Bed Bugs
Only a licensed pest control technician has the resources necessary to eradicate a Bed Bug Infestation. Professional treatment is always necessary to eliminate aninfestation.
The Pest Professionals’ technicians are skilled and extensively trained. They are state certified, licensed pest control technicians. They understand the habits of pest species and use that knowledge to choose the proper control methods and materials and to develop an effective control program
BED BUGS: THE FACTS
The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius Linnaeus) probably received its name from its close association with human bedding. Bed bugs often seek refuge in bedding during the day and feed on the bed’s occupants at night. They will also lay eggs on clothing, particularly garments that are not clean. These insects are known by several names, wall louse, house bug, mahogany flat, red coat, gray backs and crimson ramblers.
WHERE DO BED BUGS HIDE?
- Mattresses
- Box Springs
- Behind door and window framesIn woodwork or baseboards
- Behind wall sockets
- In old books or paper
- Behind wallpaper
- In clothing dresser drawers
- Behind curtains or drapes
- Between cracks or crevices
- In corners of floors or walls
- Inside upholstered furniture
- Behind beds
- Inside covers, linens and bedspreads
- Behind pictures
In early infestations, bed bugs are mostly found about the tuffs, seams and folds of mattresses and daybed covers. Later, they spread to cracks and crevices in the bed and mattress covers. If allowed to multiply, they establish themselves behind baseboards; window and door castings, pictures and moldings, and inside furniture, loosened wallpaper, cracks in plaster, and partitions.
Bed bugs feed primarily on humans, but they will also feed on other mammals, poultry and other birds. Their host range is confused by the fact that the insect family Cimicidae, of which the common bed bug is a member, has several closely related species with similar habits and appearance.
They are spread mainly by clothing in baggage of travelers and visitors. Second hand beds, bedding materials, furniture, laundry, and even moving company blankets make a great habitat for these bugs. The most common source of bed bugs is to stay at a hotel with an infestation. Bed bugs or their eggs get into clothing or suitcases and are then transported home.
If your home has a bed bug infestation, please do not risk spreading it by taking clothes, suitcases or furniture to hotels or the homes of your friends and families. Bed bugs can also migrate to adjoining rooms through wall or floor cavities. If your home has bed bugs and you live in an apartment or condominium, please be considerate to your neighbors and act promptly.
Nesting birds, rodents, squirrels, and poultry can be carriers and can enter through open windows.
The mature bed bug is a brown to mahogany colored, wingless insect. Its size depends on how recently it has eaten a blood meal. An unfed bed bug is between ¼ and 3/8 inches long. The upper surface of its body has a prickly, crinkly, flimsy appearance. When engorged with blood, its body becomes elongated and swollen, and its color changes from brown to dull red. The color, size, and shape change from an unfed to full bug is remarkable.
Bed bug eggs are white and about 1/3 inch long. Under favorable conditions the female bed bug lays about two hundred (200) eggs at the rate of three (3) or four (4) a day. Eggs have a sticky coating and stick to objects where they are laid. It usually takes the eggs six (6) to seventeen (17) days to hatch and the newly emerged nymphs will feed immediately. A bed bug goes through five molts (shedding of its skin) before it reaches maturity. Depending on environmental factors and availability to food, there can be considerable variation in developmental rate.
BED BUGS MAY LIVE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS TO SEVERAL MONTHS WITH OUT FEEDING, DEPENDING ON TEMPERATURE.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY BITE
A bed bug generally feeds at night, but if it is hungry and the area has a dim light, it may feed during the day. A bed bug generally pierces the skin of humans as they sleep. It injects a fluid into the human skin to aid in obtaining blood. Often this fluid causes welts on the skin that becomes irritated, inflamed, and itchy. If left undisturbed, a full grown bed bug becomes engorged with blood in 3 to 5 minutes. It then crawls into hiding, remaining there for several days to digest its meal. When hunger returns, the bug emerges from hiding and seeks another blood meal.
Heavily used hiding places are evident by black or brown spots of dried blood excrement on the surfaces where the bugs rest, like your bed. Eggs, egg shells and cast skins may be found near these places. Usually there is an offensive sickly sweet odor where bed bugs are numerous.
TIPS FOR BED BUG PREVENTION
- Call the Pest Professionals immediately if you think you have Bed bugs.
- Iron mattress-especially the edges
- Wash and Dry bedding and towels-daily if necessary.
- Use vacuum attachments to clean cracks and crevices. Caulk or seal these openings permanently.
- Inspect dresser drawers-wash and dry clothing if necessary
- Used canned air or hair dryer on high hot heat to “blow out” tight areas, such as ornate wood headboards.
- Plumbing or radiator type heaters with piping in the floors are an entrance into your apartment from another apartment for bed bugs. Secure any space around plumbing or heating elements with caulking, aluminum foil or steel wool to prevent these travelers from coming into your apartment/condo.
- It is not recommended that you self-treat bed bugs. It is best to call a Pest Professional
- Bed bugs are an objectionable pest and one of the most difficult to eradicate.
- Professional treatment is necessary to eliminate the infestation.