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• By NJ Great Movers
• In How To

How to Avoid Bed Bugs During Your NJ Move

With bed bug numbers back on the rise after a brief respite during COVID, it’s more important than ever for you to take preventative measures. After all, no one wants to move into a new place and have to deal with a bed bug infestation. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for these tiny critters to hitch a ride on your furniture to your new home. If you want to avoid a lot of itchy nights and expensive pest control bills, follow the steps below to stop bed bugs from moving in with you.

Check for Bed Bugs

While bed bug infestations are more prevalent in apartment buildings, you can still get them if you live in a house. You can pick them up from almost anywhere including your job, restaurants, public transportation, taxis, hotels, and more. The more people pass through an area, the more chances there are of bed bugs. As soon as bed bugs enter your house, it can take a few months before the infestation becomes an issue. That means you could potentially already have bed bugs without any of the obvious warning signs.  

Before you start packing everything up, make sure to thoroughly check for signs. Usually, the first indicator that bed bugs are in a home is a series of bites usually in a straight line on exposed parts of the skin. Of course, this could also be the work of a mosquito so other signs include:

• Small blood stains on sheets and pillowcases
• Reddish or rusty stains on sheets or mattresses
• Dark spots on sheets, mattresses, bed clothes, or even walls. These are bed bug excrement

And while these bugs are small, they’re not microscopic. You can see them if you look hard enough. Bed bugs like to nest in mattresses, box springs, drawers, furniture with cushions, and pretty much anywhere that is dark and warm.

In addition to checking your current house, you should also check your new house for any signs of bed bugs. If you do see any, make sure to contact an exterminator before you move in to get rid of the pests because it will get harder once you’ve already moved in all of your boxes.

But what about if you hire professional NJ movers? In some cases, bed bugs have been spread via the moving trucks or the movers themselves. Your best bet is to hire reputable NJ moving companies as they clean and inspect the inside of the trucks on a daily basis. As well, they will also sanitize and disinfect their fleet of trucks at least once a week and change their moving blankets often. If you want to be extra cautious, ask the moving company to inspect the truck yourself before they start loading everything.

Vacuum Everything

Your first order of business is to vacuum your entire house. Get every nook and cranny and don’t forget to vacuum things like curtains, rugs, mats, fabric furniture, etc. Make sure to really get the corners of your room and any tiny crevices in the floors. While you’re at it, vacuum the drawers of your dresser and nightstand. The idea is to get rid of as much potential debris as possible not just for you but whoever plans to move into your place after. 

This goes doubly for your new place. Before you unpack, take the time to do a thorough clean and vacuum. Get inside the cabinets and dressers. If the previous owner left any furniture, toss it! You really don’t want to risk infecting the rest of your items with potential bed bugs. 

Once you have vacuumed everything, empty the vacuum bag into a plastic trash bag and immediately throw it out. In case you do have bed bugs, you want to remove them from your house as soon as possible.

Wash Your Clothes and Seal Them

A sure fire way to kill bed bugs is to expose them to heat above 118 for at least 20 minutes. Your best bet when washing and drying your clothes is to use the hottest setting possible for water or go a step further and boil water to put into the washing machine. Every time the water refills, make sure to fill it yourself with boiling water. From there, dry everything on the highest heat. While 20 minutes might be enough for the actual bugs, if you want to make sure you destroy the eggs, you’ll have to expose these to high heat for at least 90 minutes. Once everything has been washed and dried, pack everything away in a sealable plastic bag. Better yet, get a vacuum sealed bag to ensure your clothes do not get infested. Do the same to your bedding and other items. Even if you don’t have bed bugs, putting all of your fabric items in a sealable plastic bag will also prevent them from getting infested in case your new house has them.

Treat Your Mattress

The most common way of bringing bugs into your home is through the mattress. If you already have bed bugs living in them, there are a few ways you can get rid of them, but the easiest way is to just toss your mattress. Of course, you shouldn’t just throw it out on the street. Make sure to wrap it up in plastic so the bed bugs can’t escape and infect other parts of your house or apartment. And, of course, make sure to write Bed Bugs in red marker to warn anyone who might be tempted to bring the mattress into their home. 

If you just got your mattress, you might not be as inclined to throw it out and get a new one. If that’s the case, you can use pesticides or heat to try to get rid of the bugs. Still, with how thick mattresses can be, these solutions might not permeate all the way to the center of the mattress. In that case, you should contact a professional who can help. Still, the only surefire way to get rid of bed bugs in the mattress is to throw it away.

So how about if you don’t have bed bugs? The best way to avoid infestation of your mattress is to first vacuum it and then encase it and the box spring in a bed bug mattress cover. Not only does this prevent bed bugs from infesting your mattress, it also keeps the bed bugs inside as well in case you have some and don’t know it yet. Bed bugs can survive 20 to 400 days without food depending on temperature and humidity so you’ll want to keep the cover on at all times. 

Treat Furniture

Even if you don’t have bed bugs, you should avoid bringing too many furniture pieces with you. Besides attracting bed bugs, furniture also adds extra time to your local NJ move extra weight/volume to your long distance move. All of that means more money you’ll need to pay. So, to save yourself some money and avoid bed bugs, leave your furniture behind. Yes, you’ll have to buy new items, but you can carefully choose items that match your new house and decor.

If you do end up bringing some pieces with you make sure to properly sanitize each one. That means removing and packing the contents of all of your furniture and putting them in plastic storage boxes with lids. That way bed bugs won’t be able to get in or out. You can also hire a pest control professional to treat any items you are moving. 

Shower Before and After

How do bed bugs spread so efficiently? Well they hitch rides on humans! While they might not live in your hair like lice, they do cling well to clothes. If you have pets, they can also hide in their fur. And don’t overlook things like your pet’s toys and beddings. These are prime locations for bed bugs to hide. Ideally, you would just throw out everything, but if you can’t make sure to treat them properly! 

And while it might take some time, make sure everyone in the house involved in the move takes a shower and changes into fresh clothes before leaving. Place any dirty clothes in a sealable plastic bag to wash later. Don’t forget to wash your pets! They might not be happy about it, but you want to get rid of any potential problems.

Once you’ve moved into your new place, repeat the process. Everyone should take a shower and change into fresh clothes. It might seem like overkill, but you can never be too careful.

Move Bed Bug Free

With so many incidents of bed bugs popping up across the US, it’s important to protect yourself so you don’t have to spend months trying to treat the issue after you’ve already unpacked. The steps above should help reduce your chances of moving bed bugs. And if you’re looking to hire movers, make sure to hire reputable NJ movers as they take numerous precautions to avoid the spread of bed bugs.

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