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Bed bugs may hidden in the old wood furniture, and they can crawl into your home once you bring the furniture in your home. If you are planning to buy used furniture, you should learn how to detect the signs of bed bugs in wood furniture and how to clean used furniture to prevent bed bugs.
How to prevent buying bed bug furniture
People often buy mattresses and box springs for their homes as they are the most common furniture items you need at home. If you want to buy such furniture pieces, it would be best to buy new pieces of them.
Figuring out the furniture pieces you want to buy
The bed bugs love to make a home inside upholstering furnishing, and they loved to hide inside the mattresses’ seams and pleats. It is ideal to buy other types of used furniture because that would be safer.
The vinyl and hardwood pieces of furniture are ideal to purchase because that doesn’t have bed bugs inside them. These kinds of furnishing don’t have a complicated design and are also easy to clean. The bed bugs don’t find any space to hide, and that is why this style of used furniture is ideal for buying. If you want to buy some old furniture and have your mind set on buying a certain piece, then you should make sure to make the right choice. You can run into a lot of problems if you buy the wrong pieces.
Inquire about the place the furniture has been stored
It is important to inquire about the location of the used furniture stored in the shop. It would be best to ask the seller where he had stored the furniture because this is a crucial question that will help you judge the furniture’s condition. Many storage units are not well sealed and are home to bed bugs. The storage units are used to store a wide variety of furniture, and this is why bed bugs are highly likely to be found in such storage areas.
The bed bugs can live for at least a year without any food, so if a seller has stored a furniture item in a storage unit for some time, you can expect the furniture to be attacked with bed bugs. It is best to buy furniture that has been stored in a safe place. It is also a great idea to buy furniture that has been stored in the home of the seller.
Signs of bed bugs in wood furniture
If you want to buy old wood furniture, you must ask the seller to inspect the furniture for pests and bugs. You can use your pest control methods and detect if the furniture is safe to buy or not. Bed bugs are very small and are in brown. The bed bugs can be hard to spot, and this is why you need to inspect them carefully to find them inside the furniture.
Here are some of the signs that you can note while you are detecting your furniture pieces.
- If you see dark red or brown stains on the furniture, it signifies that the bed bugs live inside the furniture somewhere.
- You might see eggshells laid by the bed bugs. They are in white, so make sure to detect them.
- You might smell a musty and scent from the furniture if bed bugs live inside the furniture.
- You might spot shed the skin of the bed bugs all over the furniture
How to check used furniture for bed bugs
You might not see the eggshells and shed skin with a naked eye, so it is always a great choice to bring some magnifying glasses to inspect the old furniture. The following are some other equipment that might help you to inspect the furniture.
- Latex gloves will help you to touch the furniture safely. The gloves will keep your hands safe from getting infected by germs.
- The flashlight can help spot the signs left by the bugs
- You can bring an old debit card with you to find the bed bugs. They are very small and might not be caught with your hand. The bugs have a flat body and can be inspected with the help of the sharp corners of the debit card.
Inspect every part of the used furniture carefully
Whenever you are purchasing used furniture, make sure that you check it for bed bugs. Someone may find it offensive, but before investing your hard earned money, you need to know the quality of furniture. Here is how you can inspect the used furniture. It would help if you had latex gloves, magnifying glass, and a flashlight. It is also better if you keep a white sheet for inspecting the furniture. With the use of a white sheet, you can observe if there are any bed bugs around.
It is a good idea to use your fingers and check the furniture’s nook and corner as most of the bed bugs hide in very small spaces. If you find any cracks on the furniture, it may sign some bugs around. Another important thing to see is that some feces may look like dark red stains on the furniture or the bed sheet you have placed on it. The flashlight can be conveniently used to see if there are any hidden bed begs near the furniture. There are some common locations where bed bugs will be hiding, so make sure you check it all.
How to treat used furniture that has bed bugs?
Even if you haven’t found any bed bugs during your inspection, you still recommend that you treat the used furniture before purchase. If you have purchased a chair or couch, wrap it well inside the sealed bag and bring it home. You can place the sealed bag inside the dryer on high heat for about 30-60 minutes. Before bringing it inside your house, use a vacuum cleaner to clean crevices, seams, folds, and other hidden areas.
Nowadays, many people use the bed bug spray on all furniture areas that will ensure your furniture remains clean from bugs. You need to follow the exact instructions given on the spray bottle and let the furniture dry fully. If you are one of those who don’t like to use bed bug spray, treating the furniture with Diatomaceous earth is a good option. Bed bugs manifest easily so there should be a way to treat them so they don’t cause any problems.
How to clean used furniture to prevent bed bugs
The best way to use the furniture is to ask questions to the owners of the furniture. They will know if they had to go through an issue of bed bugs infestation of their furniture. If you are purchasing small furniture, it is better to wrap them inside a black plastic trash bag. It would help if you left it in the sun for few hours, and it will kill any bed bug or infestations inside. The best idea is not to purchase any furniture items from dumps. Sometimes the furniture may be left on the roadside, so having that for your house can turn out to be dangerous.
The furniture left outside needs to be thrown away because there is no guarantee about its quality. Some areas are popular for bed bugs, so avoid purchasing used furniture from them. You have to avoid using mattresses and spring boxes that are not worth spending your money and effort. The best way is to take help from pest control experts they have their ways to control and clean the pests.
Hire a pest control service to check used furniture for bed bugs
If you are purchasing used furniture without knowing that there are pests or don’t know how to inspect it take help from pest control services. They will do their best to clean the furniture and keep it up in good quality to be used in the long run. You can leave the furniture in the garage or an area outside the home. They will make sure that the traces of bed bugs are removed or inspected thoroughly. If there are cushion covers on the seats, you can remove them and wrap them inside the plastic sealed bags.
The bed bugs cannot survive if they don’t get enough oxygen or remain in the heat for too long. You can steam clean the furniture that will not let the bed bugs survive. It will be easy to remove the stains, shed skin and eggshells using a good quality vacuum. Steam cleaning may not kill the bed bugs and will remove the byproducts of these pests only. The best control services will help out and use plenty of methods for cleaning the furniture.
