To Kill Bed Bugs - You Must Find Them

Now I have already gone over some ways on how to kill bed bugs, but how do you really know that you have these disgusting blood sucking insects visiting you early in the morning a couple of hours before sunrise? The first sign of that you may have bed bugs is that you have insect bites on your body, this could or could not be bed bugs, if you are noticing bumps that were not there before you went to sleep, then you should start being concerned as to if you really have bed bugs in your house or apartment, or wherever you are sleeping at.

So now you suspect that you may have a bed bug problem, but just insect bites alone will not determine this, you don’t even know for sure that the bumps you have are even insect bites or bed bug bites. Every ones skin reacts to bed bug bites differently, so you will have to do some deep searching around your room. First place I would look for some traces of bed bugs would be on the mattress of the bed. Take off all of the sheets, and closely examine the crevices that are in the mattress, if you see a bunch of black spots, this could be a very good indication that you may have a bed bug infected mattress. The black spots could either resemble their eggs or even blood stains, you should be checking your sheets to if they are that of a light color, look for any kind of little blood trails.

The second place I would look, to find a trail from bed bugs would be in the corners of the ceiling, especially if you have popcorn style ceiling, this gives them and excellent place to hide and lay their eggs, you may even see a couple of shedding of skin from maturing bed bugs, so if you check all of these things, then there is a very good chance that you may have a bit of a bed bug problem. From this point you can either take the necessary steps that I have explained in previous posts on how to kill bed bugs, or you can call your local pest control. They will have to come inside your home and do a major fumigation to once and for all get rid of bed bugs in your household, and sometimes this can be expensive.

On another note, if you live in an apartment complex, and you discover that your apartment is infected with bed bugs, in most all cases it is the apartments responsibility to treat the problem immediately. Although all scientific studies that have been done prove that bed bugs do not carry or transmit any dangerous diseases, the bites you receive from bed bugs always have a chance of getting infected from the irritation and scratching at them, so yes it is the duty of the landlord to solve the problem immediately, in most cases. Either way you can either move to a different location to live, or you can make a stand and kill bed bugs, the choice is up to you.

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How To Kill Bed Bugs

So you are here because you want to learn how to kill bed bugs. While there are many ways to do this, but mostly every blog out there that has some good information, and not trying to sell their own product, will tell you that you need to get a professional exterminator. While this is very true in most cases, but if you only have a minor bed bug problem, and it’s not a major infestation, then you may want to save your money and try a couple of do it yourself tricks on how to kill bed bugs.

One thing that is very important, is that you need to know bed bugs cannot live very long if the heat is above 120 degrees, this is also very true for bed bug eggs, they will not survive at 120 degrees or more, they will almost die instantly. Bed bugs and their eggs, can also be killed by extreme cold, 32 degrees will kill them, but the problem with this is it could take days, as they can withstand cold a lot longer than they can heat. Here I will show you 5 different ways that you can kill bed bugs, without buying any pesticides or hiring a professional exterminator to come out and drain your pockets of money. So with that being said I will go over 5 different ways on how to kill bed bugs.

1. Steam Cleaning – While a normal vacuum will work decent, if some of the little pests are hiding their eggs in the carpet. But no type of vacuum can compare to a steam clean, some of the places that you are going to want to steam clean would be the carpet that’s surrounding the bed, or the place that you notice the bugs are at, or suspect where they may be hiding at. It would also be good to steam clean your mattress once a month, this will ensure that any bed bugs that are hiding out there will be dead in a matter of seconds after they are exposed to the hot steam.

2. Iron – If you don’t have access to, or can’t afford to have a steam clean, an iron is another option. You will want to set the iron onto the steam setting, and you will want to have it as high as it will go. Be sure to hit all of the cracks and crevices that are on the mattress, being that this is where bed bugs like to hide, and also keep their eggs at. If you are ironing the mattress make sure to go in quick motions, giving the bed bugs less chance of escape, iron everything, especially the pillows.

