Picking up a used mattress could get you bed bugs
Before you buy, pick up, or accept a used mattress please not that picking up a used mattress could get you bed bugs.
I get the most dreaded call in the pest control business from one of my customers; I think I got bed bugs. My son has this roach on his body that looks like insect bites and ill started when we got him a used mattress a friend gave us.
At this point I ask them to text me the images of the bits to see if it might be mosquito or fire ant bites, it doesn’t look good, let me stop by today and inspect the mattress.
The last thing you ever think about is having bed bugs but the reality is more and more people are getting bedbugs for many reasons and it has nothing to do with cleaning, I mean if do not clean the chances of a bedbug infestation being much worse is greater but bedbugs do not invade homes like ants or roaches.
Bedbugs are introduced by something that was infested brought into the home, i.e. a mattress, you stayed in a hotel room that was invested and it hitchhiked in your luggage or you traveled in a taxi cab or public transportation and it got on your clothes, or bringing in another used piece of furniture.
The problem with identifying bedbugs and inspection for them is a laborious and painstaking task, and unless you have been trained you will not be able to detect them. most high end hotels train there cleaning staff to be able to detect if they might have bedbugs to call in a professional exterminator or they have bedbug sniffing dogs come in on a monthly basis to sniff out those pesky little blood suckers.
The rest of the world goes on about their business not knowing what is going on around them and this is why bedbugs have become so prolific. The second it is estimated that 90% of bedbugs have become resistant to common insecticides that contain pyrethrins or pyrethroids, so before you run out to the home improvement store and to buy a pesticide know that the odds are against you succeeding.
The average price to treat a bedbug problem is between $300 and $500 per room, not including the replacement of the mattress and the agony you will experience. So the money you might save by getting that low priced used mattress can quickly bankrupt your budget.
Buy your mattresses from reputable retailers in clean establishments that only sell new mattresses.
Retailers nationwide are experiencing bedbug infestations of their products because they offer to remove the old mattress for free as a courtesy causing their trucks to be infested with bedbugs, also you may choose to pick up and deliver your mattress on your own buy renting a truck, but you have no idea who rented that truck before you and rental trucks are not treated for bedbugs.
Make sure your mattress is delivered with a plastic cover intact and as a further precaution you could purchase a mattress cover designed to protect your mattress from bedbugs.
