1. Treat Your Home
Before you treat your carpet you need to make sure that you don’t have any bed bugs in the rest of your home.
You would be wasting your time if you treat the bed bugs inside your carpet but you don’t first treat the rest of your home.
While bed bugs do hide inside carpets its typically not the most common location for them to hide.
It’s very likely that if there are bed bugs in your carpet there are also bed bugs in other parts of your house.
- Bed bugs are most common in the following locations:
- Mattresses
- Box Spring
- Bed Frame
- Head Board
- Foot Board
- Night Stand
- Dresser
- Other Furniture inside bedrooms
- Couch
- Drapery
To avoid having bed bugs re-infest your carpet make sure you do not have bed bugs in the following locations.
The bed way to do this is to treat them together. But you can also treat your carpet and the rest of the items in your room separately.
2. Prevent bugs From Climbing Up Furniture
Before you begin treating your carpets, it is also ideal for removing everything from your carpets.
Often once you begin treating your carpets, bed bugs will try to flee the carpet to avoid treatment.
This is common with heat treatments, insecticides, and dust treatments.
Bed Bugs have learned to avoid or run away from these treatments to survive.
There are two ways you can prevent bugs from climbing up the furniture on your rug.
Remove Furniture
If you are treating a room with wall-to-wall carpet, you will want to remove all the furniture from the room.
If you are treating area carpets, you can remove the carpet from the room and treat it in an isolated area before bringing it back.
When removing a carpet, make sure you roll it up and place it in a plastic bag or you risk bed bugs falling off the carpet as you remove it.
This can spread your infestation to different areas of your home so be careful when removing your carpet.
Use Traps
Traps are an easier way of preventing bed bugs from climbing up your furniture, but it is a bit riskier.
You can do this by using traditional bed bug pitfall traps.
Place these under the legs of your furniture to prevent bed bugs from climbing up.
If you don’t want to purchase bed bug traps, you can use double-sided duct tape to stop bed bugs from climbing up.
Wrap the legs of your furniture or any parts that come in direct contact with the ground with double-sided tape.
Any bed bugs that try to escape the treatment will get stuck on the trap.
Remember, this applies to more than just furniture. Any bags, boxes, or other objects on the floor need to be removed from the floor.
I typically stack any belongings without legs on top of my bed or dresser.
This is a great way to save time and space while preparing your carpet for treatment.
How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs on Wall-To-Wall Carpets?
Treating bed bugs typically is not a one-step process. For the best results, bed bugs require a multiple-step approach.
If you want to go with a non-chemical and inexpensive method of eliminating bed bugs this is the best approach.
1. Dust, Vacuum, and Steam
This method of eliminating bed bugs is the most natural and inexpensive method you can do.
While it is inexpensive it is time-consuming and requires diligence to make sure that you eliminate all bed bugs inside your carpet.
Apply Diatomaceous Earth
First, you want to start out by applying DE to your carpet.
DE is an abrasive substance that will destroy a bed bugs exoskeleton and cause them to dehydrate.
The best approach is to apply a thin layer of DE across the entire surface of the carpet.
Apply extra along the walls.
In particular, use a duster to inject dust into the small crevice between the wall and the carpet.
This is a common location where bed bugs can fall.
For the best results, try to leave the DE undisturbed for 24-48 hours.
The longer, the better, if you are looking for fast results, let it sit for several hours.
When applying, make sure you are wearing protective gear.
This usually includes:
- Face mask or dust mask
- Gloves (for people with sensitive skin)
- Goggles
Not much safety equipment is necessary when using DE.
DE has low toxicity to humans.
The main concern when using DE is particles being suspended in the air.
Inhaling DE can cause damage to your lungs. Likewise, DE particles in your eye can also be dangerous.
Vacuum
The next step is to vacuum the carpet.
This does two things:
- Picks up all the DE
- Picks up any live bed bugs, dead bed bugs, bed bug eggs, and bed bug skin casings.
While you won’t be able to target all bed bugs using vacuum treatments, this method is excellent at removing a large number of bed bugs, eggs, and shells skin quickly after you have steamed your car.
Removing these is vital in the treatment process because it gives you a clear picture of progress.
Vacuum all the same locations you steamed as a way to eliminate any bed bugs you might have missed.
I also highly recommend using a vacuum with a HEPA filter to prevent the number of allergens and particles that enter the air after vacuuming.
If you missed any locations, you might vacuum live bed bugs.
If this is the case, and you have a bag-free vacuum, I suggest you add a thin layer of DE at the bottom to kill any live bed bugs.
Steam
The final step to this process is to steam your carpet.
Bed bugs and their eggs cannot survive temperatures that exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Since most steamers can reach up to 240 degrees Fahrenheit, they can be highly effective when employed against bed bugs.
At temperatures above 150 degrees, bed bugs die instantly.
When going over large areas, I recommend using a large head attachment.
The large head attachment is great for the floors and fronts and backs of seats.
Remember to keep a pace of about 1 inch per second.
At this pace, you will deliver enough heat to kill bed bugs.
Finally, to reach inside crevices, use a smaller fine point tip or brush tip.
Doing so will allow you to inject steam into small crevices that would otherwise be hard to reach.
I recommend you use the pointed tip, where the carpet meets the wall.
This will kill any bed bugs trying to hide in these small gaps.
2. Heat Treatment
One of the most effective all-natural, non-chemical methods of eliminating bed bugs is using heat.
Bed bugs of all life cycles can not withstand heat higher than 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
The easiest way to DIY heat treatment is to use portable heating systems.
The problem is that this method is not easy.
You might need extensive equipment to reach the temperature you need, and also it highly depends on the size of the room with carpet.
Pest control professionals typically do heat treatments on large areas.