3. Hair Dryer – This is good for hitting spots that the steam cleaner or the iron cannot get to. Remember, bed bugs just don’t hide inside mattresses, they hide everywhere and anywhere that they can. They are not that mobile, and will usually be no more than 20 feet away from you. So grab yourself a hairdryer, and again, set it to the hottest setting possible, and go over any spot where you think that they may be hiding. Hit every outlet, take of the outlet plate and blow dry that too, any night stand or table that may be around your bed, if you have blinds make sure to hit them too, any crack or crevice on the window sill. If you have a popcorn ceiling, be sure that you pay special attention to the corners of the wall, look for any little black spots that you may find, and if you find them, blow them with the hair dryer as long as you want. If I suspect a spot where there are bed bug eggs I will keep the hair dryer on that spot for a couple of minutes to ensure that they have no chance of survival what so ever. This is a war on bugs and you cannot let them win.

4. Wash Sheets In Hot Water – This step should be done prior to any effort in killing bed bugs. Whenever you are planning on mass extermination you want to make sure that you wash all of your sheets in hot water, water that is at least 120 degrees. If you have laundry baskets in the sleeping room where you suspect might have bed bugs, make sure you wash all of those clothes in hot water, as they can hide out there also, the hot water will ensure their death.

5. Tropical Weather – If you have furniture that you think might be infested, or even a mattress and you live in a tropical climate, you can use this against them to rid your furniture of bed bugs. You will have to wrap up the furniture or mattress in a large black trash bag, or anything else that would keep heat contained, and leave it out in the hot sun for a couple of days, if you do this, you will kill any bed bug or egg that is in the furniture.


These are not the only ways on how to kill bed bugs, but they are very effective and they are cheap alternatives to calling out pest control, or using excessive flea bombs or similar products that claim to kill bed bugs. While using all of the methods above is not a sure way to kill all bed bugs, they are some efficient ways to get rid of bed bugs, and when combined with excessive bombing and bug treatment, you can get rid of them altogether. Every situation is different and different measures must be taken to get rid of them. The more junk you have lying around, the more placed the bed bugs have to hide. Do not give them the advantage, take away their hiding spots, kill them with heat, and then kill them with bombs and pesticides, use every method that you know about, do it. This is once and for all, how to kill bed bugs, and once they are gone, be very careful not to invite them back into your house.

How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

So I have heard the hype about bed bugs and how they live in some apartments, and a lot of the time you can’t do anything about it, and a lot of people ask themselves, how do I get rid of bed bugs? I mean who wants to move into an apartment, and the first night or two that you sleep there you find out that you are not living alone. You eventually find out that you are the main course meal for your roommates, the ones that never show themselves, the ones that you rarely see, and when you do get the chance to see them, they are dead. The reason that I hate these little blood suckers so much, is because they leave these little bites on you all of the time, and its just the fact that there are tiny blood sucking bugs crawling on you why you are sleeping, is just plain disgusting.

There are many ways that your house or apartment can get an infestation with bed bugs, but here is my personal story on how I think my apartment got infected with these dang little bugs that have nothing better to do than to feed on me once every couple of days. I did a nasty thing, I worked at an apartment complex and a lot of times people that move out leave some stuff behind, like furniture, and sometimes complete bed sets. This was a brand new bed set that somebody had and it was a king size. I was an idiot and decided to grab it, I was financially unstable and I really needed a mattress to sleep on for me and my girlfriend, I was really sick of sleep on the carpet with just some blankets and a few pillows.

So about a month or so after I had my “new” king size bed in my room, my girlfriend and I had started noticing some weird insect looking bites on our body, which I found out were bed bug bites. Then just a few days after that we had seen a bed bug, yes, bed bugs can be seen with the naked eye, and they look disgusting. After about a few weeks we got tired of giving free rent to bed bugs, and on top of that we got sick of our bodies being on the front buffet line for free, so we immediately trashed the mattress. Of course I didn’t know much about bed bugs at the time, and I thought that by just getting rid of the mattress full of bed bugs that they would be gone forever, and for good. Then I started reading up on them, and began to see the light, they can hide anywhere, between cracks and crevices, behind outlet plates, in your clothes, basically anywhere that is inconspicuous. Bed bugs will live, if you don’t kill them all, they will come back, bombs and spray don’t work, you need to kill them all, to do that you have to find them. So how do you find bed bugs? There are many ways that this can be done, here I will explain how to get rid of bed bugs. Go to your local bed store or whatever, and get yourself a dust might mattress cover, doing this will prevent the bed bugs from getting into your mattress and laying eggs, this is the first step that I had taken when I started noticing bed bug bites all over me. Luckily for me, it wasn’t that bad of a situation, meaning it wasn’t a major infestation, to test out just how bad, or not bad, my bed bug problem was, I decided to make my bed and mattress almost impossible for them to get to.

