We find out whether bedbugs can live in clothes: where they come from, which one they prefer, how to remove them

When carrying out disinfestation against bed bugs, it is necessary to destroy all insects, as well as kill their eggs. This result is easily achieved with the help of modern insecticides. But what about personal belongings and clothing? Nobody wants to spray their clothes and linens with insecticides - even if you put aside the smell, it is simply dangerous to your health. In addition, there are situations when you only need to treat things - for example, the clothes you wore when visiting an infected room. In this article we will talk about the most convenient, effective and safe methods of disinfection of clothing, bedding and underwear.

Features of the use of chemical insecticides

The industry produces a variety of products against blood-sucking insects.
Fabrics can be treated with aerosols Karbozol, Perfos-P, Raptor, Raid, Clean House, Combat. When using them you need to follow some rules:

• Carry out processing away from food, it is better to do it on the street or balcony.
• It is advisable to wear a mask to protect your respiratory tract before spraying clothing.
• After the effect of the drug wears off (see instructions), wash the treated item if possible.

The bug is a creature that multiplies quickly and is surprisingly tenacious, so treatment to destroy it must be carried out as carefully as possible and at the first detection. Today we answered the following questions: do bedbugs live in clothes and how to get them out of there?

Healthy! If you nevertheless brought parasites and infected the whole house, then the following remedies will help you: Executioner, Karbofos, Get, Tetrix. In case of severe infestations, it is recommended to consult a specialist.

How to remove bed bugs

Despite the abundance of a wide variety of methods to combat bed bugs, the most popular way to destroy the parasite is still chemicals. The number of such products presented on the domestic market is very large. They are available in the form of powders, aerosols and water-soluble emulsions.

Most often, when asked how to get rid of bed bugs in an apartment, one of the following answers is given:

How to spot insects

If bedbugs have recently lived in the house, then it is not necessary to disinfest the clothes. However, before making such a decision, you need to think about where the parasites came from in the house. There are many ways: they ran away from their neighbors, they came with new antique furniture, or they were brought in by the owners themselves. The latter case is fraught with the fact that insects are very likely to lay their eggs in clothes.

First of all, you need to inspect the closet

To detect insects in clothes, you first need to look at the closet in which they are stored. Body bugs will likely leave traces in the form of excrement, shed chitinous membranes, or laid eggs. When viewing, you need to use a bright flashlight and a magnifying glass: the size of bedbugs, and even more so their larvae, are so small that it is very difficult to detect them with the naked eye

Particular attention should be paid to cracks and corners

When inspecting clothes, you need to pay attention only to those models that have places for insects to hide. You don’t need to pay much attention to fur items: bedbugs can cling to fabric very well, but in fur their movement slows down significantly, and the parasites don’t like this at all

You need to inspect your home clothes and pajamas especially carefully, because if they have red-brown spots of unknown origin, then it is likely that bedbugs live in them.

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SES services

Treatment of clothes against bedbugs is usually carried out independently or through dry cleaning. But complete poisoning of bedbugs in Moscow means disinfestation of the entire apartment. Here you cannot do without the help of specialists. Example: “Unified City Disaster Service”, where only professionals work. Enjoy the benefits of cooperation with us:

• High speed. Usually 1 treatment is enough to destroy the entire colony;
• We arrive at a time convenient for you (weekends, when children are at school, etc.);
• We do not put your health at risk;
• We will leave the furniture without damage typical of amateur steam treatment;
• Eliminate unpleasant odors;
• We use products that are not sold in regular stores;
• While the employee is on site, you can go about your business;
• The neighbors will not know about our departure unless you decide to share the news with them or recommend us;
• We guarantee quality - we carry out repeat work free of charge.

We carry out baiting of bedbugs in Moscow and the region. We have a lot of reviews from satisfied clients.

Basic 7 rules to avoid stink bugs getting into your home

To prevent stink bugs from entering your home, use the tips below.

Seal all entry points: - Pay special attention to possible openings along siding and around utility pipes, chimneys, and under wood siding

Seal any cracks and holes that are found using a good quality silicone or silicone latex caulk. Tree bugs can enter the home through the smallest of holes, so it is important to promptly repair or replace damaged mosquito nets on windows or doors. Turn off outdoor lights: - Tree bugs are attracted to light, so it is recommended to keep outdoor lighting to a minimum. In the evenings, turn it off on the porch and lower the blinds on the windows to prevent light from leaking outside. Reduce Humidity in the Surrounding Area: Eliminating moisture buildup around your home can help prevent infestations from many pests, including wood bugs.

