Do you have a nighttime ritual, a list of things you do to get ready for sleep? If so, what does it entail? Some people will take warm baths at the end of the day to help them relax. Others will read a good book. Maybe your preferred method to get rest is to lay in bed with your phone until you feel yourself getting tired.
Regardless of how you get to sleep, one thing that is certain to keep you up is the thought of bed bugs. These small, blood-feeding pests are a huge problem in the Bronx and a possible culprit to your bad sleep. Here are some things you should know to help you identify bed bugs and get them out of your living areas.
How Bed Bugs Invade Homes
Bed bugs are unique in that they do not invade homes in the same way other insects do. You do not have to worry about these bugs crawling in beneath your door or through an open window. To get into homes, bed bugs use items people carry.
Many people accidentally bring infestations home with them after going on vacation. Others pick up bed bugs from thrift stores, public places, or school buildings. Truth is, bed bugs can be anywhere that people live or congregate and can regularly transfer from item to item, allowing them to spread faster.
Ways To Identify A Bed Bug Infestation
When bed bugs infest an area, they leave behind signs of their presence. To help you know if your home or a room you will be staying in has bed bugs, here are some clues to look for.
- Bloodstains on bed covers and boxsprings
- Reddish-brown specks of fecal matter on beds and around areas where bed bugs hide, like behind outlets and inside cracks and crevices
- A musty odor in the air often likened to sweet berries
- Eggs and shed skind inside and around cracks and crevices and tight spaces around living areas
- Live or dead �” long, oval-shaped, reddish-brown bed bugs
Why Bed Bugs Are Difficult To Control
Bed bug control is a delicate task. If all bed bugs are not eliminated during initial treatments, they will hide inside wall voids and in other hard-to-reach areas. This is made worse because these pests can survive over a year without a blood meal in optimal conditions. Once treatments have worn off, they will reemerge, reinfest, and reproduce.
Another thing that makes bed bug control difficult is that bed bugs are resilient to a range of common pest control products. They grew these resiliences when DDT, a popular and dangerous pest control product from over 50 years ago, was widely used. Fortunately, DDT was banned. Unfortunately, the bed bugs that survived it came out stronger.
The Best Way To Remove A Bed Bug Infestation
If you don’t want the risk of having bed bugs reinfest your home every time you attempt to remove them, you should consider the benefits of professional bed bug control. At Hello Pest Control, we understand how pests behave and have the tools and experience needed to handle them.
If you are up against a bed bug infestation, we are here to help. It all starts with a thorough inspection where one of our highly trained technicians checks your home for signs of bed bug activity. If any are found, they will then walk you through what treatment will look like.
Call us today to learn more about our methods and schedule your Bronx home for a non-invasive inspection.