First thing I did is I went to the hardware store and I bought some double sided tape, the strong kind, cost about 20 bucks but well worth it to find out how many bed beds you really got crawling around waiting to take a bite out of you. Then I pulled the bed and mattress about 8 inches away from the wall, this way the bed bugs couldn’t get to me from the wall, knowing that they love to hide up in cracks in the ceiling, especially if you have pop corn ceiling. Then I went to the frame of the bed and wrapped the double sided tape around all four legs, and just for some extra protection I wrapped the double sided tape all the way around the bottom base mattress. Now if I don’t let my sheets hit the ground while I am sleeping and I don’t push the pillow 8 inches to the wall, the bed bugs have no way of reaching me. Remember, bed bugs are wingless insects, so they cannot fly, not only that, they are not very mobile at all, so they don’t stand a shot in hell of getting to me. The next morning I closely examined the double sided tape, and sure enough I had found a couple of stuck, soon to die bed bugs. That is one of many ways on how to get rid of bed bugs.

Watch Out For The Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs are found everywhere worldwide, every continent and every country. But how do they find their way into your home ? It’s really not all that difficult, they can travel in your clothes, in your luggage, they can get to you by swapping furniture with somebody so be careful of who you are trading or buying furniture from. If somebody is giving away a mattress I would stay away from that offer because they are probably giving it away for free for a reason, I had to learn this the hard way unfortunately and I will never accept a mattress from anybody ever again. So that means don’t ever ever get and abandoned mattress no matter how new and good it looks.

Common spots for the bed bugs to hide out are inside crevasses inside mattresses and they can also live in walls which in the past has been a problem for apartments and especially motels and hotels. So if you have to stay at a hotel for a night or two try and keep your luggage away from the furniture, that way if the hotel does have an infestation they have a lesser chance of getting a free trip into your home.
With that being said if your home or apartment does have a bed bug infestation simply moving to another house or switching apartments isn’t going to do much. There is also an assumption that bed bugs are more common in messy homes, as this is untrue, bed bugs are not attracted to dirt they are attracted to your blood. If you have a messy room the only thing that is going to do is give the bed bugs more places to hide, as if they don’t already have tons of places to hide out until your sleeping soundly.

Bed Bug Basics

Everyone that has had a problem with bed bugs want to know how to kill bed bugs, but before we get into that let me tell you a little about these small night crawling blood sucking insects. Bed Bugs are becoming a common problem and a huge nuisance in our modern day age. Adult bed bugs are oval shaped, they don’t have any wings and they also have a reddish-brown color to them. The adults can get between 4-5 millimeters and they can be seen with the naked eye. Bed bugs are slightly transparent which means you can see your blood inside them which would appear to be black.

A bed bugs favorite time to feed on its host (you) is generally right before sunrise. Although they can feed at any time of the day or the night feeding right before sunrise is when they seem to be most active. Bed bugs are attracted to its host by body heat and the carbon dioxide that we exhale. They can hide in many of places, this includes inside the mattress, any cracks or crevasses in the mattress, in walls, especially in small cracks, inside outlets, inside your dirty laundry, inside your dresser, in your blankets and sheets.

Bed bugs cannot live without a host, in most cases this means you. They need your blood to stay alive, although bed bugs can live up to a year without feeding. When a bed bug bites you the bite is painless. But sometimes it can leave a bump like a mosquito bite on you from the saliva that they inject into you. Bed bugs are not very mobile, they are very slow and will most often hide about 20 feet away from dinner, again this means you. If you notice insect bites on you then you might have a bed bug problem and it should be seen to immediately since females can hatch about 10 eggs per day. There are many methods on how to kill bed bugs, but the best solution is to get a professional exterminator, or you can continue to read what I have to say, and I will lead you in the direction and teach you how to get rid of bed bugs.