Homes are the comfort place that we come back to at the end of a tiring day’s work. Such comfort is not possible when our homes are hijacked by ants, mosquitoes, dust mites, and bed bugs. The most disturbing of all these are bed bugs as they are active during the night and curb our sleep at a time when we want to relax. Although you are a nuisance their presence is a commonality. We need to find a way to kick them out of the home so that we can rest in peace. 

What are Bed bugs?

Bed bugs are brown-colored insects that are about the size of an apple seed. They can span the ceilings, walls and floors of the bedroom at ease. Bed bugs come out at night and are attracted to the warmth of our bodies and carbon dioxide in our breath. They are usually found in groups and hide predominantly in our bedrooms. Their minimum lifespan is 50 days and the maximum can go even up to a year. They survive for weeks to months without feeding. They multiply manifold, say 200 to 500 eggs laid over a two month period in batches of 10 to 50. 

Facts about Bed bug Bites

Bed bugs don’t wake us from sleep during the act of biting. They suck our blood for 3 to 10 minutes, become puffed up and then move away stealthily. They are very tricky as they inject an anesthetic when they pierce our skin, so the bite can go unnoticed at first. Bedbug bites are initially painless but can later swell and become itchy with a red spot in the center. Allergic reactions are experienced by some people.

Where do they come from?

Most often we relate hotels, cinema halls, lodges, auditoriums, and overnight buses with merriment. But do you know these can also be common places for bed bug infestation? Bed bugs or their eggs from these sources get into our clothing or luggage and enter our house, undetected. They can also enter a house through second-hand furniture.  

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Where do they hide?

Bed bugs mostly hide in the bedroom. Usually, they shelter themselves in places where they have easy access to bite people in the night; this includes the seams of mattresses or mattress folds, box springs, crevices of the bed frame, headboards, behind any furniture that surrounds the bed or where the wall meets the floor. Their flattened bodies make it possible for them to fit into tiny spaces, small enough as the width of a credit card. Though bedroom is their preferred location owing to their nocturnal nature, they may also move into any crevice or protected location spreading to nearby rooms. 

How to Identify their Presence?

Bed bug theory goes as ‘When you see one, you can almost guarantee that more are hiding’. You can identify their presence by seeing a dark or rusty stain in your mattress resulting from their excreta or by the unpleasant scent (offensive, musty odor) that they secrete. Stains in the mattress resulting from bed bug excreta will look like small polka dots from a fine-point permanent marker. And these can be spotted anywhere between their feeding place and space where they are hiding. Bloodstains on your bed sheets or pillow covers can talk about their presence as they feed on blood. Additionally, if you notice itchy areas while waking up which you didn’t have when you went to sleep, you should check out for bedbugs.

Heat Treatment is the best way to Get Rid of Bed bugs. Why? Read on… 

Heat is the best way to kill bed bugs as it is the quickest and most efficient method to wipe out the infestation. Heat ensures coverage of all areas where bed bugs could possibly nest, it may be in and around your bed, in drawers, bookshelves, wall hangings, voids in the wall, and any other place where these insects can hide. It could be impossible to reach such areas through other methods. Solution providers against bed bug infestation like https://www.custombedbug.com/ use heat treatment in the best possible way. They utilize specialized heaters to raise and maintain temperatures to a level that ensures complete eradication of bed bugs and their eggs.  In combination with heat, a spray and dust application ensures immediate results as well as protection against future infestations.

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Treating bed and bedrooms with insecticides may pose safety issues. Hence heat treatment is preferable for safety reasons. The air temperature helps to eliminate bed bugs of different stages, which includes the eggs.  

 

How to free your House from Bed bugs?

Bed bugs are quite difficult to eradicate. The use of amateur insecticides, deep cleaning, and hygienic condition will help to keep bed bug numbers under control. Cleaning the place helps to get rid of bedbugs. This includes:

  • Periodic washing of bed sheets, pillow covers curtains
  • Scrubbing the mattress seams with a stiff brush to remove bedbugs & their eggs
  • Encasing mattress and box springs in a zippered cover to avoid bed bug entry
  • Vacuum cleaning the areas surrounding the bed, and dusting furniture arranged near the bed
  • Repairing wall cracks and setting right peeling wallpapers to get rid of places bedbugs can hide.

 

Only proper chemical treatment can accurately terminate bed bugs. They can hide in tough-to-reach places. Hence professional treatment should be thorough enough to kill them, and their eggs, wherever they may be hiding. Bed bugs are extremely resilient to chemical pesticides and that’s is why eradication through sprays requires multiple visits, say 3-4 treatment visits over the course of several months.

Let bed bugs not steal away your share of rest. So keep your place clean and hygienic. Avoid cluttering your bedroom with too many things as you may miss out on these tiny insects. Having known about bed bugs and their great resiliency make no delay in identifying them once they are around and opt for the best eradication techniques. Also, remember to fumigate your clothes and luggage after a trip.