Check for leaking pipes and clogged drains. Eliminate food sources: – Another method of getting rid of tree bugs is to deny them access to food. Store food in airtight containers and regularly dispose of trash in sealed containers. In addition, you should constantly wipe down tables and work surfaces in the kitchen, and mop the floors to sweep up crumbs and food spills. Regular Ventilation: - Properly ventilate basements, attics, and garages to eliminate hiding spots for wood bugs. Consider using a dehumidifier in these areas. Also, be sure to install firewalls over chimney and attic vents. Check your belongings: - Inspect your belongings and grocery bags before bringing them indoors. Wood bugs can travel on any object and feel comfortable while at home. Follow the rules of agricultural technology: - keep branches and bushes well trimmed. Additionally, store firewood at least 20 feet from the house and five inches from the ground.

Prevention of insects

To prevent infection of a mattress, bed or other items, you need to follow the recommendations:

• they close access to the apartment: install a fine-mesh mesh over the opening of the ventilation duct, fill the cracks with a solution (on the floor, walls, in the ceiling where pipes pass, on windows and door blocks);
• place cotton pads soaked in turpentine, ammonia or other strong-smelling substances under the mattress;
• Bedbug repellents should not be applied to the surface of the mattress;
• leave bitter herbs (wormwood) inside the bed frame;
• regularly inspect the sleeping area.

After removing bedbugs, you should regularly inspect your sleeping area.

Would a mattress cover help?

If such a product is hermetically sealed, then this can be one of the effective ways to protect against bedbugs. Parasites do not damage the tissue with their mouthparts, so they cannot get inside on their own. However, it is not advisable to purchase a cover if the mattress is inflatable. At the same time, the risk of bedbugs getting inside is zero. This feature is explained by the fact that if the integrity of the coating is damaged, the latex mattress will deflate, which in itself indicates problems with it.

Sealed cover protects the mattress from pest infestation

Appearance of a bug

You can see what street bugs look like in the photo below. They have a flattened body resembling an irregular pentagon, a proboscis and six legs. In our article you can read about the habits and characteristics of the insect.

It is not difficult to recognize the forest bug among its other relatives. Its body has a characteristic shape, wide and dense and of a certain color.

There are several known species of these insects, and each color is quite original. On the Internet you can find many interesting photos of representatives of different types of forest bugs.

The green wood bug usually lives in Russia. The insect has the unique ability to change its color. In spring it is disguised as the first leaves and therefore has a light green color. In summer, brown spots appear on the chitinous shell. Towards the end of autumn, a brown tree beetle appears in the forest and blends in with the fallen leaves. This allows him to become invisible and protect himself from enemies.

Insects can travel considerable distances, although they rarely need to fly. Long antennae are located on the head of the beetle and smell glands are located on the chest.

What do bedbugs look like?

In order not to confuse bedbugs with other household parasites (ticks, lice, cockroaches), you need to imagine what they look like. Characteristic external signs of adult individuals are:

1. Flattened body. Its shape, length and color depend on the degree of blood saturation. In a hungry state, bedbugs are no more than 4 mm in size, light or dark brown in color, and have a strongly flattened body. After eating, they increase to 8-8.5 mm in length, become more rounded and acquire a reddish or black color (depending on when the insect last fed).
2. Modified oral apparatus. This is a piercing-sucking proboscis that extends from the anterior edge of the head. It is adapted to pierce the skin and suck out blood.
3. Lack of wings. Insects do not fly, although they have small wing flaps.

Arthropods have 6 short legs, antennae on the head and a dense chitinous shell.

The larvae are smaller in size: when emerging from the egg they are 0.5 mm long, and as they grow they reach 2 mm. They are characterized by a white or light yellow color. Otherwise, the appearance of young individuals is the same as that of sexually mature individuals.

How to get rid of parasites: several effective ways

Getting rid of insects in clothes is much easier than it seems at first glance. But despite this, people often make things more difficult for themselves by using ineffective but common methods. These include taking clothes out along with other things into light frost. Or the owners leave home for 2-3 weeks. Why don't these methods work? Like other parasites, body bugs can enter a state in which all their life processes slow down significantly. During this period, they can tolerate low temperatures, and hunger will remain completely unnoticed.

