1. Protecting your bed from bed bugs

This means you make sure bed bugs are not harboring in the bed frame, headboard, etc., and that you encase mattresses and box springs in high quality bed bug-proof encasements.

Bed bugs can crawl onto the bed and bite you, but you are taking steps to ensure they do not live there. If they cross poison on the way to you, any meal will hopefully be their last.

Some people prefer to “protect” rather than “isolate” because having bed bugs biting you in bed, or finding evidence they were there (cast skins, blood spots, etc.) is a sure sign you still have bed bugs and require further treatment. If you “isolate” and don’t react to bites you get during the day, it may be harder to verify bed bugs’ continued presence.

2. Isolating the Bed

Here, you are trying to get bed bugs out of your bed, and keep them out.

This option is more controversial, and certainly not a requirement. People who are being bitten very badly or who have serious allergic reactions or distress may attempt to do this in order to try and avoid being bitten by bed bugs while in bed.

Bed bugs will still try to get to you, but they should cross poison on the way, and you should be able to avoid bed bug bites.

In a few cases, bed bugs have been seen dropping down from the ceiling to bite people in “isolated” beds. It seems to be a rare occurrence, but can happen. More often, beds not thoroughly isolated have allowed people to continue to be bitten by bed bugs. If you’re going to isolate, you must be meticulous and thorough.

And remember, if bed bugs cannot bite at night, they will bite during the daytime, as you sit in chairs or go about your day. This still may be preferable to some, but it is worth noting.

Both methods require you to eliminate bed bugs from the mattress, box springs, headboard and bed frame, and then encase the mattress and box springs. So let’s start there.

Important:

The advice below assumes your home will be professionally treated by a Pest Control Operator who has experience with bed bugs. Protecting or isolating your bed, on their own, will not get rid of bed bugs. However, a PCO will tell you that you need to sleep in your normal spot in order to get rid of bed bugs, and protecting or isolating the bed will likely work well with the PCO’s treatment plan, which will likely include laying down residual pesticides that bed bugs will cross while trying to get to you.

You should wait to carefully clean your mattress, frame, bed, and home until a Pest Control Operator has verified you have bed bugs. Some have cleaned away evidence and been refused treatment by professionals or landlords.

Also, once bed bugs are verified to be present by those who need to see them, you should wait to encase your mattress until the Pest Control Operator has treated your home, because most PCOs can treat areas of the mattress (side, seams) and box springs as well as the bed frame / headboard with certain pesticides which are labeled for this purpose. Doing so and then thoroughly drying and sealing the mattress and box springs in encasements is best.

Everyone Will Need:

1. A zippered mattress protector that completely encloses your mattress (and box springs, if you insist on keeping them), the best you can afford. They are not all the same. Vinyl and cloth encasements are sold by a wide variety of suppliers, but few have actually been tested to keep bed bugs out (or in).

I would recommend Protect-A-Bed AllerZip encasements. They have been tested to keep bed bugs within the mattress even if the zipper is opened slightly — which gives you some insurance against accidents. Click here to read about encasements and to purchase them.

2. New pillows

3. Pillow encasements; buy with mattress encasements from same source. As for mattress encasements, they should be designed and tested specifically to keep bed bugs out (or in).

4. White sheets and pillow cases, cotton blanket (if you need to replace a comforter or other blanket). Cotton sheets and a cotton blanket are easy to wash and dry. (Comforters may harbor bed bugs even after a long stint in the dryer, and non-cotton blankets do not hold up well to dryer heat.)

One blanket option would be this cotton blanket from National Allergy which is reasonably priced and holds up well to lots of time in a hot dryer (follow the link for a discount of 7% on orders up to $174.99 or 10% on orders over $175).

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If you want to “isolate” the bed, read the following items 5-13.

If you only want to “protect” the bed, skip down to “Steps for Everyone” under the next dotted line below.

All items below are available widely. You can also see or purchase them on Bedbugger’s Useful Stuff page.

5. Bed risers — they raise the bed, to help keep sheets and blankets off the floor, a must if you are trying to “isolate the bed.” They can be found at Bed, Bath and Beyond (or Bed Bugs and Beyond, as Bedbugger Bugzinthehood termed it, long before a company providing Vikane treatments appeared with the same name) or (like the other items below) on Bedbugger’s Useful Stuff page.

6. Mineral oil or tea tree oil (more expensive but some people enjoy the idea that bed bugs hate it).

7. Vaseline

8. Quality duct tape: Use duct tape to ensure there are no sharp edges on a metal frame before you place an encased mattress on it.

