Got bed bugs in box springs? Well, that’s not surprising. Bed bugs love dark, undisturbed places that are within each reach of their food source – i.e. you – so beds make the perfect place for them to hide out.
Which is why beds tend to be ground zero for bed bug infestations. And even if you’ve eliminated bed bugs from your mattress, it’s crucial to go the extra step and secure your box spring from bed bugs as well.
Where Do Bed Bugs in Box Springs Hide?
Most people don’t guess it but box springs are an ideal home for bed bugs and their offspring. How so, you ask?
For starters, box springs are how bed bugs gain entry to our beds in the first place. Since bed bugs don’t have wings and lucky for us, they can’t fly nor jump long distances, they need to get around by crawling.
That means that the bed bugs currently living in your bed – or their ancestors – have crawled their way over, making their journey across your floors and upwards via your box spring or box spring frames.
Bed bugs can travel over 100 feet in a night but they typically prefer to live within 8 feet of where people sleep, sit, or rest. Which is why a good population of the bed bugs in your home most likely reside in your box spring.
And why wouldn’t they? The box spring is very inviting for a bed bug. It’s full of dark, hidden spaces – think: the inside of the box spring. And there are tons of little nooks on ideal materials in which to lay their eggs.
The good news is that getting rid of bed bugs in your box spring is a fairly simple process. Yes, it’ll take a bit of time and effort but you can completely clear your box spring of bed bugs by the time you’re through.
How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs in Box Springs
First things first, when it comes to killing bed bugs in box springs, be thorough. Make sure you check the underside, even removing the stapled fabric so you can kill the bed bugs hiding inside.
And once you find them – here’s the best way to get rid of bed bugs in a box spring, explained step-by-step.
Vacuum
Vacuuming alone won’t entirely eliminate bed bugs from your box springs, but it will suck up a lot of them and their eggs.
Take the time to vacuum thoroughly, paying extra attention to corners, nooks and crannies, since these are among the most common bed bug hiding places.
Once you’re done vacuuming, immediately place the vacuum bag in a sealed tight plastic bag and dispose of it outdoors so none of these bloodsuckers sneak back into your home.
Steam
Steamers get very, very hot and heat is one of the best ways to kill bed bugs. How hot does it need to be? Bed bugs will die at 113 degrees Fahrenheit if it’s sustained for 90 minutes or more. But they’ll die in just 20 minutes at 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bed bug eggs are a little more resilient – to get rid of them, you need to expose them to 118 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes to reach 100% mortality.
To kill bed bugs with a steamer, you’ll need one that heats up higher than 200 degrees.
A professional heat steam treatment costs $300 to $1,200 but you can pick up a home steam cleaner that you can use again and again to clean and sanitize your house, even after you get rid of bed bugs. We recommend the Vapamore Primo Steam Cleaning System – it produces steam at a temperature of 214 degrees, which will kill bed bugs and more importantly, their eggs.
It does come with a hefty price tag but it’s great quality and also comes with a lifetime warranty.
Before you being steaming, wrap a piece of cloth around the tip of the steamer to concentrate the heat in the nozzle and to prevent the steam from scattering bed bugs and their eggs across the room.
As you steam, move slowly – at a pace of one inch per second – so you cover all the places the bed bugs are.
Kill with Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
This one is a must-do since done properly, it’ll eliminate your box spring bed bug infestation by slowly dehydrating all of them to death. Find out exactly how to use Diatomaceous Earth to kill bed bugs!
To start, make sure is box spring is totally dry and then thoroughly cover it with food-grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) – you want to distribute it evenly across the entire box spring so bed bugs cannot avoid it.
Use a dust dispenser to spread it across the surface of the box spring and a paintbrush to spread it on the corners, sides, and edges.
Protect with a Box Spring Cover
When you’re done applying the DE, encase the box spring in a bed bug-proof box spring cover.
DE usually kills bed bugs within 24 to 48 hours after contact, but to ensure all living adult and nymph bed bugs – as well as the unhatched eggs – actually make contact with it, keep the box spring sealed like this for at least 4 to 6 weeks.
This should wipe out pretty much all the bastards living, but since there is always the chance that a few may not come in contact with the DE – we recommend you keep the cover on for up to a year.
Bed bugs can live up to a year without a blood meal, so starving any bed bugs that might’ve escaped the DE is a surefire way of making sure you’ve killed all the bed bugs in your box spring.