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Safeguard Pest Control

1-877-743-1896 / Service@PestFree.net

Serving King and Snohomish Counties

 
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Get rid of bed bugs

 
You can get rid of bed bugs using heat, extreme cold, and steam. Get rid of bed bugs with heat.  Get rid of bed bugs with cold. Get rid of bed bugs with steam.
 

We get rid of bed bugs, mainly using pesticides. 

But, if you are interested in other options, please follow the links shown above.

Most of the available pesticides do not get rid of bed bugs at all. Even the professional pesticides.  Most bed bugs alive today are descendants of bed bugs that have been treated with some very harsh pesticides including DDT...and survived.

We have had our best results getting rid of bed bugs, so far, with Transport. It combines a non-repellant pesticide with a mildly repellent pesticide. It is formulated as a wettable powder. This allows for larger droplet sizes of the pesticide to form on treated surfaces. It is about as toxic as your average household cleanser to humans.

The combination of two different kinds of pesticides along with the formulation type, make Transport highly effective.  Transport is labeled for professional use only.

Although bed bugs like to nest on the bed, within ten feet of the bed, or on or near other areas where you site or spend long periods of time.  They can nest anywhere.  So if you want to get rid of bed bugs - you have to be thorough.  We carefully treat the frame of the bed, the area under the bed, the baseboards, and nearby furniture.  We spray the walls wherever the bed comes close to touching the wall.  We spray hallways and door frames to keep the bed bugs from migrating through a home.

We also treat areas where you store vacuums and luggage - often the source for the infestation.  We also want to treat other upholstered furniture and baseboards throughout your home.

If you want to get rid of bed bugs, you really want to clean out form under your bed and get rid of any clutter from your bed room. Don't give them places to hide near where you sleep.

We treat live bed bugs and mattress sides with Best Yet by Cedarcide.  It kills live bugs very quickly, but does not have good residual.  So we do not recommend treating your entire bed with it, much less your entire house.  While it does contain natural ingredients, it also contains some not natural ingredients, and the smell of the cedar can be quite overwhelming if not used sparingly.

We recommend that all people with bed bugs invest in good quality, top of the line mattress and box spring encasements.  Bed bugs do in fact nest inside beds.  Encasement will prevent that.  We only know of two brands that really work. One of which we sell to our customers at a very nice discount from their advertised price.  Yes, off brands at department stores are cheaper - but they don't work - so why pay twice?

Also, Climb-Ups and similar deterrents when placed properly under your bed posts can prevent bed bugs from crawling on or off your bed, can kill them as they try to do so, and will indicate if they were trying to get on or off your bed - how awesome is that? We sell them to our bed bug customers at or near our cost.

 
Get rid of bed bugs in your 'stuff'.

Finally, you do need to do something with your clothes, shoes, pillows, kids toys, and other personal items that smell like humans. Why?  Bed bugs are attracted to us by our heat, by our exhalations, and by our smell. The smell of our blood and our pheromones (kairomones).

Most people throw away a lot of stuff, take a bunch of clothes to the dry cleaner, and take loads of stuff to the laundromat.

Your options:  Dry cleaning - expensive, and what if the dry cleaner has bed bugs? Heating items in driers - if your dryer has a sanitation mode, or if you use a commercial drier, 30 minutes at 130 should do nicely.  Washing alone will not kill bed bugs.  Freezing - if you can get the items to zero degrees and hold it their for say, 30 days. Your dishwasher does not get hot enough to kill bed bugs - but may dislodge hidden eggs from diswasher safe items.

A professional quality steam machine will put out steam over 130 degrees and should be sufficient for most things that can withstand the heat.

Nuvan Prostrips, which are registered for use by licensed pest professionals give off a powerful pesticide fume that will kill all bed bugs in an airtight enclosure.  They work very nicely when you fill large, top quality, heavy duty lawn and leaf bags with clothes and other items and seal them with zip ties and duct tape.  These bags should be stored somewhere heated so the bed bugs stay active and somewhere no one sleeps or spends a great deal of time - in case the bags are not as air tight as you hoped - no one wants to breathe fumes.  They can kill all bed bugs within 60 days but thought should be given to keep the items in the bags for up to the 4 months the strips are active.

The enclosures where prostrips are used should be opened outside in a well ventilated area.

 

Make sure and check out the links to bed bug info on the upper left side of this page.

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In the summer Rid of bees and Rid of wasps get a lot of page views.

 
 
 


Bed bugs - pics and videos

 

Common inspection findings.


 
Pictures of bed bugs #1
Bed Bug
This is a slightly enlarged picture of a female after feeding.  She is very dark and bloated. 
Pictures of bed bugs #2
bb
This picture is about twice the actual size of the bed bug.  It might be hard to tell but the dark spot in the middle is actually deflated.
 
They Can move pretty fast when they want to.
 
Pictures of bed bugs #3
bbug
While this is fairly close to actual size, in our experience the egg and first instar nymphs can be as much as half the size represented here