Bed Bugs 101
What Are They?
Bed bugs are small, flat, oval shaped, insects that are usually mahogany in color, and are usually found in areas where humans and animals live and sleep. Given their name, the most obvious space where you’ll find them is the bedroom. This is because bed bugs are most likely to feed overnight and they choose to both hide and feed in the same locations. Bed bugs are attracted to both carbon dioxide and body heat and will choose to hide and feed close to these sources.
How Do I Know I Have Them?
Bed bugs are masters at the art of hiding and will rarely been seen during the day. It’s only during the course of a heavy bed bug infestation that bed bugs will be out in plain site during the day. In most cases these are indicators will help you to determine if you have bed bugs.
- Small blood stains on your bedsheets and/or pajamas
- Finding bite marks on your skin. In most cases red bite marks will appear in the portions of your body that are exposed while you sleep. It’s also common to find the bite marks in either a line or zig zag pattern. They will also not wake you up while they’re feeding because they inject a antithetic like secretion to numb the area when they bite. It’s also common to not notice a bed bug bite for a few days due to the nature in which they bite.
- Small eggs and dark fecal stains left by the bed bugs that resemble small ink droplets. These are often found on the mattress or couch where they have been most active
- Small skins/shells found around their hiding/feeding locations. These exoskeletons provide evidence that the bed bug population is maturing.
- Seeing bed bugs out in plain sight. Although they feed at night, it is possible to see bed bugs on the surfaces of your mattress, furniture, walls, and other parts of your home during waking hours.
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How Did I Get Them?
Bed bugs are one of the fastest growing populations of pests in the world which allows them to reproduce and spread quickly. It is a common misconception that bed bug infestations are only found in cities with high population density. Although close quarters can shorten the distance for transmission, you can never truly isolate bed bugs to one demographic or geographical location. They’re also incredibly good at hiding and even better at transportation.
Here are a few scenarios that could result in the presence of bed bugs in your living space:
- You or your family are staying in a hotel room and you take them home in your suitcase.
- You’re at a friends house or apartment and you’ve spent an hour on the couch watching TV which is enough time to give bed bugs an opportunity to hitch a ride on your clothing.
- The apartment next to, above, or below you has a bed bug infestation and they travel up through the structure into your apartment
Can I Treat Them Myself?
Bed bugs are often difficult to DIY treat for two main reasons:
- They reproduce and mature so quickly (typically within 25 days) which makes it impossible to successfully treat without using a insect growth regulator or IGR to stop them from reproducing because they spread so quickly. The effective chemicals that contain an IGR are only accessible to licensed pest control professionals
- Bed bugs are master hide and seek artists and are able to survive for extremely long periods of time between feedings. During the daytime hours they often hide in extremely tight seams and crevasses of your furniture and bed frames and only come out to feed while you’re sleeping. This makes it very easy to mildly treat an apartment, see a false absence of bed bugs and have the peace of mind that you have eliminated your problem
If you think you have the presence of bed bugs it’s incredibly crucial that you call us immediately for a free inspection so we can confirm the presence of bed bugs and immediately schedule your treatment.
How do we treat for bed bugs…
and how can we guarantee our treatment for 1 year?
Our no prep bed bug treatment is your modern solution for eliminating your bed bug problem. It’s been born out of the research of Dr. Dini Miller, an established professor of entomology at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
To best explain why we are your best choice, lets compare it with the dated method that other companies use.
The Old Traditional Method
- - After your inspection you would be notified that you have to remove every piece of clothing from your drawers and closets in any other infested rooms
- - You would be asked to put the clothing in garbage bags, take them out of the house and have them washed and dried in high heat to attempt to kill any bed bugs in your clothing
- - Once treatment is finished, you would put the clothing back and have to repeat the process 2-3 times before they finish their final treatments with is typically 3-4 weeks after your first treatment
- - Once they finish your last treatment you would receive a 30 day warrantee but have no followup coverage after that month.
Now the problems with this treatment:
- - The biggest issue with this treatment is that it’s a refugee program for bed bugs because it’s often the case that clothing is not being laundered properly and bed bugs are brought right back to the home.
- - It’s more more expensive because the cost of laundering all of your clothing 2-3 times is not included in the cost of treatment.
- - It’s more emotionally and physiologically taxing because of the work and stress of having to break down your living spaces multiple times for a method that’s counterproductive.
What You Get With Our Modern No Prep Bed Bug Treatment
- - After your inspection you would be notified that all you have to do is remove the linens on your beds and declutter your home in the same way you would prepare for a guest.
- - You would be asked to wash only your linens and dry them in high heat which is far less expensive and laborious than other companies methods
- - Once treatment is finished, we would temporarily wrap your mattress in plastic and all you would have to do is put your linens back on your bed.
- - Once they finish your last treatment you would receive a 30 day warrantee but have no followup coverage after that month.
- - After this treatment, you will have an inspection booked for the following 11 months as part of your 1 year guarantee. If we find any sign of bed bugs. We treat free of Cost!
The benefits of our no prep Bed Bug treatment:
- - It’s more effective to contain and treat rather than removing bed bugs and reintroducing them back to your home.
- - It removes the financial and emotional stress of having to take the time and extra money to break down your rooms for treatment.
- - Our 1 year guarantee gives you 12 times more peace of mind than the other pest control companies