“Heat is a great idea — it is the biggest weakness of the bedbugs,” he told Lauer. “It will kill the adults and the immatures, the eggs as well.”
Unfortunately for a private homeowner, the practice is not for amateurs.
“Getting rid of them is very difficult. This is really a job for a professional,” Cooper said. “This is not something someone is going to do on their own. It takes repeated treatments.”
For the good news: “Once they’re gone, unless they are reintroduced, the problem is solved,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s ounce of prevention includes purchasing mattress and box spring encasements that restrict bedbug movement and make them easier to detect. And never, ever bring in discarded furniture from the street — as appealing as that might be for a college student looking to jazz up a dorm room.
“College students are on a budget, and they may see a mattress or other piece of furniture and their first thought is to take it home,” Cooper said. “More often than not, items on the street have bedbugs.”
He adds that students shouldn’t sit luggage or backpacks on their beds because bedbugs may have been hitching a ride during their travel. And if bedbugs are detected, hot laundering is the best home cure.
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