The most effective bed bug prevention strategy is ensuring they never enter your home or business. But that’s not as easily said as done. Bed bugs must be transported from one place to another. This is accomplished by human activity as we transport items like purses, jackets, luggage, furniture, boxes of stored items, and more. Almost any personal belongings we move could potentially harbor bed bugs. Knowing the risks of bed bugs and a few best practices to prevent transporting them may also help avoid infestation.
Education can help reduce Bed Bug Infestation
The first key to preventing bed bugs is properly identifying them. The second key is knowing where to find them.
Bed Bug Identification
You can’t very well know if you’ve seen a bed bug until you know what a bed bug looks like. Regardless of how often you hear them described, you probably still won’t be able to identify one. Your best bet is to see them and become familiar with their sizes and colors. Then, you know exactly what you’re looking for and will know if you see one.
Once educated on spotting and identifying a bed bug, you may be able to quickly inspect areas inside your home, work, or vacation accommodations. This way, you can help stop infestations before they get started. Education is key!
Bed Bug Inspection
Bed bugs are notoriously good at staying well hidden. Because they are so small and flat, they can hide in the smallest and strangest places. Many of those places you would never imagine. They can hide in cracks and crevices as small as the thickness of a business card. Looking around where you are right now, you’ll soon see how many places they have to hide. Performing DIY bed bug inspections aren’t for the faint of heart.
A few areas bed bugs can easily hide include:
- Books and magazines
- Stacked items (any items)
- Clothes and shoes
- Purses and wallets
- Furniture
- Electronics
- Bedding
- Collectibles
- Stored items
- and more
If we begin to investigate where bed bugs might hide on or in these items, we will find them in places like:
- Between notes of cash
- In deep crevices of purses and wallets
- Between pages of books and magazines
- Inside book bindings
- Inside the notches of screw heads
- On electronic boards and switches deep within electronics
- Between joining pieces of wood that compose headboards and footboards
- Behind wall outlet covers
- Inside dolls and other toys and collectibles
- Within folds and tufts of furniture
- Between any two items which touch
Neither of these lists are exhaustive. Bed bugs can hide just about anywhere and in or on anything. Virtually nothing is off limits. That makes them a formidable foe and a tricky pest to eradicate from human dwellings.
A few areas bed bugs can easily hide include:
- Books and magazines
- Stacked items (any items)
- Clothes and shoes
- Purses and wallets
- Furniture
- Electronics
- Bedding
- Collectibles
- Stored items
- and more
Just How Good Can Bed Bugs Hide?
It might surprise you to learn just how well bed bugs can hide and where they can hide. Below are a few examples:
- Between notes of cash
- In deep crevices of purses and wallets
- Between pages of books and magazines
- Inside book bindings
- Inside the notches of screw heads
- On electronic boards and switches deep within electronics
- Between joining pieces of wood that compose headboards and footboards
- Behind wall outlet covers
- Inside dolls and other toys and collectibles
- Within folds and tufts of furniture
- Between any two items which touch
Neither of these lists are exhaustive. Bed bugs can hide just about anywhere and in or on anything. Virtually nothing is off limits. That makes them a formidable foe and a tricky pest to eradicate from human dwellings. Furthermore, it makes it difficult for DIY inspections and treatments to be successful.
Bed Bug Treatment
Identifying bed bugs during an inspection is not the highlight of anyone’s day unless you’re a pest control professional. Otherwise, it’s a bad day and one you could have done well without. Nevertheless, once you have discovered bed bugs, you’ll need treatment.
It’s tempting to drive to the local hardware store and pick up some cheap DIY treatment for bed bugs when so many are available. However, this is not such a great idea. Besides the fact that many over-the-counter DIY treatments can be dangerous and even deadly, they rarely work.
Bed bugs are a challenging pest to eliminate when you have no training. Failure to eliminate an infestation with an applied treatment can cause chemical resistance within the offspring and result in a lineage of bed bugs resistant to the insecticides that failed to eliminate them properly. This means that many homeowners and DIY’ers are contributing to the spread of bed bugs but to insecticide-resistant strands as well. That’s why it’s best to leave the bed bug treatments to the professionals here at Four Seasons.
Four Seasons is Ready to Help!
Of course, we’re always here and ready to serve our customers. When you’ve taken all the precautionary steps and done everything you can to prevent bed bugs but still end up with them, give us a call. We can make life easy by eliminating the infestation with our A.C.T. Bed Bug Program and signing you up for our industry-leading warranty!
It’s good to have Four Seasons on your side!
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