Get Rid of Bed Bug Stains
See those splotches on your mattress and on your bedspread and your pillows? Those are bed bug stains. To be more accurate: those are blood stains and feces left over from bed bugs feeding on you during the night. Pretty gross right? Well, don't worry. Getting rid of beg bug stains isn't hard.
Steps
- Get rid of the bed bugs. If you're going to get rid of bed bug stains, there's no point in continuing without first dealing with the source of the problem. That would be your bed bug infestation issue.
- Blot the spots with cold water immediately after you discover them. Blood stains, bed bug stains, and fecal matter stains all have one thing in common: they're all organic stains. Cold water allows you to moisten the bed bug stains without setting them. Warm water sets stains. Don't use it.
- Find 3-5% Hydrogen Peroxide and dab the beg bug stains with it. Hydrogen peroxide reacts with the cellular matter (certain proteins and lipids in damaged cells) that is being left on your bedding by the bed bugs. It will help you lift those stains out of your mattress, sheets, pillow cases, and comforters. It even works on walls, floors and carpets.
- Use a dry washcloth to scrub the spots on your mattress dry. Your mattress likely cannot be washed like you can wash your bedding and such. Use the dry washcloth (better yet, a microfiber cloth) to pull the moisture (and the blood and bed bug fecal matter) out of the mattress's fabric.
- Put your pillow cases and sheets in the washer: cold cycle only. Again, you don't want to set those stains. Let the stain fighting properties of your typical laundry detergent do the work for you. A good 30 minute wash cycle should be enough to get rid of those bed bug stains.
- Dry your laundry on low heat. This doesn't really need explanation, but if you have a particularly damp mattress from all of that cleaning, you can dry it off with a hair dryer. No biggie. If you didn't get those bed bug stains out with cold water and hydrogen peroxide, they're not likely to ever come out. Might as well risk setting them rather than risk the chance of allowing mold to grow in all of that moisture.
Tips
- Always keep a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on hand. It's the perfect stain fighter, and it's all natural.
- Clean the rest of your house thoroughly once you're certain the bed bugs are dead.
- Keep heat away from the stain until you've done anything (and everything) to lift the stain out of the fabric in question.
- Call a licensed and reputable exterminator to get rid of your bed bugs if you don't think you can do it yourself.
