If you start seeing bed bugs on your window sills, you need to take immediate action. The fact that they have already reached your window sill means they have already begun to infest your home. Don’t worry because I will discuss bed bugs on a window sill – how to get rid of them.
One way you can get rid of these bugs is by using bleach. Most bugs despise bleach, so they will move away if you apply or spray bleach on your window sill. Bleach has strong chemical substances that will burn these bugs. It will also remove the smell of food, which could have attracted them to that place.
If you do not remove these bugs on your window sill, they will live there because it’s where they have found the food to stay alive and multiply. These bugs can also hide in the following places:
- Cracks on your walls,
- Furniture,
- Air vents on your living room,
- Bedroom,
- Laundry room,
- Electrical sockets, and
- Wall clocks.
Read on to learn more about bed bugs on window sills, the kinds of bugs that can be mistaken for bed bugs that can infest your home, and the many ways you can get rid of them.
Bed Bugs on Window Sill
Use Bleach
Getting rid of bed bugs on the window sill is pretty simple since they are tiny. One of the best methods to eliminate them is using a common household cleaning agent – bleach. Bleach is composed of potent chemical substances that can burn the protective shell and body of bed bugs and other kinds of bugs.
Bed Bugs Can Multiply Quickly
While many bugs are small, they can multiply at amazing rates. So, if you don’t remove them right away, you will face a bug infestation that is difficult to control. You need to act immediately once you begin to notice a few bed bugs on your window sill.
Places Bed Bugs Hide
If you do not act immediately, the number of bed bugs infesting your window sill will rapidly multiply. Pretty soon, you will have a full-blown bed bug colony that is more difficult to remove. They can be difficult to eradicate since they can hide in the following places:
- Wall cracks,
- Air vents on the baseboards and electrical outlets,
- Wall clocks,
- Laundry room, and
- Electrical sockets.
Easiest Ways to Kill Bed Bugs
1. Use Bleach
Eradicating them is easy with the use of bleach – if you use it right after, you’ve seen a few bugs on the window sill. The key is to do it right away. Bleach is a good pest repellant because it also removes the smell of food, which could have attracted the bugs to your window sill in the first place.
Bugs live in places where food is present. So, if they smell food in one place, they’ll stay there and multiply. Food crumbs have a habit of straying away to cracks on the floor, walls, and window sills.
Tiny litters of food can also make their way into the air vents on your baseboards and electrical outlets. They can also find their way inside the wall clocks and other wall ornaments.
Pine-Sol and Bleach [Can You Mix Them?]
2. Spray with Steam
You can also kill these bugs instantly if you spray them with steam. You can even destroy their eggs if you hit them with steam at 122°F (50°C). An easy way to do this is to spray steam on the window sill, the sofa mattress, the bed frames, and other places where they usually stay and thrive.
3. Use a Mixture of Vinegar and Water
You can suffer skin burns if you’re not careful in handling steam. So, if you want a safer insect repellant, use a mixture of white vinegar and water. Mix equal water and white vinegar parts and spray it on the window sill with a bug infestation. This will eradicate the present colony and discourage the formation of a new one.
Do I Have to Worry About Bed Bugs on Window Sill?
While bed bugs and other bugs that invade window sills are small, they can be harmful to you, your family, and your pets. They can also cause damage to your home. So, you need to be sure about the type of bugs infesting your window sills and how to eradicate them.
The bites of bed bugs are certainly painful and can leave ugly traces on your skin. Their bites can also cause skin allergies. This reaction can also cause secondary infections like lymphangitis, ecthyma, and impetigo.
This is why the EPA has tagged bed bugs as a public health issue. So, you have to do your research to determine the types of bugs that infest your window sill. They are all so tiny that they all look the same.
Tiny Grey Bugs on Window Sill – What Are They?
How to Identify Bed Bugs
While most bugs look the same, different species have different physical characteristics. So, how can you tell if they are bed bugs? Here are some of the distinguishing physical features of bed bugs:
- They have flat and oval bodies
- Their size is similar to the size of an apple seed which is about 3/16 to 5/16 inch (5 – 7 mm).
- The color of their shell is reddish brown
- They have three pairs of legs and two antennae
- They are wingless
Bugs Mistaken as Bed Bugs
As you may have noticed, many small bugs don’t have wings and have the same physical characteristics as bed bugs. Most of them are also tiny. These are why you can easily confuse bed bugs for other types of bugs.
Most of us will easily confuse the following insects like bed bugs:
- Booklice
- Window Mites
- Carpet mites
- Clover mites
- Other small bugs
So, don’t assume that the bugs that infest your window sill are bed bugs only. They may be other kinds of bugs. But since they are all small, killing them will also be similar to getting rid of bed bugs on the window sill.
