How to get bedbugs out of an apartment yourself and quickly

Bed bugs are the name given to blood-sucking insects that live in upholstered furniture: mattresses, sofas, armchairs, beds. Located here, pests find themselves in close proximity to the human body. Every night they come to the surface, penetrate the skin, then bite through it and drink blood. At the sites of bites, itchy wounds remain, causing discomfort to the person and disturbing his sleep. The article will talk about the characteristics of these parasites - bed bugs and how to remove bedbugs from the sofa.

Reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in the sofa

To explain where bedbugs come from on the sofa, you need to note the following features:

they move along ventilation or external walls of apartments at a speed of about 1 m per minute;
bloodsuckers freely penetrate windows, even if a mosquito net is installed on them: in this case, they squeeze between its frame and the window frame;
parasites prefer to hide in warm, dry and hard-to-reach places: for example, under upholstery and in the folds of upholstered furniture, including the sofa;
they can live for a long time without food in secluded places, so they often appear in the house along with old things.

The main routes of penetration of furniture bugs into living quarters

From basements, where they parasitize rodents and stray animals.
Along with furniture, not only used, but also new. If the sofa or armchairs were stored in unsatisfactory conditions, then there may well be bedbugs in their joints and folds.
From the next apartment. The flat shape of the body allows the furniture bug to effortlessly squeeze into adjacent rooms through ventilation holes, sockets and any cracks. Most often, the migration of these parasites occurs in old multi-story buildings, especially those located in the suburbs.
Along with purchased old things and antiques. Blood-sucking insects hide not only in furniture and mattresses, but also in soft toys, clothing, as well as household appliances and electronics.

Bed bugs can appear in the sofa and other pieces of furniture due to the fault of the owners of the apartment or house. Firstly, poor cleaning of the premises increases the risk of parasites settling and developing in living rooms. Secondly, you can literally carry bloodsuckers on yourself. This often happens after staying in budget hotels, where bed linen and furniture are not properly maintained.

Measures to prevent re-infection

After disinfecting the walls and floor, you will have to deal with the sofa. If the parasites manage to reach the surface where the poisonous medicine has already been sprayed, the beetles will certainly die.

To reduce the risk of re-infection of bedding on the sofa, the following measures help:

regular cleaning of the apartment (always using a vacuum cleaner);
no overloading the room with furniture;
when buying furniture, you need a biased inspection not only from above, but also from inside, especially if the sofa or bed was already used;
checking all details when purchasing antique furniture, mirrors in massive frames, paintings, books, table lamps;
thorough check of luggage upon return from travel, mandatory washing and ironing of items after travel;
regular checking of the sleeping place, attention to unusual details (bites on the body, but you can’t hear the squeaks of mosquitoes or on wooden parts of furniture, black dots on the walls);
cosmetic repairs at home as needed: replacing skirting boards that have come off the walls, replacing torn wallpaper, removing cracks in the floor, window sills and doors.

Removing bed bugs from a sofa permanently is quite difficult and requires patience to obtain high-quality insecticides for upholstery and wood treatments. To achieve an excellent result, two procedures are necessary: not only to destroy adult bedbugs, but also all egg laying of blood-sucking insects. After killing the bedbugs, it is advisable to place bunches of plants with a strong smell everywhere to prevent the reappearance of the beetles.

The first signs of bedbugs in upholstered furniture

The following signs indicate that there are bedbugs in the sofa:

Black spots on furniture and bedding. These are waste products of blood-sucking parasites.
Pinpoint bites on the skin in the form of a track, which appear 1-2 times a week: bedbugs do not feed on blood every day. A person can receive about 500 bites in one night. The bite site is a swelling with a bright red dot in the center.
The appearance of an unpleasant odor. Bedbugs give off a specific smell, which has been compared to the aroma of nutmeg, rotten raspberries or cheap cognac. Furniture in which these blood-sucking insects parasitize acquires a stale, musty smell.
Traces of blood on the skin and bed linen. They remain after insect bites, and also if a person, changing body position in a dream, crushes them. Traces of bedbug excrement are observed not only on the piece of furniture that they occupied: black dots appear within a radius of 3-5 m from it, on the walls, in the area of the baseboards. Bedbug bites not only cause discomfort: they can cause allergic reactions, the formation of ulcers with the addition of a secondary infection, and in severe cases, iron deficiency anemia.

