Bed bugs are small, night-crawling insects that don’t have wings. They love to move. In other words, they like to spread. They may have lived in your house, office, hotel, school, or another place where people gather before getting into your car. At day, they hide in cracks and holes. At night, they come out to feed on blood.
Can Bed Bugs Get Into Your Car?
If bed bugs get into your bags, clothes, furniture, or anything else you bring into your car, they can live there. They are moving insects that don’t have wings, so they probably won’t be able to get from your house to your car. You will only see a few of them in your car because they don’t go very far.
Bed bugs can stay in a car for a long time. Once they get into your car, they will stay there for a long time. They stay alive by drinking blood from people and other animals. They eat too, but they can go a long time without eating.
Young bed bugs and adults can live in your car for up to a year without food. The younger ones can go weeks or months without eating. During all steps of their development, they need blood to stay alive.
Can bed bugs live in cars that are too hot? For the most part, the bed bugs will be fine even if your car gets hot; they can live in temperatures as high as 47 degrees Celsius. But if you stay in very hot places, the heat inside your car will kill them.
How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs In A Car
If you see any of the above signs of bed bugs and think they might be in your car, you need to get rid of them right away so they don’t follow you into your house. There are easy ways to get rid of bed bugs in cars, though.
Clean the car thoroughly
If you think you have bed bugs in your car, you should clean it very well. But this needs more than just a trip to the car wash. What you need to do is:
- Take the floor mat, carpet, seat covers, and rugs off and clean them. Then, put them in the hot sun for two to four hours.
- Clean every part of the car with a vacuum. If the handheld vacuum you have doesn’t work very well, you should get an EPA (high-efficiency particulate air) type.
- Either steam clean the car really well or hire someone to do it for you.
In general, cleaning your car really well can help get rid of bed bugs, but it might not get rid of all of them. Still, you need to keep an eye on the car to see if there are any signs that they are still inside.
Use heat
Bed bugs can be killed by heat. They won’t be able to handle temps above 113 degrees Fahrenheit. If you find bed bugs in your car, leave it locked and in full sunlight for at least two hours. They won’t make it through the heat.
Should you leave your car unlocked outside in the winter when it’s not very hot, a portable heater will make enough heat to kill any bugs that are inside.
Diatomaceous earth
It is made from the fossilized remains of diatoms, which are small aquatic creatures. Diatom skeletons are used in a lot of different things, and they can also be used to kill pests.
The bed bugs die because the diatomaceous earth dries out the fat and oil in their shells. On the other hand, you have to leave it in the car for a few hours for it to fully dry out the bug’s fat and oil in its shell.
If you do this, though, make sure you wash the car well afterward.
Fumigate your car
Fumigating the car is another easy way to get rid of bed bugs in cars. It can be dangerous, but it is a quick and easy way to kill these itching bugs without wings. Now you know what will kill bed bugs right away if you were asking.
Close the doors to your car and fill the whole inside with smoke. This can be done both at night and during the day. Allow the car to sit for two hours during the day before open it. After two hours, open the doors and leave them open for a few hours to get rid of the smell. Then wash the car well to get rid of the smell and the dead bugs.
Conclusion
It doesn’t happen as often in cars as it does in homes and furniture, but bed bugs do get in. Most of the time, finding bugs in your car means you have bugs somewhere else you haven’t found yet. It’s possible that bugs got into your car through your clothes or bags from inside your house.
Finally, if you find bed bugs in your car, you should also check your house. Get rid of the ones in your home. They will get back in the car if not.