Simply washing clothes will also be ineffective, because bedbug eggs can easily withstand the effects of detergents, and their sticky structure will not allow them to peel off from the fabric. To get rid of parasites, you need to wash things in water whose temperature exceeds 60 degrees Celsius. But not every item can be washed under such conditions. Therefore, there are several effective ways to remove bedbugs:

• Dry cleaning (when handing over items, you must indicate the problem).
• Wash at high temperature (over 60 degrees Celsius).
• Ironing things using steam.
• Treating clothing with special chemical insecticides.
• Placing clothes in the freezer.
• Thorough vacuuming.

Complete removal of pests can only be ensured by combining the above points. For example, you can wash things and then iron them. If clothes cannot be exposed to high temperatures, then you can simply place them in the freezer, because at temperatures down to -25 degrees, bedbugs, like their larvae, die.

The use of chemical insecticides is effective, but requires special care. Firstly, you need to use compounds that are non-toxic to humans, and secondly, after disinfestation you must wash your clothes

Vacuuming can give a certain result, but it is impossible to achieve the removal of all insects with its help. If bedbugs are firmly entrenched in the apartment and do not want to leave it, it is better to rely on professional pest control. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjzz2qTE4qs

Features of parasitism

Bed bugs are ectoparasites that need humans only as a source of food. Their usual activity time is night. Hungry parasites that have been deprived of food for a long time can attack a victim during the day. This is how bedbugs get on a person’s clothing while visiting or in public places and move on it to a new home. Sometimes they are brought back from vacation or business trips and placed in a closet along with clothes.

Under normal conditions, an individual goes hunting once every 5–7 days, so things and textiles that are not constantly used can become an excellent shelter for breeding.

What kind of clothes do bedbugs prefer and how to get rid of them?

You can detect the insects themselves and the clutches of their eggs in thick clothing with many seams and layers. It’s most convenient for them to hide there. If there are suspicions about the existence of harmful “neighbors”, first of all it is necessary to inspect:

• pajamas;
• underwear;
• home clothes - robe, sweatshirt, tracksuit.

Bloodsuckers love synthetic fabric, which does not allow air to pass through well. You should not look for them in fur products. The animals' paws get caught in the pile, which completely immobilizes them. The first sign of the presence of parasites is small brown spots. In this case, it is urgent to disinfect the entire room.

Almost every housewife knows how to treat clothes against bedbugs using folk remedies. Among them, kerosene, naphthalene, and turpentine are very popular. However, compared to modern insect control products, they are ineffective and take a long time to dissipate. First, it is advisable to take all clothes out into severe frost (down to -20°C) or hot sun. Parasites are very afraid of temperature changes. Sewing items can be washed in hot water (more than +50°C). This will destroy not only the eggs, but also the adults.

Processing of things is sometimes carried out using products that have a very pungent odor, for example, denatured alcohol. Using the steaming method is effective. To do this, you will need an iron or a special dryer, where all insects will die under the influence of high temperature. To avoid relapse, you should disinfect your wardrobe and other places where clothes are stored. To prevent the spread of bloodsuckers in the house, you need to put suspicious items in a bag and simply hang them in the sun.

Individual protection when removing bedbugs on your own

Whatever method of removing bedbugs you use, whether you decide to try to fight bedbugs yourself or call a pest control service, in any case you will need to take care of the safety of your household and your pets, as well as prevent the possibility of contact of chemicals with personal hygiene products, kitchen utensils and food

In the case of treating a room with liquid agents and aerosols, this is most important. But keep in mind that before packing any items, you must check them for the presence of bedbugs or laid eggs, since only a single surviving embryo can re-infect the entire house

Pets and children, who can easily taste anything on their tongue, should not be in the premises at all during any treatment with chemicals, be it even Mashenka’s chalk. The consequences can be quite dire.

As for direct personal protection when independently treating an apartment from bedbugs, you will need: disposable clothing (old overalls, a robe, etc.), a special mask and rubber gloves.

It is also necessary to purchase detergents so that after carrying out antiparasitic measures you can wash, rinse and clean all interior items as much as possible and thereby eliminate all extraneous odors of used preparations.

When removing bedbugs from an apartment on your own, you should be prepared for the fact that the control methods and chemicals you use may not give the expected effect (for what reasons this can happen - read at the beginning of the article), so you need to anticipate in advance a possible increase in costs.

If signs of poisoning appear...

