It’s every house owner’s worst fear – to hear the words “you’ve got bed bugs.” Sadly, it’s not an uncommon reality. Many people are ashamed of the fact that they might have bed bugs, although it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Bed bugs don’t only live in dirty areas, and they tend to spread very quickly. What might have started out as a few bed bugs, may have exploded into a full-on infestation. And the scary part is that bed bugs don’t just occur in beds. They can be found in most types of furniture, from couches to drawers, and even in curtain folds. Gross, right? It’s natural that as soon as you’ve found out you have bed bugs, you’ll want to get rid of them and have your house (and life) return to normal. We’re going to guide you on how to do just that.
Determine where they are
Before you call in the exterminators, try to determine where the bed bugs are. Even if you can’t give an exact location, any information you are able to offer will be helpful for the extermination company. As mentioned, these bugs can occur nearly anywhere, so it’s best to do a total extermination if you’re not sure where they’re hiding.
Get rid of them
Next, you need to get rid of them as soon as possible, before they have the chance to multiply even further. Getting an exterminator shouldn’t be too tedious, as most areas have a local exterminator. For example, if you have bed bugs in Atlanta, Georgia, look at local exterminators first. It may be a good idea to arrange to sleep somewhere other than your house for a few days, depending on what method they use for extermination and how intense it is. You wouldn’t want to put you or your family at risk.
Get rid of any furniture that could lead to more bed bugs
While bed bugs don’t cause furniture damage by chewing or gnawing at it, they do tend to live in cracks and crevices of furniture. So, if your furniture is uneven and filled with hiding places for beg bugs, there’s a chance that they might reappear, even after extermination. If you believe there is nothing to be done to the furniture to make it more bed bug safe, rather get rid of it. You can always use this as the perfect excuse to buy new furniture, or challenge yourself to do some DIY furniture projects if you’re bored or on a tight budget.
Fix furniture
If you can’t afford to let your furniture go, or you think it can be salvaged, you can try to make it more bed bug proof. Since bed bugs occupy any cracks or crevices, if there is a way for you to get rid of these when it comes to your furniture, you can have it both ways – you get to keep the furniture without inviting bed bus into your home. But how do you do this? While there are a few ways of smoothing out your furniture, you have two main options. Option number one is to somehow fill in these cracks and uneven parts, leaving you with smooth furniture. You can do this with epoxy resin or any other suitable material. Option two is to sand down the surface until it is entirely smooth. This may not be a suitable option if the cracks run deep, though.
Move furniture back to where it was
If the exterminators did a thorough job, they’ve likely moved a lot of your furniture around. Couple this with the fact that you’ve possible had to get rid of or fix some furniture, and your house may look and feel entirely different. In fact, it may even feel like the bed bugs have taken over your entire house! Luckily, this is something that can easily be fixed. Moving everything back to where it was is certainly the quickest and easiest step towards getting your house back to normal.
Preventative measures
No matter how hard you try to sleep better, you’ll likely never get a good night’s rest again if you’re constantly worried about the possibility of bed bugs making a reappearance. You’ll start to feel them crawling over you, even when they’re not there. You need to take the necessary measure in order to ensure that they won’t be able to come back again. After all, you don’t want to go through all of this trouble only to go through it again in a few months.
