Saturday, February 11, 2017

Bed Bugs - Can A Foam Mattress Help?

bed bug ~ 1/5"
Five years ago we built our own foam mattress from materials available online (see the Steps we followed building our mattress - right sidebar). One question that I occasionally get through my 'Bugs site is "can a foam mattress help prevent bed bugs?".

Bed bugs (left) hide during the day and venture out at night in search of a meal (blood). Bed bugs need a protected, dark hiding place in which to digest the blood meal and lay eggs. Hiding places generally acquire dark greasy stains from bug feces. A conventional mattress with many deep creases and sewn seams (bottom photo, left) is the perfect environment for these blood-feeding insects to hide undetected.

Red arrows in the photo below show where bed bugs hide during the day. Dark-colored fecal stains also indicate the presence of feeding bed bugs.

Our foam mattress has no sewn seams or creases and is encased in a smooth, white cover. This lack of good hiding places and the easy detection of fecal stains against the white background makes it virtually impossible that bed bugs would gain a foothold before being seen.
hiding places & bites

Bed bugs are relatively easy to control if detected in the early phase of an infestation. A foam mattress will facilitate the early detection of these blood-feeders before the infestation gets out-of-hand. See our bed bug articles for details regarding identification and control of bed bugs.

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