Bedbug detection

The owners do not immediately find out that there are bedbugs in the house. At first, the colony may be small, and bedbug bites may be sporadic. An adult can come out to feed once every 4–7 days. In one bite, she drinks up to 7 ml of blood. Many people confuse bedbug bites with mosquito bites. But unlike the attacks of other insects, bedbugs can leave a trail of several punctures in the skin along the blood vessel. So, several red blisters with severe itching are the first sign of the presence of bedbugs. After this, it is necessary to immediately inspect the room to discover their habitats and egg laying.

Signs that your sofa has bedbugs:

black dots on the sleeping area are insect excrement;
crushed bedbugs - after being saturated with blood, they increase in size, the chitinous shell becomes too vulnerable and breaks at the slightest pressure, so a person can easily crush them simply by turning over in their sleep;
characteristic smell - bedbugs have glands from which in case of danger they squirt a secret, the unpleasant smell of which is designed to scare away enemies.

If these signs are found, then you need to find other places where insects are concentrated. These can be baseboards, back walls of cabinet furniture, paintings, lampshades, pet beds.

When the enemy is discovered, it is necessary to begin the fight against bedbugs.

How to detect bedbugs in a sofa?

Everyone who is faced with the problem of blood-sucking insects is looking for ways to get rid of bedbugs in the sofa. The first thing to do is find the nest of parasites.

What to look for when inspecting furniture?

When inspecting furniture, we advise you to look not only for adults, but also for the eggs they have laid, as well as for larvae. The body of a mature bug has a flattened shape, its size does not exceed 3-4 mm if the parasite is hungry. If it is saturated, then the dimensions reach 8 mm.

The color of the body of a blood-sucking insect also depends on satiety and varies from light brown to rich brown.

Bedbug eggs look like rice, each size is no more than 1 mm. They can only be viewed with a magnifying glass. Parasites lay eggs in hard-to-reach places on furniture.

The size of bed bug larvae reaches 0.5-2 mm. The body shape is the same as that of adults. The main difference is that the body of the larvae has no color: it is transparent.

How to remove bedbugs from a soft sofa yourself

Do not move furniture or objects from one infested room to another. This way, you ensure that the bedbugs themselves and your pest problems do not spread unnecessarily, making it more difficult for you to target them in a targeted manner.

If the sofa or its parts, such as mattresses, are badly damaged, you must dispose of them for hygienic reasons. Since it cannot be ruled out that live pests will still be present in such facilities, sealed plastic packaging is required for their disposal to prevent further spread.

Vacuum cleaner. You can grab a vacuum cleaner and go hunting for bed bugs. Once you have sucked the bedbugs inside the vacuum, remove the dust container from the device. You must be very careful to completely seal the bag in a plastic bag and seal it tightly. It would be a good idea, if not disgusting, to place it in the freezer for at least one night or one day before disposing of it in a trash bin away from home. Please note that a bagless vacuum cleaner is understandably not suitable for controlling bed bugs.
Steam generator or hot air gun. If you have a steam generator or steam cleaner at home, it is suitable for treating sofas, carpets, mattresses and the like to effectively kill bed bugs in all stages of development, including bed eggs. The steam must be at least 65 ° C. It should also be noted that not all materials can be treated with steam. In addition, steam leaves behind moisture, which can promote mold growth. Allow treated materials such as mattresses, carpets and curtains to dry thoroughly and allow the area to be well ventilated. The steaming process requires a powerful steam generator. It is necessary to use the device to work the entire surface of the sofa, carefully processing the seams, corners, folds. High temperature will destroy the parasites.
Insecticide. Marketers for insecticide manufacturers claim that the use of bedbug exterminators has increased by 400% in 6 years. New generation insecticides are effective against bedbugs, with a mechanical effect, extremely resistant to the initially used insecticides, to which bedbugs have developed immunity.
Diatomite (or kieselguhr). Diatomaceous earth is an environmentally friendly bedbug repellant that can be distributed in powder form into possible hiding places and typical bedbug paths. These include holes and cracks in the wall, areas behind the edge of the carpet, cracks on the sides of outlets, and other areas that provide access to wall cavities. Small and microscopic particles of diatomaceous earth damage the chitinous shell of the bug and lead to its drying out. Diatomaceous earth is harmless to people and pets, but should not be inhaled (a surgical mask is best).
Prevention. To prevent bed bugs from feeding and being transferred from one room to another in the apartment, you should continue to use infested bedrooms. It is recommended to place the mattress in the center of the room and attach double-sided adhesive tape to the floor around the mattress (at least 50 cm from the mattress). Of course, it is important that your mattress is free of bed bugs. This is guaranteed, for example, if it is a new mattress purchased.
Iron. In order to destroy bed bugs in the sofa, an iron with a steam generator function is suitable. This method requires more time than using a steam generator, but if all areas are thoroughly treated, the result will be positive.

