Did You Vacation with Bedbugs?

Now that most of us are traveling again, you must be careful that bedbugs didn’t hitchhike a ride from your hotel or vacation rental to your home. If they did, some itchy days lie head.

Why? Because bedbugs feast on human blood. Adolescent bedbugs, called nymphs, shed their skins five times before reaching adulthood, and they require a meal of blood before each shedding. Although nymphs reach maturity in about a month, your problem doesn’t end there, as adult bedbugs produce three or more generations per year and may hundreds of eggs.

How Bedbugs Infest Your Home

For travelers, bedbugs usually enter your home undetected through luggage and clothing. However, if you are buying used beds, couches, and other items with cushions, mattresses, or covered with fabric, there is always a chance that bedbugs are hiding there.

Bedbugs have flattened bodies make it possible for them to fit into tiny spaces, about the width of a credit card, so they can squeeze into the smallest of spaces unnoticed. Once in your home – and a single bedbug finding its way inside can trigger an infestation – they may scatter throughout your home, hiding in crevices and other protected locations, such as your mattresses, box springs, headboards, and bed frames.

There’s a reason bedbugs are mostly found in bedrooms. Because they solely live on blood, bedrooms give them easy access to the people they bite during the night.

Can I See Bedbugs?

Bedbugs don’t build nests, but they do tend to live in groups. Still, because they are the size of an apple seed, spotting one is not easy. Bedbugs have an oval shape and are brownish in color. However, after feeding, their bodies swell and turn a reddish hue.

Look for dark or rusty spots of bedbug excrement on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes, and walls; blood stains on your sheets or pillowcases; bedbug fecal spots, eggshells, or shed skins; and offensive, musty odors – which are caused from bedbugs’ scent glands.

To conduct a thorough inspection, you should remove all bedding and check for bedbugs or bedbug excrement. Also remove the dust cover – if you have one – and inspect it, the box springs, and the seams in the wood framing. Check underneath the fabric where it is stapled to the wood.

How Do I Know if I’ve Been Bitten?

Many people attribute bedbug bites to other causes, such as mosquitos. Most bedbug bites are painless at first, but later turn into itchy welts. Bedbugs will bite any area of exposed skin while you sleep, piercing the skin and withdrawing blood through an elongated beak. Within three to 10 minutes, they become engorged, crawling away unnoticed.

If your bites have a red spot in the middle of them, then you are likely suffering from flea bites, which may require professional extermination. To confirm that your infestation is bedbug, you must find and identify the bugs themselves.

Bedbug Extermination

While cleaning infested areas will help control bedbugs, getting rid of them permanently is the job of a professional bedbug exterminator. For more information, read our “Ultimate Guide to Bed Bugs and Extermination Companies.”

Why Eco Pest Control is the Leading Bed Bug Control Company in the Richmond, Newport News, and Williamsburg Areas

Don’t let a bed bug problem cause you to lose sleep. Simply call Eco Pest Control, the leading bed bug control company in the greater Richmond, Newport News, and Williamsburg areas. Need a few reasons to rust us with your bed bug problem? Here are four.

Our company provides our bed bug control technicians with extensive training in the treatment and control of bed bugs that enables them to solve your problems.
We invest in ongoing bed bug control education to ensure we stay abreast of industry advances.
Our bed bug control technicians provide free inspections, which come with a complimentary bed bug treatment and control plan.
We offer a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. If you are not fully satisfied, we will come back for free. What else would you expect from the leading bed bug control company in the greater Richmond, Newport News, and Williamsburg areas?

Resources

Environmental Protection Agency: Bed Bugs: Get Them Out and Keep Them Out
National Pest Management Association: Bed Bugs
Mayo Clinic: Bed Bugs: Symptoms and Causes