Posts Tagged "how to get rid of bed bugs"

How to Deal With Bed Bugs 14. I have bed bugs. What do I do? Step back a minute. Because several different kinds of insects resemble bed bugs, specimens should be carefully compared with good reference images and sent to a professional entomologist. Next: make a plan. We’ll tell you how. You want to get rid of bed bugs, limit your exposure to insecticides, and minimize costs. Don’t get rid of stuff and don’t treat unless you have a plan. A big part of your plan: hire an experienced professional like the Bed Bug Guys with a warranty. Trust us, it’ll save you time and money in the long run. You’ll still have a lot to do—just leave the extermination to the pros. Working as a team with a professional is the quickest way to get bed bugs out of your life. Here are the basics of bed bug IPM: Inspection: ALWAYS inspect. Proper identification helps you know what to do and where to target your efforts. Along with looking, you should write down what you do and see. Having a history will help if more people become involved. The Bed Bug Guys provide inspections, so make sure to call us about that! Educate yourself: find out about bed bug biology and behavior to become even more effective. Cultural and Mechanical Control: This makes your home unwelcoming to bed bugs, blocks them from feeding, or at least makes finding them easier. Don’t skip these steps and go straight to insecticides. Examples: Choose furniture of plain design. A metal chair offers fewer places for a bed bug to hide than a wicker one. Don’t buy or pick up used furniture. Choose light-colored bedding—easier to see insects and blood spots. Don’t store things under beds. In fact, get rid of clutter anywhere near the bed. Use tightly fitting, zippered, bed-bug proof mattress and box spring encasements. Putting them in place ahead of time (proactively) makes bed bugs easier to see since encasements have no piping or tags and they’re light-colored. Putting them on during an infestation means no need to throw away the mattress and box spring. But … check periodically to be sure they haven’t torn. Vacuum regularly. Use an attachment to get...

How to Find Bed Bugs 5. Where do bed bugs live? Are bed bugs a sign of poor sanitation or hygiene? Where do bed bugs hide? Any place with a high turnover of people spending the night—hostels, hotels near airports, and resorts—are most at risk. But the list continues… apartments, barracks, buses, cabins, churches, community centers, cruise ships, dormitories, dressing rooms, health clubs, homes, hospitals, jets, laundromats, motels, motor homes, moving vans, nursing homes, office buildings, resorts, restaurants, schools, subways, theaters, trains, used furniture outlets…. Bed bugs don’t prefer locations based on sanitation or people’s hygiene. If there’s blood, they’re happy. Bed bugs and their relatives occur nearly worldwide. They became relatively scarce during the latter part of the 20th century, but their populations have resurged in recent years, particularly throughout parts of North America, Europe, and Australia. What about in your home? Most stay near where people sleep, hiding near the bed, a couch or armchair (if that’s where you snooze)—even cribs and playpens. Their flat bodies allow them to hide in cracks and crevices around the room and in furniture joints. Hiding sites include mattress seams, bed frames, nearby furniture, or baseboards. Clutter offers more places to hide and makes it harder to get rid of them. Bed bugs can be found alone but more often congregate in groups. They’re not social insects, though, and don’t build nests. How infestations spread through a home or within an apartment building differs from case to case. Inspect all adjacent rooms. Bed bugs travel easily along pipes and wires and the insides of walls can harbor them. Before treating, you need to confirm that you have bed bugs. The only way to do that is to find a bug and get it identified. Look in the most likely places first. We tell you how. If you find one, freeze it for identification or put it in a sealed jar with a 1 tsp. of rubbing alcohol. Then stop looking—you don’t want to disrupt the bugs—and call a professional, like the Bed Bug Guys return to top 6. How do I find out if I have bed bugs? Do bed bug-sniffing dogs work? How to I check a room for bed...

1. What are bed bugs? What does a bed bug look like? Can I see bed bugs? Do bed bugs fly, jump or burrow into skin? What other names do bed bugs have? If you ever heard that nursery rhyme Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite,” you know these critters bite in the night. But most of us never heard of them in real life until now. What do bed bugs look like? Briefly: 1/4” long, oval, flat, 6 legs, and reddish-brown. Some fast facts… Life Stages: Eggs hatch into nymphs. Newly hatched nymphs are tiny—about 1/16th of an inch. Nymphs—which look like small adults—become adults in 5 weeks. They go through 5 molts to reach adult size—meaning they shed their old, smaller skin 5 times. They must feed before each molt. Females can produce 5-7 eggs per week, laying up to 500 in a lifetime. Bed bugs grow fastest and lay most eggs at about 80°F. They feed only on blood. They feed when people are sleeping or sitting quietly, often when it’s dark. They seek shelter in cracks and crevices when not feeding. They poop out “blood spots.” Spots look like dots made by a fine felt-tipped marker. You’d see them near where they fed and near their hideouts. Adults can live over a year without a meal. Adults, nymphs and eggs can survive sustained heat and cold if given time to adjust. Can be found in the cleanest of clean places. But clutter makes them harder to get rid of. They have no “grooming behavior”—meaning that insecticides meant to be swallowed by roaches and flies won’t work on bed bugs. A little more… Anatomy: A bed bug has 6 legs. Its antennae point forward and are about half as long as the body—not longer. Its head is broadly attached to its body and it has no wings. Eight legs indicate a tick or mite. Six legs and long antennae with two spikes coming off the back (cerci) might be a roach nymph. Carpet beetle larvae have hairs all over their bodies. Carpet beetle adults have two hard wings. Color: A “drop of blood with legs” is probably a recently fed bed bug....

Q.        What’s the Best Way to Kill Bed Bugs? A.         Hire a Bed Bug Specialist whom only uses HEAT!  Someone only doing Bed Bug Exterminating and only uses HEAT.  That’s all they do and they do it better than the others. The Best Exterminators offer You a Guarantee/Warranty. Q.        Why Heat??? A.         Heat is the safest, fastest and most effective.  Bed Bugs have developed a very high resistant’s to pesticides but have no Resistance to HEAT. If done properly a Heat Treatment is 100% effective. Also, it is Fast, Safe and Highly Effective for you and your whole family Q.        Does any Bed Bug Treatment work every time?? A.         NO. Bed bugs are hardy and the hardest pest to kill. Bed Bugs’ high resistance to pesticide, their secretive nature and the ability of these pests to live for several months without a blood meal; makes them the hardest pest to kill. (EVER) This means they can linger in furniture, bags and suitcases for a long periods of time, and live up to 18 months without food; YOUR BLOOD. In addition, bed bugs can survive temperatures of below freezing to 122 degrees. Because of this, bed bugs are not a pest that can be treated with DIY measures. Most Professional pest control companies claim Insecticides alone probably won’t work: The EPA Experts (Environmental Protection Agency) states Insecticides alone are unlikely to defeat bedbugs, and recommend Heat as the most effective way to treat an infestation.   Q.        What is the Number #1 cause of a Bed Bug Treatment FAILURE? A.         Using a Pesticide Treatment for Exterminating Bed Bugs!  WHY?  Bed Bugs have become Highly Resistant to Pesticides, require over 1,000 times more pesticides today to kill a single bed bug than it did 30 years ago.  Even Worst, the over the counter pesticides, the DIY chemical treatments, are not strong enough to kill most Bed Bugs.  Recent surveys have shown Chemicals spray treatments have around a 50% success rate after 3 treatments.  The U of M Minneapolis Campus Dr. Stephen Kills and the EPA Experts (Environmental Protection Agency) states Insecticides alone are unlikely to defeat bedbugs, and recommend Heat as the most effective way to treat an infestation. Q.        What...