What Can I Clean My Sleep Number Bed With So I Don't Get Bed Bugs?

A bed bug infestation can be embarrassing and frustrating. Take precautions to help keep your home free from bed bugs. Preventing bed bugs is not as simple as washing your mattress, but there are preventative measures you can take. People with Sleep Number beds, the kind with an encasement and air hose to change the firmness of the mattress, will need to adapt some methods of prevention.

Although bed bug encasements, designed for pillows, box springs and mattresses, won't prevent bed bugs, they will make an infestation less likely because encasements fail to offer bed bugs a place to hide. Bed bugs prefer to hide in the seams of mattresses and box springs. Because a Sleep Number bed will require holes in the encasement to run the necessary hoses, you must seal the area around the opening using a weather stripping adhesive.

A climb up interceptor is a device that you place beneath the legs of your bed frame, regardless of the kind of mattress you use. You can make your own interceptor by placing the legs of your bed into bowls of water or paraffin oil. The contraption traps the bed bug, which is key for identification, and also inhibits one method of gaining access to your bed.

Although the presence of bed bugs does not necessarily point to an unclean dwelling, decluttering your home provides fewer places for a bed bug to hide. Cleaning regularly, especially washing your bedding and vacuuming your mattress, will help you potentially spot a bed bug infestation before it becomes a much larger problem. A Sleep Number mattress, because it offers more places for a bed bug to hide, must be cleaned more thoroughly than regular mattresses.

At the time of publication, bedbuginfo.com discourages the use of repellents because, if repellents work, they simply encourage bed bugs to move elsewhere in your home. This fails to address the problem of infestation. More importantly, it is suggested that advertised repellents and homemade remedies do not actually work, as there are no scientific studies to support claims of success. However, there is currently research being conducted to develop successful repellents, which may become available.

The best way to prevent bed bugs is to avoid situations that could result in bed bugs finding a way into your home. Bed bugs can hide in the crevices of furniture and textiles, so avoid accepting second hand goods. Bed bugs can also hide in your suitcase or clothing during vacations, so keep your suitcase off the floor in a hotel and immediately wash and dry clothes on your return home.