Bedworm is the name of a horror for every household. This pest may live in your beloved mattress and you might not even have any idea about their existence until it’s too late. One mistake of ignoring the causes of bed worms and your whole bed will turn into a habitation of bed worms but you can avoid this kind of horrid situation if you learn about the causes of bed worms.
It’s important to know the causes of these pests because prevention is always better than cure. If you learn about the causes, you’ll be able to keep these uninvited guests out of your mattress. So keep reading along to learn what causes bed worms and some valuable tips to get rid of bed worms.
Damages Bed Worms can cause
Before learning about the causes of bed worms, let’s find out what harm can be caused by these little larvae so that you understand the importance of chasing them away from your house.
- Allergy reaction: No disease indeed spreads from the bite of bed worms but if you already have allergic problems, one single bite of these tiny things may cause a really serious allergic reaction. In some cases, this allergic reaction can be fatal.
- Sleep Deprivation: Will you be able to sleep peacefully knowing your bed is full of tiny bugs that can casually walk into your ears while you are sleeping or can make your skin itchy by biting? Absolutely not right? That is why sleep deprivation is an indirect damage caused by bed worms.
- Demolishing of Mattress: These disaster-causing worms can turn your expensive mattress into junk in no time. If you get rid of them while they’re not a lot in number, your mattress may get saved by vacuuming these bugs out but if the infestation of bed worms goes out of hand, your mattress will be of no use.
- Permanent Skin Damage: Bite marks from other bugs like wasps, or ants may fade away with time but bite marks from bed worms are not very easy to get rid of. A simple bite of bedworm can lead to permanent scarring on your skin or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
- Anemia: Anemia is a critical medical condition and during this condition, the count of a person’s red blood cells and hemoglobin goes down. Anemia may be caused if a person gets bitten by bed worms continuously for several days. It’s very rare to develop anemia from bed worm bites but the chances do exist.
- Infection: Although infections can’t occur directly from bedworm bites, from scratching the bite spot too much you may give birth to an infection. Scratching helps the virus to spread all over your skin and with the rapid spread of the virus, your skin may get infected.
Things That Cause Bed Worms
Bed worms are not fully formed insects; instead, they’re a group of pests whose larvae may end up forming a habitation in your mattress and cause various damages. These bugs are also called carpet beetles or carpet moths and their favorite habitat is somewhere warm and dark. Having these larvae of fleas crawling around your blanket, or mattress may cause serious harm to your family and that is why it’s crucial to prevent them by knowing exactly what causes bed worms.
Material of Bedding
Certain materials of your blankets and bedding can invite bed worms. The materials that you should avoid while buying bedding are wool, silk, felt, feather, fur, and leather as these materials can increase the risk of bed worm infestation.
The main reason why these materials can cause bed worms is these materials are found in the keratin which is a fibrous protein and this fibrous protein is the favorite food of larvae of clothes moths. So, the first step to keep the bed worms away from your bed is to avoid purchasing bedding paraphernalia that is made of any of these materials.
Dirty Surroundings
Now if you keep food lying around here and there the eater will of course get attracted by it. If your habitat is filled with things like spilled drinks, food crumbs, food stains, peeled skin, and many more rubbish like these there’s no doubt that your bed’s going to be filled with tiny pests.
These substances are food to bed worms and if you don’t keep your house clean of these substances, many pests like bed worms may start living in your house along with you.
Damp Bathroom
They’re bed worms but they may enter your house through your highly damp bathroom. Damp and dark is what they like! These larvae of fleas will find their way into your house through your bathroom and then they’ll infest your whole house slowly.
Eventually, they’ll start living comfortably on your mattresses and blankets. In order to keep bed worms away from your bed, you must not keep your bathroom damp and dark.
