Sofa bugs: 3 ways to get out of the sofa and get rid of them in furniture

By Vil Malinoshevsky
About bedbugs

Bed bugs most often live in sofas and beds, since here they are closest to the food source - a sleeping person. Since they do not eat anything other than human blood in the apartment, they have to constantly move from their places of shelter to the sleeping person for food. The sofa itself, on which people constantly sleep, is ideal for arranging such bedbug nests.

Judge for yourself:

The bug needs to move quite a bit from the nest in the sofa in order to bite a person and drink blood. The less he has to run, the lower the risk of being caught by a person and being destroyed. In the sofa, this risk is minimal: the insect needs to literally crawl from one side of the mattress or upholstery to the other - and that's it, breakfast (or dinner) is served;
Then, in the sofas, there are a lot of places suitable for arranging nests. Upholstery folds, pillow joints, cavities between the upholstery and the frame, cracks in the frame joints are almost ideal shelters. It is difficult to get bedbugs here, but thanks to the narrow body, each parasite reliably hides from prying eyes. In our practice, there were many cases when the sofa had to be disassembled literally to the bolt, including tearing off all the hardboard and fabric from it in order to get to the well-hidden nests of bedbugs - with eggs and nymphs;
Finally, sofas have more elaborate designs suitable for shelter than simple beds. Large numbers of bedbugs can safely hide here, it is more difficult to find them here, and if it is possible to find them, it is more difficult to get them out of here, even more so independently, without the services of a pest control officer.

Simply put, sofas are the safest and most comfortable place for bedbugs to live. There is nothing surprising in the fact that if they appear indoors, then they multiply in the greatest quantities here, in sofas.

The photo below shows how sofa structures infested with bedbugs look like:

Why do they bother on the couch at all? It's simple: bedbugs are either brought into the house by the residents themselves, or they migrate here from neighboring premises. They can be accidentally put in a bag, on clothes, you can even accidentally buy a used and already infected sofa and bring it here.

If bedbugs live in your neighbors, and your apartment does not have a very high-quality repair, almost certainly parasites will sooner or later come to you. And first of all, they will settle down near the places where you sleep. Sleep on the couch? They will certainly settle near and in it.

How to withdraw: effective methods

In recent years, the list of methods for controlling these arthropods has been significantly replenished. For example, effective insecticides have appeared that can kill insects in a short time. However, the classic, proven methods should not be discounted either. In order for the sofa bugs to disappear forever, the dwelling should be treated according to all the rules.

How to properly handle a sofa

It is no coincidence that bed bugs are sometimes called sofa bugs. It is in these upholstered furniture products that insects start most often.

The process of removing bedbugs from the sofa has a number of features:

insects feel comfortable in cramped conditions, so the ideal place for them to live is seams, folds, corners. Bedbugs can also settle on the back wall of the furniture product.
The sofa must be processed from all sides, lifting, unfolding, moving it away from the wall.
Particular attention should be paid to furniture drawers, if any. The bed, which is stored in them, should be removed, subjected to heat treatment.

It is important to remember that bedbugs can nest not only inside the sofa.

Therefore, in order to permanently lime insects, you should also walk through other potentially dangerous places.

Mechanical method

This method is quite time consuming and ineffective. Before getting rid of furniture bugs, you should determine their nesting sites, walk along them with a bottle, manually collecting arthropods and their larvae. With this method of processing, there is a high probability of missing a couple of insects, which will begin to actively reproduce and quickly organize a new colony.

Vacuuming

This method is less time consuming, but more effective than the previous one. A huge plus for the squeamish - sofa bugs do not have to be touched with your hands. It is enough to walk along all the seams and folds with a narrow nozzle. Before getting rid of bedbugs in the sofa, you should disassemble the furniture, move it away from the wall. The bag from the vacuum cleaner must be thrown away immediately so that insects cannot crawl around the room.

Heat treatment

Hot water or steam treatment is another effective method of getting rid of bed bugs. A temperature of 50 ° C is already fatal for these insects. You can destroy bedbugs with a steam cleaner. To do this, you should walk them through all the folds and wrinkles. Covers from removable elements (sides, pillows) must be removed and washed. Also, seams and nesting sites can be spilled with boiling water, after making sure that such a procedure will not harm the furniture.

These insects do not tolerate low temperatures. In winter, you can put furniture outside, and in a few hours the sofa bugs will die. After a week, the procedure must be repeated - during this period, new individuals will hatch from the eggs that are resistant to cold. It is desirable that the outside temperature is below -150C.

