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1. Create a Kill Chamber

OK, you’ve dealt with your room, clothes and bedding—now it’s time to deal with your stuff. Everything in the bedroom needs to be treated: every book, shoe, lamp, photo, power strip, alarm clock, magazine, every knickknack and bric-a-brac…everything! If you don’t treat it, bag it, tie it up and throw it out.

Flat surfaces can be wiped with alcohol or sprayed with a bed bug—killing contact pesticide, but all items that have a small nook or cranny where bed bugs could hide (which is most stuff) need to be treated with penetrating fumes. Build yourself a kill chamber out of a large storage bin. Tape a pesticide strip to the side or lid of the bin, and seal your stuff inside for a couple days or however long the manufacturer recommends. Seal the lid of the bin with duct tape.

You can treat all your belongings by reusing the same bins; just make sure to keep your other stuff that’s waiting to be treated bagged up in the meantime. Always wear gloves when handling pesticides and be sure to follow all safety instructions. The pesticide strips shown here are Nuvan ProStrips.

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2. Bed Bug Sprays

Spray insecticide on all the areas where you’ve seen signs of the bugs or the bugs themselves. And spray all the areas where they’re likely to hide, like the furniture near the bed, the entire bed itself and the perimeter of the walls near the baseboard.

Most sprays are contact killers, which means they kill only the bugs and eggs they touch directly, so there’s no reason to spray all the walls, ceiling and the entire floor. Spray pesticides are available online and at home centers and hardware and discount stores. Many brands kill other insects, like fleas and roaches, as well.

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3. Bed Bug Traps

While traps are a good way to get rid of ants and other bugs, they aren’t an effective way to wipe out a bed bug infestation, but they’re an excellent way to determine whether you have them. Set traps in areas where they may hide or travel, like near baseboard trim or under nightstands. If they aren’t living in your mattress or other parts of your bed, that means they need to travel up the legs of the bed frame to get to you, so place traps there as well.

If you confirm you have bed bugs in one bedroom of the house, you’ll have to treat that entire room, but you won’t necessarily need to treat the entire house. Set up traps to monitor other bedrooms and living areas to make sure they stay bug free. These Hot Shot traps are available at The Home Depot.

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