Unhygienic Kitchen
An unhygienic kitchen is the second most favorite entrance point of carpet moths. A dirty unhealthy kitchen is the ideal place for the breeding process of worms. Uncleaned trash of vegetables, egg shells lying on the floor, spilled juice, etc. in the kitchen can be the reason why bedworms are increasing in your home day by day. A dirty kitchen can also cause many health issues other than attracting bed worms so it’s best to keep your kitchen clean at all times.
Purchasing Used Furniture
Who doesn’t love to save some money by purchasing second-hand furniture? However, saving money may lead to the infestation of these health-hazardous worms. You never know what a used furniture is carrying with it. The furniture that you bought from your friends or relative for half-price may have bed worms or eggs of fleas on it and you’re bringing this home without knowing how big of a mistake you’re making.
These worms won’t take much time to crawl into your bed and other furniture. They will keep growing in numbers and will get ready to bite you while you’re sleeping peacefully. So, think twice before being frugal and buying another used piece of furniture.
Uncleaned Laundry
Not getting time to wash those dirty laundry that’s why storing them day after day? Well, maybe this is why there are so many bed worms crawling on your mattresses and blankets. Uncleaned laundry attracts larvae of textile moths that later crawl into bedding and invade the whole bed.
Pests like bed worms will find your mountain of dirty laundry very comforting and will make it their hotbed. Throwing dirty laundry on your bed will only make the situation worse so it’s best to not keep dirty laundry lying around your home for too long.
Staying In Hotel Rooms
If you’re someone who travels a lot for business purposes or just for vacations and stays in hotel rooms a lot, then you should be extra careful of bed worms. Many hotels don’t provide fresh clean bed sheets and blankets thus bedsheets in hotel rooms may already be infested by fleas and moths. When you sleep on that bedding infested with fleas, those fleas will cling to your skin and enter your house along with you.
Those worms may even lay eggs on your clothes if you keep your clothes on the bed. So it’s best if you can ask for fresh bedding before you book a hotel room.
Pets
If your beloved pet was exposed to bed worms or their eggs, it might be the one who brought bed worms into your house. Carpet beetles are highly attracted to animal fibers such as skin cells, silk, hair, feather, and fur. Your pet may roam around in places where there are tons of bed bugs flying around and get exposed to their eggs which it later will carry with itself into your house.
To be careful, check your pet thoroughly for any kind of fleas or their eggs before letting it into your house after it has roamed around by itself for a while.
Dirty Storage Room
The storage room is usually the least cleaned room in every household because the room is only used for keeping extra furniture or different house materials. But keeping the room uncleaned for too long may lead to bed worm infestation in your house. The excess amount of things cluttering in one room and the dark environment may be too comfortable for these larvae of fleas.
Foods In Bedroom
Storing food alongside your sleeping area can be really unhygienic and it also can be the reason for budworm infestation. Fruits like rotten bananas, apples, pears, etc are some of the main interests of bed worms and other fleas.
Storing these kinds of expired or rotten food items in your bedroom will definitely invite many unwanted guests to your bedding. In general, foods should be stored in sealed containers so that they don’t attract any kind of bugs.
Also keeping expired food items lying around your house will make the environment very unhealthy and worm friendly. You sure don’t want this kind of environment in your house where you’re living with your family.
Tips To Get Rid Of Bed Worms
Even after taking care of all the causes above, If you see tiny white larvae of fleas crawling around your bed don’t just sit around and wait for them to grow in number. Take the matter into your own hands and do whatever makes the bed worms run away from your house forever. Here are some tips for you to make things easier-
- Clean Mattress: Stand your bed mattress up and check it thoroughly at least twice a month. If you see even one or two bed worms crawling around, clean them as soon as possible before they can grow more. To make those creepy crawlies go away, steam your mattress at high heat or wash it with hot water as heat is what chases the pests away. Keep the heat of your steamer at 140 degrees F to make sure each one of those stubborn tiny pests dies. If you keep the temperature of your steamer to 118 degrees F, it’ll take the pests 90 minutes to die. If you want them to die instantly then raise the temperature high.
