The resurgence of bed bugs in the United Stated presents one of the toughest challenges pest control professionals face here are 3 Simple things to identify and help control bed bugs.
The proliferation of bed bugs and their resurgence is due to the increase in global travel making them more easy to hitch a ride from taxi to suitcase to the hotel to the airplane to another taxi to your home. In metropolitan cities like Miami, New York, and Detroit bed bug problems are greater because of the dense population.
Bed bugs are not a poor person epidemic it’s a human epidemic, bed bugs don’t prefer a dirty place over a clean place they prefer people to suck out a blood meal.
Having a cluttered home makes it more difficult to control but that’s not the reason the bed bug is there it was brought in by something or someone. Having the ability to pay a professional pest control company that has experience in removing bed bugs with the least toxic method and monitor to ensure control is the best option but that can be expensive.
Why do poor people have more bed bug problems than wealthy people, it’s quite simple most wealthy people have the money to pay for a service right then and there at the first sign of a problem and poor people don’t.
The more affluent live in uncluttered single family homes where control is much easier to perform, people living in public housing like HUD or Section 8 live with multiple units all connected making the movement of bed bugs from unit to unit easier.
Landlords and their staff do not know how to detect for bed bugs so the problem goes on for weeks, months and even years undetected and thus creating a severe public health crisis.
Warning: Bed bugs are resistant to many insecticides avoid using any baseboard sprays or fogger bombs to control bed bugs this is useless and can be counter productive making the bed bugs scatter and hide for a while. Do not hire any pest control technician that tries to sell you this type of service it’s a rip-off.
Step 1 Marks on your body, welts, and sores could be from bed bugs or could be from another insect or allergic reactions or dermatitis so finding the bed bug is the only way to be sure.
If you have bites on your body and are unsure whether these are bed bugs and can’t afford a professional service or a professional inspection you can purchase inexpensive bed bug monitors to determine if you have bed bugs.
Step 2 vacuum everything with a crack and crevice wand attachment to your vacuum hose, vacuum every seam, edge, crack, crevice, hole, hem, look at every part of your house and furniture and vacuum it if it’s tiny a bed bug will be hiding there. This is the most critical part of bed bug removal and why bed bug services cost so much it is the extensive detailed work that can take 4 hours or more to perform. Once you have vacuumed look inside the materials you collected to see if you find a bed bug. After discarding all the debris outside in a sealed bag or save the sample in a zip lock bag for a professional.
Step 3 is protecting you if you have bed bugs then a bed bug mattress covers” target=”_blank”>mattress encasement is a must, the mattress encasement will trap the bed bugs inside the mattress buying you some time until the landlord can perform a bed bug control service or you can hire a professional pest control company that performs an integrated pest management service. Make sure you place tape or something around the sharp edges, screws, and bolts to prevent the encasement from breaking or tearing. If you have a box spring you will have to place an encasement on it also.
Take all the bedding and place it in a sealed plastic bag and wash it in hot water and dry it in high heat. If you are taking it to a laundry mat make sure to double bag it and seal it with tape to prevent the bed bugs from getting out and in your car, once at the laundry mat dispose of them there and use new clean bags to take the laundry home.
