The most effective strategy for bed bug prevention is to make sure they ever get in to 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 help in preventing infestation as well.
Education can help reduce Bed Bug Infestation
The first key to preventing bed bugs is being able to properly identify 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 many times you hear them described, you probably still won’t be able to identify one. Seeing them and becoming familiar with their sizes and colors is your best bet. Then, you know exactly what you’re looking for and will know one if you see one.
Once educated on how to spot and identify a bed bug, you may be able to perform quick inspections of areas inside your home, work or vacation accommodations. This way, you can help to stop infestations before they ever 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. If you begin to look around where you are right now, you’ll soon see just 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 would 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 which 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 tough 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 which 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 tough 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 be needing treatment.
It’s tempting to drive to the local hardware store and pick up some cheap DIY treatment for bed bugs when there are so many available. However, this is not such a great idea. Besides the fact that many over-the-counter DIY treatments can actually be dangerous and even deadly, they rarely work.
Bed bugs are a tough pest to eliminate when you have no training. Failure to eliminate an infestation with an applied treatment can actually cause chemical resistance within the offspring and result in a lineage of bed bugs which are resistant to the insecticides which failed to properly eliminate them. This means that many homeowners and DIY’ers are only 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 getting you signed up for our industry leading warranty!
It’s good to have Four Seasons on your side!
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