Isolating and encasing furniture is important and prevents items from becoming infested. This will kill bed bugs only if insects have no chance for escape and if they are enclosed for long enough to starve to death.
Reduce clutter to make bed bug inspection easier. Be careful when removing items fr om the infested area to other areas because you may transfer the bed bugs.
Personal items (stuffed animals, soft toys, blankets) should be removed, cleaned with a vacuum cleaner.Dismantling bed frames in infested areas may expose additional bedbug hiding sites.
Remove drawers from desks and dressers, and turn furniture over to inspect and clean all hiding spots. All furniture should be pulled away from the walls.
Stand up the box spring and shine a flashlight through the gauze fabric to expose bed bugs. If the fabric is torn, remove fabric to prepare for spraying. If the mattress and or box springs are infested, you may want to consider Bed Bug Certified Encasements by Mattress Safe. Once covered with these encasements, bed bugs can not enter or exit. There is no need to treat the mattress or box spring when using these encasements. Keep them on for a year.
Caulk and seal all holes where pipes and wires penetrate walls and floor, and fill cracks around baseboards and molding to further reduce harboring areas.
Since infested garments and bed linen can’t be treated with insecticide they will need to be laundered in hot water 120 degrees fahrenheit . bed linens for several minutes in a clothes dryer may work.Thoroughly clean the infested rooms.
Vacuum areas of bed bug infestation with a vacuum attachment. Vacuum along baseboards, furniture, bed stands, rails, headboards, foot boards, bed seams, tufts, buttons, edges of the bedding, as well as the edges of the carpets . A good vacuum cleaning job may remove particles from cracks and crevices to encourage greater insecticide penetration. Bed bugs cling tightly to surfaces, so it is best to repeat vacuuming by scraping the end of the vacuum attachment over the infested areas to pull out the bed bugs. It is not good to use a bristle attachment, because you may transfer bed bugs to other areas since they cling to the brush. Dispose of vacuum cleaner bags after you are finished.
Caulk cracks and crevices in the infested building exterior, and also repair openings to exclude birds, bats, and rodents that can serve as alternate hosts for bed bugs.
Monitoring using a k9 bed bug dog is a great way of clearing a infestation.