Question: what over the counter treatment can i buy to prevent and get rid of bugs?
ANSWER Preventing bedbugs is mostly a matter of inspection. When you go from one place to another, check your luggage. Bedbugs are notorious hitch-hikers. They can crawl into a suitcase in one city and infest a home or apartment in another city. They are easily transported in back packs, gym bags, and brief cases.
Control begins with taking the bed completely apart. Start with the frame, and disconnect as many parts as possible so you can treat all the cracks and crevices with an aerosol insecticide (any of the common aerosols will be fine). If you don't want to use an aerosol, use a hair dryer (set on high) to blow hot air into the cracks and crevices of the bed-this will drive out the bugs and kill some of them.
Once the frame is clean, then do the same for the head board and the box spring. Treat the cracks and crevices, then clean and vacuum the seams of the mattress. With what is left in the aerosol you can spray the baseboards of the room. Start with the area near the bed, and try to get the spray under or behind the baseboard (where bedbugs may also be hiding). These insects can travel far to find a blood meal, so don't fail to clean and treat the room. Night stands and pictures on the walls can be hiding places, so be thorough. They can live long without food, so even old beds (not used in while) can have them.
Check to see that there are no new or recently abandoned bird nests close to the room (check the attic), since there are 'cousins' to bed bugs that live in these nests and can move from there to feeding on people.