If you have an area rug, you can use a heat chamber depending on the size.
This will allow you to place the carpet inside the heating chamber and sit inside for hours before taking it out.
The size of your rug will determine what type of heat chamber you need.
BuggZap offers both a full-sized room heat chamber and a smaller localized heat chamber.
3. Spray Insecticides
Insecticide treatments are a great alternative if you can’t use heat and steam may be too difficult.
The benefit is that spraying carpets with insecticide is much faster than other methods.
- Clear any furniture from your room.
- Mix insecticide solution.
- Fill up pressurized sprayer.
- Spray the carpet until damp across the entire carpet.
Insecticide sprays are great because they can have an instant kill as well as a residual effect.
One of the best insecticides to use, which is safe for carpets is crossfire.
Crossfire kills on contact and has a 30-day residual effect.
If a hiding bed bug escapes the first insecticide spray the first time, any contact with the carpet for the next 30 days will cause them to die.
This method is effective on both wall-to-wall carpets and area carpets.
Very easy to apply and can deliver 100% mortality rate on adult bed bugs, nymphs, and bed bug eggs.
How Get Rid Of Bed Bugs on Area Carpets?
Area carpets offer greater versatility in treatments because they are smaller, and you can quickly move them.
You can use all the same methods to treat wall-to-wall carpets with a few additional treatment options.
These include:
- Wash and Drying
- Fumigation
- Localized Heat
1. Wash and Dry
This method typically only works for smaller area rugs.
Washing and drying small area rugs is an easy and effective way to get rid of bed bugs.
Wash area rugs on hot using a bed bug killing detergent.
Most detergents kill bed bugs, but bed bug detergent adds a level of protection against bed bugs.
When drying your area carpet, use the highest heat setting.
Dry it on high heat for a minimum of 1 hour to kill any bed bugs that might have survived in the washer.
2. Fumigate using Nuvan Pro Strips
Unlike, wall-to-wall carpets fumigating area rugs is much easier.
The easiest way to fumigate area rugs is by using Nuvan Pro strips.
Nuvan pro strips use a chemical called DDVP, which attacks the bed bugs nervous system and kills it.
To use Nuvan Pro Strips, you will need to purchase a storage bag that you will allow you to enclose your carpet.
Place your carpet inside a large storage bag with one Nuvan Pro Strip.
Seal your storage bag with a zip tie to create an airtight seal.
It’s important that
you make sure that the seal is airtight, or the fumigation won’t be as effective.
It’s best to perform this fumigation outdoors or inside a garage were people don’t frequent.
DDVP is toxic and should not be exposed to cooking or food areas.
Fumigate your carpet for seven days to kill both eggs and adult bed bugs.
Make sure to wear a mask when handling DDVP.
DDVP is toxic, and so you want to use it away from people and areas where people frequent.
After seven days, break the airtight seal.
Leave your couch to air out for several hours.
If you’re doing this in a room or garage, keep the windows and doors open.
While the carpet is airing out, no one should be in the vicinity for several hours.
3 Heat Treatment
Heat treatments are easier to perform on smaller area bugs.
Depending on the size, your carpet heat treatments are easy.
The best way to safely heat treat your carpet or other furniture is by using a heat champer.
There are several size options when purchasing a cheat chamber: small compact and full room size.
For larger area rugs, you will need to use the full room size heat chamber.
For smaller area rugs, you can use the localized heat chambers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Do Bed Bugs Crawl on The Floor?
Yes, bed bugs crawl on floors. Unlike other insects, bed bugs can not fly or jump.
This means that crawling is their primary source of movement.
Bed bugs will crawl along carpets and floors to travel between one room and another.
In most cases, bed bugs will not crawl on the floor option.
This can happen if:
- Bed bug infestation is new and is trying to establish a hiding spot.
- Large Infestations and bed bugs live in uncommon areas such as floors, walls, and drapery.
- Female bed bugs looking for a place to lay their eggs.
Can You Get Bed Bugs Under Carpet?
Bed bugs can live under your carpet. While they can live under your carpet its not common for bed bugs to have easy access to underneath carpets.
If bed bugs are underneath your carpet then its possible that:
- You have holes in your carpet
- Your carpet was not measured properly which results in gaps
- You have an area rug which are much more easier to get underneath
Can You Get Bed Bugs from Renting a Carpet Cleaner?
Bed bugs can live inside carpet cleaners.
They will either die from the hot water or the detergent used inside the machine.
This makes it unlikely to get bed bugs from a carpet cleaner, but it’s not impossible.
Bed bugs seeking protection can climb onto the carpet cleaner and hide in small crevices or seams.
It also possible they stuck their eggs onto the surface of the carpet cleaner.
While it’s not common, it is possible to get bed bugs from carpet cleaners.
How to Inspect for Bed Bugs on Carpet?
To inspect for bed bugs. on your carpet, you will need:
- flashlight or UV light
- Magnifying glass
- Metal Probe
- Collection Jars
The key area to inspect on carpets is the edges where the carpets meet the wall.
Using the metal probe feel between thee cracks and inspect using a magnifying.
Look for any signs of bed bugs including:
- live bed bugs
- bed bug droppings
- skin casings
- or blood stains
Other than corners, you also want to look on your carpet where your furniture was.
Bed bugs commonly hide on carpets under beds, dressers, and other couches.
Why Have Bed Bugs Infested Your Carpet?
If you have bed bugs in your carpet, you likely have bed bugs in your home.
Bed bugs are hiding in different places along the carpet, this is a sign of a large infestation.
In larger infestations, bed bugs might spread across the entire room of where their host is living.
If you spot one-bed bug on the carpet, they are using traveling across the ground to reach a different hiding place or place their eggs.