Bed bugs can be highly irritating and unwanted inhabitants in your home, even if you are under the impression that your house is the most unlikely place for them. Though they are not as scary or gross looking as most other insects like cockroaches or spiders, they can be equally (if not more) annoying. They usually enter homes undetected, hidden in clothing, used furniture or luggage.
Bed bugs typically conceal themselves in small cracks and crevices in floors, walls, bed posts, bed frames and mattresses. They prefer to spend their lives clustered together in dark, muggy or untidy parts of a house. Their main food for survival is blood. When it is dark, quiet, and everyone in the house is asleep, these tiny insects crawl out of their hideouts in search of their prey – most likely the sleeping residents.
Reactions to Bed Bug bites can vary greatly. Individuals who have more sensitive systems may experience severe inflammation and itchiness, while others may not even recognize that they’ve been bitten.
Signs of bed bugs include blood stains, fecal spots (from bed bugs), and a musty odor on pillow cases and bed sheets. If you recognize any of these signs, it is important that you address the problem as soon as possible and take measures to control the bed bug infestation.
Here are some useful tips:
- Learn about steps you can take to prevent an infestation. There are a number of quick and easy measures you and your house guests can take in handling luggage, clothing, and used furniture to lessen your chances of bringing home these unwanted visitors.
- Maintain a clean and clutter-free house. Be sure that walls, furniture, floors, and all the little nooks and crannies in your house are cleaned out regularly. Although no home is immune from these critters, this will at least lessen their chances for survival and minimize populations.
- Protect your bed. As their name implies, bed bugs thrive in and around the bed. Installing protective allergen/bedbug casings around your mattress and pillows, changing the bed linens regularly, airing out the mattress, and checking for any suspicious wear and tear in your bed will help minimize an infestation should bed bugs be introduced to your home.
- Install monitoring devices. There are a variety of bed bug monitoring devices on the market which will help you quickly recognize if you have a bedbug infestation. The sooner control measures may be taken, the easier and less costly the control process will be.
- If you suspect that you have a bed bug infestation, call in the professionals. Initially, it is extremely important that proper identification of the insect has been made. Treatment procedures vary widely from insect to insect, so it is especially important to know what you are dealing with in the first place. Due to the necessary use of pesticides and the intricacy of the treatment procedures, it is highly recommended that you leave the treatment process to the professionals as well. Treatments performed without thorough knowledge could make the problem even more difficult to solve. Secondary problems, such as spreading the bedbug infestation to other locations or misuse of pesticides, often times occur when an untrained person attempts to control bed bugs.
Bedbugs can be persistent, but with awareness and perseverance on your part you can overcome an infestation.
Venables Pest Management can help! For more information or to schedule an appointment, call (360) 443-5813!