Even if insects play an important role as part of the ecosystem, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should suffer an infestation in your home.
At House and Home Pest Control, dreaded bed bugs are among the most common pests we help eradicate from homes – mainly because they infiltrate houses quickly and easily and can cause homeowners a great deal of distress.
Identifying Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are different from most other blood feeding pests such as mosquitoes and fleas, because all bed bugs – males and females – feed on blood. To survive and grow, they feed on the blood of their host, a human or animal, biting and feeding, sometimes for up to ten minutes at a time, creating tiny red marks on the skin that can be extremely itchy and sensitive.
It is these bites that usually provide the first signs of bed bugs, however there are other methods that can help you to identify them before it gets to this point! Live bed bugs tend to leave clusters of dark brown or black spots of dried excrement on infested surfaces, and also secrete a subtle, sweet, musty odour, indicating their presence.
Adults bed bugs can be easily seen with the naked eye and are wingless, reddish brown in colour, and about the size of an apple seed. Juvenile bed bugs can also be seen with the naked eye, but are much smaller than adults, and translucent whitish-yellow in colour.
Bed bugs can multiply rapidly, laying between 200 and 250 eggs at a time which then hatch in just 6 to 10 days. Once bed bugs have fed, they return back to their hidden resting places, sliding into very narrow cracks and seams, or under bedding and furniture.
Treatment for a Bed Bug Infestation
In the past, the common method of treating bed bug infestations was to simply throw away any furniture that was infested with bed bugs or their eggs. The big mistake here was that by throwing the furniture away, without killing any eggs, more often than not the adult bed bugs just crawled back into the house.
Nowadays, spraying is one of the best ways of eradication bed bugs from a home. At House and Home Pest Control we can provide you with a quick and effective solution that rids your home of these tiny yet maddening insects. First, we conduct a thorough inspection of your home to understand the extent of the bed bug infestation, then we carefully apply spray to the areas these pests like to inhabit.
By choosing us, you can also rest assured that no matter how many times we have to return to your home, that we’ll get the job done at the price we’ve quoted, with no hidden fees.
Preventing a Bed Bug Infestation
Did you know you can get bed bugs just by simply putting a suitcase on your bed?
Beg bugs typically turn up in your home after you’ve been on a holiday, hitching a ride via your suitcase from your hotel room or bed. They can even jump from suitcase to suitcase on an airport luggage belt, or in the luggage compartment of a bus, train, or aeroplane.
Top tip:
When you get home from your holidays, never place your suitcase on your bed to unpack! Instead, lay your suitcase on the bathroom floor in order to prevent bed bugs finding their way to your mattress.
If you’re located in the northeast (Dublin, Meath, or Louth) and think you may have bed bugs in your home, contact House and Home Pest Control as soon as possible. There are many control strategies available for bed bugs, and you may need professional pest control to help you to find the correct solution.