How to find nests in a sofa?

To detect nests of parasites in the sofa, you need to lay out the furniture and arm yourself with a magnifying glass.

The inspection begins with the internal surfaces, paying special attention to holes and depressions. You can examine them using a plastic card: gray husks, black dots, and eggs will appear on its surface.

It’s not enough to examine the sofa: move it aside and look at its back, as well as the wall.

Video of how to remove bedbugs from the sofa

You can watch a video on how to effectively fight this insect in your apartment and how to prevent their return.

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How to lure parasites to the surface?

To force bedbugs to leave the sofa, you need to:

Make noise: knock on furniture, move it to the side. The awakened insects will come out.
Apply low temperature to them. Parasites do not tolerate such conditions, so in winter you can open all the windows in the room and leave them in this position for several hours.
Exposure to high temperature. Bed bugs cannot tolerate temperatures above 45 degrees. To force them to leave the secluded corners of the sofa, it is recommended to use a steam generator or an iron with a steamer. The outer parts of the sofa can be ironed.

Bedbugs that have emerged from secluded corners can be destroyed mechanically, that is, crushed.

Can there be bedbugs in a new sofa?

Sometimes bedbugs enter a living space along with new pieces of furniture. They can infect it at any stage of production and sale: from the preparation of lumber and fabric upholstery to storage in a warehouse.

About once a month, people contact our disinfection service who bought a new sofa in a store, and after that they began to develop bites.

Should I throw out a sofa with bedbugs?

Blood-sucking insects will not necessarily disappear from an apartment or house, even if you throw away an infested piece of furniture. The fact is that the sofa can be only one of many places in which they “take refuge”: during a large-scale invasion, they can hide in armchairs, mattresses, behind carpets and baseboards.

Blood-sucking insects will disappear only if they only managed to occupy the sofa. As practice shows, this rarely happens, so throwing away furniture does not help.

Sofa treatment for bedbugs

It’s not easy to deal with bed mites in a sofa on your own: while most of the adult ticks can be destroyed, it’s not easy to get to the eggs they lay. The most reliable method of dealing with “uninvited guests” is calling a special service.

The following video shows the process of treating a sofa against bedbugs using a steam generator. This way you can kill insects in folds, upholstery seams and sofa cushions.

Self-treatment includes the use of insecticidal preparations and the use of folk remedies.

How to quickly remove sofa bedbugs?

To quickly remove pests, you can use the heat treatment method.

For the procedure you will need:

household steam cleaner;
industrial (construction) hair dryer;
washing machine.

This method works because temperatures above +50 degrees kill both bedbugs and their larvae and eggs.

First, remove the bedding and place it in the washing machine, setting the cycle to 60 degrees or higher.

Treat mattresses and pillows with a steam cleaner or hot iron. You can also use it to go through the bed frame, warming up the joints and fastenings.

Disassemble the wooden frame of the sofa as much as possible and warm up all its elements with an industrial (construction) hairdryer. Processing should take at least an hour.

Warm up the soft parts of the sofa with a hairdryer and steam cleaner, depending on the accessibility of the area.

Dry cleaning

Another way to help remove bedbugs is dry cleaning. During the treatment, special products are used that help quickly remove parasites, and the furniture is dried at high temperatures.

Insect repellers: benefits or myths

Some people do not want to use proven folk methods or chemicals to combat bedbugs, considering them outdated. They resort to high technology, buying ultrasonic repellers.

However, bedbugs use odors as their means of communication. They are endowed with an excellent sense of smell, which makes them so easy to find their victims. This same property helps them find places to locate nests and ways to enter the home.

All their other senses are underdeveloped , so parasites are not able to respond to ultrasound. Therefore, the use of ultrasonic repellents in the fight against bedbugs is a waste of time and money.

The gullibility of some consumers in modern technology, the fear of chemicals and the dishonesty of sellers who seek to sell their goods ensure the commercial success of these devices.

