Beware of Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs – What You Need To Know
Bed Bugs are on the rise in the city of Brantford and surrounding areas. This is the most frequent complaint we receive at First Defence Pest Control. People think that only dirty buildings and homes get infested, but that isn’t true. Bed Bugs are not picky about who their hosts are. You might bring them into your home on second hand furniture or clothing. Or some might hitch a ride in your suitcase during your latest vacation. However they end up in your home, extermination is needed. You need to know what to look for and how to eliminate them. You need an exterminator who will take control of the situation.
What Do Bed Bugs eat?
They feed off of YOU and your loved ones. Bedbugs are a parasite of humans and feed off our blood.
What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?
An adult Bed Bug is small, about the size of an apple seed. It is brown, with a flat oval-shaped body. After it feeds it will balloon in size and can become bright or dark red in colour. They can have a sweet musty smell to them. Even though you can see they have wings, a Bed Bug can not fly.
The young are usually smaller and translucent in colour. Their eggs are about the size of a pin head and pearly white in colour.
There are many bugs that look like Bed Bugs, so proper identification is important!
One of the many services we provide is pest identification. This is the first step to rid your location of these tiny pests. Extermination is important so the problem doesn’t continue.
How Do I Know If I Have Bedbugs?
You might find dead bedbugs or the skin that they leave behind when they are melting. Bedbugs will leave behind small reddish black fecal matter on your mattress or bedding. You may wake up with multiple bites in a line. These bites are often misdiagnosed, making detection that much more difficult.
How Do I Find Bed Bugs?
Bed Bugs like to be close to their feeding hosts. So first take a look at your mattress. They like to hide in the side seams of your mattress and on and around the head board and foot board of your bed. They could be in your carpet, which makes it difficult to spot them. In extreme cases they are found hiding in window trim and electrical outlets. Once found in your bedroom, the rest of the home needs to be checked. Bed Bugs like to travel with their hosts, so they might have hitched a ride with you into the living room. Check your furniture thoroughly! Bed Bugs are great at hiding, so the best way of finding them is to call in an experienced Bed Bug Exterminator.
Will Bed bugs Spread Throughout My Home?
Bed Bugs usually stay put in their environment as long as they have a feeding host but can be disturbed and start spreading due to:
- Incorrect pesticide application such as DIY over the counter products
- A food shortage (human host is no longer staying in that location)
- Furniture being moved
- They have outgrown or multiplied so need to find more places to live
- Vacuum cleaners used for multiple rooms
- Not completely drying your clothes in a hot dryer.
What Should I Do/Not Do If Traces of Bed Bugs Are Found?
Do Not
- Spray store purchased pesticides. They will spread the infestation
- Disturb the room. Leave everything as it is so the technician can easily diagnose the problem.
- Take any items out of the room. Doing so will only help the bed bugs spread.
DO
- Stop using the room.
- If the room can not have a treatment done right away, vacuum all areas including carpets,
mattress and boxspring, headboards, and baseboards. Discard vacuum bag or empty the
canister after each use. - Contact a professional pest control company immediately in order to inspect and achieve
complete bed bug removal.
Treatment For Bed Bugs
If you think you are experiencing a Bed Bug infestation, even a small one, don’t hesitate to call for help. You need an exterminator to take control of the situation. Treatment of a minor infestation is less costly then waiting for it to be more widespread.
Hire First Defence Pest Control. We utilize a number of effective techniques to eliminate and take control of the infestation. You should never receive a quote over the phone from a professional. A good exterminator will do a thorough inspection to determine the treatment needed and your actual cost to get rid of the pest. Once that is completed, we can determine the extent of the problem. We vacuum, heat from steam and treat all areas where bugs are found or may hide. Our program consists of an initial service from our exterminators and then a second service two weeks later. This ensures that any eggs that hatch are treated and proper removal has taken place. In rare cases when the infestation is heavy, a third service by our exterminators may be required. This is determined at the end of the initial visit.
A small inspection fee applies, but will be subtracted from the first service if you move forward with First Defence Pest Control with the extermination of your Bed Bugs.