Bed Bugs: DIY Home Treatment vs. Professional Pest Control
If you have Bed Bugs or have ever had them in the past, you know how much trouble they can be to get rid of. Online stores offer home treatment solutions as an alternative to hiring professional pest control treatment. So which method is more effective? Which is cheaper? Which is faster? And which will leave you feeling safe enough to rest easy once again? It comes down to 5 factors:
The Vacuum:
Home Treatment for Bed Bugs requires a lot of time and, more importantly, the proper equipment. Using cheaper supplies is rarely effective, so they only sure-fire way to eliminate bed bugs completely is with the professional grade equipment. Unfortunately, very few places offer rentals of these tools and the ones who do usually have steep prices and a big deposit required. The first thing you’ll need is a industrial strength vacuum cleaner designed for sucking up bed bugs and their eggs. Your home vacuum can do this as well, but with far less certainty since they are not designed with strong enough suction for the difficult places bed bugs like to hide. These vacuums can cost anywhere from $200 to $300 and the rentals are only $100 or so cheaper.
The Steamer:
Next, to treat your home you will need a dry vapor steamer. While the vacuums can cover the surfaces you need to treat, steamers are used to get deep inside the hiding places and kill the bed bugs. Many people choose to skip this step when treating their home and end up with the infestation returning within weeks and having to start over again. Almost all supply stores will not rent this to you, forcing you to buy a product you won’t need once the problem is treated. These specific steamers cost roughly $300 and since you hopefully won’t need to use this more than a few times, they are not a good long term investment.
The Heater:
While sheets and most clothes can be washed and dried on high heat to kill any lingering bed bugs, some are dry clean only. Add to this books, shoes, bags, and other non-washable items that bed bugs like to hide, and you start to see a real issue. With professional treatment, these will be taken care of along with the house, but not with home remedies. Therefore a portable heater is required to load up with items to kill the bed bugs inside. These heaters (even the small ones) cost $200 or more. As far as we can tell, there are currently no rental options for these heaters making them a buy-only solution. However, the alternative is throwing many of your prized possessions in the garbage.
The Sprays & Powders:
Finally you need sprays and powders to finish the job and prevent further infestation. These products are also quite costly and by the time you’re done they cost over $100 or materials you’ll hopefully never need again. No matter if you’re doing home or professional treatment, the purchase of a mattress cover is unavoidable. If you want to keep your mattress, you need to seal it off for at least a year before it’s safe to remove. When you add up the costs of home treatment, you would have to spend between $800 to $1000 on materials to effectively end your bed bug problem.
The Time:
Add to this the amount of time it will take you to go through each bedroom and living area in your home and do these extensive procedures. Since most are new to this, there is a lot of room for error and will almost always require multiple attempts of trial and error. Therefore, it can be concluded that the cheapest treatment for bed bugs is to work with professionals who own their own equipment and have extensive experience in eliminating pests.
Winner: Professional Pest Control treatment
At UnBugMe Pest Control, our prices are incredibly affordable saving you over half the money it would take to properly do yourself. Call us today to learn more about what we can do for you or click the link below to see our prices and schedule your treatment today!