There are some specific steps that you need to take if you have BedBugs.  You’ll want to learn how to kill bed bugs and get them out of your home.

It doesn’t matter if you plan on using use a professional exterminator or if you plan do it yourself.  There are some specific steps that you need to take to help insure that you get rid of the bugs.

If you don’t take all of these steps it makes it easier for the bedbugs to reappear.  That’ll cost you in frustration and possibly money.

1. How To Identify Bed Bugs:

This first step most important step in learning how to kill bed bugs may seem sort of obvious.  But it is crucial that you know exactly what it is that you are dealing with in your home.

Here are some Bed Bug Pictures

If you want to learn how to kill Bed Bugs you need to understand that they require a different treatment.

So make sure that you take the time and know what type of bugs that you are trying to treat.

This step also helps you locate where the infestation that is bothering you is located.  You should know how large it is so that you can make sure you know what you are dealing with.

2. Do You Want To Use A Bed Bug Exterminator:

The next step that you should take is deciding whether or not you want to use a professional exterminator. There are pros and cons to dealing with an exterminator.

The first thing, of course, is that hiring an exterminator can get to be pretty expensive.  How expensive can depend upon how big the infestation.  Also, you are the person that is going to be paying the bill.

Usually, rental property owners will pay for an exterminator.  But if you own your home you may end up footing the entire bill.

Stranger In Your Home

The second thing to consider is that you are going to be allowing a stranger to poke around in your home.  For many people, this can be a real problem.

If you decide to and can afford to use an exterminator you then need to know they are experienced.  They have to know how to kill bed bugs if they are going to help you.

To exterminate these tenacious bugs requires an experienced exterminator.  They need to know both the proper and safe procedures and chemicals that will work the best.

What Works

The problem is that many of the normal steps won’t work.  What works in other situations of bug infestations just don’t work with bedbugs.  This is in part because they have become resistant to the chemicals.

So you need to make sure that anyone that you hire and allow in your home is knowledgeable.  They need to know about these bugs and knows how to do the job of killing them.

Look out for this red flag.  Some exterminators will guarantee that the bugs can all be treated in just one service.  But this is a sign that they are either untrained or just trying to get your money.

This is because bed bug eggs are so hard to kill that any extermination efforts need to include re-treating.  As the eggs hatch new bed bugs will emerge.  Any competent exterminator should be able to present you with a plan that includes retreating to kill these bugs.

3. Is De-Cluttering Your Home Important to Kill Bed Bugs?

Let’s say that you decide to bring in a professional to do the extermination.  There are still be several steps that you should take to increase your chances of killing bed bugs.

One of the big ones is de-cluttering your home.  This is especially important in areas around the places where you sleep.  This can include your bed, sofa, and chairs. Preparing For Treatment

Bed Bugs aren’t attracted by clutter.  But it does give them extra places that they can hide.  It also can make treatments less effective.

One of the main routes that bed bugs use to get to feed on you is along the edges of your carpet.  They don’t like to be out in the open.  If you have piles of boxes or books along that wall treatment will be more difficult.   These will also give the bugs more places to hide.

These bugs also like to hide near their food source which is you.  So having clutter around your bed or in other areas where you sleep gives them more hiding places.

So taking the time to clean up clutter in and around sleep areas will make any treatment more effective.  You’ll get the most bang for your buck.  So whether you are paying for an exterminator or on your own, treatment efforts are more effective.

4. Limit Access:

This stage is just as important if not more so than all the others.

The bugs have gotten into your home somehow.  Even if you are successful at treating your current infestation.  You need to deal with how they got in your home in the first place.  Otherwise, it’s likely that they are going to re-infest your home.

It’s always possible that you brought the bugs into your home in a box or bag or with a piece of used furniture.   You might not have checked them carefully enough.  But once you’ve learned how to kill them you also need to learn how to keep them out of your home.

Still, one common way that bedbugs get into our homes is when they travel along wires or pipes.  They’ll come from nearby units that have become infested.

To keep bed bugs from getting into your home from nearby infested units you need to learn how to block them.  Block as many of these entry points as possible.  Often times there are small holes around plumbing or electrical outlets that can be blocked.  You can also be treated around these entry points.

You should try to find where the bugs are coming from so you can make sure these areas get treated.

5. Encapsulate and Raise:

One important tip I can give you is to make your bed(s) harder for the bugs to climb on.  Part of protecting yourself from infestations in your mattress, box springs, and pillows.  Use commercially available bed bug proof covers such as SafeRest Certified Bed Bug Encasements

These enclosures are designed to seal any bugs that are in your mattress and pillows inside.  This will also keep new infestations out.

Sometimes you can find these mattress enclosures in stores.  But you can also use the links on this page and throughout this site to order them online.  Just make sure that they are the proper size for your beds and marked “Bed Bug Proof”.  This is an extremely important step in how to kill bed bugs.

Bed Bug Risers

Once you encapsulated your mattress and box springs you need to keep new bugs from crawling up the bed frame.  You can do this by using bed risers under the feet of your bed. 

These risers are plastic and have slick surfaces so the bugs can’t get into bed with you.  These can be difficult to find but here is a reliable source at Bed Bug Supply.  You can also use sturdy glasses or some slick plastic bowl or cup under the feet.

Then, you should always make sure that there are no blankets hanging down to the floor.  These can be used as a ladder by the bugs to get on your bed.

If you are dealing with a large infestation you might even consider moving your bed away from the wall.  These will keep the bugs from climbing the walls to get to you.

These steps won’t kill the bugs.  But they will help to give you instant relief.  It keeps them from feeding on you at night.

6. How to Treat for Bed Bugs:

Now is the time to treat with chemicals.  SafeRest Mattress Encasements for infestations.  But if you have a larger one you may need to use other chemicals as well.

Just make sure that you know how to kill bed bugs.  Carefully follow the safety instructions on any products that you use.  The last thing that you want is to make you or your family sick from the treatment.

7. Should You Retreat for Bed Bugs?

Here is the difference between a treatment that is successful and one that fails!  This is important if you want to know how to kill bed bugs!

That is making sure that you retreat about ten days after the first treatment.  Even with complete fumigation of your home.  It’s likely that most if not all of the eggs that have been laid will hatch after your first treatment.

Bed Bug eggs take about two weeks to hatch and are extremely hard to destroy.  So to kill this next generation you need to retreat after the eggs have hatched.  In fact, you might want to consider two retreatments just to make sure that you have killed all the bugs.

So retreat sometime between 10 and 14 days after the initial treatment.  Make sure that you check carefully and retreat a third time if you see any bugs.

Conclusion: How to Kill Bed Bugs

Learning how to kill bed bugs is a process that you can do yourself or use an exterminator.  Even if you use an exterminator using these steps will help you to improve the odds that you will be successful.