Again, how to get rid of bed bugs on a window sill? To get rid of bed bugs on the window sill, spray them with bleach. This cleaning agent contains chemicals that can kill bed bugs and remove the smell of food on your window sill.
Other Bugs and How to Eradicate Them
It doesn’t matter whether they are bed bugs or other kinds of bugs. They will be eradicated with the same removal methods I am prescribing in this article. With that said, you still need to know certain things about the other bugs that we usually confuse with bed bugs and how you can exterminate them:
1. Booklice
If the tiny bugs on your window sill look like small dust with gray colors, most likely they are booklice. These bugs thrive in humid environments. They also feed on molds which are often seen on window sills. Booklice will always eat fungi and algae growing on window sills.
How to Exterminate
- Clean your window sills regularly and dry them out. Use bleach as your cleaning agent. This will prevent the formation of molds and algae on their surfaces. With no food in sight, these bugs won’t have anything to feed on. They will go someplace else.
- Reduce the humidity level of your home by using a dehumidifier. This will also prevent mold from forming on your window sills.
- Disinfect the spots that were infested with booklice. You can use standard household cleaning agents to kill the bacteria that are left over from the bug infestations that you have already removed.
- Improve air circulation in the formerly booklice infested areas inside your home. You can do this by opening the windows or doors of the place when the humidity level of that area is at its highest.
- After disinfecting the window sill, remove all the dead booklice by using a vacuum cleaner. This will ensure that there are no dead bugs lying around. If you don’t it may attract other dead bugs to take their place.
2. Window Mites
Window mite is not a scientific or official term. But many people use this name to refer to bugs that they see on window sills. They could be wood mites, especially if you see them on windows that are made of wood that is already old and with its paint already peeling or cracking.
These tiny bugs love to eat rotten wood. They don’t pose much danger to your health, but they can destroy your windows. Getting rid of them is pretty simple.
How to Exterminate
You can eradicate wood mites by using an anti-mite spray. However, that will only exterminate the present crop of wood mites. To discourage future wood mites from infesting your windows sills, you need to deprive them of their food source.
You need to remove the rotten wood sections and replace them. It is best to replace the infested window sill with a new one if you can afford it.
3. Carpet Mites
If carpet mites have infested your window sill, you have a more complicated situation on your hands. They look like brown ladybugs about the same size as bed bugs. These bugs are related to spiders because of their six legs.
They are pesky insects because they are not easy to eradicate. They mostly eat a natural fiber, including clothes and carpets. If you see small holes in your clothes, curtains, carpets, and other items made of natural fibers, they are victims of carpet mites.
But they can also infest window sills, although that does not represent the main infestation. You have to look and search for their nest because they usually hide in dark places.
How to Exterminate
When you find their breeding ground, sprinkle some boric acid on the spot. This will kill the mites as well as their larvae and their eggs. But don’t allow your pets to go near the boric acid. It’s harmful to them.
You can also sprinkle boric acid on the window sill, carpet, and other items these mites have infested. Allow the boric acid to stay there for a couple of hours, and then vacuum or steam clean your carpets, and wash all the items that were infected. Use the hottest water temperature allowed for the fabrics. Look out for survivors and exterminate them ASAP.
4. Clover Mites
Another bug that is mistaken for a bed bug is the clover mite. You will know if they are clover mites if they diffuse small red marks from their bodies after you have crushed them. They are also as small as bed bugs. Clover mites usually form their nests on plant materials.
How to Exterminate
Don’t place plant materials within two feet of your house to prevent infestation. If you find clover mites on your window sills or some other place inside your house, the best way to kill them is to use a chemical spray. Spray this chemical over the place of infestation to eradicate them.
To prevent them from re-entering your house, put some distance between your plants and the edges of your house. Placing some wood chips or gravel and sand between your house and the plants will prevent them from getting inside your house.
Bed Bugs Won’t Go Away On Their Own
You need to know that bed bugs and these other types of bugs will not go away. They need to be exterminated once you have established that they have infested your house. You have to take the necessary steps to eliminate them right away.
If you cannot locate the breeding ground of these pesky insects, you need to ask for help from a qualified and dependable insect exterminator. They will be able to use the best methods and the best insecticides to extinguish the lives of these pesky bugs.
Conclusion: Bed Bugs on Window Sill
One of the easiest ways to eliminate these pesky bed bugs is to use bleach. Bleach contains strong chemicals that can burn these bugs away. Pouring or spraying it on your window sill will indeed prevent them from infesting that place.
Bleach will also remove the smell of food, which could have attracted these bed bugs to invade your window sill in the first place. Without the smell of food, there won’t be any bug that will be attracted to your window sill anymore.