Can Bed Bugs Live in Your Car? (Read This First!)

Bed bugs are not, particularly some being that you would want in your bedroom. This uninvited guest can occupy your bedroom living room and can turn your living place into a complete mess. However, bed bugs are not only found in bedrooms.

Other places can be occupied by bed bugs as well. However, f a friend who has bed bugs at home can penetrate bed bugs into your car while you are giving them a lift.

Entered bed bugs are a big problem, and now you want them out. Let’s explore whether bed bugs can live in your car.

Can bed bugs live in your car?

Bed bugs can live in your car. In fact, bed bugs can live anywhere if they get enough nutrition and food. As their primary food is human blood, as long as they can access that in your car, they will be able to live inside of your car. Also, the temperature between 7° to 46° C keeps them alive.

Bedbugs are particularly not welcomed in households. They are irritating and harmful. As their primary food is human blood, their quest for eating causes severe disturbance in our day-to-day life.

Bedbugs can be found anywhere human goes. Though the home is the ultimate place for human affairs, they also include office, car, and business as their location throughout the day.

As a result, complaints of people being affected by bed bugs at offices, cars, and businesses are very common.

Cars being the most convenient mode for travel, people accompany acquaintances to places by their car.

If the owner or a passenger of the car carries a bed bug with them and transports them to the cozy environment of a car, bed bugs can enter a car’s system. From there, they can build their habitat of irritating creatures inside the car.

Bed bugs cannot get attached to the human body for movement. Instead, they use people’s unawareness as an element and hop into their pockets and clothes to move from one place to another.

Entering a car, bed bugs live on their primary food, human blood. So as long as they access that, they feel no disturbance to live. Additionally, bed bugs can only live tolerable cold and heat.

On the other hand, bed bugs use the darker areas of a car as their hideout, e.g., car seat, leather seat, foot mat, dashboard. Thus, cleaning bed bugs out of cars is vital for hygiene and good health.

Can bed bugs live in your car in the summer? How long can a bed bug live in a car?

Summer is an ideal time for bed bugs to operate. They can tolerate heat and are most comfortable in warm weather.

If a bed bug has somehow managed to penetrate your car, your car’s cozy environment can keep them in good health for a while.

Bed bugs cannot tolerate too much cold and a few degrees above freezing temperature; they can sustain. Also, in summer, if your car’s inside temperature cross 46° C, it will be inhospitable weather for bed bugs.

Bed bugs can come inside a car only with the help of a human. They live on the edges of the seat and darker portions of the car.

As long as they are cleaned out, or the weather is not too much to handle, they can live inside cars.

Can I get bed bugs from someone riding in my car?

Bed bugs- as its name suggest, are primarily found in the bedrooms, and unlike many creatures- they live on human blood. They also use humans as their carrier; they hop onto someone’s pocket and relocate themselves to move from one place to another.

Bed bugs cannot grow in your car on their own. They must be coming from some other place with the help of somebody. If you find bed bugs in your car, it is possible that someone had carried bed bugs into your car.

People can unknowingly host bed bugs in their bedroom, living room or places where bed bugs can hide in the property.

Bed bugs use people’s unconsciousness to use them as a carrier. So, if someone who has bed bugs in their residence, riding your car, can leave your car contaminated with bed bugs.

Do bed bugs live in leather car seats? Where do bedbugs hide in cars?

Bed bugs usually live on the edges and corners of a bed or a sofa. Although evidently, they are more comfortable in fabric and cotton, they are also fond of leather.

As many prefer using car seats made with fabric, and some use leather. There is no evidence that leather car seats can be better than fabric ones against bed bugs.

On the contrary, having car seats and floor mats made of leather increase your chance of hosting bed bugs. Bed bugs usually live on the small cracks and edges where sewed. In summary, bed bugs can live in leather car seats.

While being inside the car, bed bugs do not live in open spaces. Historically, they choose spots that are not easily visible and does not come across broad daylight, are the favorite spot of bed bugs to live in.

So usually they try to hide, and here are the possible places bed bugs can hide in a car-

Leather seats:

leather seats are the foremost hideout for bed bugs in a car. They hide in between spaces and sew lines in the cushions.

Floor mat:

Floor mats are another favorite place for bed bugs as no light penetrates there. Especially floor mats made of leather tend to host more bed bugs than silicon ones.

Dashboard:

Like your essential documents, bedbugs also feel secure and live inside the dashboard of the car.

How do you know if you have bed bugs in your car?

It is very unusual to have bed bugs in your car if you don’t have any in your home. However, if someone rode your car who having bugs at home, they can carry some bed bugs to your car.

As bed bugs are little in size, you may not immediately spot them inside your car. But there are other ways you can find bed bugs in your car.

Those are:

Unrecognized irritation:

While driving or riding as a passenger, if you feel bitten on the spots adjacent to the seats, you may consider looking for bed bugs.

Reddish stains:

You may find crushed bed bugs here and there, leaving reddish stains, another sign of having bed bugs.

Shedded skin:

While growing, bed bugs shed skins often. You will immediately identify if you saw one.

Eggs and eggshells:

Bed bugs have yellow eggs. Suppose you find any of those you should consider looking for bed bugs.

Bed bugs:

Spotting a bed bug is the ultimate way to tell if your car has any bed bugs. If you find one, there might be many along with it, so search thoroughly.

How do you get bed bugs out of your car?

Bed bugs can spread around your car through clothes, furniture, bags or other items you carry to the car and can stay there for more extended periods. As these bugs feed on blood, they can create irritation and red bites all over the body while traveling.

They don’t spread diseases but cause irritation. So they need to be thrown out immediately after spotting. To get rid of bed bugs from your car, the following treatment options can be followed-

Thorough cleaning:

First of all, you can remove all the rugs, mats and seat covers, wash them through shampoo and detergent and dry them in the sun properly. Thus, bed bugs will be removed from the car accessories.

Heat:

Bed bugs cannot tolerate high heat. So, you can get rid of bugs by generating heated air. Parking the car in direct sunlight can serve this purpose. Covering the car with black sheets can be useful to raise the temperature to a certain extent.

Steam cleaning:

Wet and dry steam can easily get into cracks and fabrics where bed bugs can hide. As they have limited tolerance to heat, they cannot survive the steam. All the hidden bugs get removed from the car.

Freezing:

Cold temperatures also have the potential to threaten the survival of bed bugs.

Creating a cold environment can be difficult. In that case, collecting bugs and freezing them can be a solution. This procedure is considered an effective method for pest control.

Final Thoughts

Bed bugs can live inside cars. Bed bugs can also live for a long time if they are not entirely removed from the car. Human is their primary carrier, and also they live on human blood. They cannot survive too much cold or too much heat. Having bed bugs in a car doesn’t mean that car is unclean.