Bed bugs are a complicated and dangerous infestation that is extremely resistant to pesticides of all kinds. It takes two treatments by a licensed exterminator to get rid of them, trying to do it on your own can be a much more massive process. If you can achieve it then you will be able to get rid of your bed bugs without the use of dangerous chemicals which can be worth a lot.
The bed bug life cycle is fast and aggressive. The female does not have a genital entrance and the male does not have a traditional phallus. Instead, the male has a hypodermic protrusion that is used to penetrate the abdomen of the female. This process is called traumatic insemination and frequently kills the female. If the female survives she will be pregnant and lay a single egg. This may sound slow but this can occur every day. A single female bed bug can lay over 200 eggs in one lifetime. The larva hatches and begins 5 instar transformations from stage one to adult. An adult bed bug is about 5.5 mm in length and takes 10 full weeks to reach maturity. A female can lay an egg immediately after its first blood meal.
The best weapon you have against a bed bug is a powerful UV light. That is the sun. If you have bed bugs in the summer then you are in a great deal of luck. You can take all your fabrics and mattresses and lay them out on the ground in direct sunlight. Keep moving things so they stay in the sun and flip the mattress every two hours because the bed bugs will crawl to the bottom to avoid the light. This will trick them and kill them faster. Make sure the furniture and other objects get completely coated in UV radiation. The best way to tell is to touch it, if it is burning hot then you have succeeded in killing the bed bugs.
One of the problems with this method of dealing with bed bugs is wall to wall carpeting and cracks and crevices. You would have to rip up all your carpeting and even then the bed bugs would be thrown all over the place. What’s more is bed bugs are not brainless, they are very behaviourally intelligent and have automated systems to protect them. They will realize they are being exterminated and will hide in deep crevices and cracks, entering a hibernation state where they reduce bodily functions. They can survive in this state for years without blood meals.
You will have to take all your clothes, towels, sheets, pillowcases and everything made of cloth and stuff them into garbage bags, preferably multiple layers. Tie them up as tight as you can and duct tape over any openings very well. This will cut off the bug’s access to both blood and oxygen. These bags need to be stored in a closet or anywhere out of the way and left for two to four weeks, untouched. Then the bed bugs will be dead. You can also put clothing and other fabric into the freezer. The cold temperatures will kill the bugs and the eggs and will do so in just 24 hours. If you have a deep freeze you are in luck, empty all the food, it won’t mean much when you’re being bitten to death by bed bugs and stuff it with everything you can. Make sure the lid closes tightly and leave it there for at least a few days if you stuffed it. This will kill all the bugs and eggs.
