Carpets, while a beautiful addition to any home, can provide a cozy environment for bed bugs. Truth be told, carpets are one of the most common places these pests hide and breed in homes. Aside from our mattresses, carpets are one of the most likely areas we’ll find bed bugs in.
To ensure that our carpets stay bed bug-free, it is important to carry out a deep clean every so often. Regular cleaning and vacuuming can help prevent bed bug infestations, but it is also essential to know how to kill bed bugs in the carpet properly, should they appear.
Effective Ways How to Kill Bed Bugs on the Carpet
Bed bugs crawl around, bite, and lay eggs in your carpets, leaving behind an unpleasant mess. Not only that, but they can also spread quickly to other rooms – including your sofa, bed, and other furniture.
To rid your carpets of these pests, here are some effective ways to kill bed bugs in the carpet:
Before we get into the different methods, It is important that you take the carpet out of the home and place it in a dry, well-ventilated area. This will help to stop the spread of bed bugs even further.
Vacuum Cleaning with Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth is one of the most common methods for killing bed bugs. It is a powder made from the fossilized remains of diatoms, which is ground down into a fine powder.
The powder works by cutting through the exoskeleton of bed bugs and dehydrating them in the process. To use this method, make sure that you have a sealable bag attached to your vacuum. (More details on this later on).
On your carpet, lay out and spread your diatomaceous earth. Make sure that you cover all the places bed bugs could be hiding – get every single inch of your carpet. Once it’s spread, vacuum up the powder. You may have to go over the area two to three times.
Some homeowners like to repeat the process multiple times. This means spreading diatomaceous earth, vacuuming it up, and repeating the process until you are fully satisfied you’re at ease with the result.
Ensure that you seal off the bag and dispose of it properly. Leaving the vacuum bag exposed can lead to the bed bug problem getting worse. They might escape, hitchhike, and spread the infestation to other parts of your home.
Steam Cleaning
Steam cleaning is another effective way to get rid of bed bugs in carpets. Steam will not only kill the bugs, but it can also help to break down their eggs and other debris that may be found on your carpet.
The hot steam of a steam cleaner can reach deep into the fibers of your carpets, killing bed bugs in their tracks.
This could be the next step after vacuuming your carpet with diatomaceous earth. When steam cleaning is done after vacuuming, it can help to further kill off any bed bugs that were missed.
You may want to follow the steam cleaning with a thorough vacuuming and dusting of your carpets to make sure all bed bugs are taken care of. You can follow this up with a dry shampooing or deep cleaning method to get rid of any dust and debris left behind.
Chemical Treatments
Chemical solutions and treatments are more popular for their ability to kill eggs or any larvae that may have been left behind from the diatomaceous earth and steam cleaning process.
Again, this can be done alone or can be done in conjunction with both methods mentioned earlier. It is highly recommended that this is done as a final step to ensure that no bed bugs survive.
When using chemicals, be sure to read the instructions and safety precautions carefully. Some chemical solutions can be quite toxic, so it’s important to follow the directions correctly.
Different brands may have different instructions. Some may require you to leave the solution on for a certain amount of time, while others may need to be vacuumed off or even wiped down with a damp cloth.
Professional Services: Which Method Do They Use to Kill Bed Bugs from Carpet?
Most professional pest control services use a combination of the methods mentioned above. They usually start off with a deep cleaning process to remove any debris, dust, and dead bugs from your carpets.
This is by far the most important step in the process. Starting off with a slightly cleaner carpet, free from dust and dirt, will help make the process of killing bed bugs much easier.
After the deep cleaning comes the chemical treatment, which is usually done with a powerful spray or foam that is applied to your carpets. This will kill any live bed bugs and their eggs instantly upon contact. The chemicals are also designed to leave behind an odor that deters future infestations.
Finally, most professional pest control services end the process with a thorough vacuuming of your carpets – again.
The steam and chemical treatments may have loosened up a lot of the eggs and larvae that were embedded in your carpets, so this final vacuuming will ensure that all dead bugs are removed from your home.
Final Thoughts
A combination of different methods works best when dealing with bed bugs in carpets. Vacuuming, steam cleaning, and chemical treatments are done and performed simultaneously to ensure that the bed bugs and even their eggs won’t survive.
Proper disposal of vacuum bags and other debris are important steps to keep the bed bug problem from getting worse. If you are unsure of how to deal with bed bugs in carpets, nothing beats calling a professional pest control service to take care of the problem for you.
