Items Infected With Bed Bugs

Dealing with bed bug infected items.

Should you dispose of infected items?

You will not need to dispose of items unless extremely infested to the point of no longer being of use, but the following may apply and then you may consider disposal.

  • Heavily infested with eggs/excrement/blood to the point of being unusable and unwanted. 
  • Items that are in poor condition with holes and tears, such as heavily infested mattresses with a high amount of eggs and evidence of bugs inside the mattress. 
Although it is not required to remove and dispose of beds and mattresses once an infestation occurs, as these can be treated by an experienced pest controller, as mentioned above, there are circumstances when you may wish to remove the mattress. 

If the mattress is in extremely poor condition with holes and tears and you cannot face using it again, this is a decision you will have to make, but obviously it has cost implications on replacing it and disposing of it correctly. 

Bed bugs London

Items that are stored under an infected bed or in close proximity such as bed side units or even in wardrobes/chest of draws (particularly if returning from holiday/travelling with bugs in luggage and transferring to furniture via clothing) are likely to show signs of being infected, this would usually be the presence of eggs or live bugs. 

Clothing and other fabric items, curtains, bedding and so on will require being washed at a temperature of 60c or above or in a tumble dryer on high heat for over an hour. 

Depending on the type of treatment you are to have will depend on how to deal with items such as books or canvas paintings that are commonly found on bedroom walls. 

If you have found evidence of bed bug activity on these (pictures on the wall above a bed is a common location for bed bugs, check the rear) then I would first place them into something like clingfilm or into a sealed air tight bag, such as zip lock to contain the infected area if you are going to move them as you do not want to spread the bed bugs to another area. 

How to deal with these items depends on the type of treatment you are having. Chemical treatments would not be suitable to treat these items as they would ruin them and also make cleaning them after difficult. However, if you are to have a heat treatment, if your location permits, those items would be able to be treated as the property will be sealed and then the temperature raised to a level that will kill the bugs.  

Some DO NOTS.

  • Do not move items to other areas of your property, another property or your vehicle until you are sure they are not infected with bed bugs.
  • Do not place infected items into public areas such as shared doorways, communal areas of flats as this  could spread the infestation. 
  • Do not give infected items away or donate them.
  • Do not think that by simply re decorating or moving property you will rid yourself of bed bugs.
  • Do not use items such as microwaves/ovens to try and heat items. This is a fire risk.
  • Do not believe all the horror stories you read regarding bed bugs. Find yourself a good pest controller by asking questions, reading reviews and researching. A good pest controller will explain everything to you before and during the treatments, if he has not, you are not using a good pest controller. 
  • Do not entertain and fogging or smoke bomb treatments.
Some DO'S. 

  • Do follow the advice of your pest controller and prepare you property for treatment before he arrives. Some pest controllers (I myself do) will be happy to check personal items for you once they arrive if you are concerned of the presence of eggs/bugs before you move them. 
  • Do ask questions. Any good pest controller has spent many years carrying out these treatments and learning all they know, they will be only to happy to discuss the process, treatments and bed bugs with you. If they are avoiding doing so, do you feel comfortable using them?
  • Do take care if you are disposing of anything, do so correctly, wrap it, seal it, mark it as being infected. The side of the street is not a suitable way to dispose of items. 
  • Do take care when visiting friends and family. Bed bugs are excellent at hitching a ride!
Darren Groves

 







Comments

  1. God !! They look really rotten just because of this bed bug bites.

    May be humans get rashes instead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. congratulations guys, quality information you have given!!! bug exterminator

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just a quick question. Will the local council take away an infested mattress provided I seal it in plastic etc?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think it's awesome post to learn more about the bed bug Problem. So many people like this article to know about the solution of the problem. If i talk about my self then this article very useful for me and some points are new for me. Keep it Up.

    ReplyDelete

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