Bed bug encasements for mattresses and box springs

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If you have bed bugs, many pest management professionals and entomologists recommend encasing your mattresses in high-quality encasements that are designed and tested to keep bed bugs in or out. If you do not yet have bed bugs, bed bugencasements may be a good preventive measure for keeping bed bugs out of your box springs and mattress.

The use of bed bug encasements is not without controversy. We are aware of several highly respected UK bed bug experts (namely Richard Naylor of the University of Sheffield and David Cain of Bed-bugs.co.uk), who dont recommend encasing mattresses. However, at this writing (8/2011), I cant think of any North American PCOs or entomologists who generally recommend against bed bug encasements.

The design of beds may play into this: keep in mind that UK beds tend not to have US-style box springs, and that box springs are notorious for harboring bed bugs. And British-style divan beds tend to have wheels attached, which makes them impossible to encase.

The argument for encasement use:

The argument against bed bug encasements:

Click the following link to read discussions tagged as being about encasements on our forums.

My own sense gathered from the input of various experts is that the vulnerability of North American-style box springs means they should be securely encased. (As youll see below, some experts recommend this be done with mattress encasements, which may be better-designed in some cases than those marketed as box spring encasements.)

And while using a mattress encasement does not prevent you from getting bed bugs in your home, if kept intact, it will keep them on the encasement surface and prevent bed bugs from harboring on and leaving fecal stains on the mattress itself and the staining in particular is something many people would like to avoid, especially on a nice or newer mattress.

If your pest management professional does recommend encasement use for your box springs and/or mattresses, make sure you are using ones which have been independently tested to keep bed bugs in or out (more on that below), make sure they are installed correctly and carefully, and inspect them regularly and carefully for tears.

On the other hand, if your pest management professional does not agree with the use of bed bug encasements, and they seem to know what theyre doing, then I would recommend you follow their protocols.

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Bed bug encasements for mattresses and box springs

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