Mattress Cover for Bed Bugs
You’ll see a large number of bedbug sites out there selling specialized mattress covers to keep bedbugs from getting inside your mattress (or outside, if you’re infested), but did you know that you can buy them right from your local store?
It’s a lot less expensive and you need only ask the clerk to direct you to the mattress section and look for allergy relief / dust mite barrier covers; these are effective enough to stop bedbugs from passing through.
For example, if I go to Walmart.com and search for ‘mattress cover’, the first result is an allergy relief / dust mite barrier pillow and mattress cover set for $25.
Check with your local store and see what products they have to keep out the dust mites and you’ll have found yourself an inexpensive bedbug cover!
For more information on how to get rid of bed bugs, then check out http://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-treatment/
Most Popular Pages Listed Below
A good overall cheap strategy in a single post:
Bedbugs can climb the walls and drop on to your bed from the ceiling like nasty little ninjabugs. Try running a long strip of wide tape horizontally across every wall in your bedroom, making sure that strip of tape is touching. Now apply vaseline to that tape. Bedbugs can’t cross vaseline. Reapply the vaseline as needed. This will prevent them from crawling up the walls and landing on you. Move your mattress as far away from the walls as you can.
Also, get a bed frame if you don’t have one already, place a plastic plate or something under each leg and cover it in vaseline. Now you’ve blocked them from ground attacking you and from ceiling and wall attacking you. Now to block them from within. Throw out your bed skirt.
Get Aller-Ease Waterproof mattress covers from walmart or find a similar product, only $30 in canada for queen size. It can block dustmites (0.04mm), and water, so it can block bedbugs, also if you check the Aller-Ease website it says their product has been tested as bedbug bite proof. Save money on your boxspring if you have to and duct tape some 3.5-4mm plastic sheeting from the hardware store all over, making sure it’s sealed tighter then a dolphins sphincter.
So far everything here has been about keeping the bedbugs off you while you sleep, but they can live 6 months without food so denying them a meal will take a long time to kill them. Don’t stop there’s still more you can easily and cheaply do. Seal as many cracks as you can with tape or caulk. Squeeze your caulk into tight holes. If you still got funds brush some diatomaceous earth around and into cracks and such. When a bedbug breaths in that diatomaceous it’ll rip into its lungs harder then Rosie O’Donnell rips into a bag of Lays. Lay down some neem oil they don’t like the smell (neither will you), though in doing so you may just chase them elsewhere, neem oil alone doesn’t stop them that would be too easy.
Wash your clothes in hot water, dry them thoroughly (none of those massive dryer loads that are still damp after an hour use some sense). Keep all your clothes in garbage bags. Wash your sheets often. And bedbugs love clutter, so tidy up as best you can. If you’re a packrat it’s time to change your ways, throw out that stuff you almost never use, the occasional uses for that junk are not worth the risk that it could be hiding bedbugs.
TOO LONG DIDN’T READ? Here’s the cliff notes:
-Wide tape, one long strip running horizontally along the middle of every wall, all the strips touching at the ends. Now cover that tape in vaseline. Will prevent bugs from crawling up the walls and ceiling to fall on you. Move mattress as far from walls as possible.
-Get a bed frame, under each leg a plate of vaseline to prevent bedbug ground attacks.
-Mattress cover, Get Aller-Ease Waterproof mattress covers from walmart or find a similar product. Duct tape plastic 3.5-4mil sheeting around your boxspring if you’re cheap.
-Seal as many cracks in the floor, walls, etc, as you can with tape and caulk
-Brush some diatomaceous earth around and into cracks and such, neem oil.
-Wash your clothes in hot water, dry well, keep in plastic bags. Wash sheets often.
-There’s a bee in my glasses oh no please don’t sting my eye, go away bee.
-Tidy up, reduce clutter they can hide in, throw out your junk.
-Stay frosty
I’m a teenage girl who has been having trouble getting bit. It seems like I the only one that gets bit. My sister and I searched our room and we found bugs that were similar to bed bugs. Only a few though. I found skin shed from them on the back board of my bed. Our mom didn’t want to do anything because her husband said they are not bedbugs because if they were they would be everywhere In the house.
I know that bedbugs usually only feed in the nighttime but sometimes when I would go places I would get bit. So I really don’t know if there bedbugs . The only other thing I think it could be is fleas?.. My sister moved out because my mom didn’t want to spray the house. I stay with my mom and I wasn’t getting bit. I threw away my bed.
The other night I went to my sisters and when we were going to sleep I got a whole bunch of bites on me !! I took 2 showers and we went someplace and we came back and I had more bites. We searched her bed and we found what looked like a baby bed bug… Well now I’m home now n I keep getting bit I washed all my clothes and blankets I’m very paranoid.
