Bed Bug Treatment — What You Should Expect

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Home Pest Control for Bed Bugs: Here’s What to Expect

Dealing with a pest problem isn’t easy. In some cases, it might be possible to take care of a minor infestation on your own. But, more often than not, calling in a professional home pest control company is essential.

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When it comes to bed bugs, trying to handle them without any professional assistance rarely works. They’re an incredibly stubborn pest, and completely eliminating them from your home requires an extremely thorough approach. We often hear from our customers that they thought they’d managed to get rid of bed bugs on their own...only to suffer from a new outbreak a few days (or weeks, or months) later.

 

Bed Bug Pest Control

Like most insects, bed bugs go through a complex life cycle that involves an egg stage, a nymph stage, and an adult stage. Females are able to lay several eggs each day, which over the course of their lifetime can add up to more than 200 eggs in total. These eggs take time to develop and hatch into nymphs, which immediately go out in search of food.

Here’s the problem, though: nymphs can survive for three months without a meal. Meanwhile, adults are capable of living for six months or more without food. As a result, treating your home for bed bugs on your own may not work. Bed bugs can lay in wait in an old set of sheets or an unused guest room, and explode into an infestation months down the road.

While it may be true that bed bugs don’t spread disease with their bites, the itchiness and potential for allergic reaction is still a serious issue. On top of this, some people suffer from skin infections as a result of excessive scratching.

With this in mind, having your home treated for bed bugs is the smart thing to do. A professional can provide you with the level of service you need in order to ensure that bed bugs don’t come back a few months later. If you’ve never worked with a home pest control company, though, you’re probably wondering what will happen during and after treatment. Here’s what to expect, along with what you’ll need to do before and after treatment.

 

Pre-Bed Bug Treatment

Before our specialists arrive to treat your home, we need you to take a few steps on your own to assist with the elimination of bed bugs. Here’s what you should do:

  1. First, go through your home and take a thorough inventory of all things fabric. Take everything that could harbor bed bugs -- including mattresses, linens, comforters, quilts, pillows, and so on -- outside, and put them in strong, direct sunlight for several hours.
  2. Next, gather up everything that can be washed. This include sheets and linens, pillowcases, covers for comforters and blankets, and so on. Wash these in warm water in your washing machine.
  3. Items that can’t be washed -- such as furniture, comforters, curtains, and other fabric items in your home -- should be thoroughly dry cleaned.
  4. Remove everything from your closets, dressers, and drawers. It’s common for bed bugs to infest these parts of your home as well. Wash all washable items in warm water if possible, and dry clean things that can’t be washed.
  5. Lastly, go through your entire house with a very powerful vacuum cleaner. Be sure to vacuum your entire home, and pay special attention to cracks and crevices (such as where the wall meets the floor). When you’re done, take the vacuum cleaner outside and empty it into a plastic bag. Seal the plastic bag and dispose of it immediately.

Our home pest control professionals will take it from there!

 

Post-Bed Bug Treatment

Once your home has been treated, it’s important to understand that bed bugs could potentially return. While our team will take care of any nymphs and adults that are present, home pest control products are unable to kill the bed bugs’ eggs. For this reason, a second or third treatment may be necessary to completely eliminate your bed bug infestation.

Additionally, it’s helpful to perform a post-treatment follow-up inspection. Depending on the severity of your infestation, we may recommend this type of service to ensure that treatment was 100% effective.

Lastly, remember: bed bugs can always infect your home again in the future! If you have guests, watch out. Check to see if they’ve stayed at a hotel or vacation rental recently. If so, you may need to take precautions (such as storing their suitcase in a separate area) in order to minimize the potential of a new infestation.

 

Ready to get rid of bed bugs once and for all? Home Pest Control is here to help.

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June 5, 2018


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