If you've noticed red bites on your flesh, and you thought they were mosquito bites, you probably have bedbugss. Bedbugs can really freak a person out but some of the nicest affluent homes have had bed bugs too. They can be brought home if you travel a lot and you brought them back in on your suitcase and they started an infestation in your home. Did you know that a bed bug can crawl up a stand to get into your suitcase? Zip you suitcase and as soon as you get home, sit your bags outside and go through the suitcases thoroughly spraying for bedbugs before taking them into your house. Before you open your suitcase to hang up your clothes, check the edge of the lining of the mattress in your motel/hotel room and check in drawers and other dark places to ensure there's none in your room.

It's difficult getting rid of bedbug, but if you don't, you suffer repeated bites resembling small mosquito bites and the bites can become infected. Bedbugs love a place where there is disorder and that is not clean. They love all that antique and old furniture because they can get in the cracks and make a good infestation in it. Do not bring a piece of secondhand furniture or an antique into your home until you have thoroughly taken it apart and sprayed it for bedbugs. They love hiding in mattresses, bed frames and springs, etc.

*Did you know they come out at night?

They come out at night and attack the body by sucking your blood and leaving a red bump. When you are traveling to areas in tropical areas, be sure to take you a bed net impregnated with permethrin to keep any bedbugs off of you.

It's vital to change your bed linens at least once a week and when you wash them be sure to wash them in extremely hot water and rinse them in hot water as well. Vacuum your home at least once a week too and check your furniture cracks as well. This is their hiding places until the lights go off and then they commence to crawl in search for blood to feed. Make sure if there are any holes in your homes walls or floors and block them up immediately.

*Ridding your home of bedbugs:

The best way to rid yourself of them is to treat them with insecticides and discard any furniture you cannot get into the cracks and small holes. Use an insecticide spray which contains dichlorvos, malathion, or premethrin and hot water will also kill them but it must be scalding hot. If you have any sort of bird or bat habitats that may be a dwelling place for bedbugs as they are exterminated out of the house.

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