Its going to be 4 in the morning and I’m on this .. Well I really need advice and help because getting up for school is so hard because I cant sleep through the night I get so many huge bumps that itch. Any advice would help so much!.
I have been dealing with my bedbug problem for a year now and it never seems to end. It all started when I was baby sitting my neighbors children and they stayed overnight very frequently.
The problem started out on my pullout sofa and spread to every room in the house. I had to throw away every single piece of furniture I owed and even prayed for a hurricane to wash over (flood) my house as I live on the East Coast. After throwing away everything, ripping up all the carpeting in my house, washing everything in dressers, closets, etc…. nothing helped.
I have had my house exterminated twice by two different companies, that helped for a couple of months and then notice the bugs were back. Luckily the landlord paid for the treatments (which are VERY costly- one quote at $200 per room) but now they are back and I am highly allergic to the bites. I look like I am suffering from some weird skin disease which is completely awful.
I have replaced my matress and boxspring about 5 times over now and financially I am depleted and am unable to pay for extermination myself as my landlord / management stated that they will not pay for treatment. I am completely at a loss as to what to do this is simply ridiculous and is simply driving me insane to know each night I have about 15-20 bug feasting on me… UCK!!!!! I have half a mind to simply abandon my apartment and all my belongings to stop from being infested…
Also, bed bugs will hide anywhere. The last time I “hosed” down my bedroom after replacing my mattress yet again, I noticed that they were living in the crack in widow sill and even killed a small cluster hanging out on my surge protector plug, hanging on my curtains and even had to take down my wall boarders (both paper and fabric).
I will have to now bite the bullet and buy the bed protector things and encase the boxspring and mattress, which I know I should have done but severely financially strapped after replacing my bedding 5 times, new living room stuff, carpet, etc. Does anyone know what to do about the bites? I am severely allergic and NOTHING works. Witch Hazel seem to work a bit.
Thank you to everyone for the sharing your non-toxic ways of destroying bedbugs. I suspect my husband might have bites from bed bugs, but not absolutely certain. He is very sensitive to any kind of bites, whereas my system is a bit more tolerant. Regardless, I’m going to err on the safe side and buy the mattress and box spring encasements AND pillow encasements too. I noticed people haven’t mentioned their pillows. I love my pillows and want to protect them too.
I want to mention that I read somewhere on the internet that it takes at least 18 months for bedbugs to die because they can go that long without eating. So people, keep your mattress covers/encasements on for at least 18 months. And yes, the mattress needs to be completely covered, not just the top half as with a sheet cover.
Bombing your bedroom or wherever won’t solve the problem because it drives the bedbugs deeper into cracks and crevices. They’ll come back out when it’s safe again.
I’m hoping we don’t have bedbugs, but if we do I will buy the dusting powder someone mentioned and dust everything and in every nook and cranny!!! But before that, I will use the steamer we have.
Good to know I won’t have to throw out my mattress, nor spend a lot of money in protecting them.
I came home from the hospital. Immediately I started itching. The next day I had what looked like large mosquito bites. And then every morning I would have more and more bites. I went to the emergency room twice and doctors didn’t know if I was having an allergic reaction to something, or if the culprit is bed bug bites. They advised me to use cortisone creme and Benadryl allergy medicine. They haven’t worked. Nothing has worked. I look like I have a 3rd-world plague, almost my whole arms are covered with sores from the terrible itching. Someone told me not to scratch because it just spreads things out making them itch even more. I’ve never had an itch THIS BAD! I see my primary doctor tomorrow. Probably won’t do any good. I am on a very low-fixed income so I can’t afford to leave my house for two weeks, can’t afford to buy a new bed and couch. I live in my bedroom because I threw out my couch and stuffed it into the dumpster so no one would be tempted to take it into their home. I’m gonna try Neem Oil for repellant, and Diatomaceous Earth (same as ChemFree and has silicone dioxide. Will comment again letting everyone know whether they worked or not. Also I am going to contact the owner of my apartment so they can get this place exterminated. Please pray in agreement with me that this problem will go away, and stay away. Oh, can anyone tell me where I can buy Neem Oil?
Bedbug covers are great for protecting your mattress for any further infestion (of course once it is treated). Buying new mattresses all the time can get quite expensive.
This however will not get rid of your bedbug problem.
It is important to get a pest control company in there who will vacuum, steam, dust wall voids and use a residual chemical on non sleeping areas. It is also important that he/she is back in two weeks to repeat the procedure in order to get the young as they would have hatched.
If done properly it will have been a lot of work on the clients end in regards to prep work and on the companies end in regards to labour.