But don’t give in to advertising and buy dubious, expensive devices : they cannot be used to repel or destroy bedbugs. Numerous deceived buyers speak with confidence about this.

Proven means

For those who want to know how to get bedbugs out of a sofa on their own, this rating of proven means for killing blood-sucking parasites will be useful.

Get Total

This insecticide is presented in the form of a suspension. The active ingredient is chlorpyrifos. The product is sprayed on the surface of bedbug-infested furniture, as well as other objects. Microscopic capsules of the suspension adhere to the limbs of the parasites, which carry them into the nest. Getting on the body of a blood-sucking insect, the active substance of the Get Total insecticide disrupts the passage of nerve impulses and destroys the chitinous layer, and also causes paralysis and death of the pest. Before use, the suspension is diluted with water. The resulting composition is sprayed using a spray bottle.

Get Total is not dangerous for humans and pets.

Avalon

The drug contains temephos, which has a detrimental effect on blood-sucking insects. Organic substances that are part of the active component disrupt the metabolism in the pest’s body and block its movements. Avalon disrupts the vital functions of bed bugs.

Before using the insecticide, measure 15 ml of the drug and dilute it in a liter of water. Treat infected areas.

Xulat Micro

The drug is available in the form of a liquid, which consists of many microcapsules. The active ingredients of Xulat Micro are cypermethrin, tetramethrin and piperonyl butoxide. Capsules containing toxic compounds stick to the extremities of insects and cause their death, causing paralysis and impaired respiratory processes.

Application of the drug on the surface of furniture guarantees protection against re-infestation of parasites for 6 months.

Lambda Zone

This insecticide, like those listed above, is available in the form of a microencapsulated liquid. It contains lambda-cyhalothrin, a substance that causes paralysis and death of an insect upon contact with it. To prepare a solution for treatment, you need to dilute 5 ml of insecticide in a liter of water. The effect after use lasts for two months.

But keep in mind that the drug does not destroy bedbug eggs.

Executioner

The drug contains fenthion, which has a pronounced toxic effect. Penetrating into the body of the parasite, this substance has a nerve-paralytic effect, causing death. The advantage of the Executioner insecticide is that it equally effectively destroys adults, eggs and larvae.

Dilute one bottle of the drug in 500 ml of water. The resulting composition is enough to treat 5 m2 of space.

Agran

This insecticide has a combined composition: it contains chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin. The drug has a distinct unpleasant odor. Agran has a contact and intestinal effect on parasites. After contact with the insecticide, they die within 24 hours. Drug concentration: 5.5 ml per liter of water. This means that the contents of the bottle (50 ml) are diluted with 9 liters of water.

Cypermethrin

The drug is a clear liquid without a distinct odor. It comes in different forms.

powder for dissolution in water;
pills;
emulsion concentrate.

The drug acts by contact: the parasite becomes infected by interacting with a surface treated with Cypermethrin. The standard dosage is 25 ml of the substance per 1.5 liters of water. The prepared solution can be stored for no more than 8 hours.

When working with any insecticide, be sure to use personal protective equipment: rubber gloves, a respirator, goggles and protective clothing.

How to properly treat a sofa

The bed is easy to disassemble, wet or thoroughly wash all areas for reassembly. But the sofa causes a lot of trouble when there are blood-sucking parasites inside. Its design is difficult to disassemble into small parts; you can pour boiling water on a sofa that has not lasted the first year, but dozens of decorative seams act as a refuge for small insects. What to do? Experienced exterminators give useful advice.

It is necessary to begin the fight by accurately identifying the places where the parasites are grouped. The more nests and ovipositions there are in the house, the more powerful the treatment should be. It is important to remember that bedbugs are located not only in sleeping areas, but also behind torn wallpaper, inside dried out pedestals, and behind the frames of old paintings in dusty lampshades.

The first step is to remove all the small parts from the sofa: shell halves, throws, bedding drawers, decorative blankets. Textile and wooden structures are cleaned of excrement and dead insects, disinfected, and treated with aerosols and toxic solutions of bedbugs. A good option is to wash, freeze at a temperature below -18 degrees or steam in a dryer, where the thermometer rises above + 50 C. You can send some items to dry cleaning, warning employees about the purpose of cleaning.

