How to get bedbugs out of the sofa yourself
The opinion that bedbugs breed in a room where there is a lot of dust and dirt is erroneous: any person can bring new "tenants" on their clothes from the street. More options: they move from neighbors or "move" with old furniture.
Several reasons for the appearance of insects in your home:
- parasites squeeze into any gap due to their small size, therefore they can move from neighbors;
- bedbugs are transferred in the folds of clothes: after guests, it is necessary to wash blankets and linen at a water temperature of 50 degrees;
- you can bring bloodsuckers from the hotel, after a business trip. Important: It is recommended to put your suitcases away from sofas and beds, preferably in wardrobes. At home, be sure to wash your clothes;
- buying used furniture. It is necessary to inspect the frame and soft material for nests.
Rarely, but it is possible for insects to appear in new sofas: the warehouses do not carry out checks for the presence of parasites.
Please note: many are not susceptible to bedbug bites, therefore, new "tenants" can be found much later.
Why are bedbugs harmful?
During the bite, the parasites inject an anesthetic substance into the wound, because of which the person does not feel pain immediately. After a certain time, the bite site swells and changes color, itches. The "hunt" of insects begins at night - with such "neighbors" it will not be possible to sleep peacefully, nervousness and irritability appear.
A serious allergic reaction may occur, the appearance of papules, itching, pain. Ulcers form on the skin, and anaphylactic shock is possible in allergy sufferers. Household bugs are carriers of diseases such as typhoid, anthrax, tularemia, hepatitis.
Children are especially sensitive to bites: tooth and redness can spread to large areas of the skin, provoking pain and discomfort. Lymph nodes may enlarge, the temperature may rise, and a headache may torment.
How to spot bedbugs on the couch
It is necessary to understand not only how to get rid of the invasion of household bugs in the sofa or bed on your own, but also how to detect them. Colonies of parasites may be few in number, and bites may be rare. An adult bug feeds 1 time in 5 - 7 days, drinking up to 7 ml of blood at a time.
Important: A sign of the presence of bloodsuckers: a "path" through a blood vessel, itching and burning, therefore, should not be confused with mosquito bites.
Signs of insect nests in your apartment:
- traces of insect activity - black dots on the upholstery of the sofa;
- crushed bodies - the chitinous shell bursts from oversaturation;
- specific smell - adults secrete a secret to scare off enemies.
Each of these signs indicates the appearance of bedbugs. It is important to determine the location from habitat and breeding.These can be sofa walls or baseboards, wall decor, pet houses.
To find the nests of bedbugs, you will have to disassemble the sofa, inspect the frame and its internal cavities. It is necessary to remove the upholstery fabric, remove the hardboard. Insects hide in secluded places - without disassembling the sofa, it is often impossible to detect the problem.
Important! To completely get rid of eggs and adults, you will have to follow the instructions: disassemble furniture, collect parasites, carry out processing.
It is worth considering that bedbugs are nocturnal inhabitants and it is almost impossible to find them during the day. They are forced to crawl out of hiding because of hunger or the specific smell of compounds - irritants. After disassembling the bed, you can notice the presence of "neighbors" by the black excrement. In adults, a brown flattened wide body, if the bug has drunk blood before that, the chitin becomes reddish.
Nymphs are clearly visible - larvae of pests, no more than 6 mm in size. The larvae that have just hatched are transparent, yellowish. As they grow older, they become darker in color. Bedbug eggs look like light-colored capsules, 1 - 2 mm long. They can be in different corners of furniture or in one place. You can determine the appearance of bedbugs by the scattered skin that the larva throws off.
Treatment of the sofa from bedbugs
We will learn how to get bedbugs out of the couch at home. The approach to dealing with bloodsuckers must be comprehensive. Processing takes half a day or several days, depending on the size of the apartment. The procedure is started from the floor and the wall behind the back of the sofa: this is necessary to avoid re-infection.
Important! Pests lay the larvae in the cracks in the parquet floor or in the joints between the wallpaper.
It is recommended to wash the place where the furniture was standing with hot water and soapy water or chemicals.
Special means
Diatomite is widely used - a mineral powder that is safe for humans and pets. The second name of the product is "diatomaceous earth". It is applied by douching on the surface of furniture and remains for a couple of days. Then it is gently wiped off the upholstery with a damp cloth.
Second option: scarers with ultrasound. They are effective for beds and armchairs, but for sofas with a thick layer of upholstery, the method will not work: the waves will not pass through the blocks of springs and pillows. There are many chemicals that are applied to all parts and pieces of disassembled furniture. The attachment points, legs, bottom, upholstery material, frame are processed.
