Bed bugs are tiny, oval-shape, blood-sucking creatures that take refuge in beds. That’s exactly how they get their name. Bed bugs feed on human blood to develop and survive—they must have their regular dose of blood as part of their healthy diet. Humans are not the only victims of bed bugs, they’re known to suck any warm-blooded animals, including chicken, birds, cows, and other farm animals. They’ve been associated with humans for over 3,000 years and are virtually found anywhere in the world.
Bed bugs are the original hitchhikers, travelling long distances around the world. They frequent and settle in hotels, schools, retail stores, residences, and public transportation. Luggage is one of the bed bugs highly likely transport vehicles. A bed bug bite can easily be confused with other pest bites, which make their bites difficult to detect. As a result, bed bugs are allowed to exponentially grow unnoticed.
WHERE ARE BED BUGS USUALLY FOUND
Bed bugs are excellent jet setters—they’re remarkable hitchhikers that can latch on boxes, shoes, and suitcases. Bed bugs are also good in concealing themselves, typically settling down in dark crevices, wallpaper, picture frames, upholstery, baseboards, and electrical switch plates. Moreover, bed bugs can survive in alternative or temporary habitats, such as seats in trains, buses, and cars as well as backpacks.
When bed bugs find a place to settle, they’re commonly found in mattresses, folded areas, pillows, box springs, headboards, couches, and seats. Sometimes they hide behind wallpapers as well as wall junctions. They don’t only infest residences, but they’re found in a lot of public places. NPMA’s most recent results of their Bugs Without Borders survey shows the bed bugs can be found in the following:
- 68% – Hotels/motels
- 59% – Nursing homes
- 47% – Daycare centers / schools
- 46% – Offices / building workspaces
- 45% – College dorms
- 36% – Hospitals
- 19% – Public transportation
In addition, bed bugs can also infest retail stores and even movie theatres. They exist in almost every region in the world.
HOW TO PREVENT A BEDBUG INFESTATION BEFORE IT EVER OCCURS
The single, most effective way to treat bed bugs is to just prevent an infestation from ever occurring altogether. Again, prevention is better than cure, and this is where it will really make sense. As soon as bed bugs have started infesting your home, you’re going to end up paying a lot of money for extermination professionals, new mattresses, new furniture, and redoing wallpaper. It can also take weeks or months to kill and remove these bloodsucking creatures.
Be smart about it and follow the practical steps below to prevent a bed bug infestation before it even starts.
- Know what a bed bug looks like and learn how to identify it. Bed bugs are tiny, oval-shaped creatures that measure approximately 4 millimetres. They are flat and brown prior to feeding but they become swollen, elongated, and red after feeding. They have 2 antennae and 6 legs, and they have what looks like wing pads, although they’re not wings, and bed bugs can’t fly.
Bed bugs are really small, but adults can be visible to the human eye. You can easily detect them by sight, especially when you look within mattresses, box springs, and seams. The bed bug nymphs or baby bed bugs are much harder to identify because of their minute size and paler colour.
- Be diligent in checking your bed regularly. When you change linens and beddings, diligently check your mattresses, box springs, and headboard thoroughly. Not only that, look closely into the tufts, folds, and seams and pay very close attention to any stains and/or signs of cast skins, feces, or live bed bugs.
If you can invest in a box spring cover or a mattress cover that has anti-bed bugs mechanisms can help prevent and/or kill bed bugs immediately. On top of that, box spring covers or mattress covers can help you eliminate potential hiding spots for bed bugs. This makes the inspection exercise much easier and faster.
It’s also highly recommended to place bed bug traps under the legs of the bed to easily catch bed bugs. This prevents bed bugs from jumping and/or climbing up to furniture. You can perform regular checks on other furniture as well.
- When staying in hotels or resorts, inspect the room and beds first. When you’re out with family or friends to stay in a hotel or a resort, perform a thorough check on your hotel room or guest bedroom. Inspect the dresser, headboard, and mattress, especially before you place your suitcase, bags, or personal belongings inside the room. Report any signs of bed bugs to the hotel staff so you can be transferred to another room. You can avoid bringing bed bugs back home with you after staying in a hotel.
- Carefully inspect your house after visitors leave your house. After every family and/or friend visit, you might want to spend some time inspecting your house for any signs of bed bugs. It’s not that you’re being rude but you’re just really trying to be cautious. If you have friends or family staying the night, they may not be fully aware where they’ve left their bags and personal belongings behind, particularly when they’ve travelled far and for a long period.
They might inadvertently catch bed bugs during travel or transit on planes, trains, or buses. You might want to take a particular look at where your friends or family store or placed their luggage while they’re inside your house.
- Never get tempted on buying or picking up used furniture. It’s really tempting to buy secondhand furniture, especially when you see the price. Not to mention any furniture that’s discarded on the curb that’s still in mint condition. You might save a fortune out of this furniture but you’re going to end up sorry when you find out that these have bed bugs in them.
If you must buy and/or receive used furniture, don’t forget to inspect it and treat it with some disinfectant before taking the furniture inside your house. A known treatment formula, Sterifab, acts as a treating agent that kills bed bugs and bed bug eggs at the same time it can be used as a germicide, bactericide, and deodorant.
- Be a lot more proactive by ensuring your entire house is clean. If you think about it, to better prevent bed bugs is to clean your house thoroughly and regularly. The earlier you can detect bed bugs the easier for you to treat it without having to go through a week of treating it. you can install bed bug traps as well as bed bug monitors for early detection.
WHO’S COMMONLY AT RISK FOR GETTING BED BUGS?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when it comes to bed bugs, everyone is at risk. Anybody who’s visiting an infected area, those who travel frequently, and those who share sleeping or living quarters have a higher likelihood of getting bitten or worse, spreading the bed bug infestation.
Consequently, anyone who’s had exposure to a bed bug infestation can carry these bugs through their shoes or suitcases. This enables the bed bugs to continue travelling and spreading in other places.
CONCLUSION
If you want to just relax in peace and get rid of these bed bugs out of your homes, call a professional who has expertise in exterminating bed bugs. You can’t compromise and take chances by doing the extermination yourself using store-bought products. Call GTA Toronto Pest Control to get the best bed bugs extermination service and treatment to remove bed bugs and keep them away.
