Find here some advice on bed bugs

We have known there were lots of bed bugs in Manhattan for a long time. The Norwood apartments tenants we mentioned back in 2007 have been battling them for years, with 10 units still infested. You can find here some advice on bed bugs.

Vaccuming and other efforts at cleaning up your house

Improvised duct tape barrier around the leg of a bed. There is also the option to isolate a bed using double-sided duct tape (also called carpet tape) to create the sticky barrier instead, although, carpet tape may be somewhat more expensive in length per foot than regular duct tape curled over - something to consider if the taping method is used extensively. In any case, curled duct tape can also be used in length on floors as a perimeter barrier to help quickly isolate or quarantine furniture etc.

Once a bed is disinfected and isolated, care should be taken to avoid reinfesting the bed by not sleeping or resting on the bed in clothing that has been potentially contaminated.

Vaccuming and other efforts at cleaning up your house are something you should do if you have bed bugs - but it is very important to realize that you CANNOT get rid of bed bugs just by cleaning up.

Cleaning your house generally will help out

Cleaning your house generally will help out, especially the infested rooms. It will give them fewer places to hide and will get rid of a lot of the eggs that could be laying around. It will make it easier for the exterminator to do their work. Here's what you can do:

Seal up any holes, pipes, cracks, areas around wires, etc. around your walls. These are common entrance points, especially in apartments or duplexes - caulk is often a good way to block them up.

Clean up any stuff you have laying on the floor

Clean up any stuff you have laying on the floor. However, I would NOT move it into another room if it came from one where it's infested. You can put it into a sealed plastic bag and move it that way (for example, clothes that you are going to wash), or seal it up and leave it in the same room.

Scrub any surfaces. You may want to dismantle furniture to get everywhere they could be hiding - for example, the undersides of furniture or the interior of any drawers or cabinets.