Mattress Encasements and Interceptor Cups: Dayton’s Two Cheap Tools, Used Correctly

Encasements

OSU’s 2025 factsheet: “Encase mattresses/box springs to trap bed bugs, prevent feeding, and simplify inspection.” Sealed inside, they starve; outside, they are visible on a smooth white surface.

• Certified bed-bug-proof with a locking zipper; a dust-mite cover is not the same thing.
• Box spring first if you buy one; it has more hiding places.
• Leave them on for a year. OSU (2020): bed bugs “can live for six months or more without a blood meal.”
• Do not steam the mattress instead; OSU says steam on mattresses is “generally not recommended because it is difficult to get rid of excess moisture.”

Interceptor cups

A dish under each bed leg with a slick inner wall. Bugs climbing toward the bed fall in on one side; bugs leaving fall in on the other. Pull the bed from the wall and keep bedding off the floor so the cups are the only road.

• Check every few days for a month after treatment, weekly after that.
• Empty cups for thirty days is the evidence the treatment held.
• Photograph what you find; send it to us before deciding anything.

What they are not

A treatment. They do not reach the headboard, the nightstand or the wall void. OSU: infestations “are best handled by a licensed pest management professional and often require more than one treatment.”