Bed Bugs Faq’s

Are creepy little bloodsuckers coming out of the woodwork and keeping you up at night? Bed bugs make way into your home, bedding, clothing, and luggage, and often hide in the crevices and cracks of your house. They don’t have much to do with cleanliness because they find a good hiding place in clutter. Bed bugs don’t transmit dangerous diseases, but their bite causes red, itchy welts on your body. Detecting the infestation of these tiny bugs can be difficult because of their small size and stealthy presence in your room. They generally come out at night, making the bed bug pest control even more challenging. Here are some bed bugs faqs that will blow your mind.

Bed bugs are reddish-brown, spherical creatures that bite the exposed skin of humans and animals at night to feed on their blood. They are a nuisance pest that can live up to a period of six months at room temperature, without a blood meal. They are opportunistic feeders that usually feed on the blood at night.

Bed bugs don’t care if your home is messy or clean. They like food, and good hiding spots like crevices and cracks. They travel on things such as souvenirs, luggage, cartons and furniture that you bring into your home from the outside. Bed bugs dwell exclusively with humans, and they have marked their presence all over the world. It’s often assumed that they enter your home after trips to hotels and motels, but the fact is that they can also come from office buildings, city hall, daycare, cruise liners, buses, trains, taxi cabs, high schools, libraries, theatres, and other common places.

No, not that we know of. Bed bugs are simply a nuisance pest that causes itching and loss of sleep. Excessive scratching can increase the chance of a secondary skin infection though.

Each person reacts differently to a bed bug bite. Bite responses can range from an absence of any physical signs of the bite, to a small bite mark, to a serious allergic reaction. Bed bugs are not considered to be dangerous; however, some people may be allergic to bed bugs and can react adversely to the bites. Allergic symptoms that may require medical attention can include enlarged bite marks, painful swellings at the bite site, and, on rare occasions, anaphylaxis.

One of the easiest ways to identify a bed bug infestation is by the tell-tale bite marks on the face, neck, arms, hands, or any other body parts while sleeping. However, these bite marks may take as long as 14 days to develop in some people so it is important to look for other clues when determining if bed bugs have infested an area. These signs include:

• the bed bugs’ exoskeletons after molting
• bed bugs in the fold of mattresses, sheets, and pillows
• spots that look like dried blood due to their blood-filled fecal material that they excrete on the mattress or nearby furniture
• a sweet musty odor

No, because when bed bugs bite, they inject an anesthetic and an anticoagulant that prevents a person from realizing they are being bitten. Most people will not realize they have been bitten until bite marks appear, which can be anywhere from one to 14 days after the initial bite.

Bed bugs are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Bed bugs are reddish-brown in color, wingless, range from 1mm to 7mm (about the size of Lincoln’s head on a penny), and can live several months
without a blood meal.

Bed bugs can transfer to your home from different outdoor locations or trips. If you stay at night in a hotel or resort, you might pick bed bugs up with your clothes or luggage. Public transportation can also be a major reason for the bugs entering your home. The guests that visit your home might bring bed bugs unknowingly into your home while visiting. You can also carry these pesky creatures from work to your home.

Because bed bugs have slim flat bodies, they are experts at hiding. They can fit into the smallest of spaces and stay there for long periods of time, even without a blood meal. Bed bugs are usually transported from place to place as people travel. They can travel in the seams and folds of luggage, overnight bags, folded clothes, bedding, furniture, and anywhere else they can hide. People do not realize they are carrying bed bugs everywhere they travel, infecting each location, and eventually their home.

No one is safe from bed bugs. However, if you travel frequently and share living and sleeping quarters where other people have previously slept, you are at a higher risk of being bitten and spreading a bed bug infestation.

Bed bug bites usually do not pose a serious medical threat, if you do not scratch the bite. The best way to treat a bite is to (1) avoid scratching the area, (2) apply antiseptic creams or lotions, and (3) take an antihistamine.

To prevent the entry of bed bugs into your home, reduce clutter and maintain hygiene in your living spaces. You should launder infested linens and garments in hot water. Dismantling your infested bed frame can expose bed bug hiding sites. Seal and caulk all holes where wires and pipes penetrate.

Bed bugs generally don’t prefer to travel on a live host. They hide in piles of clothes and in crevices. These tiny creatures can be present on your clothing and can even leap from someone sitting next to you onto your clothes. It’s common to find a bed bug on the clothes in your room, in your laundry basket, rather than the clothes that you’re wearing because bed bugs hide in piles of clothes instead of traveling on a live host.

Bed bugs hide in clutter and filth. They move quickly to a new hiding place; they hid in furniture, under wallpaper, inside switch plates, inside a bed, and behind baseboards. The more cluttered your room is, the more hiding places the bed bugs find in your home. A single female carries eggs sufficient enough to produce hundreds of offspring. So when a female bud bug arrives at your home, you know it’s not alone and that the entire colony is present with her.

Bed bug infestations can be detected by the presence of bug feces and cast skin on the mattress or the bed. They usually bite on the exposed part of the body, like shoulders, neck, face, and arms. Bed bug bites look like flat or raised areas that become itchy, inflamed or blistered. The reaction after their bite might not appear immediately, but you’ll start seeing the symptoms after a few days. However, everyone doesn’t react in the same manner to the bed bug bites.

It can be difficult to detect bed bugs as they hide in crevices and cracks, and are extremely small in size. However, you can detect the evidence of bed bugs on your mattress and bedding. Live bed bugs have a habit of leaving a cluster of black or dark brown spots of dried excrement on the surfaces that are infested with the bed bugs. These bugs also exude a musty and subtle odor. You can easily find the bed bugs on non-infested dwellings.

Baby powder doesn’t kill the bed bugs, but the talcum makes the bed bugs slide, preventing them from exiting any sort of trap. Talcum powder provides a drying effect to bed bugs which works as an eliminator, but it does not have the capacity to kill these nasty pests completely. Therefore, the baby powder might kill a few bed bugs but not an entire army.