Treating the sofa and other surfaces with an insecticide

This is one of the most effective and modern methods of dealing with these arthropods. Finding how to treat furniture from bedbugs will not be difficult - shops selling household chemicals, gardening goods, offer a wide range of modern insecticides.

Processing is carried out according to the following scheme:

acquire an insecticide. Since upholstered furniture will have to be processed, it is important that the chemicals do not leave marks on the upholstery. It is good if the balloon has a comfortable, long nozzle that will help penetrate even distant places.
Free the room from foreign things, dishes, food. It is important to ensure that items removed from the processing area are free of parasites.
Soft things that can serve as a place for bloodsucking (toys, tablecloths, curtains, rugs, pillows, etc.) are carried away, washed at the highest possible temperatures.
Domestic animals, including reptiles, fish, are removed from the processing area.
Wear PPE (gloves, respirator, goggles, closed clothing).
They take things out to the center of the room, stick adhesive tape around the perimeter so that insects cannot scatter.
The concentrated product is diluted according to the instructions. Processing is carried out sequentially, starting with large clusters of sofa bugs. To enhance the effect, the furniture can be wrapped in foil and left for several hours.
General cleaning is carried out.

Despite the fact that sofas and other sleeping places are favorite places of colonization of parasites, they can nest under wallpaper, behind baseboards, in sockets, behind paintings. Therefore, all potentially dangerous places should be treated, and not just those where insects were found.

Effective drugs include the following drugs: Kombat, Forsyth, Executioner, Klopomor, Tetrix, etc.

Professional services

For the treatment of premises, you can turn to special services, the scope of which is disinsection, deratization, disinfection. In the arsenal of professional craftsmen there are potent remedies that will help remove couch parasites once and for all. The main disadvantage of such services is the price for their services, which may seem too high to customers. But experts carry out a comprehensive processing of the room, they often give a guarantee that the bugs in the sofa will not reappear.

Folk remedies

A home owner who does not know how to get bedbugs out of the couch on their own will probably come up with the idea of using folk remedies. It is well known that sofa bugs do not tolerate the smell of tansy, so they try to stay away from this plant. You can also drive insects out of their homes with vinegar or a mixture of turpentine with laundry soap. True, a specific aroma will not only scare off parasites, but also create a certain discomfort for a person. In addition, the explosive mixture can leave stains on the upholstery of the sofa.

Flowers of tansy or wormwood, spread out under the bed or on the bed, can scare away insects for a couple of days. Having gotten hungry, the bloodsucking will overcome their dislike and re-attack.

Maybe try to scare off bedbugs from the sofa with wormwood or vinegar?

In general, there is no point in trying to somehow drive out or scare off bedbugs from the sofa. Sometimes this is how they try to fight them, lay out herbs, pour vinegar or alcohol. The parasites will not leave the apartment anyway, they will not stop biting a person, only for a while the intensity of their bites may slightly decrease. In general, you need to count on the fact that either you destroy bedbugs, or they bite you. Scare away, drive away, scare them away with conspiracies or essential oils will definitely not work.

How to recognize the presence of parasites on the couch

If the tenants have suspicions of the presence of parasites in the house, then the first thing that will interest them is how to find out if there are bugs in the sofa and furniture.

Indirect signs of the presence of insects:

marks on the skin. Bites of sofa bugs, left on the human body, have one feature - they go in a "path", 3-4 at a time. This is due to the fact that the insect repeatedly pierces the skin on its way. Bites are accompanied by severe itching, redness, the victims may experience an allergic reaction, and in severe cases, even iron deficiency anemia.
Excrement and insect debris. Waste products (black dots that look like fine dirt) can appear under the sofa or on the bedding. Also, the victim may stumble upon dead insects or empty shells left after molting.
Stench. In the habitats of sofa bugs, you can feel a specific aroma, reminiscent of cheap cognac.

If at least one of these signs was found, this is a reason to carefully examine the sofa, raise the pillows, turn the mattress over, look between the seams.

Who to look for when examining a sofa

When examining a sofa, it is recommended to pay attention to the following objects:

Adult parasites (adults) are flattened oval insects, dark brown or red in color. Length, about 5-6 mm.
The larvae, called nymphs, range in size from 1 to 4 mm, depending on the stage of development. After birth, transparent, gradually turn yellowish-brown, and when saturated with blood - red.
Cuticles (insect skins) - the shell shed during molting.
Eggs are whitish capsules, oval-elongated configuration, up to 1 mm long. They meet scattered or crowded.
Fecal specks are the result of the life of bedbugs.Fresh are easily washed off with warm water, old ones are difficult to remove.

What do bed bugs look like?

Before starting a full-scale processing, you need to find out what a sofa bug looks like and make sure that these, and not other parasites, are wound up in the furniture.

