What causes bed bugs? Bed bugs are known to be hitchhikers. They will hitch a ride and set up camp wherever they end up even if that is your home, apartment, furniture, or hotel room. Following some easy steps may prevent you from getting bed bugs. So there is not really anything that causes bed bugs except for making sure you follow some easy steps to keep them stay out of your home.

The number one cause for bed bugs is bringing them home after travel. If you stay in a bed bug infested hotel room and you bring your luggage home they can easily be inside that bag. What you will want to do to stop this is to make sure your luggage stays on the luggage rack in your hotel room. Although this alone may not stop the bed bug that drastically reduces the risk. Another step that you will want to take is to do a thorough inspection of the hotel room. You’ll want to start with the bad and work your way out. Bed bugs need a host so they will be found near the bed. Take the covers off of the bed mattress and look in the seam of the mattress for the bed bug or blood spots. Hotels change the sheets often so there may not be any bloodstains on them Next you’ll want to lift up the mattress and look at the bed frame and don’t forget the headboard. From there you’ll want to look at any nightstands near the bed. Unfortunately if it is not a severe case you may not be able to find the bed bugs. Purchasing luggage and casement are a good way to protect your luggage during your visit.

Another reason for the cause of bed bugs is bringing home used furniture. Homeowners and renters sometimes give away or throw away furniture or mattresses infested with bed bugs. Be careful about picking up used furniture at a garage sale or store. Be especially careful about picking up mattresses or furniture that someone has thrown away. This way you can make sure that your home will be bed bug free.

The next area of concern is something that most people do not think about. If you have a college student that will be coming back home during breaks and you must be aware of what the student brings back. That could mean any luggage or items that they had in their dorm room or apartment. In this case a thorough inspection of the luggage, dirty clothes or other items. If they make frequent visits back home any portable heater which kills all stages of bed bugs may be something to purchase. The heaters can heat books and other items that are not possible to wash or dry.

What causes bed bugs in your home is nothing more than the bed bugs hitching a ride. If you follow some simple steps and procedures you will reduce your risk of getting bed bugs at your home. There are several products to protect your mattresses and your luggage from bed bugs. But the products alone do not protect you from bed bugs 100% of the time. The products and being aware of your surroundings combined will greatly reduce your risk of an infestation of bed bugs.

Don’t Move! You are lying on your mattress watching T.V. and all of a sudden you see a small flat oval bug crawl across the white sheets. Bed bugs have invaded your mattress. You quickly kill the bed bug and rip off your bed sheets. There are bed bugs all over your mattress. Know you yell and scream I have a mattress with bed bugs.

When you discover your mattress with bedbugs there are several things you can do. The first thing you can do is discard the mattress and box springs. This would be ok but you still may have bed bugs.

The second treatment is treat your mattress and box spring with a pesticide for bed bugs. Before you do this please read and follow the label or seek a professional. The disadvantage would be that you would be sleeping 8 hours a day on pesticide.

The next possibility would be using a vacuum. This would be more environmentally friendly but unfortunately would not get the bed bugs out of all the cracks. Mattress with bed bugs could not be solved with this method alone.

Bed bugs can be killed by either steaming or freezing them. Both of these methods would kill the bed bugs in the mattress. These two methods will be able to penetrate the cracks and crevices better but does not have a lasting effect. That means it has no residual kill. If you don’t kill every last bed bug they have nothing after the treatment to kill any remaining bed bugs.

The last method for treating a mattress with bed bugs would be using bed encasements. Mattress covers would be the best and safest option. The covers are designed to trap the bed bugs inside and keep any bed bugs from infesting the mattress again.

Even though the mattress with bed bugs can be treated with mattress encasements, you still may need to call a professional to treat the whole room or even the house.