Bed Bugs have certainly made their presence felt over the last decade as they have become more and more prevalent in homes across ...
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Bed Bugs – how they got here, how they can be eradicated and how to prevent them.
At night, they come out to feed. And they feed on us; they eat skin and blood. The bugs don't carry diseases, but people who are highly sensitive to them will get rashes. The combination of darkness and a quiet host – say a person sleeping in bed, or in a chair – is what stirs the bed bugs into activity. In the daytime, they hide, usually near the bed.
Bed bugs were common in the UK years ago, but years of spraying – and even overspraying – pesticides such as DDT eradicated them. However, they're now making a comeback, brought back unawares by an increasing number of overseas travellers to a nation that's banned DDT and cut back on the use of other pesticides.
Among the biggest ways bed bugs travel is in mattresses or chairs – such as when a homeowner or tenant puts out an infested piece of furniture in the rubbish for bulk pickup, and someone else sees it and takes it home. They can also be transported on clothes and in bags and suitcases.
Eradication is difficult and almost impossible by chemical means. A combination of spray insecticides as well as steam needs to be used in order to get the highest success rate.
In the most stubborn cases, your pest control company may resort to putting all of a home's contents in a chamber – a rented trailer – and pump in the gases and steam. It also means that while the furniture is gone, pest control technicians can hit the rest of the building with the insecticides. Vacuuming also keeps them down.
Never buy a used mattress; that's an invitation to disaster. Buy a mattress that still has the new tags and seals on it. And be nervous about buying a used upholstered chair. In addition, when travelling to hotels, carefully inspect the room and bed for signs of bed bugs before unpacking your bag.
Everybody should do their own inspections – mattresses, chairs, cushions. They like to hide in or near the bed, and possibly in or near a chair. Look in the tiny spaces, say in the fold at the edge of a mattress, or between a cushion and the piping around it. Also look for the bed bugs themselves or look for little brown specks; that's their droppings and check the draperies and the carpeting.
Article provided by SDA Pest Control