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Even if you are not scared of insects, there is a higher chance that you will be horrified when you see bed bugs in your house. These irritating pests can prevent you from enjoying a peaceful night’s rest, embarrass you from guests, and even cause some health problems, such as itchy skin, irritated skin, and allergic symptoms. One of the questions you might be asking yourself is whether bed bugs can live in your clothes and, if so, for how long.
In this article, these are some of the questions you will have answered. Additionally, you will find a detailed guide on how to get rid of bedbugs in case you see them in your clothes. Continue reading to learn more and put your mind at ease.
Whether these pests can live on clothes or not is a bit of a complicated question. Yes, they can definitely live in your clothes, but the actual question should be, which clothes? Are they hiding in your closet, or will they jump onto the clothes you are wearing?
First, bed bugs can’t fly. They also cannot jump. That means if you are out in a place where bed bugs present, it is doubtful that bed bugs will be transferred to the clothes you are wearing. It is not impossible, but it is very rare.
Second, bed bugs hate being in a moving host. That is why they mostly attack in comfortable chairs or beds when you are still and relaxed. Bed bugs don’t live on humans, and you’re not going to get them from sitting next to someone on the train, for example.
That being said, places like retail clothing stores, libraries, airports, public stations, and especially hotels are the areas that might get you in trouble. If it is not a must you stay in a hotel; you should avoid them at all costs. If you have no alternative, try staying away from the cheap ones and only use verified hotels. It might be expensive, but if you catch bed bugs, it will cost you more getting rid of them.
What happens is that bed bugs reside in buildings like hotel rooms, hoping to get a steady source of human hosts. If you are in a vehicle or a place that has a bed bug colony, it is most likely you will carry some of them back home in your briefcase or bag.
As a safety precaution, don’t unpack your clothes onto the bed when you visit a hotel. Bed bugs are happy to climb directly into your luggage or attach themselves to your clothes. In fact, this is perhaps the most popular way bed bugs end in our garments.
Bites through fabric?
In most cases, the answer is no. Generally, you do not have to worry about being bitten through your clothes since bed bugs feed under reasonably specific conditions. Unfortunately, they can crawl under your clothes very easily because of their tiny size. This simply means that, despite not being able to bite through clothes, bed bugs can still bite under them.
Survival time
You should note that bed bugs really hate heat. In fact, it happens to be among the best primary method to destroy bud bugs. As you are aware, the human body produces quite a lot of heat, so you should not get worried that bed bugs are living under your clothes or in your hair. They come to feed on blood, and then leave.
In addition to hating body heat, they’re also not well-adapted to crawl through your hair. If you do find bugs crawling on your hair or body, then you possibly have something else, like fleas, lice, or ticks. Bed bugs found in clothes that you’re wearing are most likely trying to get a ride until they find the perfect place to get off and make a hiding spot.
If you end up finding bed bugs in your clothes, like in a pile of discarded laundry or luggage, you might be wondering what action to take. Can you just put the clothes away until they starve and die? The truth is that this is not likely going to work.
Here is the reason why starving them can never work. Bed bugs will leave your clothing and start searching for a host to feed them. That means although they have made the clothes their hideout, they do whatever they can to find food. If they succeed at living your clothing pile or luggage, they will survive by starting an infestation in your home.
Treatment
Don’t panic if you’ve found out that your luggage or clothes have become infested with bed bugs. You can make your clothing safe to wear again by doing certain things. Also, you have options to prevent the spread of these pests.
Start by trying to prevent the spread of bed bugs moving anywhere else. You can do this by containing the bed bugs wherever you’ve found them. Don’t transfer the clothing, bag, shoes, or luggage with bed bugs to somewhere else. Double seal the affected items into trash bags or plastic zipper bags. Then, transport them to a favorite place where you will be treating the clothing.
You have a couple of options for destroying the pests. The easiest method is throwing away the infested clothing or items. However, this is not a good idea if the items or clothing are expensive, and you still want to keep them. In this case, you can use heat to destroy the pests. Put the sealed bags in direct sun during a hot day, and the high temperature is enough to kill the bed bugs. Additionally, you can use certain scents such as rubbing alcohol, lavender oil, tea tree oil, and powdered Pepper, which have been proven to kill or scare away these pests.
Conclusion
Getting rid of them is not very difficult, but it is crucial to grasp the information mentioned above. If you do not have bed bugs in your home, take extreme measures that we have discussed to avoid being infested by bed bugs.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1905840
