Can I Sleep In My Bed After Bed Bug Treatment? (Find Out Now!)

Bed bugs can be a pain. Once you have them, it can be very hard to get rid of them. Luckily there are pest management professionals who can help you clear the bed bugs out of your home. After the exterminators have treated the affected area, is it safe to sleep in your bed?

You can sleep in your bed after most types of bed bug treatment. In fact, you won’t want to sleep in a new area in your home, because bed bugs could follow you to set up a new harborage. After treatment, wash bedding in hot water and dry on the hottest setting your material will withstand. Then, put a mattress encasing around your mattress before you go to sleep.

We’ll fill you in on what you can expect with heat treatments and chemical treatments. Also, we’ll give you tips on how to keep bed bugs away for good.

A heat treatment will usually take 6 to 8 hours. In this type of treatment, the temperatures in the room or house can be raised as high as 145°F (62.7 °C). Bed bugs and their eggs will die instantly in these hot temperatures.

When the treatment is finished, you can re-enter your home as soon as the home is comfortable enough to do so. Sometimes the pest management professional (PMP) will use insecticides in combination with heat treatment. This is known as “integrated pest management.” In this case, the insecticides will need to dry before you can reenter.

Heat treatment is very effective and should kill bed bugs and their eggs on the same day. At night, you can go to sleep in your bed without worrying if more bed bugs will come to bite you during the night. However, heat treatment alone has no residual effect. You will want to take prevention steps to guard against a new infestation.

An insecticide treatment can take less time to carry out, but you will have to wait longer before entering your home. This treatment usually takes 30 minutes to 2 hours per room and 1 or 2 follow-up treatments will be necessary.

PMPs will typically use 3 different types of insecticides. These can include a contact insecticide for the most used areas, a residual insecticide for the nooks and crannies, and a dust insecticide to reach inside baseboards and walls.

Most recommend staying out of your home after treatment for 4-6 hours while the insecticides dry. However, pregnant women, babies under 18 months, people with breathing problems, and any pets should stay out of the home for at least 12 hours before reentering.

In an insecticide treatment, it may take a few weeks before all the bed bugs die off. You should sleep in your bed because if you sleep in a new area, the bed bugs will follow you there and a new infestation can begin. You can use a mattress encasement that entirely encases your mattress that will keep the bugs from being able to get to you at night. The encasement itself will not kill off bed bugs, but if the mattress has been treated, the bugs will die off inside as they will eventually be forced to come in contact with the insecticide.

Before the professionals get to work, you will need to prepare the home for treatment. Generally, you don’t want to remove any items from the home. Small bed bugs or eggs could be hidden in these items and you can run the risk of reintroducing bed bugs into your home. Also, you could potentially spread bed bugs to a new area. However, if you are heat treating your home, you will need to remove anything that could melt at 150 degrees. Ask the PMP how you can treat these items separately.

Here are some steps to follow before the professional exterminators come in to make the treatment the most effective:

When your Pest Management Professional has finished treatment, they may give you specific directions for follow-up. You will want to follow their advice, and keep any follow-up appointments to prevent a subsequent infestation of bed bugs. The Environmental Protection Agency also has online guidelines to prevent bed bugs from re-entering your home.

If you are not sure if enough time has elapsed after treatment to safely sleep in your bed, ask your PMP for advice.

Related Questions

How fast can bed bugs move?

Bed bugs can get around quickly and hide out well. They are capable of traveling 3-4 feet per minute. They usually feed when people have reached their deep sleep cycle. This means you may not feel the bite until much later. These 2 factors combined are reasons why you may not have noticed you have a bed bug problem until they have multiplied.

Do you treat just the affected room or the whole house for bed bugs?

Just because one room has bed bugs luckily does not mean that all your rooms do. Still, bed bugs move quickly so you will want to set traps to see if bedbugs have infested other areas. Use preventative measures to keep the bugs from moving from room to room.

How much does bed bug treatment cost?

According to homeadvisor.com bed bug treatment on average will cost $200-$400 per room. A homeowner could end up paying anywhere from $300 to $5,000 for treatment depending on the size of the infestation.