What Not To Do If You Find Bed Bugs In Your Home

You have bed bugs. Now what? You want those bugs gone, and you want them gone right now. And that might make you do something you'll regret. But you wouldn't be the first person to make a mistake when it comes to bed bugs. These are clever insects living with humans since the dawn of time, insects that know how to avoid our attempts to eradicate them. If you want to win this war, you need to know your enemy. Here are some things people have tried to do to stop a bed bug infestation and how you can learn from their mistakes.

Get Rid Of Your Mattress

When bed bugs appear, it makes sense to think that all you have to do is throw your mattress out. The problem with this approach is that bed bugs don't only live in mattresses. They live in bed frames, backboards, nightstands, alarm clocks, baseboards, crown molding, outlets, wall voids, and many other locations in a room. They also lay their eggs in many places—eggs that do not need the mother around to hatch. Even if you happen to get rid of many bed bugs by throwing out your mattress, you are likely to continue to have a bed bug infestation.

Move Items And Spray

If you see bed bugs in a bedroom, moving items out of that room makes sense, and spray the bed and mattress with pesticides. You might even think to spray pesticides on other objects before you take them out of the room. There are two significant problems with this. The first is that bed bugs inside objects will not be affected by your attempts to kill them with a spray. Sprayed insecticides are topical. They do not act like the gases of fumigation. The bugs inside a piece of furniture or television are not likely to die. That leads us to the second problem: you can spread the infestation when you move items from a bedroom to a living room. While taking all the items out of a room and placing them in the center of your kitchen or dining room floor might be a good preparation step before heat treatment, it is not a good idea to do when trying to target a bed bug infestation.

Spray And Pray

There are quite a few things you can spray on bed bugs and kill them. But, apart from giving you a little bit of happiness for the moment, you're not going to fix your problem. In fact, spraying bed bugs can make your problem worse. When bed bugs feel threatened, they flee. This can drive them deep into your walls. Even worse than this, your attempts to kill them with chemicals could make them resistant to pesticides. Bed bugs shed their cuticle (skin) as they pass from one instar (development stage) to the next. Bugs that have come into contact with pesticides are known to produce a new cuticle that is more resistant than the last. So, if you'd prefer not to have superbugs in your home, it is best not to go this route.

Kill Them With Heat

You are probably aware that heat is one of the best ways to kill bed bugs. But, before you decide to turn your oven on 600 and open the door or buy expensive heaters to put around your home, you should know that it isn't easy to raise the temperature of a home to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour. If you leave even one spot that is not hot enough to kill those bugs, they'll find it and hide in it. But, beyond being ineffective, do-it-yourself heat treatments have led to a catastrophic loss of property and life.

What To Do About Bed Bugs

When bed bugs appear, contact a trustworthy pest control company like Parkway Pest Services—one that has earned the QualityPro seal of approval from the National Pest Management Association and one that guarantees its service. Don't take any chances with bed bugs. Get industry-leading pest control solutions from a company that has shown a track record of taking care of pest problems.

If you're in New York City or our extensive service area, reach out to Parkway for an effective resolution to your bed bug problem. Don't make bed bugs fed bugs; get rid of them with trusted bed bug control services from Parkway Pest Services.