Once this is done, you need to question yourself and figure out where you got them from… Someone coming to your place perhaps doesnt know they have them, are you or a member of your household going somewhere that has them, etc
Bedbugs are hitchhikers, very easy to get but very difficult (not impossible) to get rid of.
Most of what I’ve learned in the past 4 weeks as a landlord with 6 infestations is as follows:
(1) Don’t use foggers. They’ll just drive the bedbugs into other areas.
(2) Bedbugs live in holes and cracks, preferably in darker corners of a room, preferably within 5-6 feet of “dinner” (a human)
(3) Not everyone develops an allergy to the saliva in bed bug bites, which is why one sleeper might be a lot more bothered by them than another person sleeping in the same bed.
(4) Caulk and/or tape (painters, masking) should be used to seal all visible cracks in the affected space.
(5) You can get encasements for both box and mattress, but you can save some money simply tightly wrapping your box with 4 mil plastic and duct tape. Treat ALL parts of the bed frame before reassembling. Bedbugs can hide in any crack, hole or crevice in the bed and all your efforts will be for nought if you don’t make sure the bed has been cleansed.
(6) Use fossilized shell dust (a very thin white powder also known as diatomaceous earth) as a barrier and use a small brush to work it into the corners and base boards around your entire room.
(7) Bed bugs can live in dressers and electrical equipment. For dressers and chairs, a thorough cleaning and pesticide treatement is necessary. For electrical equipment, you can encase televisions, computers, DVDs, etc in a 3 mil contractor bag and some folks suggest you drop in a product like the Hot Shot No Pest strip (if it’s still legally sold in your state.) Leave the stuff sealed up for a week and completely away from any living spaces.
(8) The liquid pesticides tend to be contact killers with little residual. Some hardware stores sell the powder equivalents with the same kind of neurotoxic poisons. The dust can be place in cracks around the room and DOES have great residual value.
(9) Plan on repeating the treatments on a regular basis (in the beginning, as often as every other day) until the bedbug activity has ceased.
(10) Bed bugs die at 113 deg F. Make sure that you are regularly placing your bedding (ALL of it) and any nearby clothing in a clothes dryer for 15-20 minutes during your treatments and after any evening biting episodes.
Resist the urge to panic. Just sitting quietly in the affected room and thinking through all of the little cracks, crannies and dark spaces they might hide so that they can be close to dinner will help you to plan your counter-attacks much more efficiently and strategically.
A month ago, I was sleepiing in my bed. The next morning, I discoverd that much of my body was covered with large red bumps that looked a lot like mosquito bites.
I went online, and discovered that they were bedbug bites. Not knowing what to do, I stopped sleeping in my bedroom and instead started spending the night in the guestroom.
By switching beds, I realized that I stopped having red swells. Just last night, I wanted to try out my bed again. This morning, I saw and felt 4 new bites.
What should I do?
The bed bugs were found in my son’s room. He kept getting bit and we just assumed it was spider or mosquito bites but one morning I happened to go into his room to wake him up and bam…there they were crawling all over the walls!
I called an exterminator immediately and he sprayed but the problem persisted. I threw away the bed, mattress, pulled up the carpet and installed hardwood and painted the room. Guess what…the bugs are still in there and I’m beyond frustrated. I’m worried that they have spread to other areas where he has slept.
I’m going to purchase some mattress cases and I have used a spray I ordered online. So far it’s not working even thought it claims to be 100% effective. I’m also going to buy a steamer. This is crazy!!!
We purchased mattress covers made specifically for bed bugs @ Wal-Mart. Twin size is $30. They also sell a mattress cover under the house brand name for $20. We were going to use them to cover our box spring, but they didn’t fit. We used the one that we had already opened for the twin bed in the guest room. It is a day bed, therefore has no box spring. Amazon.com carries covers made specifically for box springs. The size has to be extra long if you are using it for a box spring. We have a CA King premium mattress from Simmons Beautyrest. We were told that we had to have the mattress cover on it that we purchased at the same time as our mattress for our warranty to be valid. It is a 20 year warranty, so believe me, we have always used the cover. It is not a zippered one, but we had no “black paint” spots on our mattress. It was sprayed by the exterminator, who also felt it was “safe.” Last night was the 1st time in 5 days that we got to sleep on our own bed again! I never in my life knew the pure torture that comes from not getting a peaceful night’s rest!
I shopped around a bit & here are my results: Target doesn’t sell any, Bed, Bath & Beyond has vinyl covers from $15-$90 (the expensive ones had bells & whistles) and Wal-Mart has covers including pillow case covers from $15-$45. I only paid $6 for my actual pillows, so I didn’t feel it necessary to pay $6 for a pillow cover. The King size pillow covers are $8. Wal-Mart sells allergen pillows w/ a bonus zippered cover for $12 for standard, $14 for queen. They didn’t sell King size allergen pillows @ the Wal_mart I went to. I went to the Wal-Mart on Aero Dr. The one in La Mesa was sold out, Santee didn’t carry them & El Cajon has had an outbreak, so I didn’t even try there.
