Bed bugs are normally associated with unsanitary, crowded living conditions. Unfortunately this is not entirely true. Bed bugs are spread from location to location by hopping into luggage and clothing. They are also transported by furniture. Knowing that you have come from a place that may be infested, regardless of whether or not your own home is kept in pristine condition, means that it is time for some bed bug control.

Bed bugs have the worst reputation, and in truth they absolutely deserve. Once you have an infestation these parasitic insects can be expensive and troublesome to get rid of. By taking a few preventative steps before entering your home from a possibly infested location, you can avoid getting an infestation of your own.

Everything that was with you at the site of the possible infestation must be de-bugged before it is brought into your home. An effective and free method of doing this requires the use of very high temperatures. Your luggage and clothing won’t respond well to heat applied just any old way, but a few common practices can get them hot enough to kill any living bed bug, without ruining them.

A lot of websites recommend line drying clothes beneath a hot summer sun. More people who have tried this than not say that this method is not thorough. This means that even after investing the effort to complete this method you are likely to start waking up with itchy bite marks and noticing bed bug feces on your sheets.

The greenhouse effect that is created by a locked car left in direct sunlight will kill just about anything. Put your luggage and your clothes in your car, roll up the windows, lock the door to prevent theft, and leave your car in the sun for several hours. The temperature in your car will rise rapidly, and the bed bugs will definitely die.

Coming back from an infested location on a cold, overcast day will render this method of treatment ineffective. Another alternative for situations such as these is to wash your clothes at regular settings, but then dry them until they are painfully hot to the touch. Once they are this hot to you, you can be relatively certain that any hitchhiking insects will be dead. Keeping your clothes in the drier far longer than normal will not hurt durable items, and even if a few articles are lost it will cost you far less than the alternative will.

You can’t fit your luggage into the washer or drier, so it will have to be vacuumed. Use your vacuum hose attachment to check every crevice and corner of your luggage for these crafty little hiders. They may be in exterior compartments and pockets so make sure that you are thorough. All it takes is a mating pair to reak havoc on your house. Another very important thing to remember when using this preventative option is to never bring your vacuum into the house before changing the bag or emptying the canister. Bed bugs can escape from these and enter your home anyway, and then all of your hard efforts will have been for naught.

These easy, cost-effective methods will certainly save you a lot of money and trouble in the long run. Having a bed bug infestation doesn’t require poor housekeeping skills. So if you are returning from a suspicious location you absolutely cannot rely on your normal cleaning routines to prevent one. Using prudent bed bug control will eliminate the possibility of having bed bugs take over your home.