Bed bug infestations are rampant, and the chances you will experience such at least once in your lifetime are pretty high.
Of course, most of the cases will require the competent involvement of a bed bug specialist to provide a 100% guarantee, act quickly and adeptly.
Bed bug spray treatment and bed bug heat treatment are currently the two officially approved ways to professionally handle a bed bug invasion. Anyway, you can try several home-made remedies to cope with the situation yourself, if you feel like trying.
Which are they, and how to use them efficiently? Find out in the following paragraphs.
Diluted rubbing alcohol
Diluted rubbing alcohol is among the most popular home-made treatments for bed bug infestations, and it is also known to be the most effective one.
Basically, alcohol destroys bed bugs as soon as it makes direct contact with them. The only problem is: making contact is not as easy as it sounds. Bed bugs can hide deep in the mattress, pillows, and furniture, so several treatments might be needed to achieve the desired result.
What’s more: alcohol will only exterminate adult bed bugs while not proving so useful on nymphs and bed bug eggs. At the end of the day, you might slow down the infestation process. Still, you are highly unlikely to liquidate it in general.
Essential oils
Some types of essential oils are proven to repel and even suffocate bed bugs. Those include oregano, lavender, tea tree, paraffin, peppermint, silicone, and others.
Anyway, these are proven to work only in a controlled environment where bed bugs do not have the opportunity to hide and reproduce. In real life, essential oils are a gentle alternative to strong chemicals, but also not a guarantee for success.
Proper laundering
Bed bugs cannot swim and cannot survive high temperatures. Thus we can formulate the following laundry tactics to get rid of them:
- Use extended laundry programs – 30 minutes or more;
- Choose higher laundry temperatures if suitable with your textiles – 60 degrees Celsius would be best;
- Use a heat dryer after laundering your textiles, and once again prefer higher temperatures;
- If high temperatures are to damage your belongings, reach out to an expert dry cleaner to handle them for you.
In this case, laundering will manage to exterminate the fantastic 100% of bed bugs in all life stages. Anyway, this is an option only for your textiles and bedding, while your mattress and its surroundings will, unfortunately, remain infested.
Read More: How to Keep Bugs from Eating My Plants
Others
Some other alternatives to consider might include diatomaceous earth, vinegar, baking soda, and of course – thorough cleaning of the entire area.
We advise you to always keep in mind that most of these solutions will only partially do the trick. Bed bugs are quite persistent and hard to get rid of, so do not hesitate to call a specialist in case your plan doesn’t work out the way you hoped it would.
Bed bug exterminators will inspect the area, evaluate the infestation level, and propose the safest and most effective way to proceed.