9. Thick garbage bags (contractor bags) and XL and XXL Ziploc bags. Check

the hardware dept of your favorite big box store for

the contractor bags. They are usually not sold with the household

trash bags. In the USA, XL / XXL Ziplocs are sold in Target stores (look near the storage section and/or the section with bags), Home Depot (near the home cleaning supplies) or here.

10. Murphy’s Oil Soap (for wooden bed frames), which is a contact killer for bed bugs and is good for cleaning wood and rendering it bed bug-free. Regular strength

works fine. It is sold in ready to use spray bottles and a

concentrated formula.

11. 4 bowls for holding mineral oil or tea tree oil under the legs of the bed frame. Stainless steel is the best

choice, but other sturdy unbreakable bowls will do. If your bed risers have a little reservoir, you can simply keep that filled instead.

12. You may need a new metal bed frame, if you are unable to get bed bugs out of your wooden bed.

13. Some have actually decided to discard mattresses and isolate an Aerobed upon a metal bed frame. Use duct tape to ensure there are no sharp edges on a metal frame before you place an Aerobed on it. (Please use caution with discarding items; seal them completely in plastic before moving them through or out of your home, label them carefully, and realize that if you live in a building or in a house which is attached to others, your neighbors may take them in and use them and become infested and you may be right back to square one — another reason to encase instead.)

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Steps for everyone:

(See “Important” note at top.)

1. Strip the bed. Put all of the dirty linens into a garbage bag and

tie it off well. Some suggest using plastic cable ties. You can also knot the bag’s top in one single knot (it must be airtight; push the bag. If air can escape, you are tying it wrong). Launder your bedding as soon as you can in HOT water, and

dry on HIGH HEAT until completely dry and then some. When you take it out of the

dryer, put it immediately into another garbage bag and tie it off, or

use an XXL Ziploc.

2. Vacuum the mattress and springs really well. Especially in areas

with stitching, piping, tufts and the plastic corner guards. You

might want to take the corner guards off. You may also want to take

the gauzy covering off of the bottom of the bed spring and vacuum

inside.

3. Put the mattress and springs into the covers and seal. If you use a Protect-A-Bed encasements (with the BugLock Zip), you do not need to tape the zipper. If you use another encasement, you should probably tape the zipper and where the zipper closes on your encasement. This tape must not be allowed to come off; keeping it on can be very difficult. People have used Scotch Blue Painter’s tape, and National Allergy sells this along with their encasements, to be put over the zipper. Other types of very adhesive tape may work better, but none are foolproof.

4. Vacuum your bed frame. If you have a metal frame, put DE down in

the legs and cover over all of the holes and spaces with duct tape.

Wooden bed frames, and fancy headboards and foot boards are very problematic and need extra

considerations. These are addressed in another area of this FAQ.

5. Move the bedframe away from the wall.

6. Vacuum under and around the bed frame very thoroughly.

7. Put the mattress set back on the frame, very carefully, so you

don’t rip the covers. (See comments above about duct tape.)

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The following steps are only for those “isolating” the bed. If you are only “protecting” the bed, skip to step 12.

8. Put the bed on the risers, and put mineral oil (or tea tree oil) in the depression

in the castors are resting in. If your bed is already high off the

floor, or if the bed risers have no wells to put the oil in, put the legs in bowls of mineral oil.

9. Wrap double sided tape around the legs, and coat above and below

the tape with vaseline.

10. Vacuum again, to hopefully pick up any strays that fell or

crawled off of the mattress and box springs in the process.

11. Remember not to let your sheets and blankets drag on the floor while you

sleep. Realize also that you may carry bed bugs into the bed, for example, by simply sitting on a chair where a bed bug was able to crawl onto your clothing. If you isolate the bed, try to hop in bed clean and wearing clothing which was itself isolated and kept in sealed plastic bags.

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Everyone should:

12. Break out the new pillows and put encasements on them. See step #3 above and duct tape

the zippers if necessary.

13. Put on clean white linens (so you can see blood or other stains more easily).

Change and launder them (and blanket, if used) about every 3-5 days. Check the sheets every day for bugs, molted skins, blood spots (tiny to inch long smears), and black poppy seed-sized spots or what look like black ink spots.

If you “protected” the bed, this is evidence you still have bed bugs (helpful to know, especially if you do not react to bites). If you “isolated” the bed, this is evidence that the bugs are still in the bed.

Consider repeating the steps above of cleaning the frame and having it treated with pesticides, to ensure bed bugs are not living in the bed. And in any case, continue professional treatment approx. every two weeks until bed bug bites and all other signs are long gone.

14. Unless you are doing more cleaning immediately, take the bag out

of the vacuum, tape over the hole, put the bag in a Ziploc bag or a

securely tied garbage bag and put in an outside garbage receptacle.

15. Examine all of your precautions often. Encasements can get holes; try to avoid this. If it happens, promptly duct tape or replace them.