Advice! It is important to follow all safety rules: work is carried out with gloves and respirators, and the room is then thoroughly ventilated.
To enhance the effect of the treatment, you can cover the sofa with an airtight cover or film. Upon completion of the procedure, wet cleaning and airing are required. Insecticides come in different types: sprays, powders, capsules.
Folk remedies
You can also try folk methods: spray vinegar or turpentine onto the surface. Due to the specific smell, the funds not only kill bedbugs, but also scare them away. Minus: the pungent smell will remain on the furniture for a long time. Essential oils are suitable for these purposes: cloves, peppermint, tea tree or lavender. The composition dissolves in water and is washed on sofas and floors nearby.
Important! Oils repel, but do not kill insects!
You can use the temperature method: pests do not tolerate a sharp change in temperature. They can get used to chemicals, but they die from freezing. If the degrees in the infected room are reduced to -10, the larvae will die, along with the entire "family". In the private sector, you can turn off the heating in the cold season or leave the doors open. The downside is that it will not work to take the bed outside, and the upholstery will deteriorate from a sharp change in conditions.
For the life of bedbugs, the normal temperature is up to 30 degrees. It is possible to remove insects only with an increase in performance. Alternatively, you can carry out treatment with a steam generator - the main thing is to get out difficult areas.
Mechanical impact
Bedbugs move slowly, so they can be collected with gloved hands or with a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner with good power will be able to collect them even from under the fabric. Parasites are clearly visible on light-colored materials, so you can try fly tape.
Remember! The collected insects do not die - they must be sprayed with poison or flushed down the drain.
In what cases does an apartment need to be re-processed?
After you have treated the sofa from household bugs with improvised means at home, the parasites die within a month. It happens that insects adapt to chemicals. The percentage of survivability in this case exceeds 93%, both adults and eggs remain.
During this period of time, the parasites spread throughout the apartment, move along the poisoned floor surface and receive their dose of poison. Young individuals die 2 weeks after disinfestation - the larvae that hatch from the eggs also die. If capsule formulations were used during processing, the validity period is extended by 30 days. Such drugs have a longer activity - they can work over a long time.
Re-processing with already stronger poisons is carried out in such cases:
- new bites continue to appear on the skin;
- the habitat has changed: insects have moved from the bedroom to the living room or nursery;
- the infection at home has occurred again: through ventilation or on clothing;
- self-hypnosis on the subconscious - it seems to the apartment owners that the pests have not disappeared anywhere.
If you do not adhere to the rules of pest control, not all eggs will die the first time. Possibly improper preparation or missed nest while spraying poison. The second option: wet cleaning was carried out too quickly, the poison did not work.
Those who survive develop immunity to the drugs, which is passed on to offspring. Secondary pest control is performed in several steps, it is best if the work is done by professionals. The algorithm looks like this:
- an assessment of the level of infection is carried out;
- the most dangerous areas are determined;
- food, personal items are taken out of the room;
- small children, animals and adults, except for the exterminator, leave the apartment;
- furniture moves to the center of the room - passages to the walls must be open;
- the chemical composition is being prepared;
- spraying is in progress.
The specialist tightly closes the windows, you can ventilate the room after 3 hours (according to the instructions). Further, wet cleaning is carried out.
Advice! The room will have to be cleaned a few days after the procedure - the bugs will crawl out of their hiding place and die. You can use a vacuum cleaner to collect half-dead or dead bloodsuckers.
Could bedbugs be in the new sofa?
In theory, bedbugs may appear in the house after buying new furniture. But this is a rarity, since there is nothing to feed on insects in warehouses and shops. Most often, the parasites started up in the apartment earlier, but were not noticed and it may seem to the tenants that the nests were created in the new sofa.
Prophylaxis
No one is immune from the appearance of parasites: they are brought into the house on clothes and shoes, pet hair. It is recommended to wash things at a temperature of 50 degrees and above, wash shoes and take hygiene measures for pets after a walk. Basic preventive measures:
- frequent wet cleaning with antibacterial agents;
- disposal of garbage and old things;
- rejection of used furniture and textiles, antiques.
After the purchase has been made, it is advisable to check everything for the presence of bedbug nests and eggs, and carry out processing. If insects have been detected earlier, you need to constantly carry out preventive cleaning of furniture items. In order not to spread the eggs to other rooms, it is better to put clothes from the drawers of the sofa in plastic bags and treat them with products in another place.
The invasion of bed bugs is an unpleasant phenomenon. The fight against parasites is often stretched out for a long time, not all folk and improvised means are effective. The most sensible solution is to seek help from disinfectants.
Video: how to get rid of bedbugs in the couch
