You open your winter duvet and find a small bug near the seam line of the mattress. Or you see some dark spots on the bed sheets and you suspect that it might be caused by bed bugs. The idea may come into your mind to strip your bed and move everything to the laundry area.
But do not move anything just yet. If you suspect that you have bed bugs in your home, search for signs and take some pictures before moving any item. Moving loose items such as beddings or furniture will simply make the problem relocate to a different place.
If you live in Barrie, winter weather can naturally solve the problem. However, a Barrie pest control expert should be consulted before leaving your mattress out in the cold or storing your bags in the garage, as this is not necessarily the right way to go about it at first place.
Check for Evidence before Stripping the Bed
Start With Mattress Seams and the Bed Frame
Visual examination of the mattress piping, seams, and labels with the use of a flashlight is required. One should inspect available parts of the box springs, crevices, and joints of bed frames, headboards, and so forth.
Move along the bed very slowly but without the need to dismantle any furniture. No furniture dismantling nor removing of electrical coverings is needed for the initial inspection.
Check for the live bugs, cast skins, tiny white eggs, and dark spots. One should also pay attention to the rusty spots; however, it doesn’t mean that stain on the sheets proves the bed bugs’ presence.
The skin irritation cannot serve as the evidence of their presence either. Other pests or skin conditions may cause these symptoms as well.
Photograph What You Find
Take a clear macro photograph and wide-angle view of the area. When possible, put the insect in a sealed, small container for future identification purposes.
Observe the date and exact location. “Seam on the mattress next to the headboard” is better than “somewhere in the bedroom.”
It must be done before trying to remove the mark. By doing that, you will be able to give your complaint without recalling it from memory.
If there is no solid evidence, you don’t need to turn the entire room upside down. Send your photos to have the object identified.
Keep Bedding and Furniture in Place until You Have a Plan
Avoid Carrying Loose Bedding into Other Rooms
Do not shake the sheets or bring an unwrapped bundle of blankets around the house. Place those items that need to be washed in bags directly at the point of signs detection.
An open laundry basket will have no bugs, neither will it help if you wrap a duvet around other laundry.
Do not separate any suspected clothing on the couch, additional bed or laundry floor. Plan your next move prior to picking anything up, making sure that the item gets moved right from one place to another – from the location to a sealed bag and then to the proper place.
Making the others in the house aware of the procedure is crucial. Writing a little notice on the bag will ensure that nobody looks for his/her favorite blanket in the bag.
Do Not Rush to Move or Throw Away the Mattress
Detecting bed bugs doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to throw away the mattress. There are certain things you can salvage from the infestation.
Moving the mattress within the house will increase the probability of spreading the bugs within the house. Purchasing a new mattress without taking care of the problem in the room would only waste your time.
While removing the things from under the bed, ensure that you leave the things in the same room until you are able to decide what needs to be done about them. Avoid bringing the things into the other room while cleaning the floors.
If the decision is to dispose of the stuff, find out how the things should be packed for disposal. Don’t give away or sell anything that could be infested.
Handle Necessary Laundry without Spreading the Problem
Bag Items before Leaving the Room
Choose tough sacks that have proper closing. Do not overload the sacks, especially those containing large volume winter blankets that might tear the plastic sacks.
Label each bag with its contents and status. For example:
- “Bedroom sheets — untreated”
- “Wool blanket — needs advice”
- “Clean clothing — treated”
Make sure that the bags are sealed until you are ready to handle their contents. At the washing machine, put the clothes directly into the machine without placing them anywhere else.
For laundromats, consult the pest removal professional on how to carry the laundry to the laundromat.
Check Fabric Care before Using Heat
A single wash cycle might not be enough to kill all the bed bugs.
For those items that can tolerate the process, a wash cycle followed by a domestic dryer operating at high temperatures for at least 30 minutes is the common procedure to kill bed bugs and their eggs.
But this does not imply that all items are suitable for the same method.
Always consider the instructions of the fabric and the machine. One should never stuff a small dryer with a huge duvet and expect that the center of the duvet has been subjected to enough heat.
Woolen blankets, delicates, and “dry clean only” fabrics need special attention. In case the temperature suggested may cause harm to these items, ask for special advice.
Let the laundry or cleaning service know in advance about your problem.
Keep Treated Items Separate
Put the treated clothes in new clean bags or other appropriate containers. You cannot put the clothes into the non-treated carrier bag again.
It has to be absolutely obvious. It ensures that there will be no chance that the clean clothes get into an uncleared drawer.
Putting something in a bag and treating it is quite a different story. Two or three days of keeping something in plastic will never provide guarantee for cleanliness.
Treatment is relevant to laundry only. It does not affect the insects that may hide themselves in the bed or anywhere else in the room.
Why Putting Belongings Outside Is Not a Reliable Winter Fix
It is natural to wonder if the weather in Barrie during the winter season can handle the task for you. Porches, balconies or even a garage without heating could appear quite cold enough to kill practically everything.
But the issue is to keep it cold enough for a prolonged period of time. The temperature outside will be changing, and the center of a folded comforter or mattress will not get as cold as the surrounding air right away.
As explained by Health Canada, freezing has to be done for a long time and consistently, yet there is no way to guarantee that it will kill all bed bugs. It will take several days of freezing to make sure that the items are safe to bring inside.
Don’t move your furniture outside just to test it out. It will have to stay contained when moved, and the exposure to the snow and moisture will damage it.
Don’t try any other methods such as opening windows or turning off the heat in rooms. Maintain your house at a normal and safe temperature.
Don’t use the opposite treatment with the help of portable heaters or raising the thermostat.
Arrange an Inspection Before Doing a Whole-Room Clear-Out
You need not clean up everything in order to ask for help. Knowing what items to identify and how to prepare yourself for the task can help prevent mistakes.
When you contact a pest control professional, explain:
- What you found and exactly where you found it.
- Whether you have photographs or a contained specimen.
- Which belongings have already moved between rooms.
- Whether you have applied sprays or other products.
- Whether mobility, storage space or laundry access affects what you can prepare.
Get your instructions before clearing the drawers and removing the heavy furniture. This preparation may vary depending on the inspection and treatment.
In case you are a renter, be sure to inform your landlord about it. In case you live in a condominium or in any other property where sharing is done, it is important that you let the managers of such building know.
In the meantime, be sure that the suspects are kept separately while you proceed with your observations. Do not apply more than one home treatment at a time since it would be hard for you to give your reasoning.
If you have suspected the presence of bedbugs in your Barrie home, reach out to Simcoe PestX before you shift the bed or furniture from one room to another.