One of the most overlooked ways of getting great sleep is to make sure that your mattress is clean. A clean mattress goes a long way. No one wants to sleep on something that's dirty or worse, contaminated. Outside of liquid damages, stains, and dust mites, another issue sleepers find themselves dealing with is bed bugs.
For some, bed bugs cause a great deal of worry, anxiety, and stress. While for others, this is uncharted territory. No matter the case, we’ll let you know what you need to do to prevent and/or get rid of bed bugs in your mattress. This way you can sleep well and not worry about the bed bugs biting you.
What Are Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are small, flat wingless insects that are reddish-brown in color and approximately one-quarter inch long. They tend to hide during daylight hours and come out at night. Bed bugs can crawl extremely quickly and normally travel in between surfaces. Bed bugs aren’t known to carry diseases but can cause allergic, skin reactions.
Where Do Bed Bugs Come From
Due to their small size, bed bugs normally hid in infested areas and used furniture (old mattresses, box springs, and frames). Other places they have been known to hide are electrical outlets, underneath carpets, and loose wallpaper. As previously stated, they travel at night and that’s when they tend to travel and latch on to other areas of the house, building, or unit.
How To Know If You Have Bed Bugs
Here are some of the signs you should be mindful of if you suspect bed bugs
- A musty odor from or around the mattress.
- Bloodstains from the sheets and pillowcases (that are obviously not from you).
- Body itching.
- Dark Spots on the mattress.
How To Get Rid of Bed Bugs
1. Clean Your Mattress
Once you know that you have bed bugs, it’s time to clean the mattress. Take off all the bedding and give them a good wash. While the bedding is in the washing machine, clean the mattress.
With warm water and detergent, begin to spot clean the mattress. Make sure to get the areas that are infected (bed bug eggshells and blood stains). Don’t be too aggressive where you damage the mattress but also don’t be kind to the affected areas either. Clean these areas thoroughly so that the bedding won’t be affected once you put them on the mattress. Don’t be afraid to go over the area a second time for good measure. Spending a few minutes scrubbing the area should do the trick.
2. Protect Your Mattress
Now that we know that bed bugs are a great hassle, we wouldn’t want to deal with this mess again. To properly ensure that this doesn’t happen again, the next step is to cover the mattress.
A great way to offer your mattress complete protection against an array of issues is by using a Mattress Encasement. Encasements offer great protection against dust mites, liquid damages, bed bugs, and other irritants. No matter the issue, an encasement wraps around the entire mattress, giving you full 360 protection. Wrapping your mattress with an encasement will make it very hard for the bed bugs, or any pest, to re-enter the mattress.
3. Clean Your Area
As we stated earlier, bed bugs travel in and out tight spaces at night and they go from one place to another and hide out during the day. Instead of letting them surprise you, bring the fight to them. Don’t just clean the mattress and the bedding but clean the bed bases and the entire area/bedroom as well. Vacuum and/or mop your floor. Locate any hidden or tight spaces in your room and clean those as well. By doing so you’ll be able to prevent bed bugs from reappearing or hiding in these areas.
4. Get Rid of the Mattress
Depending on the level of infestation, no amount of cleaning will work. At a certain point, enough is enough. The best course of action is to get rid of the mattress + bed bases (if necessary). Throw out the old items and replace them.
Please be advised that unless the infected areas have been taken care of, the bed bugs can easily return if not dealt with properly. Please make sure to clean out the areas before replacing items. Be mindful of where you might get bed room items from - friends, family, or even off the street. You wouldn’t want to take care of your problem only to find out that you have brought it back. By making sure your items (old and new) are clean, you won't have to worry about these issues becoming frequent in the future.
