Bed bugs are expected under the cover, but what about bed bugs in carpet fibers or rugs in your room?
Surprisingly, bed bugs are common in multiple spots around your home, not just your bed! You can find these pests crawling through different areas and hiding away until they can steal a taste of your blood.
Keep reading to know more about where you can find bed bugs and how to eliminate them, no matter their location.
How Did I Get Bed Bugs?
Bed bug infestations come with a bad reputation. These blood-sucking pests are often associated with interior messes or poor hygiene, but that’s not the case! Any home can get bed bugs, even the tidiest residences.
Unlike cockroaches, ants, or mice, bed bugs don’t enter your home from the outdoors. They enter via infected items like mattresses, chairs, clothing, or luggage. Your friends or family could even accidentally allow them indoors too.
Typically most homeowners notice bed bugs following a trip or stay in a hotel, motel, or vacation rental. Because many regularly cycle in and out of these rooms, bed bug infestations are unfortunately common.
These tiny pests stick close to mattress seams, outlets, covers, or bed frames, so you may need help spotting an active infestation.
When visiting another residence, look around the bedding and carpets for signs of bed bugs. Always leave your luggage in the bathrooms or on an elevated surface away from the bed and other furniture.
Also, thoroughly check any recently purchased furniture before introducing it into your home, especially if you bought the items secondhand or from a thrift store. While you may snatch up a great deal, remain diligent to avoid infestations.
Why are Found Bed Bugs in Carpet Fibers?
So, how did you get bed bugs in your carpet and not your bed?
Bed bugs don’t necessarily have to live in your bed to cause trouble. In fact, these determined pests can often travel up to twenty feet to reach their desired target! If bed bugs have infested another area or your carpet, they will move as needed to climb into your bed.
Often, bed bugs may infest your carpet from previously infested luggage or furniture, preferring to stay in one location rather than relocate their colony and eggs to the comfort of your cozy bed.
Because bed bugs solely consume blood for nourishment, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to get their fill, even if it means taking a long hike from your living room carpet to your bedroom.
Your carpet or flooring may provide better protection than your bed too. If you have long and lush carpeting or loose baseboards, the bed bugs may prefer the easy-to-access space over the inner recesses of your mattress.
Eliminating Bed Bugs in Carpet
Unfortunately, whenever you have bed bugs in your carpet or elsewhere in your flooring, it’s pretty tricky to find and remove these pests without professional pest control help.
Bed bugs are tiny insects, so it’s hard to spot them on your mattress or covers unless they’ve recently been fed and engorged with blood. Typical bed bugs and bed bug nymphs are tiny and might be disguised by carpet fibers.
If you have dark brown or black carpeting, you’ll have even more trouble understanding where an infestation begins. On white covers of mattresses, bed bugs and their waste stand out, but they may blend into any dark threads.
Vacuum up the Bugs
Once you’ve spotted groups of insects out and about, try vacuuming them with a vacuum cleaner. While this won’t eliminate a severe infestation, you can cut back on the number of pests trying to bite you.
Dispose of the vacuumed bed bugs swiftly afterward and ensure you’ve eliminated them before tossing them. A bed bug isn’t afraid to travel for its next meal and will trek back toward your bedroom when left alive.
Remove their Access to You
In the right conditions, bed bugs can survive over a year without any food. Meaning even if you isolate infested items for weeks or months, they may still stick around waiting for their next time to strike.
However, eliminating the areas where they can gain access to you for bloodmeals can help mitigate an infestation and help you from getting bitten. Thankfully, bed bugs in carpets or rugs are more accessible to control than when nested beside you.
Follow these steps to keep yourself safe until you can eliminate the pests:
- Clean your carpet
- Keep your covers off of the ground
- Wrap your mattress in a bed bug cover
- Use bed bug traps around the legs of your bed to keep these pests from climbing up
Until you can contact a professional pest control agency for help, these options can keep you safe and decrease the chances of the infestation spreading to other areas. We don’t want the bed bugs crawling under your covers too!
However, severe infestations often require extensive help to make a difference. Whenever you have bed bugs, you should consider contacting a reputable agency to eliminate the problem.
Here at proof., we have trained technicians who are highly skilled at bed bug detection and elimination methods. Through two or more treatments, we’ll visit your home and remove the any of the bed bugs in carpet fibers you have in your room!