Let us repeat once again: in our practice there has never been a case of poisoning of an adult or child, or domestic animals with insecticidal agents with which we treat the apartment. However, theoretically, poisoning can occur if safety rules are violated (a person without a respirator enters the apartment during treatment or before ventilation is completed), or if there is a high sensitivity to the drug.

Signs of poisoning are:

• Salivation
• Tearing
• Bleeding from the nose
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Unpleasant taste in the mouth

If any of these symptoms appear, you need to go outside and breathe. Here the condition quickly returns to normal.

It only makes sense to use agents such as activated carbon or other sorbents if the insecticide gets into the digestive tract. This practically never happens.

Small pets (mice, hamsters) and various cold-blooded animals (amphibians, reptiles, fish) can be quite sensitive to the agents. The former only need very small amounts of the product to cause poisoning; the latter are very sensitive to insecticides due to the specific nature of the enzymes in their body. Therefore, by the way, before treatment, aquariums must be tightly covered with a cover glass and cloth so that the insecticide does not get into the water.

In any case, after treatment, small animals are brought into the apartment in cages, aquariums or terrariums. If everything here is well ventilated, there will be no insecticide in the cages and aquariums themselves, and since the animals do not move around the apartment, they will not come into contact with the drug on the floors and walls.

If you still have any questions, you can call our consultants and ask them. We will understand your situation and tell you what exactly needs to be done.

Which one do they like?

Insects prefer models with numerous seams, in which they can easily hide. They are especially likely to settle in pajamas, home clothes, and underwear, since this is where body odor lingers the most. If you notice small brownish spots on things, it means they live on it.

INTERESTING! Can bedbugs bite through clothing? No, their mouthparts are not so powerful for this. Although their bites are unpleasant, especially in children.

But insects do not like fur products, because their paws cannot catch on the fur and they are not able to move on it. In addition, fur models have insufficient contact with the body, so pests have nothing to do there.

Reviews from people

Ekaterina, 37 years old, St. Petersburg: “Two years ago, our family faced a problem: bedbugs infested our apartment. At first I noticed small red spots on my son’s back and assumed it was an allergy. Then she discovered bloody specks on the bed linen. Then they thought about bedbugs, turned the sofa over, and there were whole colonies there. To remove insects, they turned to specialists. Exposure to cold fog helped.”

Alexander, 45 years old, Novosibirsk: “When bedbugs lived in our house, it was terrible. It’s not clear where they came from, but we found unpleasant insects everywhere: in mattresses, clothes, under the sofa and baseboards. It took a long time to get rid of them, using various methods. I don’t know what product worked, but I’m glad there are no more bedbugs.”

Irina, 52 years old, Krasnodar: “I discovered these insects at home after visiting a neighbor. Perhaps she brought them on her clothes. I noticed red spots on my body in the morning, then itchy skin appeared. To kill bedbugs, I used both folk and store-bought remedies. However, the effect is temporary: they first disappear, then appear again.”

How to avoid infection?

To avoid having to do the things described above, it’s easier to follow 2 simple rules that will prevent bedbugs from settling in your underwear and clothes.

• Avoid contaminated areas. Do your friends or relatives have bed bugs? It is better to hold off on visiting until the pest control has been carried out. On vacation and business trips, carefully inspect your hotel room for parasites. A heavily infested room may produce a characteristic bedbug odor.
• If a visit to the bedbug infestation cannot be avoided, then you should use perfume. By wearing plenty of perfume, you will camouflage your clothes from blood-sucking insects. The brand is not important - bedbugs equally dislike triple cologne and Chanel number 5.

If there are bedbugs in your apartment or house, you need to quickly carry out disinfestation using a high-quality insecticide. This is the only way you can protect yourself and your loved ones.

Can insecticides be used?

Most insecticides are dangerous to humans - they cause food poisoning, allergies and irritation of mucous membranes. However, most insecticides are deactivated by alkalis - if, after disinsection, the poison is neutralized in an alkaline environment, then things can be used without harm to health. The most common alkali used at home is regular baking soda. Prepare a soda solution and rinse the treated linen and clothing in it. You can use non-toxic insecticides - after using them you only need to vacuum the fabric.

What about the smell? The answer is simple - you need to use modern insecticides. The latest generation of anti-bedbug drugs have a weak odor or no odor at all. Which insecticide to choose is up to you. There is a wide selection of drugs on the modern market for a variety of purposes.

