There is nothing more annoying and embarrassing like a bed bug infestation in your home. It can cause you sleepless nights and a big embarrassment when you receive visitors. You know it’s gotten worse when you start spotting bed bugs on your clothes when you are at work or in public places, which can make people start avoiding you. Fortunately, bed bugs are controllable through the right treatment methods.
But, bed bugs are crafty pests and know how to hide to avoid detection. They reproduce very quickly and can wreck a lot of havoc in your home if you don’t work on them immediately. Getting rid of bed bugs can be challenging for the uninitiated since it requires more effort and time. That is why you should seek professional bed bug pest control as soon as you spot them. Here are the measures you should take when you notice a bed bug infestation in your home.
Do not panic
Many people panic when they notice bed bug bites or marks on their beddings. The reason being, bed bugs carry a social stigma and can cause a lot of psychological distress. The moment people realize you are bedbug-infested, they start avoiding you in fear of the spread—however, a bedbug infestation is not a death sentence. Apart from maybe allergic irritation in some people and nasty marks on the beddings, they are harmless because they do not transmit disease, unlike mosquitoes and cockroaches.
So, remain calm and do not do anything nasty like throwing away your beddings, moving the furniture out of the room, or ripping away the carpet. That will only make it worse since you will be spreading them further. Plus, there may be more eggs which you can’t see.
Identify the infested areas.
The best thing to do as soon as you spot any bed bug is to start identifying the infested areas. Check all the beddings in different rooms, especially the beds and couches. Look out for their signs such as fecal marks on the beddings, pillows, or mattresses. It may be a bed bug look-alike such as carpet beetles, and red bite marks do not mean you have bugs in your home.
You can use a flashlight to illuminate through crack holes, crevices, furniture joints and seams, nails, or screw holes. Check under the mattresses, the bed frames, baseboards, under loose wallpaper, between couch cushions, inside electrical outlets without ignoring any spot. Bed bugs do not fly, and the eggs are visible to the naked eye, so if there are any, you will notice them. Check all the rooms because they tend to spread quickly.
Call in professional bed bug control.
Since there are different bed bug species, you never know which one of them has infested your home. Therefore, you should call in the right exterminators to identify them and use the effective treatment method to get rid of them. Furthermore, bedbugs have developed resistance to many pesticides, so your DIY efforts may not work in eliminating them.
When you contact a professional exterminator, they will visit your home, identify the bedbug for proof and discuss with you the most effective treatment methods. Beware of any pest control company that schedules treatment without an inspection first. They should also make follow up checks after treatment to ensure the bedbugs are entirely gone.
Prepare for the treatment.
Prepare for the bed bug treatment by containing the infestation to avoid spreading from one room to another. Do not move any furniture or clothes out of the room to another. Remove all the bedding and heat treat them. Vacuum all the infested spots and kill any bed bug you can see. It is essential to clear any clutter that can be a hiding place for the bugs.
After the treatment
After the treatment, keep a close eye on the affected areas to ensure the bed bugs are entirely gone. If you spot them again, notify your pest controller. Keep everything clean and practice control measures such as checking a hotel room before you sleep to avoid bringing bed bugs home.
