Pest control – these are any measures aimed at exterminating insects. If an apartment is infested with bedbugs, a characteristic unpleasant odor appears in it, which is absorbed into various materials: upholstered furniture, textiles, carpets, curtains, clothes and other personal items, wallpaper, floor coverings. The use of insecticides adds color to the aromatic picture. Although many manufacturers try to make bedbug chemicals less odorous, caustic, and toxic, this is not always successful. After treating a room for bed bugs, a specific smell remains. It can be very persistent, and sometimes getting rid of the smell is more difficult than getting rid of pests.
The smell after disinfestation remains both after the work of professional exterminators and after using the products yourself. All drugs consist of chemicals that have their own aroma or acquire it in combination with other ingredients. Sometimes manufacturers add a fragrance, which is designed to mask the own unpleasant odor of the drugs.
Cheap bedbug baiting agents usually smell bad and pungent. To reduce the cost of such products, manufacturers do not work on the aromatic component. In addition, products from this price category do not contain the most effective and high-quality active ingredients, which require an increased concentration of the working solution to work. Because of this, their smell is stronger. Many products have been used for several decades, that is, they were developed for a very long time, since then science and production have moved far forward, but these drugs have remained at the same level. They are effective, but, unfortunately, toxic.
Newer insecticidal products smell less. Manufacturers even say about some of them that they are odorless. But their cost is significantly higher. But efficiency does not always have the same correlation.
Attention: under no circumstances should you inhale chemical insecticides or sniff the anti-bedbug product in the bottle, even if it is written on it that it is odorless. You can get a burn to the mouth, larynx, and nasal mucosa. It can also lead to breathing and digestive problems. If you have asthma or breathing problems, inhaling the insecticide can be very dangerous and even fatal.
How to remove the smell after bedbug treatment
Each insecticide instruction contains instructions on how to use it and what steps to take to kill bedbugs. Chemicals must be used in strict accordance with these instructions. If you follow the manufacturer's recommendations, the smell after baiting bedbugs will remain minimal.
Preparation for processing
To make disinfestation more successful, and to get rid of its consequences easier, you need to first prepare for treating the apartment. To do this you need to do the following:
- remove things that will be difficult to get rid of odors, but at the same time make sure that bedbugs remain on them, otherwise the parasites, after treatment, will again be able to infect the home;
- put food, dishes, personal belongings, clothes, soft toys in sealed bags or take them out of the apartment;
- move furniture away from the walls so that toxic substances can penetrate there better;
- carry out wet cleaning, as dust and dirt can make it difficult for bedbugs to be affected by chemicals.
The fewer things in the apartment that the insecticide gets on when spraying substances using cold or hot fog, as well as when applying poison in any other way, the fewer problems there will be later with removing the smell. They will not be saturated with insecticides, which means they will not absorb odors. But be careful: there may be bedbugs or their eggs on these things, which means you need to treat these items - remove the pests mechanically or wash them, wipe them with an insecticide solution.
Disinfestation and what to do immediately after it
During treatment, there should be no strangers in the room, especially children, elderly and weakened people after illness, as well as pets. During treatment, windows and doors are closed against bedbugs. They cannot be opened immediately after processing. After treatment, you need to leave the apartment for several hours, or even better - for a day or longer. Each pest control product has a time required to work. After this time, the apartment needs to be ventilated very well for an hour or longer. You also need to wash all surfaces and objects that people will touch. There is no need to do general cleaning right away. Let the product remain in hard-to-reach places and where people do not come into contact with it for some time to ensure that all bedbugs in the room are killed. Surfaces and objects are washed with soap and soda solution. If after the initial cleaning and washing it seems to you that the house still smells strongly, then you need to wash the floors again and preferably wash textiles. It is advisable not to sleep on the bed the first night after treatment. Bedding should not be treated with chemicals!
Preparing the room for baiting bedbugs with baking soda
It is recommended to follow the standard steps for using any type of product (and soda-based solution):
- In order to thoroughly treat the apartment, it is necessary to ensure that no food, hygiene items, or personal belongings are left on the premises. Everything that should not come into contact with chemicals is taken outside the room and covered with film.
- Closets are emptied of things.
- Furniture is moved away from the walls, allowing access to back walls and baseboards.
- The mattress needs to be removed from the bed. The sofa and chairs are dismantled whenever possible.
- Children's toys should be washed at high temperatures, dried and covered with polyethylene. The same must be done with bedding and clothing.
- All large textile items that were stored at home when infected with parasites must be treated with a steam generator, taken out into the cold or taken to dry cleaning.
- If there is an aquarium at home, it is moved outside the room or closed.
- The carpet is also removed from the room. It is subjected to heat treatment.
- The curtains need to be removed. They are washed at high temperature.
If possible, carry out minor cosmetic repairs: restore the integrity of the wallpaper, fill cracks in the floor and walls with cement mortar, check how tightly the baseboard adheres to the surfaces.
Additionally
cover the ventilation holes so that bedbugs do not start looking for a way out during treatment.
Furniture is moved away from the walls
How to remove odors after disinfestation
General cleaning is carried out 10–20 days after the premises have been treated.
What you need to do during spring cleaning to get rid of unpleasant odors:
- move furniture away from the walls and sweep away dead bedbugs;
- wash the back walls of cabinet furniture: cabinets, chests of drawers, cabinets, baseboards - this is where bedbug nests are often located;
- thoroughly vacuum and wash the sleeping area: the base and headboards of the bed, the mattress on all sides, the sofa;
- wash lamps, interior items, decor;
- wash windows, doors, window sills, floors;
- wash all bed linen, bedspreads, and other textiles.
If the house has a steam generator, you can and should treat upholstered furniture and other things with it. which cannot be washed or washed. To wash surfaces, use a soap-soda solution. It neutralizes chemicals, eliminates odors and helps clean things well. It is applied from a spray bottle or using a sponge. It is important to thoroughly rinse it off and remove any contamination with water several times. You can also use a weak solution of vinegar or potassium permanganate to wash surfaces in the treated area. These substances can neutralize unpleasant odors. When washing off insecticides, it is of course necessary to work with rubber gloves and protect your respiratory system.
When cleaning, be sure to open windows and doors and create a draft to reduce the concentration of odors.
The time for disinfestation is not chosen; bedbugs are poisoned when there is a need for it. But it’s most convenient to do this in the summer, when you can take your family to a dacha or recreation center and stay there for a few days. During this time, you can not only completely destroy bedbugs, but also get rid of the odors that accompany disinfestation.
If repeated ventilation and wet cleaning do not help, it makes sense to contact a cleaning company, whose employees will clean professionally and get rid of the chemical smell. They use specialized equipment to clean a variety of materials and can also perform ozone cleaning to eliminate odors at the molecular level and further disinfect the room.