I hope this helps relieve some of the stigma associated w/ bed bugs & let you know there is hope!
Hi Anon,
It does not have to be specifically made for bed bugs and chances are, if you go looking for one like this, you will pay a premium! Look for a mattress cover that provides an allergen barrier or prevents dust mites and seals all the way around, any store should have them, such as Walmart, etc… If the dust mites can’t get through, neither can bed bugs!
Note: usually a cover that prevents allergens also prevents dust mites, which would prevent bedbugs as well.
When you get one, can you do us a favor and leave a comment where you found it?
Thanks!
Will any zippered mattress cover work or does it have to be specifically made for bedbugs?
Hi Cathy,
It is not the blood type, but rather the amount of heat and carbon dioxide a person puts out. The bed beds are gravitating towards the person that puts out the most carbon dioxide. Have they tried sleeping on different sides of the mattress? I’ll bet the person that wasn’t getting bitten will now get a few bites; unless the bugs are nesting near the center of the mattress…
Best regards,
Jim
i have a queen size bed and for some reason they bite him and not me anoter freind has the same prob. but the only diferrence is that they were biteing her not him .why is this is there such a thing that its there blood type ?
steaming the entire bed, box frames and carpet with a $80.00 steamer for clothes that I bought at Target. ( I still use it for clothes )
I then sprayed the carpet, baseboards and mattress with a mix of alcohol and water. it was smelly for a couple of days but we slept on the couch, I then covered the mattresses with zippered covers from target, very inexpensive.
I put vaseline on the feet of the bed so they can’t crawl from the floor to the mattress. and no more bed bugs!!!! steaming is key they hate the heat. steam frames
can i clean my room and then bomb it? I am getting bit every day and im tired of it would the matress covers accutally work?
A few years ago I went off to Europe for 2 months and when I returned my condo was infected with bed bugs. I bombed my place 7 times and wasn’t able to kill them. Finally I threw away everything in the condo, mattress, and pulled up the rugs. I bombed several times, repainted ( I moved out during all the cleaning) and did the floor in tile. The only way to get rid of these bugs is to throw away everything. This drastic measure is the only way to get ride of them in my opinion.
I’m looking for bed bug covers but not sure if I need a full cover or just a good thick half cover for the top of the mattress? This is bugging me so much that I think if it continues, I’ll need to consider psychiatric evaluation!
It’s been 9 moths since I discovered bed bugs in my house, since then I’ve had 2 different exterminators here. The first was a traditional one with chemicals which DID NOT WORK AT ALL! The second was one with heat treatment…that helped but did not eradicate the problem.
I called them back and they came in with a bed bug sniffing dog, she showed where the bugs still lived and they sent a guy with a steam machine. He used the steamer on the one place the dog indicated but not on the other because he said it was probably just the bugs inside the mattress cover the dog was indicating…I AM STILL GETTING BIT!!!!!!!
I have purchased a steamer and have been using it often! Does anyone have any more ideas on how to get rid of these awful pests? I am at my wits end! PLEASE HELP!!!
Thanks Sarah
I have a preschool student in the class I teach who has a terrible infestation which the parents are not treating. Is it worth getting mattress covers on my bed to prevent an infestation in my own home. The school is not able to do anything about the child’s infestation.
I found the same covers used at a few of the better hotels I’ve stayed at. Take a look at Walmart.com for some very well priced mattress encasements.
Sorry to hear about your infestation. Most likely if one of your mattresses are infested, then the others will soon be. invest in mattress covers for all of your mattresses and box springs in your house. make sure the covers that you buy have zippers. before sealing the covers, spray some bed bug spray to fumigate the inner area than zipper them quickly after.
Make sure to duct tape the whole zipper when finished. Also, make sure to do the same with your couches and sets. the best thing for this is instead of covers get plastic from uhaul and wrap all cloth furniture with a perfect seal so no air can get out, then expose furniture to direct sunlight for at least 24 hours. this will cut down your infestation tremendously. hope this info helps.
Su Davies:
Hope you are able to get control of the situation. Isn’t it curious that only one mattress is infested? What spray did you use? Did it work?
I am fighting an infestation of bedbugs and am using a professional company however they seem to have no idea about what to do with mattresses. There are three. One is damaged and obviously marked. The other two are in excellent condition with no signs of infestation.
Would using the anti-allergy mattress covers truly work on these. I intend to spray them and then cover them but I dare not let anyone sleep on them if there is any risk that any bedbugs that might be in them will get through the cover.
Please reassure me.
Thanks Su Davies