Cold weather not only brings people inside; it can also bring bugs inside. The instinct to stay warm reaches all creatures, which means that unfortunately, they could hide from the cold inside your home. There are three main places where bugs will hide in your home: your bed, your carpet, and your upholstery. One of our previous articles details how to clean your carpets if they have carpet beetles or moths, but now it is time to get bugs out of your couch and favorite comfortable chair. The four most common bugs in furniture are carpet beetles, bed bugs, fleas, and dust mites.

Bed Bugs

While bed bugs are most commonly associated with beds, they also like to invade many kinds of upholstery, like your couch. You’ll know you have bed bugs on your couch if you see them or get bites after being on the couch. To identify them, look for their small, flat, reddish-brown body that is around five millimeters long. They often look like coffee grounds on furniture.

Treating them proves to be more difficult than identifying them. There are many cleaners that can suffocate or poison the bugs, but you’ll want to be very cautious. Bed bugs are hearty bugs and can last up to a year without food. If they scurry away from the couch while you are treating it, they will find a different place to make their home. It is most advised to isolate the furniture that has bugs from the rest to treat it and place it on a white sheet to catch any bugs that try to escape. Another important note when treating your upholstery is that bed bug eggs are almost too small to see. You’ll want to make sure every part of the upholstery is cleaned to get rid of the eggs.

Carpet Beetles

These bugs are easier to identify than most other bugs. Carpet beetles are one to five millimeters long and are usually black in color. One of the less common colors are brown and white. The easiest part of identifying them is what they do to your furniture. You’ll know it’s carpet beetles from your furniture. They eat keratin, the main protein on fabrics and hair, and create holes in the upholstery. It’s important to get rid of them quickly because they can lay up to 100 eggs at one time. The best way to get rid of carpet beetles is to call an exterminator and thoroughly vacuum the affected furniture.

Fleas

Even though they are small, fleas can create a huge problem, especially if you have pets. They are two to four millimeters long and have a brown and red body. Fleas are notorious for crawling on animals to get nutrition from their blood. Upholstered furniture provides a soft and warm place where they can hunker down until a blood source comes by. Fleas also are able to jump pretty far, meaning that once they are in one place in your home, they can get anywhere in your home. You’ll know fleas have invaded your home if you and your pets start to itch more often and get small bites that look like rashes. To treat them, be sure to vacuum frequently to get the bugs and eggs from your home. An exterminator is also a great idea so that every inch of your home can be treated, along with upholstery cleaning to keep your furniture bug-free.

Dust Mites

The most difficult bug to identify are dust mites. Most of the time, you won’t be able to see them without a microscope. Their white to translucent bodies don’t help either. Dust mites are best discovered when they are inhaled. One of the best ways to prevent dust mites from invading your home is to keep your humidity lower. Dust mites thrive in humid areas, so decreasing that humidity will help keep away dust mites.

The symptoms from breathing in dust mites are similar to allergies and include sneezing, coughing, sore throat, rashes, headaches, and watery eyes. If you need to identify if it is dust mites, take clear tape and press it on your bed or furniture. Then, take the tape to the doctor to look at under a microscope. They will provide ways to help your symptoms while regularly vacuuming and lowering the humidity to get rid of the bugs.

Other bugs that you can find in your home include ants and spiders, and careful cleaning is one of the best ways to get rid of any pests you find. While there are specific methods for getting specific bugs out, the best way to make sure you are bug-free is to get professional upholstery cleaning after the exterminator stops by. It’s one of the few ways you can make sure that every inch of your furniture is cleaned. Call Lucas Family Carpet Cleaning to get an estimate for your home.