Italian 6-inch Memory Foam Pillow with Rayon from Bamboo Cover

Italian 6-inch Memory Foam Pillow with Rayon from Bamboo Cover
Italian 6-inch Memory Foam Pillow with Rayon from Bamboo Cover

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Bed Bugs and Memory Foam

I decided to see what information I could find on bedbugs and memory foam mattresses... This is what I found.  

Question: Can bedbugs also live in visco-memory foam beds? I have read some claims online that say that the bedbugs cannot get into the foam beds.
Answer: Remember that bed bugs get on mattresses and harbor and under the sheets in the seams and tufts. While they may not be able to get into the actual foam, it hardly matters. They can harbor on the foam, in the seams of the mattress cover or in the bed frame.  Remember the mattress itself is not the bed bug attractant, the host that uses it is.  So bed bugs do not have to live inside the mattress in order to feed on you at night.  They might crawl down from the picture frame hanging above your bed or from some other location.
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Can bed bugs live in foam mattresses? 

Answer from Leibniz
3 of 3 people found this helpful

Maybe not in, but certainly on.


"Bed bugs are found in cracks and crevices in mattresses, bed covers, box springs, hollow bedframes, upholstery of other furniture, behind baseboards, peeling wallpaper, pictures, and light fixtures. They’ll hide anywhere that is dark and gives them cover."

So it seems that the bugs, even with regular mattresses, are found more on the bed, and around the bed, than actually in the mattress.  It seems a foam mattress isn’t going to help.

Fun fact!  A good sign that you have a bedbug infestation is if you also have some of these:


That’s a Masked Hunter.  It eats bedbugs.  Cute!

How to prevent:  if you’re worried about prevention, then presumably you actually have bedbugs at least near where you are.  If that’s the case, you can try to create a bed bug barrier.  From Wikipedia:

If it is necessary to live with bedbugs in the short term, it is possible to create makeshift temporary barriers around a bed. Because bedbugs cannot fly or jump, an elevated bed can be protected by applying double-sided sticky tape (carpet tape) around each leg, or by keeping each leg on a plastic furniture block in a tray of water. bed frame can be effectively ridded of adult bedbugs and eggs by use of steam. Small steam cleaners are available and are very effective for this local treatment. A suspect mattress can be protected by wrapping it in a painter’s disposable plastic dropcloth, neatly sealing shut all the seams with packing tape, and putting it on a protected bed after a final visual inspection. Bedding can be sanitized by a 120 °F (49 °C) laundry dryer. Once sanitized, bedding should not be allowed to drape to the floor. An effective way to quarantine a protected bed is to store sanitized sleeping clothes in the bed during the day, and bathing before entering the bed.


Vermin and pets may complicate a barrier strategy. Bedbugs prefer human hosts, but will resort to other warm-blooded hosts if humans are not available, and some species can live up to eighteen months without feeding at all. A co-infestation of mice can provide an auxiliary food source to keep bedbugs established for longer. Likewise, a house cat or human guest might easily defeat a barrier by sitting on a protected bed. Such considerations should be part of any barrier strategy.

If you’ve actually got the infestation, then you’ll want to be getting rid of it.  Duh right?  For that, see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bugs#Treatment
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bugs                  

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Do Memory Foam Mattresses Get Bed Bugs?

They are disgusting.
There's no denying it. Those little creepy crawlies that feed solely on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals, and make their homes in the comfort of your bed send a shudder through the spine.
Have you ever wondered what a bed bug actually is, other than something to cringe at?
There are around 108 species of these bugs, but the most common - the Cimex lectularius (found in temperate climates) - is well adapted to human environments, and brave enough to make its home in your mattress.
So what do they look like?
Do you really want to know? Adult bed bugs are reddish-brown, flat, oval, and have no wings. They have microscopic hairs covering their bodies, and a large adult can grow up to 5mm in length and 3mm in width. Babies are translucent and lighter in colour, but become darker as they mature.
The Common Bed Bug. Gross.
By nature, bed bugs are blood suckers. Typically, if one if sucking the blood of a human, it's because no other prey is available. They usually feed just before dawn since they don't like sunlight, but have been known to feed during the day. They're attracted to us because of the carbon dioxide we emit, as well as our body heat.
"That's sick. But how do they get up onto the bed?"
That's the gross part... they either crawl up, or they drop down from the ceiling or a wall. When they feed, they inject a small amount of anesthetic into the skin with one tube, and extract the blood with another tube for about 5 minutes before retreating back to their hiding places. The anesthetic is what causes the itching sensation when you notice the bite later on.These bugs can live for 5 months to a whole year depending on the climate. The warmer and more conducive to feeding it is, the shorter their lifespan. A bed bug can survive in temperatures between 16°C and 45°C. Oddly enough, they can live up to a year without feeding.
Now that you have a clear picture of these creatures, the question remains...
Do memory foam mattresses get bed bugs?
Because memory foam mattresses are made from a more solid core and don't have convenient hiding places, bed bugs aren't as tempted to set up shop. It's your headboard, bed base and sheets that you need to worry about, since they like to hide in small, enclosed spaces.
They're are also found in spring mattresses, since they have many crevices and allow the bugs a lot of roaming space. DDT is a powerful chemical that has kept the critters away for decades, but unfortunately, there is worry that the insects have developed a resistance to the stuff. The best solution for getting rid of bed bugs in your spring mattress is to get rid of the mattress itself.
Bed Bug Infestation
Helenka Prochazka manages NovosBed, the world's best Memory Foam Mattress company.

 

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