Bed Bugs Killer: How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs at Home

Habitat

1. Bed bugs love warm areas with plenty of hiding places.
2. You'll find them in your mattresses, carpeting, throw pillows and sofa beds.
3. They often hide in tufts, seams, and crevices of the mattress, bed frame, box spring, and headboard.
4. They lie in wait for their prey and patiently take the time to come out and feed.
5. A single female will lay up to 1,000 eggs in her life time.
   

Having a good night's sleep could be next to impossible if your bed is infested with bed bugs. Suffering from a bed bug bite can feel a little like a nightmare, because it can be really itchy and distressing. While bed bugs are a real nusance, it's good to know there is a plethora of solutions to the problems they present.

Know your enemy

For those who are science geeks, the scientific name for bed bugs is "Cimex lectularius." In other words, a bug that prefers to suck the blood out of humans.

Bed bugs are tiny, wingless insects that can be found any place in the world. Bed bugs operate similarly to nocturnal parasites, meaning they are active in finding human hosts at night.

Bed bugs bite using their own highly developed mouth parts, or built in straws for short, to stab you while you're asleep and suck your blood. The feast only takes a short period of less than a minute to as long as three minutes to complete. Thankfully, a bed bug bite is painless and the human host will only know he's been a nighttime buffet when he awakes to find bites on his flesh.

Bed bugs are not picky on where they hang out as long as they have someone to bite. They can live in sleeping bags, egg foam, cardboard stacks or even water beds. Water beds have nooks and crannies and are usually warm, which is the preferred temperature of bed bugs.

Bite it

You know you have been bitten by a bed bug if you see large wheels. These wheels eventually become a small red mark that only last for a few days. The bite is also made in orderly rows unlike the random pattern made by mosquitoes and fleas, and could become itchy.

The worst bed bug bites are those that swell and form blisters or even those that result in small loss of skin tissue. On an interesting note, not all bites or any bite-like reactions are caused by bed bugs. If you've been bitten, try to find the bugs themselves. It might have been a flea or a small spider that snuck under your covers. (Said from experience)

If you been bitten, you don't need to worry about getting any hazardous disease. The medical significance of the bites is limited mainly to inflammation and itching. Washing the bite with soap and water is the proper way to immediately treat bites. Various anti-itch creams are available in drugstores.

Prevention

Maintaining proper hygiene and cleanliness is the best way to avoid bed bug bites. Bed sheets should be changed at least once a week and floors especially those carpeted need to be vacuumed frequently. If possible, locate the home of the bedbugs and spray it with a special insecticide to kill a considerable number of these unwanted visitors.

Use bed covers made from vinyl, the type that completely enclose the mattress and wipe the cover clean at least a couple times a month. Amazon.com has some great deals on mattress covers for bed bugs.  See the amazon listings below to find what might work best for you.  Click and find out which ones people have found to work best.

So, it's too late and you've already got bed bugs, now what?  Find the little suckers. 

• Look in every nook and crany around your bed, your mattress, floor - your entire bedroom.
  
• Vacuum out what you find.  Take your findings and burn the little suckers in the backyard.  Do your best creepy Jack Nicholson impression and chant, "Everybody dies!!!!!!"  Remember, you don't want the little vampires returning, and burning is a sure fire way to make sure they don't.
  
• Use something like Lysol to wash everything.  Make sure the water is good and hot.
• Lastly, you'll need to use an effective spray or powder or combination to finish them off and make sure they stay gone.  You'll find some options below.  Check them out, see what others think and do some investing.  Remember, price does make a difference.  Cheaper stuff is seldom, if ever effective.

In the long run, you might have to call an exterminator.  Make sure you do your homework and call everyone in the book.  Let each one know who gave you the better offer and see if they'll lower their price. 

Don't be fooled into believing you have to use a nationally known company.  Some of your local guys are probably using the same stuff and you'll get a better deal.  Aside from the price, compare their warranties.  You might even ask for phone numbers so you can call people they've helped before.

But hopefully, you'll be able to kill them off on your own.  Best of luck!  And remember, they're not impossible to get rid of - just a bit annoying.

Sometimes you can unwillingly and unknowingly bring bed bugs home from a hotel, cabin, lodge or cottage you've stayed at. Fishermen have been known to encounter this problem on occasion.

There's one good way to avoid staying in a bed bug infested place. (March/April 2011), In-Fisherman magazine suggests checking out an online source called: Bed Bug Registry. You can search towns or specific hotels, etc. and see if there have been any reports. You can also report places you've encountered bed bugs yourself.

For back up safety, you might also want to check out the amazon links above and pick up the travel editions of bed bug spray.