- Declutter Every Space: Cluttered spaces make a comfortable habitat for bed worms or any other pests. Places such as under the bed, behind the bed, corners of the room, storage space, and spaces between furniture may get cluttered frequently. Clean these places every week so that pests don’t get too comfortable in your house. If you spot larvae of insects in these spaces, sprinkle hot water or spray insect killer instantly and make sure those pests are gone for good. If you don’t check those cluttered spaces on time, the bed worms may lay eggs there and keep growing in number. So it’s really important to keep every space of your house neat and clean.
- Vacuum The Entire Bedding: Vacuuming the bed every day is really necessary. If there are already some budworms on your bed that you’re unaware of, vacuuming the bed entirely will clean those worms before the worms lay eggs. Make sure to vacuum the bed thoroughly, and don’t forget any corners of the bed as those tiny devils can stay hidden in those corners of the bed. Vacuuming the bed regularly will also prevent any kind of pests from invading.
- Spray Essential Oils: The heavenly smell of essential oils may be really soothing for human beings but it’s not very pleasant for pests like bedworms. Instead, essential oils help a lot to get rid of bed worms instantly. Lavender oil has a stronger fragrance than any other essential oil. So to make the best use of lavender oil, scatter a few drops of it on your mattress and pillow. If your cupboard gets filled with textile moths then you can spray a little lavender oil there too. You can also put a few drops of essential oil on cotton balls and place them beneath the furniture if you see any signs of bed worms on your furniture. Some other essential oils that you can use to get rid of bed worms are Peppermint, Neem, Eucalyptus, and Cinnamon.
- Mattress Cover: Covering the mattress with a waterproof cover that is specially made to keep bedworms away, can help you get rid of bed worms forever. You can also easily wash the cover with hot water again and again whereas washing the mattress can be a cumbersome task. The mattress cover will also cancel the risk of future infestation of any kind of larvae.
- Freezing: The most effective way of getting rid of bed worms is freezing the mattress or anything that has been infested by bed worms. If you keep the infested mattress or bedding at 0-degree temperature for 4 days, the worms and laid eggs will get frozen along with the infested item. Although this is a very feasible way, it’s very hard to execute as not all of us have a huge walk-in freezer in our house.
FAQs About Bedworms
What Are Bedworms?
Bed Worms are not parasitic insects or any specific kind of pest. Instead, they’re larvae of different kinds of insects and a group of pests. Bed Worms don’t seize a hard exoskeleton like their bigger versions.
How Do Bed Worms Reach Your Bed?
Usually, bed worms find their way to your bed through two routes. Either they might’ve been brought to the house by humans or animals who were previously exposed to the worms or their eggs or an adult parasite must have laid eggs on your bed.
What Are Bed Worms Attracted To?
Things in your house that attract bed worms are food crumbs, food stains, dirt, dirty carpets, dirty laundry, dirty bed sheets, blankets made of silk, fur, or leather, and animal fibers.
Are Bagworms Harmful?
No, bed worms are dangerously harmful to humans. But if you don’t get rid of them soon or don’t treat the bite marks, there may occur some long-lasting harm
What Do Bed Worm Eggs Look Like?
Eggs of bed worms are about 1 millimeter long and look like tiny grains of rice. The eggs are creamy white or pale yellow in color and have a hinged cap at one end.
Conclusion: What Causes Bed Worms?
Being unaware of the causes of bed worms may lead to a huge infestation of bed worms in your house. Preventing bed worms by learning what causes bed worms is the first and most effective step you can take to eliminate the risk of budworm infestation. None of us want to sleep in constant panic of having worms crawling around our mattress and stay paranoid of when they might bite us. So even though they do not cause serious harm, it’s crucial to keep them away from our bedding.
Causes that are written above, are some of the vital and most common causes of these pests. Preventing bedworms may get easier for you after learning all these causes and you can also get rid of bed worms easily if they’ve already infested your bed by using the tips above.
