When The Time Comes For Bed Bug Extermination
When you know you have bed bugs, one thing for sure is you are going to need some form of bed bug extermination. You may want to know more about them and how to be sure you actually have them before you begin thinking of extermination.
These creepy little bed bugs are nocturnal and they live by feeding off of human blood. They live inside mattresses and similar furnishings that are warm and where they have a constant food source. They come out of hiding just before dawn and bite, feed for about five minutes and then crawl back in to hiding. They can live from six months to a year without feeding.
To find out for sure if you will need to perform bed bug extermination you will first need to determine if you have a bed bugs infestation. While it’s true that they can live any where in your bedroom, you will most likely find them in the mattress. You will need to pull back the sheets and do some detective work. They like to hide in seams where they feel safe. Check the mattress, box springs and the linens thoroughly with a flash light. If you find dark spots, it is likely caused by a bed bug infestation. The dark spots are actually their fecal matter. Bed bug eggs look very much like single grains of rice. It is possible to locate the nest of live bed bugs. If you find any or all of these signs, it’s time for a bed bug exterminator.
At one time the bed bug was completely eliminated in the US, Western Europe and Canada because of a chemical that was created to exterminate roaches. This chemical has since been banned in most Western countries. Bed bugs, like roaches have grown immune to most pesticides that are still legal, which has made bed bug extermination much more difficult. There are a few methods of bed bugs extermination that you can try before calling the professionals. The very first step is to clean the infected room out completely, leaving the mattress, box springs and any other items with seams to hide in out of the house in the very hot or very cold temperatures. Remove all things washable from the room and wash it in hot water. Anything you can’t wash in hot, see if you can tumble it in a hot dryer. Clean the room thoroughly starting at the top and don’t miss a thing on the way to the floor.
Before you call for bed bug extermination services follow all these steps to the letter. As you remove items from the room, wrap everything in plastic to be sure you aren’t transferring them to another room. Don’t miss picture frames, clocks, lamp shades and even the smoke detector. After you have allowed the mattress and springs to sit outside in the heat or cold while you clean the room, thoroughly vacuum the affected items. Once vacuumed, use a steam cleaner on it and don’t miss a spot. If you are very thorough, you will remove the bugs and their eggs. Go back to the room and do this same process over again with curtains (if they can’t be washed in the machine), your carpets without missing any spot. After washing everything, vacuuming, then steam cleaning everything, go back over everything with the vacuum as soon as everything is dry.