Kill Bed Bugs in Upholstered Furniture

by Tiffany Larson March 16, 2012

For more information, See Step 3 of the 8-Step Approach to Get Rid of Bed Bugs.

Hot Shot No-Pest Strips available on Amazon.

Furniture bags are large plastic bags designed to protect furniture when it is being transported.

Warp Brothers makes a line of different sized furniture bags that are available on Amazon.

Here’s a package of 2 Warp Brothers’ bags that will fit most sofas that is available on Amazon.

-Video Transcript-

Hi, I ‘m Rose with ZappBug, and today we will be demonstrating step 3 in our 8-step approach to get rid of bed bugs, dealing with large upholstered furniture. Upholstered furniture is the most difficult to treat because bed bugs can easily get deep into the cushions or body of the furniture where it is really hard to reach them. But don’t worry, they can be treated.

We have seen a lot of people recommend steam cleaning upholstered furniture, but we find that not to be very effective. Unless you are experience professional it is really difficult to get the steam to penetrate deep enough to ensure bed bugs are killed. So we don’t recommend this as a DYI approach.

Heat treatment can get upholstered hot enough to kill bed bugs, but in this video we are going to present you with another alternative that you can use. And that is DDVP pest strips. DDVP stands for Dichlorovinyl Dimethyl Phosphate an Organophosphate that has been used as a pesticide for decades. It works by blocking neurotransmitters in the insects leading to paralysis and eventual death. DDVP pest strips are designed to be used in enclosed spaces. And for that reason our methods requires sealing pest strips into a large bag with your upholster furniture. It is very important to keep in mind that DDVP is a pesticide and can absolutely be dangerous to human health. For this reason it is crucial that you read all the instructions that comes with your pest strips and carefully follow all guidelines. If you have pets or small children please consult your vet your pediatrician to make sure you are correctly following all procedures necessary to ensure their health. If for any reason you don’t feel safe using pesticides in your home, we highly recommend heat treatment as a safe non-toxic alternative. If heat treatment isn’t an option for you, it might be best to simply dispose of the furniture.

Each Hot Shot No-Pest Strips is designed to be used in a space up to 1,200 cubic feet, so you should never use more than one strip. Do not use these strips in your kitchen or anywhere where food can come in contact with them. They are highly toxic when ingested.

For the purpose of this video we are using a leather chair as an example of upholster furniture. But this will work just as well for couches or any other large items. The first thing we are going to do is put the chair into a large furniture bag. We have purchase Wrap Brothers Coverall furniture bags from Amazon. But most hardware stores should have something similar. Remember to carefully measure your furniture before you purchase the bags. We bought these for use on a couch and found, while they were big enough, there wasn’t any room to close the bag. So make sure you have something that is a little more than whatever you are treating.

If the furniture you are treating is in a room where you will be spending any significant amount of time, you should also make absolutely sure that the bag is completely sealed and doesn’t have any rips. These strips specify that you don’t want to spend more than about 4 hours a day in a room where they are used. So it is really important that we do everything we can to limit our exposer. I am going to put two bags over this chair just be absolutely certain.

Now that the furniture is bagged. I am going to put on my gloves and proceed to carefully read over the Hot Shot No-Pest strips application directions.

Now I am just going to take this strip, put it in the bag and seal everything close with a zip tie.

Now that the strip is in here, I am just going to leave this bag sealed for 1 week to make sure all the bugs are dead. In a week I am going to remove the bags, dispose of the pest strip and leave the chair in a room with all the windows open for several hours while I am not there. So that any remaining DDVP can safely dissipate.

Posted by Cameron Wheeler