The next step is to move the sofa from its usual place and cover it with construction foil. Remove the old wallpaper from the walls, block the grooves in the baseboards and only then replace the wallpaper with new ones. It is necessary to clean not only the sofa from blood-sucking insects, but also the area near it.

When removing wallpaper, insects often scatter across the walls and floor. The ideal option is to prepare a vacuum cleaner in advance, collect the parasites, then throw the dust bag in the trash, away from the house. Owners who have a vacuum cleaner with a carpet cleaning function will need to get rid of water containing drowned insects.

Spray insecticide on the floor, walls, and disinfect the area where the sofa will be after moving it. A solution of soda with the addition of a small amount of chloramine or bleach is suitable for washing floors.

After washing the floors or rinsing the rags, water is simply poured into the toilet, but you have to flush the water many times so that all the insects drown. For a vacuum cleaner while fighting bloodsuckers, it is advisable to buy a disposable dust collector, so that you won’t be ashamed to throw it away along with the collected parasites.

Dry floors treated with insecticides containing Permethrin. This component is a disaster for bedbugs.

After disinfecting the walls and floor, it is advisable to make “paths” from a natural powder called diatomaceous earth. The drug dries out the outer layer of the beetle after contact with the agent. The parasite must crawl along the path from the powder, as the substance works, in one or two days the sofa bug will die;

General cleaning is allowed after a certain time: the validity period is different for each drug. After using some compounds, such as Karbofos, the disgusting inhabitants should die within 5-7 days.

With this processing method, the result will be as stable as possible.

How to remove bedbug stains on a sofa?

After eliminating the parasites, one more problem remains: small black spots from excrement. To get rid of them, you need:

Wet blackheads with cold water immediately after discovering them. The liquid should not be hot: stains are organic, so low-temperature water will weaken its adhesion to the material of the sofa or fabric.
Treat stains with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia mixed in equal proportions. This product can lighten the fabric, so it is recommended to use it with extreme caution. The composition can be applied with a spray bottle. If blackheads remain in hard-to-reach places, you can soak a cotton swab in the liquid and gently rub it over the dirty area.
Rub stains with a microfiber cloth. This method is suitable if the contamination is fresh. To enhance the effect, the rag can be slightly moistened with liquid soap.

It is much easier to prevent bedbugs from appearing indoors than to remove them. To prevent the invasion of these parasites, it is recommended to place bunches of dry lavender in the ventilation ducts through which they can move. It needs to be changed every 2-3 weeks. It is also necessary to inspect all rooms to detect cracks. Even the smallest of them must be treated with silicone sealant.

Prevention

To prevent the sofa bug from re-invading the apartment, you need to take preventive measures. The entire apartment should be wet cleaned. All surfaces should be washed and then sprayed with soap and soda solution, ammonia, chloramine or bleach.

After everything has dried, you need to go through the apartment and things with a vacuum cleaner. It is advisable to take the bag of garbage to the trash. It is also better to throw away any cleaning items. If they are still needed, then they need to be thoroughly cleaned and left to air on the balcony or outside.

You should thoroughly find out the reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in the sofa. Then you need to walk along all the places where they were found, as well as those suspicious for their reappearance. It is necessary to eliminate all risks of parasite reappearance. The cracks should be sealed, the wallpaper should be glued, and all holes and cracks should be repaired.

It is important to analyze the situation, understand why bedbugs appear in the sofa , and prevent their new invasion. It is necessary to minimize the use of heavy bedspreads, fleecy carpets, rugs and furniture covers. They should be vacuumed, shaken out and knocked out regularly. The sockets must be unscrewed and cleaned. If insect nests are found, the devices must be replaced with new ones.

If you treat the appearance of bedbugs responsibly, then there is a chance to get rid of them forever. You should know exactly how to determine their presence, find nests, and then apply all measures to destroy them. Subsequently, it is necessary to constantly monitor possible routes of insect colonization and neutralize their potential danger.

Vinegar solution

Treat wooden and upholstered furniture with a concentrated solution of vinegar. Dampen a sponge with it and thoroughly blot all crevices and possible habitats of beetles. Spray ventilation shafts, window frames, and doorways with a spray bottle. This can also be done for prevention several times a month.

Also read: What kind of pests are sofa bugs?

To enhance the effect, add alcohol and naphthalene to the liquid in equal parts. Once on an insect, such a mixture instantly kills it. It can also be used for prevention if there are already pests in the apartment next door. The solution is easy to prepare at home.