Get Rid of Bed Bugs in Furniture

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

-Video Transcript-

Large furniture that is unupholstered (non-upholstered) is pretty easy to deal with. We don’t have to worry about the upholstery and about the bed bugs penetrating into that upholstery and hiding there. So, basically what we want to do it vacuum the piece of furniture very thoroughly. Basically what I’m doing is I’m going to vacuum all of the crannies and the nooks and crannies throughout and all the cracks and crevices and get into all of the joints. Make sure that I cover every square inch of the piece of furniture. That way we can be sure that we have mechanically removed any bed bugs.

You can also use diatomaceous earth with your large furniture. You can spread it throughout all of the cracks and crevices where a bed bug might hide. Also, a good thing to do is if you have drawers this is what I did. I would put diatomaceous earth into my drawers and spread it all around. Obviously, it creates quite a mess and obviously you won’t be able to do this will all of your furniture. If you are putting diatomaceous earth like in a crack right here that’s probably not going to work because it’s going to be visible and unsightly. But if you can get away with it, you should put diatomaceous earth down. For example, in this drawer the problem then would be that you would put your stuff in there any then it would get all chalky. What I did was I would encase my belongings that would go into this drawer in a giant Ziploc bag. Here I have some previously heat treated clothing that I’ve sealed up. So it’s all bed bug free and ready to go. When I put the sealed bag into the drawer it’s no problem because it’s not going to get messy from the diatomaceous earth.

Another thing you can do with your large furniture is to caulk any cracks and crevices. This will prevent bed bugs from gaining entry into your furniture through these little cracks. Normally we would use caulk to seal the cracks but today, to kind of mix it up, we’re going to be using wood filler here. This works just like caulk. Just unscrew the top and you clip off the tip like I had done before and you just squeeze to apply. Then any excess I just wipe off with my finger. And there we go, sealed off a crevice that a bed bug can’t get into.

Posted by Cameron Wheeler