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How to tell if your residence is infested?
Bed bugs infest only a small portion of residences, but they should be suspect if residents complain of bites that occur while sleeping. The bedroom and other sleeping areas should be carefully examined for bed bugs and signs of bed bug activity. Folds and creases in the bed lining, seams and tufts of mattresses and box springs, in particular, may harbor bed bugs or their eggs. 
They may also be found within pleats of curtains, beneath loose areas of wallpaper near the bed, in corners of desks and drawers, within spaces of wicker furniture, behind cove molding, and in laundry and or other items on the floor around the room. Sometimes characteristics dark brown reddish fecal spots of bed bugs are apparent on the bed linens, mattress, or walls near the bed. A peculiar odor may be detected in some heavily infested residences. Adhesive bases traps for trapping insects and rodents are not particularly effective for trapping bed bugs.
What should you do if you find bed bugs?
Don’t Panic. Although bed bugs can be annoying, they can be battled safely and successfully if you adopt a well-considered strategy.
Because several different kinds of insects resemble bed bugs, specimens should be carefully compared with good reference images (such as those on this website) to confirm their identity. Specimens suspected of being bed bugs should be collected into small break resistant containers such as plastic pill bottles or zip lock bags. They may also be secured to a sheet of white paper using clear packaging tape. They should be taken to a pest control expert for conformation.
Once their identity is confirmed, a careful plan should be devised to eliminate the bed bugs in a manner that promotes success while limiting unnecessary cost and exposure to insect ides. Don’t discard furniture and don’t treat unless you have a plan.
Do not apply pesticides unless you fully understand what you are applying and the risks involved. You are legally liable if you misapply, or apply it without a license to the property (including common spaces in apartment buildings). Generally, landlords owners, and building managers cannot legally apply pesticides. They should hire a licensed pest control operator to confirm the infestation and to develop and integrated pest management plan.
Do not dispose of furniture that is useful. Infested furniture can be cleaned and treated. Placing infested furniture (particularly mattresses) into common areas or on the street may simply help spread the bed bugs to the homes or apartments of other people. Officials in some municipalities affix to potentially infested furniture a label to warn of bed bugs. To reduce opportunities of infested furniture re-entering the building, building managers should ensure that any disposed furniture is locked within a dumpster or immediately carted away to a landfill or waste facility.
How do bed bugs invade a home?
Because bed bugs readily hide in small crevices, they may accompany (as stowaways) luggage, furniture, clothing, pillows, boxes, and other such objects when these are moved between apartments, homes and hotels. Used furniture, particularly bed frames and mattresses, are the greatest risk of harboring bed bugs and their eggs. Thus, one should carefully scrutinize and consider history of any used furniture, particularly “street” items so plentiful at the beginning and end of the school year. Because they readily survive months without feeding, bed bugs may already be present in apparently “vacant” or “clean” apartments.
Bed bugs can wander between adjoining apartments through voids in walls and holes through which wires and pipes pass. In a few cases, bats and or birds may introduce and maintain bed bugs and their close relatives (bat bugs and bird bugs). You should be mindful of the presence of blood feeding insects and mites that may be left behind after removing nest or roosts of birds, or bats in and on the home.
Travelers increasingly encounter bed bugs during stays away form home. If signs of bed bugs were observed or suspected, consider the possibility that you may have unwittingly transported bed bugs and their eggs in your luggage, and other personal effects. Clothing should be laundered in amanner to kill bugs and their eggs before or as soon as these items are brought into the home. Suitcases should be carefully inspected, scrubbed with a stiff brush, and thoroughly vacuumed. Leaving such luggage for several hours in a closed vehicle in full summer sun may render them bug free.
At the first sign of suspected bed bug infestation call your local certified pest control expert. They can properly identify the problem and safely and efficiently treat the area in question. |