If you have a cat with claws, ensure the cat cannot make contact with the encasement (or even the encasement covered in bed linens). Keep the cat away from the bed if at all possible.

If you’re isolating, tape and vaseline can get dusty and lose their ability to trap bugs; you’ll need to replace them.

16. Optional steps:

AeroBed

Some Bedbuggers have used an AeroBed or air mattress, with or without a new cheap metal frame. You can’t encase the raised AeroBeds, so you will probably want to isolate the bed (per our FAQs) with bed risers and a cheap metal frame (see below). Remember to make sure there are no sharp edges on the frame (wrap with some duct tape if there are).

Wood Bed Frames:

If you have a wood bed frame, take it completely apart, if you can, and wash it

down (every inch) with Murphy’s Oil Soap, or another wood friendly

cleaner that contains d-limonene. Spray the Murphy’s on and wipe it

off. Don’t just spray it on a rag and wipe. The Murphy’s will kill

bed bugs on contact, if you douse them. I don’t know what a light

spray will do.

Since you are cleaning, you can pay close attention to

all the little cracks and crevices in the wood and joinery, looking

for all of the signs listed in step #13. The Pest Control Operator may spray the bed frame all over before you reassemble it. You may also consult the PCO about a pesticide you can use all over the frame if s/he will not do it. Take precautions and use pesticides only as labeled.

Captain’s beds (with drawers underneath a wooden platform) can be a bed bug nightmare. Consider destroying and carefully removing them. Otherwise, every piece will need to be disassembled, cleaned and sprayed with pesticide (by a PCO). A PCO who knows bed bugs will be able to advise about which items you should discard and which can be treated successfully.

Upholstered Headboards and Footboards:

Any upholstery is very difficult to treat successfully. Others may

have different answers, but I would say to remove them from your

frame, and vacuum and have the PCO treat them (or cautiously spray them with an upholstery safe

insecticide). Let it dry completely, then seal the item in

plastic wrap (ie. heavy painter’s tarp or shrink wrap plastic), duct

tape all of the edges of the plastic and store it for a year to 18

months. Another option that may or may not work is steaming with a

very good quality steamer. A professional may do this as part of a PCO service. You may do it also. The steam may not reach deeply enough in

heavily upholstered items without cooling and may only serve to drive

the bugs in deeper. Some people have simply given up and tossed them out, frankly, as upholstered head- and footboards are hard to treat successfully. Again, ask the PCO whether the item can be salvaged.

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The FAQ on isolating the bed was originally written by Dee in Colorado, from information she compiled by asking the members of the Bedbugger Yahoo Group, a great source of support and information, in your war against bed bugs. It was edited and revised several times by Nobugsonme.

Note from Nobugsonme: I have made a number of significant changes as of June 2008, including removing recommendations that people use the mechanical killer diatomaceous earth (DE) around the bed and on the floor. If you choose to use DE, read the DE FAQ, and ensure that your pest control operator approves of this self-treatment and where you’re doing it.

Make sure you apply only plain freshwater (”food grade”) DE, that you do not inhale it while applying or later (use a respirator mask to apply), and that your skin is not in contact with it.

DE should not be where it will be kicked up and inhaled, should not be used in mattresses or sofa cushions (because it’s bound to puff out and be inhaled) and should not be stepped on or touched by you or children. DE with added pyrethrins is a pesticide as well as a mechanical killer, and should be treated with even greater caution, and preferably left to professionals.

Among other things, I also changed the recommendations about mattress encasements. When this FAQ was written, few encasements were available, and few studies had been done about their effectiveness. Eighteen months later, it’s a completely different ballgame.

We have better products available now, and they can be more costly than the cheapest encasements which don’t work. But the best encasements can also be comparable in cost to ones that do not work.

If these pests are living in your bed and not crossing poison in order to bite you, you will never get rid of bed bugs. For this reason, I personally believe the quality of mattress, box spring, and pillow encasements are very, very important.

Thanks to Dee in Colorado, and all the other Bedbuggers who’ve contributed to this wonderful FAQ!

We learned everything we know by trial and error and advice from others. If you have had success with something other than what has been listed, please add it to the comments. Also, please feel free to add any other reputable sources for products.

If you need information on other aspects of your bed bug war, go back to the FAQs by clicking here. To read about or buy mattress encasements click here, and to buy DE, bed risers, metal frames, or any of the other stuff recommended above, you can click here to go to the Shop for Useful Stuff page.

• Bed bug highlights from the 2008 Purdue Pest Management Conference
• New mattress encasement comparison test data
• I can’t find a bed bug, but think I am being bitten. What do I do?
• Bed bug Helloise: a nice, reasonably-priced white metal bed frame with no wooden slats

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