Infestation has got to be one of the most viscerally displeasing words in the English language; just saying the word can bring up vivid feelings of discomfort. If you were to make a list of “least pleasant insect infestations”, bed bugs would have to be near the top of the list. As this pest control company in Winnipeg points out, bed bugs have been with us for millennia so they’ve adapted to human behaviour. They hide in our furniture, wait until we’re asleep in order to bite us, and are resistant to a wide variety of pesticides. In other words, bed bugs are a nuisance, and they’re incredibly hard to get rid of. This article will help you better understand what to do when you have bed bugs.
An Ounce of Prevention
The best way of stopping a bed bug infestation is to avoid getting one in the first place. For those who already have a bed bug infestation, you could skip ahead – but it might be better to read on in order to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Bed bugs can enter your home through a variety of channels, but one of the most common is through used items – furniture, clothing and the like. They can also get into your home if you, for example, slept in a hotel that was infested with bed bugs and those bed bugs got onto your clothes. One option is to avoid ever buying second hand, and never leaving your home to travel – obviously, though, that’s not going to be viable for most people. Avoiding all of these things for fear of bed bugs could seriously hamper the number of experiences you could have. Learning about the signs of bed bugs is a great way of preventing an infestation.
The Signs of Bed Bugs
Let’s clear up a misconception that a lot of folks have: bed bugs do not mean that a space is dirty. There are some links between unclean spaces and problematic infestation (we’ll go over that later), but just because a space is clean, it doesn’t mean there aren’t any bed bugs.
Before you buy any used clothing or furniture, it’s good to do an inspection; it may be worth doing an inspection on new items as well. Bed bugs hide close to where they feed, so they’ll tend to congregate near seams, under sofa cushions, around the edges of a carpet, or near or in any other fabrics. Bed bugs are visible to the naked eye, so a thorough inspection can catch them; be aware that they hide during the day, so they may be more difficult to spot. Another telltale sign of bed bugs is their waste; they’ll leave small rust-colored or brown stains on the fabrics they frequent.
What if you already suspect you have bed bugs? You should look for the above signs, but you should also look for physical symptoms. Bed bug bites are red and swollen; there will be a dark spot at the centre. These bites tend to happen in clusters, on areas of skin that aren’t covered when you sleep; if you’re using pyjamas, you might see them on your neck, face, or hands. The bites are itchy.
Getting Rid of Bed Bugs
There are a ton of different “do it yourself” options for getting rid of bed bugs; to be perfectly frank, I’m not particularly fond of most of them. This isn’t to say the do it yourself options aren’t effective; rather, they won’t often address the whole problem, which means that your infestation will return.
Let’s look at why. One DIY option is to use extremely hot water or steam cleaners to get rid of the bugs. There are a couple of problems with this option. First, it only kills the bed bugs it touches, so if you miss some, you’ll end up back where you started. Second, it can only affect the items that you steam or wash; that means that if you miss a nook or cranny of your home where bed bugs were hiding, or you forget to wash a particular shirt, or any number of other things, those bed bugs can come back.
That’s why your best bet is to hire a pest control company. We can use a wide variety of products to ensure that we get every bed bug, from mechanical insecticides to whole house fumigation. We’re experts at finding exactly where the bed bugs are hiding, and we won’t rest until the infestation has been totally taken care of.
One way you can help us get rid of those pests for good is to make sure the area we’re working in is clean. As we mentioned earlier, bed bugs aren’t attracted to messiness by any means; it does, however, make it easier for them to hide. This is especially true of larger spaces; commercial spaces and offices provide numerous hiding spots for the bugs. Have a janitorial service clean your space thoroughly, ensuring that they vacuum with a fabricless, HEPA filter vacuum, and that they’re aware of the best practices for disposing of the bed bugs without reintroducing infestation. A thorough cleaning will help us do our job, and will help you with preventative care in the future.
Hopefully this article has given you a good idea about how to spot bed bugs, how to get rid of them, and how to avoid getting them in the future. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us; we’re here to help you!
