Home safety isn’t just about security. From fires and gas leaks to unbeatable black mold, your home is threatened by all sorts of things–not least of all bedbugs.
Bed bugs and other pests impact physical and mental health. They also create significant risks to the integrity of your home and the furniture inside it.
Here’s some essential home hygiene tips to make a habit of so you can stay on top of unwanted guests in the home and avoid a bedbug infestation.
Table of Contents
1. Vacuum frequently
The simplest way to prevent bed bugs and other pests from infesting the home is to vacuum regularly. Rather than leaving cleaning to a designated day, get into the habit of doing small bits of cleaning every single day. This reduces the likelihood of anything carried inside the home reproducing rapidly.
If you vacuum frequently, you become more familiar with spaces bedbugs like to nest (tight, small and dark spaces). Frequent cleaning allows you to catch a bedroom bug faster if there is one, meaning it’s then easier to treat.
2. Differentiate inside and outside clothes
As TikToks frequently showcase, bed bugs from the train and other public transport services migrate via clothing. Bedbugs can’t jump or fly, and aren’t especially agile, meaning they crawl from one surface to another.
Because of this, remove all outerwear as soon as you get home and keep it somewhere separate from bedrooms and other spaces. Likewise, try keeping clothing worn outside somewhat separate from the clothes you were inside, like your pajamas or bedclothes.
3. Shoes off!
Much like being more conscious of where you put outerwear when you return home, always take your shoes off at the door.
Walking through the house in shoes that have been outside is unhygienic, and spreads dirt, fecal matter, bacteria, and anything latching onto the shoe inside the home. This, in turn, equals more cleaning.
4. Change bedsheets more frequently
While the idea that bed bugs in mattresses are the only place you’ll find them is a myth, it’s not entirely unreasonable to associate bedbugs with the bed. That’s because dark, cramped spaces, like inside a mattress seam or the gap between the headboard and wall, are preferable to them.
As such, consider upping how often you change your bedsheets. Experts suggest changing your sheets once every 1 to 2 weeks. Vacuum vigorously around the bed, including the mattress and frame.
5. High temperature washes
Washing your clothes, bedding, and other fabrics at lower temperatures is better for the environment, and necessary for some types of clothing.
However, if you have reason to suspect bedbugs, like if a friend’s home has recently had an outbreak, increase the temperature of washes. Particularly, towels and bedding should be washed at the highest withstandable temperatures.
More essential tips for avoiding a bedbug infestation
- Reduce clutter in the home to decrease hiding places for bed bugs and other pests.
- Check for live bedbugs and dark spots on any sheets or linen in hotels and other unfamiliar accommodation.
- Keep suitcases in open spaces away from beds, walls, and floor corners.
- Carry out necessary structural fixes, like fixing gaps and cracks in walls.
Conclusion
As this year made abundantly clear, bed bugs are from being a pest of the past. They exist, and dealing with them isn’t exactly easy once they’ve populated an area. Hence, prevention is the best bed bug cure.
Having said that, bedbug fear mongering is unusually rampant at the moment. Get to grips with what’s fact and what’s fiction.
Recommended reading:
What To Do If There’s a Gas Leak – 5 Steps to Staying Safe
Fire Alarm Keeps Going Off? Here’s What To Do
Where to Put Carbon Monoxide Detectors in your Home?