Preventing bed bugs
Preventing bedbugs is extremely necessary to stop the skin infections caused by them. Bedbugs tend to occur in environments in disorder. Specially, old furniture is suitable for their breeding. Therefore, it is recommended to inspect antiques and secondhand furniture thoroughly before bringing them to your own house. They also like to hide from view in the seams and most commonly, folds of mattresses, in bed frames and springs.
These are the opportunist insects which tend to bite at night. Bed bugs spread mostly during traveling. Hence, one should be careful with one’s luggage and should check them frequently and should also look over the room before inhabiting it while traveling. In home, only regular services of a professional exterminator can prevent the bedbugs. It is also necessary to use bed nets impregnated with permethrin to ward off infestation in tropical areas. Changing bed linens at least once a week, and washing them in hot water at the temperature of at least 97F (36C), will definitely help in preventing bed bugs to occur. Again, it is mandatory to vacuum around the home at least once a week, giving special attention to areas surrounding bed and furniture posts. The bed bugs generally hide themselves over these areas and creeps to the bed at night in order to feed. If there are holes in floors and walls, it should be blocked immediately.
Dismantle and either treat with insecticides or discard any old furniture, including bed frames and mattresses as the bed bugs choose these places mostly to dwell. It will be of much help if one can use insecticide sprays containing dichlorvos, permethrin or malathion around cracks and crevices in the home. Lawn and garden insect control sprays often contain these insecticides. It is also important to eliminate any neighboring bird and bat habitats that may serve as a home for the bedbugs, when they are exterminated.