Bed bugs can be an annoying and concerning problem to face for you and your family. Nobody wants to wake up with little red blisters on their backs and chest, the usual telltale signs left behind by parasitic bed bugs that might have fed on human blood the night before.
Sometimes, bed bugs can bite and feed on your blood and leave no signs at all. In such cases, other signs will tell you that you have a bed bug infestation. Such signs include; rust like stains that show up on your bedding, as bed bugs are crushed while you toss and turn, brownish spots that indicate the excreta of bed bugs, presence of tiny eggs with just a 1 mm diameter and of course live bed bugs that you can actually see around your bedding area. The smell of rotting raspberries coming from your bed is also a sign that you might have a bed bug problem.
Bed bugs are great at hiding and are mostly nocturnal which means that you typically don’t see them during the day. To investigate a bed bug problem, you must closely at hidden areas like the creases in your mattress, the insides of box spring, cracks on the frame of your bed and at the very bottom of your wardrobe draws. Though bed bugs don’t carry any vector diseases, they are a problem you must eliminate as their population can multiply exponentially, if not kept in check. Without treatment, bed bugs are difficult to eliminate as they are very resilient creatures, capable of living up to 300 days without food!
Bed Bug Control: What can you do?
There are a few things you can do to control the prevalence or avoid the possibility of being affected by bed bugs. For starters, it will be a good idea to often vacuum your bedding, furniture and household areas where bed bugs can hide. This will include areas such as your mattress, box springs, storage space inside of your bed, area behind headboard, draws and other storage compartments and spaces where you typically don’t clean a lot.
Keeping your bed away from the wall and other furniture will also mean that bed bugs cannot travel to your bed from another hiding location. In case you did not know, bed bugs can travel distances of 5 to even 20 feet to feed on blood, before they return to hiding places.
It will also be a good idea for you to launder your bedding items frequently, using high heat settings while drying.
Another simple way to control the spread of bed bugs is to simply monitor and inspect suspected areas of infestation from time to time. It is much easier to get rid of bed bugs when you catch an infestation in the very early stages of population growth.
Bed Bug Treatment?
Though vacuuming and good laundering habits will allow you to eliminate small scale bed bug infestations, it is recommended that you seek professional bed bug treatment services when you want to eliminate the problem once and for all, without room for error or recurrence. The market is full of DIY bed bug treatment products that involve the use of pesticides, insecticides and dust products. Though they all work to varying degrees, only a professional can use heavy duty services to wipe out your bed bug problem in its entirety. If you are using DIY bed bug treatment products, it is imperative that you only use products that are safe for use inside of the house. The last thing you want to do is use insecticides and pesticides meant for the garden, on the bed you and your family members sleep in.
Professional bed bug treatment services: What can you expect?
A professional pest control personnel will use a heavy duty commercial steamer to spray hot steam on to infected areas. The high heat usually instantly kills all bed bugs that come in contact with the steam.
Dry heat treatment
Professionals will use heat treatment methods in a controlled fashion, to kill bed bug populations. Exposure to heat over 120° F for more than two hours will usually wipe out 100% of bed bugs, while also destroying eggs that might have been laid. It is recommended that you do not use heat treatment procedures on your own as careless heating of rooms can easily lead to fires and other dangerous incidents.
Insecticide use
Professionals will carefully use specific insecticides that are both safe to use inside your home and also those that are very effective in wiping out bed bugs. A lot of homeowners buying bed bug insecticides on their own don’t realize that bed bugs over the years have developed resistance to many common insecticides used for bed bug control. Only a professional will know what pesticide it will take to kill a certain variety of bed bugs.
If you have a bed bug problem, we urge you not to panic. Though it isn’t ideal, you must know that it is a problem that can be controlled and treated. If you can’t handle it on your own, hiring a professional bed bug pest control service is highly recommended. Though it might cost you more money than DIY solutions, it will certainly give you peace of mind to sleep well at night.