Is It Possible To Have Bed Bugs In My Car
As you may already know from reading my other posts, bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers. As part of our daily lives, we find them anywhere people are or were. This means that we not only find them in our beds, but in our vehicles, RVs, campers, and big rig truck cabs. So, contrary to what you have heard, you can get bed bugs in your car.
Many people will insist they have an infestation of bed bugs just by looking at new bite marks on their bodies. You should not assume that just any bite like mark on your body means that your home is infested with bed bugs. A physical sighting or sample of the adult bed bug or egg should be seen or caught to make sure that you have bed bugs.
If you are unable or unknowledgeable to do your own inspection for bed bugs, there are Climbup Monitor traps that you can use on your furniture leg or on the legs of your bed. Remember to avoid having bridges to your furniture or bed by removing them from the walls. Also, be aware that anything touching your bed with help bypass the monitors. Bed bugs need your blood to survive and they will look to be where you spend a lot of time, which is where you sleep.
The monitors should be left in place for a minimum of 21 days to provide the best opportunity to intercept bed bugs as they move around your home. Ideally, the monitors should be left in place indefinitely so that they are continually monitoring for bed bugs.
Bed bugs are known to be tiny specimens that can hide virtually anywhere, so, it will be very hard to see them on your own unless you know where you are looking.
Bed bugs feed over long periods of time, and they can’t latch onto people like ticks can. The only truly vulnerable target in a car are sleeping passengers. That’s not to say having bed bugs in your car is harmless. The psychological stress should be more than enough to make you take action. You don’t want to drive around with bloodsucking pests so anybody that is with you can also become a victim.
There is good news, bed bugs in a car rarely stay there long. Instead, they’ll find good hiding places in transportable items like boxes and bags. When you move those items, the bed bugs will come with them. Bed bugs in a home almost inevitably end up finding a bed, and then you do have to worry about the feeding.
But, unlike mosquitoes or ticks, bed bugs aren’t known to transmit diseases, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be comfortable providing a bloody meal while you’re sleeping.
Bugs in Your Car?
If you think bed bugs are only a problem at home, think again. These resilient pests have been known to infest movie theaters, hotel rooms, schools, and even office buildings. They can survive literally everywhere, but one place few people think to look for these pests is one of their most personal spaces: the car.
Bed bugs travel from one location to the next by attaching themselves to their host’s clothing. If your home or office is infested and you often travel by car, these pests may find their way in your vehicle and quickly breed an infestation.
You may have heard that heat kills bed bugs but, while parts of the interior of your car do reach temps that are above the thermal death point for bed bugs, putting items in bags in the car is definitely not a reliable way to kill bed bugs. Also, remember that the sun doesn’t stay out consistently in most places, so every time it ducks behind a cloud, the temperature can drop.
Despite the fact that you may have access to the perfect climate to try this method, please don’t use them as a major part of my fight against bed bugs. Putting items in a car on a sunny day is probably a good way to eradicate them, for the reasons above, this is not a reliable method of debugging items.
But, I have some good news is there are a number of safe and effective treatments to get bed bugs out of your car. The following tips can help keep your car bed bug free, as well as help prevent infestations from developing.
Start with Inspection
The first step to ensuring a bedbug-free car is to confirm you have an infestation in the first place. Treatments can be expensive and time-consuming, so it is important to be absolutely certain you have bed bugs before moving forward.
Begin by thoroughly cleaning the interior of your car and removing excess clutter where bed bugs may be hiding. Once you get that out of the way, perform a thorough visual inspection of your car. Beyond looking for the bugs themselves, keep an eye out for the telltale signs they leave behind, including blood stains and small, dark spots of fecal matter. It may also be beneficial to use tape to increase the accuracy of detection.
Clean Your Car Regularly
Bed bugs love clutter, as it gives them the ability to go undetected. By cleaning your car regularly, you will be able to detect these sneaky pests and prevent an infestation from occurring. Aside from removing trash that builds up, avoid storing your clothes in your car for a twofold aim: to prevent bed bugs from attaching themselves to these items and to stop them from hitching a free ride into your home.
While cleaning, be sure to thoroughly vacuum every crack and crevice in your car to help remove any lingering bed bugs that remain. This is a great IPM Integrated Pest Management Vacuum that is specifically made for bed bug removal. We used one that was similar to this one but, just more expensive. It’s really not that high of a price for the work that it will do. Most importantly is has a true HEPA 1 Quart IPM filter that safely captures 99.97% efficiency at 0.3 microns virtually eliminating the risk of exhausting dangerous bacteria into the air.
One bed bug can lay from 250 to 500 eggs in her lifetime. They prefer to lay their eggs in protected cracks and crevices and those eggs will hatch in about 6 to 10 days. If left unchecked, under normal circumstances, bed bugs will live for about 10 to 11 months. There may be three or more generations of bed bugs born each year. Because bed bugs of all ages may be found in an infestation, you must keep cleaning your car regularly to inhibit their reproduction.
Wash Seat Covers and Floor Mats
In addition to maintaining a clean car, don’t forget to wash your seat covers and floor mats on a regular basis. Laundering these items can help kill any lingering pests that may be hiding in your car, and will give you another opportunity to inspect for their presence. Once washed, dry the items at high heat to kill any bed bugs that may have survived, and examine the items again before placing them back in your car.
Steam the Interior to Exterminate Bed Bugs
Heat treatment is one of the safest and most effective ways to treat bed bugs. Although you may not have access to the same equipment as the professionals use, you can use a steam cleaner to garner the same pest-killing benefits. Be sure to use a machine that can emit more than 200 degrees of high-pressure steam in order to effectively kill the bed bugs in your car. You may also consider using a fabric attachment with a cloth cover to better control the application of this steam.