An adult reaches a length of 9 mm. It has a rounded, reddish-brown body that can swell if the parasite is full. There is a proboscis on the head, with which the sofa bug pierces the human skin.

Every day, the female can lay 2-3 eggs of which the larvae will hatch in a week. Insect larvae are white, almost transparent, they do not exceed 1–2 mm in length.

Major mistakes

Here are the most common mistakes that lead to low efficiency of self-processing of the apartment and the reappearance of pests.

Not all nests were found. Before starting treatment, it is important to find all accumulations of parasites. If even one is missed, the insect colony will grow again.
The rules for working with chemicals have not been followed. When using insecticides, you must strictly follow the instructions for their use, observing the requirements for the amount and time of exposure to the substance. If this is not done, the processing efficiency can be lost.
The escape route is not blocked for insects. When treated with chemicals, bugs begin to creep out from the place where the insecticide was applied. Therefore, it is important to block their migration path. If this is not done (or it is done badly), then one or more fertilized females can leave the place of removal. This will lead to a complete revival of the colony after a certain time.
Non-observance of safety precautions. Before using chemicals, not all people are convinced whether it can be used in specific circumstances, they neglect a mask, gloves. This often leads to poisoning.

Where do bedbugs come from?

Let's take a closer look at where the bugs come from in the sofa and list the main ways insects enter the home.

Parasites can be brought in:

when buying used things from hands;
together with new furniture;
when returning equipment from repair;
with personal belongings of workers or guests entering the apartment;
from the bath and sauna.

Very often, sofa bugs crawl from neighbors through ventilation shafts, penetrate through cracks in doorframes, and seep through cracks in walls.

Relapse prevention

After getting rid of parasites in the couch, protect yourself from their reappearance. To do this, you will have to work hard.

The place where the sofa stood, or where you plan to rearrange it, must be thoroughly washed with a special solution. In a bucket of warm water, dissolve some laundry soap, laundry detergent, inexpensive shampoo, and any disinfectant that contains chlorine.
Before handling surfaces, put on gloves and protect the respiratory tract with a respirator.
Soak a rag well in the prepared solution.
Wash both the floor and the baseboard.

Take a close look at the wallpaper against the wall next to which the sofa stood. Remove any lagging areas, vacuum the wall and glue it all over, moistening the sheets abundantly with wallpaper glue. Pour the water from the bucket into the toilet and rinse well, and throw the rag into the trash can on the street or burn it. When the floor is completely dry, vacuum every inch of the floor, baseboards, and walls. Turnover should be maximum. It is better to use a rigid nozzle

Pay particular attention to the crevices in the floor. Spray the floor and walls with insecticide.

Now you know how to get bedbugs out of the couch. Remember, all parasite removal procedures must be repeated several times. Only then can you be sure of the effectiveness of the undertaking.

Answers to popular questions

Consider a list of the most popular questions people ask when they first encounter parasites:

we bought a sofa, and after a while we found bedbugs inside it. Do these insects grow in new furniture? Yes of course.Often these parasites are brought into the house with new furniture. They get there during storage in the warehouse or from the belongings of other buyers.
Need to throw out the sofa after processing? If it is old and has been asking for a replacement for a long time, it is wiser to throw it out before processing and carefully examine the room. If the furniture is new, you do not need to throw out anything, modern insecticides can destroy the entire population, including bed bug eggs.
Can bedbugs get on a leather couch? Yes, but such furniture is not suitable for these insects.

We'll take a closer look at the answers to the following popular questions.

Are bed bugs dangerous?

The sofa bug is dangerous because it can serve as a carrier of infectious diseases.

In addition, multiple bites (their number with a strong infection of a room with parasites can reach several hundred) interfere with restful sleep and can cause an allergic reaction. The victims (most often these are children), combing the bite site, can bring the infection into the wound, where the inflammatory process subsequently develops and breaks up an abscess. Sometimes with regular blood loss, babies develop iron deficiency anemia.

Not everyone knows that not only adults, but also their larvae leave marks on the human body. Unlike the puberty bloodsucking critters, they are unable to inject analgesics when the skin is pierced, so their bites are quite painful.

Where is the greatest accumulation of insects in the couch

In upholstered furniture, sofa bugs are most often deployed:

under the bottom.
In places where the upholstery or structure is damaged (chips, holes, cracks, etc.).
At the joints, between the armrest and the berth.
Along the seams and folds of the upholstery fabric, including the back of the furniture.

To detect insects, it is necessary to move the sofa away from the wall, turn it over, remove removable elements, raise the mattress and pillows.