Methods for treating clothes against bedbugs

Despite the fact that a person’s clothing is not suitable for permanent location of bedbugs, during disinfestation it will definitely need to be treated. Also, wardrobe items must be subjected to treatment if a person has visited places where parasites are likely to be infested.

The difficulty of processing wardrobe items lies in the fact that they are personal belongings of a person; many insecticidal agents, due to their toxicity, are not suitable for processing them. When removing bedbugs from clothes, it is best to focus on the parasites’ intolerance to temperature changes and strong odors. Therefore, the most suitable ways to rid clothing items of blood-sucking insects would be:

• Heat treatment using high temperatures. In order to get rid of parasites and their oviposition, clothes, bed linen, towels and other things close to the human body are usually washed in an automatic machine at the maximum permissible temperature (should be about 90 degrees). If you don’t have a washing machine, you can boil items, just make sure that items made of silk or woolen fabrics are not boiled. Some types of fabrics may simply not withstand such treatment. If the infection occurred during the hot summer months, you can take advantage of this factor. You need to put your clothes in the car, lock the doors and leave them in the sun for several hours. The higher the air temperature rises, the greater the chance of removing all bedbugs and their eggs from clothes. For greater efficiency, cleaned or washed clothing should be ironed with an iron set to maximum temperature, again if the type of fabric allows.
• Chemicals. To kill bedbugs on clothing, you can use only high-quality insecticides (for example, Get, Lambda Zone, Medilis Cyper), because their toxic effect on humans is often minimal. However, this method of ridding clothes of bedbugs also carries risks for the owner of the clothes themselves. After treating with insecticides, the best solution is to leave the clothing in a bag and not use it for about a week, then treat it with a soda solution and wash it several times. In addition to insecticides, dry cleaning services can help eliminate bedbugs on clothes.
• Freezing. In winter, you can take advantage of the sub-zero temperatures outside by hanging contaminated items on the balcony or in the yard. You should definitely take into account how cold it is outside, because at a temperature of -10o C you won’t be able to get rid of bedbugs - they will simply go into suspended animation, having safely survived the cold. Only twenty degrees below zero can completely freeze bedbugs. If the number of contaminated items is minimal, you can use a regular freezer by placing the contaminated wardrobe items in a plastic bag and placing it in the freezer. To ensure the destruction of parasites, items must be kept in the freezer for several days.
• Exposure to folk remedies with a pungent odor. You can remove parasites from clothes in your wardrobe using traditional methods using dry or freshly cut herbs, essential oils or chemical liquids with a pungent odor. This method will not kill the insects, but will help remove them from the dressing room. It will be enough to place fresh branches of tansy, wormwood or wild rosemary in the closet, distribute essential oils (eucalyptus, lavender or rosemary), vinegar or turpentine on the inner surface of the cabinet. In order not to spoil the surface of the furniture, you can place rags soaked in chemical liquids on the floor. In any case, the presence of a constant pungent odor in the confined space of the closet will help get rid of insects in its depths.

The sooner it is possible to identify the appearance of parasites in the folds of clothing, the greater the chance of preventing the spread of uninvited guests throughout the house. When coming to your home from suspicious places, coming from business trips or rented premises for a summer vacation, you should carefully check your clothes, bags and suitcases to identify unwanted proximity to bedbugs.

Is it possible to bring bedbugs home from guests on clothes?

One of the methods of insect dispersal is passive infection. That is, parasites are transferred from one home to another on clothing, shoes, and in a person’s belongings. Having been a guest in an infested apartment, sitting on a sofa or in an armchair where the owners spend time, rarely changing their position, for example, reading or watching TV, it is quite possible to bring home a bug on their clothes. The risk increases when visiting guests in hostels and hotels. There, due to the frequent change of residents, the number of insects can be extremely high.

Lifestyle, nutrition and period of activity of the bug

How do bedbugs live and what do they eat? They lead a parasitic lifestyle, feeding exclusively on the blood of humans and warm-blooded animals. Insects are active only at night, and during the day they hide in dark, secluded places. Their nocturnal lifestyle helps them get close to a sleeping person unnoticed and easily choose the most suitable place for collecting blood.

The linen bug emerges from its hiding places between 1:00 a.m. and 7 a.m. It only takes 4 to 10 minutes for it to become saturated with blood, after which it leaves the human body and hides in a shelter. One “meal” of food lasts an insect for an average of 5–6 days. A bug that has drunk blood noticeably increases in size and can reach 9 mm. It is noteworthy that when fed, the bug becomes very clumsy and vulnerable, it loses its reaction speed and can be easily caught and crushed. This is why you can see blood stains on the bed; a thick and clumsy bug can be crushed even in your sleep.

