We've all heard the infamous, and overused adage about sleeping tight to avoid being bitten by bed bugs, but if you've fallen victim to a bed bug infestation, it doesn't matter how tightly you try to sleep, at some point in the night, those bed bugs are going to bite you.
And before you start panicking about being invaded by these vampiric insects and protesting that you'll never have to worry about bed bugs because of your impeccable standards of hygiene, the simple truth is that it's all too easy to fall prey to them.
Bed bugs don't care how clean your home is or how worried about them you are, they're just a slave to their biology and are all too easily spread through clothing, seating, and human contact.
Now That I've Got Bed Bugs, How Can I Get Rid Of Them?Â
It's not all doom and gloom though, because even if you do end up catching a case of the bed bugs, there are a number of different ways that you can fight back and effectively combat and defeat a bed bug invasion.
Does Alcohol Kill Bed Bugs?
If you drink enough of it and then they suck your blood, it'll almost certainly send them to bed bug heaven. Seriously though, alcohol, or more accurately rubbing alcohol is a tired, tested, and proven way to kill bed bugs.
Rubbing alcohol is a swift and effective bed bug killer, and it works to quickly dispatch them in two different ways.
Because it's a solvent, it breaks down and dissolves their armored carapace and once it's dissolved a bed bugs shell, the alcohol then swiftly dries their bodies out, killing them almost immediately. It is just an incredibly time consuming, and difficult way of dealing with them.
While it's true that rubbing alcohol will kill bed bugs on contact, squirting it on them and making sure that you've got every single bug in your home is next to impossible.
Missing just one bug can lead to you ending right back where you began in just a couple of months' time, as a female can lay up to two hundred and fifty eggs at a time, which will lead to you breaking out the rubbing alcohol and starting all over again.
One of the main problems with trying to wipe out a bed bug infestation with rubbing alcohol is the size of the bugs and natural habitat.
Because the average adult bed bug is only around five millimeters long and their young are even smaller, they're incredibly easy to miss, and as they live in tiny cracks and cavities in walls and emerge at night to feed, trying to definitively eliminate an entire infestation with rubbing alcohol is next to impossible.
Cleaning Them Out
Washing your bed sheets and any clothing (yes, bed bugs can live in your clothes too) that you suspect might be infested with bed bugs at a high temperature is also an effective way of dealing with, and killing bed bugs.
But it'll leave you with exactly the same problem that rubbing alcohol will. It's a temporary cure at best that doesn't deal with the root cause of the infestation.
So you've washed your sheets, you've dried them, and having killed all of the bed bugs in them, have put them back on your bed.
And then, as darkness descends and you fall asleep in your freshly made bed, the bed bugs that have remained hidden in the tiny cracks and cavities of your walls and in your floorboards, emerge from where they live to feast on you all over again.
Laundry is just another stop-gap solution to a much bigger problem.
Call Pest Control
Absolutely, calling pest control is the right thing to do and once you've explained your problem to them, they'll treat the source of your infestation and you'll be able to finally wave goodbye to your bed bugs and sleep tight.
The problem with calling pest control is that it's going to be expensive. It's going to hit you in the pocketbook hard and it'll be a hit that you'll feel for a while even though it'll completely cure your infestation.
There is, however, an alternative, and while it may sound slightly radical and a little bit out there, it's a practical solution that's every bit as effective as pest control will be. You can do your own pest control.
DIY Bed Bug Control
- The Ultimate Bed Bug Kit - The products below work extremely well in combination together to help you successfully rid your home of bed bug
- Toughest Bed Bug Powder - Includes one 4oz bottle.
- Diatomaceous Earth Powder - Includes one 8oz bottle. Works by cutting the exoskeleton of the bed bug, causing the bug to dry out and die
- Toughest Gallon Spray - Includes one 128oz gallon. Kills bed bugs quickly and offers a residual of up to 16 weeks
- Powder Duster - Includes one powder duster that can be used to better apply silica and diatomaceous earth powder deep into cracks and crevices
Last update on 2023-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
There are plenty of brands who produce bed bug killing kits, but one of the most efficient and easy to use, is the complete, all in one kit from Harris.
A combination of sprays and powders that are made to be used together, Harris's kit is designed to deal with the soft furnishings that the bugs live and thrive on and in and powders that can be applied to the surfaces that they hide in.
It works a little bit like this. You wash your sheets and spray the soft furnishings, carpet, mattress, bedframe, and walls of the infected room with the liquid and wait for it to dry.
This kills any of the bed bugs in your bed and carpet. When everything is then dry you spread the powder over your bed frame and walls using the provided tool and as you're doing that, it naturally works its way into all of the cracks and crevices of the walls and all of the places that bed bugs like to hide in and rapidly dispatches them.
We would explain how the powder does what it does to the bed bugs, but it's a little too graphic and we're just content knowing that it works and provides a solution to any, and all, bed bug problems.
Conclusion
Alcohol does kill bed bugs. But there are better ways of dealing with them.
As we've already said, rubbing alcohol is a diligent and proven way of killing bed bugs and dealing with them, but it's slow, ponderous, and will never get to the root of an infestation.
If you want to fight back against bed bugs and win, the only way you'll ever emerge from that battle as the victor is by calling in Pest Control to do it for you, or by tackling the bugs head-on with a little help from Harris.
