When your home is infested with bed bugs we always recommend working with a Pest Management Professional. Bed Bugs are very difficult to control on your own so it is a good idea to work with a professional. If you are a tenant you should contact your landlord right away about the bed bug infestation. Once you have notified your landlord of the situation they should work with a Pest Management Professional to treat your home. When you are working with a Professional it is important to follow any instructions they give you, as it will make it easier for the Professional to control the bed bugs in your home. Here is more information on the different types of professional bed bug treatments.
Bed Bug Control
We know it can be very expensive to hire a Pest Management Professional so we are providing some information on Bed Bug Control in Residences to help reduce the number of bed bugs in your home. These steps will not eliminate bed bugs but they may help you reduce the number of bugs in your home.
Types of control methods:
We highly recommend against using over the counter insecticides for treating bed bugs in your home. These insecticides are not very effective. If you are using an insecticide always read the entire label and follow all instructions. Do not use garden and agricultural insecticides in your home. Here are some additional tips on what NOT to do when you have bed bugs in your home.
If you have children it is possible that their toys will also be infested with bed bugs. It is necessary to clean bed bug infested toys in order to fully control the infestation.
Bed Bug Identification
If you are not sure if you have bed bugs or not check out the information on identifying bed bugs.
Bed Bug Prevention
How to Prevent Bed Bugs from Entering your home provides information on some simple steps that can be taken to prevent bed bugs from entering your living space.
Let’s Beat the Bug!
What Property Owners and Managers Need to Know About Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs are a difficult problem for apartments and multi-family units. It can be very expensive to treat an infested property. However, not addressing the problem will only make the infestation worse and more costly for you. One of the most important things property owners/managers can do is to educate their residents about bed bugs.
Communicating with Residents
Talk to your residents about how to prevent bed bugs from entering the building. See the fact sheet “How to Prevent Bed Bugs From Entering Your Home” for more information.
Encourage your residents to immediately report any problems with bed bugs, or suspected bed bugs. Make information on how to identify bed bugs readily available to your residents. Our Let’s Beat the Bug! campaign has developed a simple poster you can print out and display around your property to raise awareness of bed bugs.
Remember that the person reporting the bed bug issue may not have been responsible if they picked up bed bugs from somewhere in the building or the bed bugs dispersed from an unreported infestation. Consider having an amnesty program for individuals who report bed bugs.
If residents are afraid to report bed bug infestations, or are held financially liable, then they may try to treat the infestation themselves, just live with the pest, or break the lease and move to another location. This will cause the infestation to spread and become more difficult and more expensive to treat. Worse, residents may take control measures themselves which can leave you with a damaged apartment or cleanup costs that are substantially more than a proper control procedure would have cost.
Train your maintenance personal to actively check for signs of bed bugs and other pests when they enter apartments for routine maintenance issues.
Tip: Discourage scavenging of furniture from off the curb or from the trash.
Bed Bug Treatment
When dealing with bed bugs you should contract with a pest management professional (PMP) experienced in working with bed bug infestations. See the factsheet “Hiring a Pest Management Professional”. Using over-the-counter insecticides will not solve a bed bug problem. Surviving infestations will become worse, spreading into other rooms or units.
The first step in bed bug treatment is a thorough inspection by the Pest Management Professional (PMP). When a resident reports bed bugs you should have the PMP inspect not only their apartment but also all neighboring apartments including those above, below and across the hall. If one resident has bed bugs it is possible that others do as well. The earlier you can catch and treat an infestation the easier and less expensive it will be for you.
The PMP should not only control an infestation, but should also provide you with a plan for preventing and managing bed bugs in the entire facility. From our experience, if you continually encountering infestations in the building, you should consider inspecting every unit as there may be other unreported infestations. Regularly inspect common areas such as lounge areas and laundry facilities. For more information on treatments see the factsheet “Understanding Bed Bug Treatments”
Keep records of bed bug infestations and treatments; this will allow you to see if the rate of infestation is changing and patterns of infestation within the apartment complex. Having this information will help you and your PMP, treat infestations and prevent future infestations.
Steps for Residents to Take
Depending on the type of treatment you choose there will be different steps the residents have to take before treatment begins. It is important that you work closely with your residents to make sure they understand and follow the instructions provided by the PMP. Treatment will not be successful unless these instructions are closely followed.
These steps often include:
- Laundering clothing and linens
- Cleaning and organizing to reduce clutter and simplify the area that needs to be treated
- Using Pest-proof covers on mattresses and box springs
- Moving furniture and other items so all the edges of the room are accessible
- Emptying closets, bedside tables and dressers
Students
Students are often at risk of bed bug infestation due to the highly mobile lifestyle, frequent travel, regular purchasing or scavenging of used furniture and usually living in situations that are conductive to bed bug infestations.
Students are strongly cautioned against “scavenging” beds and furniture that have been discarded and left by the curb for disposal, or behind places of business. Bed bug infestations are not limited to beds and mattresses, and they can be found on tables, drawers, and even electronics if these items were located in a bedroom or other room that was infested with bed bugs.
If you are a student and think you have a bed bug infestation please notify your landlord or dormitory supervisor immediately. Bed Bugs are difficult to get rid of and generally require professional assistance.
Here is some information that may be helpful to students dealing with a bed bug infestation:
How to Prevent Bed Bugs from Entering your home. Information on some simple steps that can be taken to prevent bed bugs from entering your living space.- The internet is full of advice and contradicting information on what to do if you have bed bugs. Here you can find some basic information on what NOT to do if you have bed bugs.
- Do it Yourself Bed bug control Have I Found a Bed Bug? Will provide you with information on identifying bed bugs. This page contains information on steps that can be taken to reduce the number of bed bugs in an infestation. It is generally very difficult to control bed bugs without the assistance of a professional but thereare some steps that can be taken to decrease the number of bed bugs present in a particular environment.
Travelers
When you are on the road away from your home you are at an increased risk of coming into contact with bed bugs and possibly bringing them back in to your home. There are a number of things that you can do as a traveler to reduce these risks.
We recommend that you do a careful inspection of your hotel room (or other location where you will be sleeping) for signs of bed bugs. See How to inspect your hotel room for more information.
Bed Bug Identification
Information on how to identify bed bugs can be found in: Have I found a Bed Bug? When inspecting your room for bed bugs it is important to not only check the mattress, but also box spring, head and footboards and near the valet (luggage stand) these are the areas where bed bugs are most often found.
Returning Home
When you return from your travels we recommend that you launder all of your clothing immediately to help reduce the chances of bring bed bugs into your home. You should also isolate your luggage by putting it into a large plastic bag or other container which you can seal tightly shut. This will keep any bed bugs from getting off your suitcase and into your home. If you have items that you think may have come into contact with bed bugs but which can not be put into the laundry you can iron them to kill any bed bugs.
The internet is full of advice and contradicting information on what to do if you have bed bugs, here you can find some basic information on what not to do if you have bed bugs.
If you now have bed bugs in your home please see the section for Homeowners and Tenants for more information.