The most developed sense organ of a bedbug is smell; it is able to sense carbon dioxide, which is released when a person breathes, at a distance of up to 3 meters, and the warmth of a sleeping person - at a distance of up to half a meter.

Habitats

The favorite habitats of bed bugs are secluded, warm and quiet places. These include sofas and beds. When settling there, insects are guided by only one principle - to be close to the victim (human). In addition, parasites do not have a big appetite: only one meal a week is enough for them to satisfy their hunger. If it wants to get enough of blood, the pest will leave its hiding place and calmly get to the sleeping person.

Clothes cannot be compared to a peaceful habitat. It is much quieter for parasites to live under baseboards, carpets or in the joints of furniture. Bedbugs can live in things only if they are not stored in the best way in the closet next to the bed.

In what cases is it necessary to process clothes?

In order to get rid of bedbugs forever, it is advisable to treat the room, furniture, and clothing. In rare cases, this may not be done. Most likely, there are no bedbugs in your clothes if:

• insects have appeared in the apartment recently and have not yet had time to “take root”;
• wardrobes are in those rooms that people rarely look into;
• The temperature in the room, and, accordingly, in the closet, is below 200C.

Before making a final decision regarding clothing treatment, determine where the pests in your home are coming from. Bed bugs, namely this type of blood-sucking insects feed on human blood, crawl through ventilation from neighbors or arrive along with new furniture that was stored in an infested warehouse. These are the two most likely options. However, there are cases when a person himself brings bedbugs into the house on his clothes (most often from hotels, holiday homes and hotels). Therefore, before leaving such places, you need to carefully check your bag. If insects got into the apartment in this way, then treating clothes against bedbugs is a mandatory measure in the fight against blood-sucking parasites.

Regardless of what caused the appearance of unwanted guests in the house, it is advisable to carry out disinfestation everywhere. This is due to the fact that individuals who have survived the treatment of the premises develop immunity to the product that was used during disinfestation. There is no point in reusing this drug. It will have no effect on bedbugs.

How do bedbugs spread?

Arthropods can enter a home in several ways:

1. Migrate from neighbors through pipe risers and ventilation systems. This happens when there is a large concentration of bedbugs in an infected area or during disinfestation.
2. Get in with household appliances and furniture (especially used ones).
3. Brought by people on clothes, in wallets, bags, old books.
4. Move away from warm-blooded animals that are parasitized. This is possible when a person comes into contact with pets or when traveling in nature.

Methods for processing clothes

Any product intended to combat bedbugs is toxic. Accordingly, it is not advisable to use them for processing clothing. Therefore, hot steam or boiling water is most often used.

Bed bugs cannot survive temperatures exceeding 550C. If the type of fabric allows, clothes are washed in a washing machine at a temperature of 900C. This treatment is guaranteed to destroy adults, larvae and eggs. After washing, the clothes should be ironed, first setting the temperature to the highest possible temperature (if the iron has similar settings).

You can get rid of bedbugs in winter by freezing your clothes. Low temperatures are tolerated by insects just as poorly as high temperatures. But this method only works if the outside temperature is lower than -200C. Bedbugs can tolerate higher temperatures quite normally, while falling into suspended animation. If there is only a small amount of contaminated clothing, it can be placed in the freezer, pre-packed in sealed bags. This method is also suitable for disinfecting the entire apartment. If the temperature allows, then you should turn off all heating devices in the house for several days and open the windows. The parasites will either die or go looking for another habitat. The method cannot be used in apartments. The insects will simply move to the neighbors. after your return, it is possible that some individuals will return back and after some time will replenish the population. When several apartments are infested, it is very difficult to control bedbugs.

You can kill bedbugs on clothing by exposing it to hot steam. All items must be placed in a colander, which is placed over boiling water and covered with a lid. This heat treatment lasts 2-3 hours. During this time, the parasites are guaranteed to die.

Chemical agents can also be used. But you need to choose those drugs that are least toxic. Before wearing items treated with such products, they should be washed well 2-3 times.

