Bed Bug Control in Your Home

While it’s very easy to get them, unfortunately, it’s difficult to get rid of bed bugs. Traditional pest control works well for moderate or light infestations, but it still will take a few treatments over a couple weeks to eradicate them. Fumigation is a foolproof method to kill bed bugs with one treatment. Heat treatments are also effective with one visit in certain scenarios. Nothing over the counter works well and can exacerbate the bed bug infestation by spreading them around.

Bed bugs are an oval shape and only grow to about 3/16th of an inch in length. They are about the size and color of an apple seed as adults. Prior to feeding, they are brown and flat. After feeding, bed bugs become redder in color, swollen, and elongated. Nymphs are even harder to find as they are much smaller and can be translucent. All bed bugs have 6 legs and 2 antennae.

Bed bugs can take up residence in many places besides beds, such as the cracks and crevices in walls, furniture, light fixtures, picture frames, or wooden objects. They also like to hide behind baseboards, around mattress buttons, within bedding, and inside box springs. Bed bugs can even hide inside electrical switch plates, and behind picture frames and wallpaper. Checking for bed bugs should really be left to a professional as they are expert hiders with a very cryptic lifestyle during the day.

There are many ways you can get bed bugs. Bed bugs can be found in any location where humans congregate and spend extended time. Bed bugs are excellent at traveling well hidden. They will latch onto suitcases, boxes, shoes, pant legs, and other items and travel on the objects to a new home. Once introduced into a new environment, they will spread throughout their new surroundings, whether it be a large building, spreading from apartment to apartment, or a single-family home.

Adult bed bugs are visible to the human eye and can be detected by sight, especially within mattress seams and box springs. Bed bug nymphs can be harder to identify, as they are smaller in size and paler in color. A bed bug infestation can also be identified by sightings of bed bug molt skins, their eggs, or empty eggshells. The most common observation is their droppings that stain wood, sheets, and other materials with small black dots that congregate. All these things are quite small, but still visible to the human eye and certainly easier to spot by the trained eye.

Bed bugs only grow to about 3/16th of an inch. Bed bug nymphs are smaller in size and paler in color, especially newly hatched nymphs which are translucent and about the size of a pinhead.

Bed bugs can take up residence in many places besides beds, such as the cracks and crevices in walls or wood. They also like to hide behind baseboards, around mattress buttons, within bedding, and inside box springs or furniture near where people sleep. Bed bugs can even hide inside electrical switch plates, and behind picture frames and wallpaper. They’re small but visible to the naked eye. Even though, finding bed bugs should really be left to a professional as they are expert hiders with a very cryptic lifestyle during the day.

Bedbugs are small, oval, reddish-brown insects that feed on the blood of humans and some animals (but rarely pets).

Unfortunately, since they are such adept hitchhikers, there’s really no foolproof way to prevent bed bugs. Inspecting hotel rooms for bed bugs before placing your suitcase down, never putting your suitcase on the bed, and putting your washing and drying your clothes on high heat when you get home from vacation can help.

Bed bugs can hide in many places besides beds, such as the cracks and crevices in walls or wood. Once a few new bed bugs find a place that they feel is secretive, they begin to shed their caste skins and leave droppings in the area. This, along with the bed bugs themselves, emits an odor (aggregate pheromone) that attracts other bed bugs to hide in the same spot. These harborages can be behind baseboards, around mattress buttons, within bedding, and inside box springs. Bed bugs can even hide inside electrical switch plates, and behind picture frames and wallpaper.

Bed bugs are excellent at traveling well hidden. One way they spread is by human activities. They will latch onto suitcases, boxes, shoes, pant legs, and other items and travel on the objects to a new home. But they also will spread even if not by human activity. As their population grows, they will move around to find new areas that are safe spots for them. Often, they travel to adjacent apartments through gaps in walls or even through gaps in doors.

Traditional pest control works well for moderate or light infestations, but it still will take a few treatments over a couple weeks to eradicate them. Fumigation is a foolproof method to kill bed bugs with one treatment. Heat treatments are also effective with one visit in certain scenarios. Nothing over the counter works well and can exacerbate the bed bug infestation by forcing them into other areas of the home or building.

Yes. Unlike some traditional pest control treatments that rely on a technician treating everywhere bed bugs could be, fumigation needs no help. It’s a gas that gets into all spaces and can even seep into wood. Nothing can hide from a fumigant – including bed bugs.