How to Treat Mattresses for Bedbugs

Remove all bedding and examine for dark spots; these spots are fecal matter left by bedbugs. Examine the mattresses around the seams at the top and bottom edges. Turn the box spring over and remove the dust cover from the bottom of the mattress. Pull back fabric that is stapled to the wood framing of the box spring. These are all locations in which bedbugs hide.

Remove as much clutter from the room as possible, including clothes, extra blankets and spare bedding -- all places that bedbugs hide. Wash anything removed from the room in the hottest water possible to kill bugs. Empty dressers and nightstands to check for evidence of infestation.

Vacuum the entire room and mattresses. Move furniture and vacuum the entire area under the bed. Rent or purchase a steam cleaner once the room is vacuumed. The steam kills bedbugs.

Apply an insecticide to the mattress such as PyGanic Dust, or encase the mattress and box spring with covers that are plastic or tightly woven fabric, and zip completely closed. These covers, if kept in place for more than one year, kill all the insects living inside the bed. Since bedbugs live about 12 months without a meal, it is important to keep the cover in place for more than one year.

Use an aerosol insecticide such as Bedlam Aerosol to treat the smallest cracks in the room. Once the room has aired out, use an insecticide spray on the baseboards, nightstands, dressers and chairs in the room.

Repeat all treatments, except for the mattress treatment, three times and at least 10 days apart from one another. Once the mattress has been treated, do not attempt to remove the cover for more than one year.