Heat treat bedding, clothing, and other textiles in your dryer to kill bugs and eggs. Carry the items in garbage bags and loosely pack them in your dryer. Run the hottest cycle for 30 minutes (there’s no need to wash beforehand). “The dryer becomes your best friend.
Use CimeXa Insecticide Dust to Kill Bed Bugs
CimeXa Insecticide Dust is a new product leading the way in bed bug control. This substance has been shown to be very effective at killing a variety of insects, including bed bugs, and is safe enough to use around humans and pets without causing any harm. Be sure to treat areas such as crawl spaces behind baseboards voids under bedding cracks and crevices.
CimeXa is safe and effective as it starts working immediately to dehydrate pests causing their death. Sprinkle it throughout your car and let it sit for a few days for the best results. After three days, simply vacuum up the dust to remove it from your car. CimeXa can successfully execute bedbug adults, nymphs, and nymphs hatching from dusted eggs. Keep in mind that multiple treatments may be necessary for CimeXa to be effective.
Take Your Car to a Fumigator
Fumigation has long been an effective treatment for pests in homes, but did you know it can also be performed on cars with bed bug infestations? Much like a home, vehicles are sealed and covered with a tarp for the fumigation treatment, and it usually only takes one treatment to effectively remove all pests from your car. This will be the worst case scenario for an infestation and will be an expensive procedure.
One good thing about this procedure, you can place infested belongings such as clothes or bedding in the car to be treated, as well.
Although each of these methods is effective in itself at treating and preventing bed bugs, the highest rate of success will be achieved by combining two or more methods. If bed bugs continue to be a problem in your car after the treatments have been performed, contacting a pest control professional could be the solution you need. Sometimes it’s a case of not wanting or knowing how to apply these treatments, that will not get you the results you desire.
Remember that bed bugs are resilient, and keeping a pest-free car takes more than one single treatment, so continued preventive measures must be taken to get rid of them once and for all.
3 Places You’d Never Think To Look for Bed Bugs
There are few things as disconcerting as discovering you have been exposed to a bed bug infestation. While bed bugs do not discriminate between four-star hotels or hostels, apartment buildings or condos, there are a few places most unsuspecting people fail to look for the creepy-crawly critters.
Rental Furniture
Whether you are renting to own, staging your home, or temporarily furnishing an apartment, rental furniture is the ideal place for bed bugs to hide. Since bed bugs are flightless bugs, they must therefore “hitch a ride” to their next destination. In hotel rooms, this often happens when luggage is left on the floor in an infested room. Bed bugs crawl into the crevices of the luggage or the clothes, lay their eggs, and wait to be transported to their next home.
The same thing happens when rental furniture is moved into a new home, apartment or condo. Before accepting delivery into your home, examine the cushions, frame, legs and underneath side of any furniture for evidence of bed bugs. This can include a rust-colored stain, eggs and eggshells and pale yellow skins as well as the bed bugs themselves.
Computer Keyboards
People often mistakenly assume that bed bugs only hide and breed in things that are soft. In reality, older keyboards are large enough for bed bugs to hide in and come crawling out when you least suspect it. Since many models are black and hide any evidence of bed bugs, be sure to vacuum between the keys regularly.
Additionally, turn your keyboard upside down and gently tap it on your desk. If anything that looks like shells, eggs or bugs emerge, it is time for a new keyboard and a thorough home or office bed bug inspection. Bed bugs can even get in your laptop.
Rental Vehicles
Think of it this way. If bed bugs can travel from one location to another in your luggage, they can also infest your rental car. Before placing your suitcase, coat, purse, or laptop bag in your car, thoroughly inspect the vehicle for any evidence of bed bugs. Be sure to look around the edges of the trunk, under floor mats, between the seats, and in the glove compartment.
If you find any evidence of rust-colored stains, skins, bugs, or eggs in the carpet, trim, upholstery, dashboard, or cup holders, show them to the agent and ask for another rental car. Your rental care company is responsible for renting you a safe vehicle. Should you unwittingly contract bed bugs from it, they may be legally required to help you get rid of them.
Staying Aware
To prevent sharing your bedbugs with co-workers, friends, family, and the public at large, you should limit what you carry out of the house, and inspect those items carefully. Go minimalist and carry just a single bag in and out of your home. Before leaving, look over the bag’s exterior to make sure there are no insects on it. It can be helpful to keep a clear, plastic bin with a lid near the front door and seal your belongings in it when you return home.
Preventing bed bugs is all about vigilance and cleanliness. Remember like i said earlier c lean out and vacuum your car frequently. Shampoo floor mats, and replace them if they look frayed or damaged. Look for places where the pests might hide. Clean them thoroughly. Don’t miss the small crevices. Consider what you’re putting in your car carefully, especially when you’re traveling. Inspect bags and suitcases after staying somewhere new.
When you return home, take everything out of your car and inspect it. Don’t leave boxes and bags in your car overnight. Throw anything you suspect may harbor bed bugs into your dryer for about 20 minutes. To be really sure, look for them in and around your bed for a few days after a trip. If you find any, clean out your car again along with your bed.
Conclusion
All these bed bug tips may sound paranoid, but a little extra work now could save you from a lot of work and money later. You can deal with infestations but, you just have to remain calm and go through the steps.
If you do end up with bed bugs in your car, your home, or anywhere else don’t hesitate to take action. The longer you let them live, the bigger the infestation may get. Please, start eradicating them immediately. Please leave me a comment if you have any questions.
