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Questions?
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Getting Bed Bugs Out
of Your Stuff
- How to "de-bug" your personal
items -
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Summary:
If you are unlucky and discover that you've spent
time in a room infested with bed bugs, what should
you do to clean or "de-bug" your personal items that
can't be washed? Use the suggestions below to stop
an infestation before it starts.
Jack
DeAngelis, PhD
OSU
Ext. Entomologist (ret.)
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Bed bugs are experts at
hitching a ride from place to place on our personal
belongings like suitcases, backpacks, pillows, and
just about anything brought into an infested room
and placed near the bed. In fact, since bed bugs
lack wings and are not equipped to walk very far
they depend on us to move them around (see How
To Identify Bed Bug Infestations). What then
should you do if you discover that you have
unwittingly stayed over night in a room infested
with bed bugs so as not to carry the little vermin
home?
Wash in hot water and
heat dry
Place belonging in
plastic garbage bags. When you get home normal
washing in warm/hot water and heat drying is
sufficient to "de-bug" anything that can be machine
washed. Most insects, including bed bugs, will
succumb to temperatures in excess of about 140
degrees F. Dry cleaning is another but more
expensive option. But, what about things that can't
be exposed to hot water, heated dryer air or to dry
cleaning chemicals?
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Bed bug
(4th instar larva, unfed) - about 1/5".
After feeding bed bugs become less
flattened, more rounded.
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Freezing is the next
best option
Place small items
that can withstand freezing
temperatures in sealed plastic bags and
place them in an ordinary home freezer for a couple
of days. This will kill all stages of bed bugs.
Larger items like suitcases can be thoroughly
cleaned and treated as you would a room (see below)
then placed in storage away from where people sleep.
How to control an
infestation
Bed bugs are not
difficult to control if the infestation is caught
early. Rooms and mattresses can be cleaned and a
residual insecticide can be used to safely get rid
of any bed bugs that were missed during cleaning
(see How to Treat Rooms For
Bed Bugs). There's no need to discard bedding,
mattresses or bedroom furniture that can be cleaned.
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Mission: To
provide accurate, up-to-date and unbiased information
for solving common insect and mite problems around
your home, business and landscape using least-toxic
methods.
Jack DeAngelis,
Ph.D.
Please see the Disclaimer statements as
well.
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