Infection through clothing

Being in a dysfunctional apartment is not enough for bedbugs to appear in things. Parasites do not like light and prefer to be nocturnal. During the day they hide in their shelters and go out hunting only after dark. Therefore, bedbugs can appear in clothes only if a person spends the night in such a place. Such a need may arise during travel, vacation or business trip. Returning home with such “baggage” promises to soon be in the vicinity of an entire population of domestic bugs.

On a note!

Another way of infection by bloodsuckers through things is through parcels. Considering that bedbugs themselves do not live in clothes, this does not prevent them from staying in them for some time. The folds of the product can serve as a good refuge for the parasite.

We cannot exclude the possibility of finding eggs in such places, from which larvae will appear after a certain time. The likelihood of such a situation occurring is especially high when the premises are highly contaminated.

Cleaning clothes from parasites.

Let's look at how to get rid of bedbugs on clothes. It is best if a person immediately notices the insect on his clothes, then he can do a quick cleanup and not bring the bug into the house. But this happens very rarely, and the pest still moves on to a new victim.

If you find out that you have recently visited a place infested with bedbugs, you must immediately clean the things that were there. Even when parasites are introduced in other ways, for example, from neighboring apartments, total cleaning at home also requires cleaning all clothes.

Chemical treatment.

The most unsafe method is chemical treatment. There is a huge selection of insecticides on the market, but some are dangerous to humans. Therefore, you need to choose carefully by reading the descriptions carefully.

To begin with, you can find information about certain medications on the Internet.

Focus on the main active ingredient, toxicity, dosage for room cleansing, duration of exposure after bullying. A set of personal protective equipment is also purchased

You will need gloves, goggles, and a respirator. They are mandatory even if it is written that the poison is safe for humans. You need to act strictly according to the instructions - the dosage for dilution must be accurate if you bought a powdered insecticide.

It is better to use the most effective and safe means. Among these are Medilis Cyper, Get, Lambda Zone. You need to buy carefully, because among popular insecticides there are many fakes.

High temperatures.

In exterminating insects, you can take advantage of their intolerance to sudden changes in temperature. It is known that parasites die in heat of +55 and cold of -18. The cold removal method is convenient to use in winter - you can hang all your clothes outside for a couple of days.

If there are only a few things, you can put it in a bag and put it in the freezer for 2 days. With fever, not everything is so simple, because not all clothes react positively to high temperatures. For this, boiling water or hot steam is used. Boiling water is easy to get, and some irons have steam, or there is an excellent device - a steam cleaner.

All clothing must be scalded with boiling water or steam; you can boil it or wash it in a machine at a temperature above +50°C. By exposure to high and low temperatures, you can kill not only adult bedbugs, but also larvae with eggs. But, as stated, not every thing can survive such heat treatment.

Traditional methods.

You can also ward off insects from your things yourself using traditional methods. These methods have come to us from ancient times, because bedbugs have been living next to humans for a very long time.

Our great-grandmothers knew how to get rid of bedbugs on clothes; they advised putting herbs such as tansy, wormwood, wild rosemary in dressing rooms where insects could live. This is explained by the fact that parasites cannot stand the strong smell, and especially the aroma of these herbs. You can also apply essential oils to the walls. Bedbugs hate rosemary, patchouli, and eucalyptus.

You can also drive pests out of your wardrobe with other strong odors, such as vinegar or turpentine. Of course, not only bedbugs will not be able to breathe there, but also the residents. Traditional methods can only drive away insects for a while, so it is better to use more stringent measures to get rid of them.

Cleaning services.

If you don’t have the time or desire to deal with contaminated items, you can take them to the dry cleaner. They use excellent chemical cleaners, and ironing is done using professional steam generators. And we have specialists who know their job very well, and the clothes will live a new life without parasites.

These insects are difficult to destroy quickly, so be attentive to suspicious areas. This is especially true for travelers. Very often bedbugs are brought from cheap, old hotels. After returning home, it is better to immediately put your clothes in the washing machine and clean your suitcases. Or use disinfection services at dry cleaners.

What you need to know

Those who were in a place infested with bed bugs need to process all the things that were not only worn at that moment by the person, but also were in his luggage. After all, it is enough for just one fertilized female or a pair of bloodsuckers to crawl onto the new owner or into his backpack, so that after a while a whole family of parasites lives in the apartment.

Usually, everyone who has discovered bloodsuckers in their wardrobe faces a dilemma on how to get rid of bedbugs on their clothes. After all, the presence of pests causes constant bites, accompanied by severe itching and inflammation, and the occurrence of an allergic reaction.