Eradicating bed bugs is a pest control issue that affects more than just the victim.
Since bed bugs can travel so easily and cling to human clothing and luggage, it is important for people to hire a pest control service quickly to check and eliminate the infestation.
Otherwise, bed bugs can spread and infest neighbors homes, churches, schools and even hospitals. Once an infestation starts to spread, it becomes difficult to contain it.
The Life Cycle of Bedbugs
During its ten-month life span, a bedbug goes through five stages called “nymph stages” before it becomes a bona-fide adult. An adult bedbug is 5.5 mm long (less than an inch), and their eggs are an almost microscopic 1 mm in length.
Bedbugs do bite, unfortunately, feeding on human blood. Even worse, a female bedbug lays hundreds of eggs at a time, and as many as five eggs per day in perpetuity. While this is a scary reality, there is light at the end of this tunnel.
As of the date of this article, there is no history of bedbugs carrying diseases. At most, bedbugs may cause mild allergic reactions due to components in their saliva.
Bedbug bites are painless and show up on human skin in the form of small red welts that may itch, but there have been no reports of more advanced wounds.
There are basically two options when it comes to ridding yourself of bedbugs: do-it-yourself methods and hiring a professional exterminator.
If you chose the former option, there are popular eco-friendly sanitizers that can be used, such as the Clean Wave vacuum by Verilux. Clean Wave uses UV light to kill bedbugs and unhatched eggs.
Beg bugs are sneaky little creatures. They can run extremely fast and generally go unnoticed until the infestation becomes severe. Infestations are normally first noticed when the bugs leave a dark brown trail of blood after being squashed. For more severe infestations, dark spots begin to appear along the sides of the bed. The dark spots are the droppings left by the creatures. Bed bug infestations can prove difficult to treat, which is why many people enlist the help of
pest control services.
Bed bugs hide in crevices and travel on a person’s clothing or luggage between places. While bed bugs are most commonly found hiding in beds, they can hide in almost any protected place. This includes head-boards, box spring, bed frames, mattress sides and seams. Most people don’t realize that bed bugs also have a love for wood. Often in hotels and motels beg bug infestations start behind the headboard before moving to the rest of the bed. Bed bugs may move to plastic or metal areas as long as the area afford protection and a place to hide. In the beginning stages, bed bugs often stick to beds and surrounding areas. As the problem goes untreated, bed bugs move on to sofas, carpets and any other area where they can hide and feed on an animal or human host. Pest control services can stop an infestation before it reaches this point.
