This spring, Americans returned to travel in nearly record numbers, so it’s possible that bed bug occurrences could increase. On Sunday, June 4, National Bed Bug Awareness Week officially begins. When you return from a summer vacation or business trip, Santee Pest Control, your amiable pest, mosquito, termite, and rodent management expert, would want to assist keep your house free of bed bugs. The following advice can help you and your family stay safe:
- Check travel websites before you depart to determine if bed bugs have been reported at your hotel.
- Before you unpack, thoroughly check the room or rooms for bed bugs. Look in dressers, drawers, sofas, and chairs as well as behind the headboard and behind lamps.
- Check the mattress seams and box springs, especially around the corners, for pepper-like stains, spots, or shed bed bug skins by pulling back the covers.
- It is simple for bed bugs to travel on cleaning carts, in baggage, and even via wall outlets. Infestations tend to proliferate in the rooms that are closest to their source.
- Don’t leave your shoes on the floor; only unpack the clothing you intend to wear.
- Since bed bugs are least likely to live there, keep your luggage in the bathtub or on a tile floor.
- When you get home, thoroughly check for bed bugs in all of your belongings, including the clothes you are wearing.
- Put everything in the washing or dryer on the highest temperature setting for at least 10 minutes after unpacking your luggage outside or in the garage.
More Information About Bed Bugs
These fascinating bed bug facts will impress guests at your next trivia night while also perhaps grossing them out. It’s surprising how much there is to know about bed bugs:
- Globally widespread, bed bugs are believed to have arrived in the United States from Europe in the 17th century.
- Bed bugs mainly prey on people, but they can also consume warm-blooded creatures like birds, mice, and household pets.
- In comparison to most other insects, adults are quite flat, little under a quarter of an inch long, and oval-shaped.
- One to five eggs can be laid by bed bugs each day, for a total of 500 in their lifetime.
- Without a blood meal, bed bugs can survive for several months.
- From almost absolute zero to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, bed bugs can endure a wide variety of temperatures.
- Before hiding to digest, bed bugs draw blood for roughly five minutes.
- Hatchling bed bugs are so tiny that they can squeeze through a mattress stitch.
- The amount of blood that bed bugs can consume is seven times their own weight, or 120 gallons of liquid for a man of average size.
- Saliva from bed bugs contains substances that act as anesthetics and encourage increased blood flow to the bite site. This helps to keep the host from waking up as the bed bug feeds quickly and almost painlessly.
Expert Solutions for Bed Bugs
A registered pest control specialist must do a meticulous, comprehensive assessment of all known and suspected locations where bed bugs may hide before developing an efficient bed bug treatment strategy. It is not possible to properly control this pest with do-it-yourself methods.
If you believe your home may be infested with bed bugs, contact California’s dependable, approachable bed bug and pest management specialist. A multi-tiered control and prevention program specifically designed for your needs can be offered once we conduct a professional inspection, make an accurate identification, and conduct the inspection. The pest control experts at Santee Pest Control appreciate your assistance in preventing unwelcome pests from entering your house and yard until the next time.