What Causes Bedbugs? Tips for Identifying and Dealing with Them

Table Of Content

• Help! What Are the Small, Tiny Brown Bugs in My House, and What Can I Do About Them?
• Don’t Let the Bedbugs, Mosquitoes, Ticks, or Ants Bite
• Vital Security System Maintenance Tasks You’re Skipping—And How That Makes Your Home Vulnerable
• Bedbug bites
• What are the typical means through which people contract bed bugs?

If you live in an apartment complex or shared living space, you may need to work with your landlord or property owner to properly address the infestation in the entire complex. It can be challenging to locate all the sources of bedbugs around your home yourself, but a professional may know exactly where to look and how to isolate the infestation. Unlike other indoor pests like fleas or mosquitoes, bedbugs are relatively large and easy to spot. These bugs are found across the world and can survive in places between 46 degrees and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. They usually live close to where people sleep, generally within eight feet of a bed.

Help! What Are the Small, Tiny Brown Bugs in My House, and What Can I Do About Them?

Bed bugs like to hide in cracks and crevices like walls, luggage, boxes, and clothing, but since they feed on humans while they sleep, they’re most commonly found in beds. They’re flat and oval-shaped, with red or brown bodies, roughly the size of an apple seed. Watch for adults, nymphs, and eggs, as well as exoskeletons (casings that the bugs leave behind when they molt) and dark, rust-colored spots (feces). As the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—and that couldn’t be more apt for tackling bed bugs. The best way to treat bed bugs is to avoid getting them in the first place. Unfortunately, these persistent insects might wiggle their way into a home, especially if the resident is an apartment dweller or often stay in hotels.

Don’t Let the Bedbugs, Mosquitoes, Ticks, or Ants Bite

Avoid the expense and hassle of dealing with pest damage by preventing it in the first place. Bedbugs can easily travel between floors and rooms in hotels or apartment buildings. Bite marks or blood stains on sheets aren’t definitive proof.

Vital Security System Maintenance Tasks You’re Skipping—And How That Makes Your Home Vulnerable

Consider using different types of pesticides if repeated treatments are needed. You may have to follow these steps more than once to kill all the bugs and their eggs. It’s best to clean household drains every 2 weeks by pouring a mixture of baking soda and vinegar into them and then rinsing the drain with boiling water.

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Bed bugs are reddish-brown in color, wingless, range from 1mm to 7mm (roughly the size of Lincoln’s head on a penny), and can live several months without a blood meal. Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus) are insects that feed every 5 to 10 days, primarily on the blood of humans. They’re typically active at night and their bites often result in itchy bumps on your skin. Bed bugs, unlike lice, don’t travel directly on people and spread from person to person. In this way, people can spread bed bugs to others, without even knowing it.

How to get rid of bed bugs as infestations rise across the US - The News Journal

How to get rid of bed bugs as infestations rise across the US.

Posted: Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Bed bug bites and rashes on household members may indicate an infestation before you spot the bugs themselves.

You’ll leave these bags (tied tightly) in the room being heated so that the bed bugs get baked with the rest of the space. Most everything in your home, including furniture, can withstand this heat for the hour and a half necessary to kill off the bugs. Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep.

What are the typical means through which people contract bed bugs?

But there are a few steps you can take to help prevent bed bugs and stop their spread. Pest control companies have the advantage of using chemicals and other treatments that are not available to you. They have insecticides that both kill bugs on contact and that stay inside furniture and cracks to kill bedbugs in the long term. Once you’ve cleaned all visible bedbugs, make the area inhospitable for the rest of them. Place bedbug-proof covers over your mattress and box spring. Bugs that are trapped inside will die, and new bugs will not be able to get in.

How can sharing clothes or moving infested furniture lead to a bed bug infestation?

Feed birds at least 50 feet away from the house, and sweep up spilled seed. While freezing can kill bed bugs, temperatures must remain very low for a long time. Home freezers may not be cold enough to kill bed bugs; always use a thermometer to accurately check the temperature. Putting things outside in freezing temperatures could kill bed bugs, but there are many factors that can affect the success of this method. Does it lower your risk to zip your mattress and box spring into protective bags?

With travelers coming and going, some guests will unknowingly introduce bed bugs into the room in which they’re staying. And as new guests take up residence, they can easily pick up an unwanted parting gift via their suitcases. That’s why checking for bed bugs is one of the 7 things to always do when you check into a hotel room. The first and most well-known way bed bugs can spread into your home is via your clothes. These pests won’t travel directly on your skin or hair, nor will they likely travel via the clothes you’re wearing — they’re not fans of our body heat or the aggressive movement. But, still they will happily hitchhike on any alternative textiles, including packed or bagged clothes.

It’s best to store firewood outdoors, off the ground, and at least 50 feet away from the house. A better solution is to install motion sensitive security lighting away from the home. The light turns on when needed, and stays off the rest of the time, potentially keeping trouble and insects away. A mouse only needs a 1/4-inch opening to get inside your home.

A cluttered home provides more places for bed bugs to hide and makes locating and treating them harder. If bed bugs are in your mattress, using special bed bug covers (encasements) on your mattress and box springs makes it harder for bed bugs to get to you while you sleep. Be sure to buy a product that has been tested for bed bugs and is strong enough to last for the full year without tearing. Once your home is treated professionally, your belongings should be okay.

Before you start treating your home, do a little prep work to maximize your odds of success. Make sure all your linens, carpets, drapes, clothing, and other hiding places have been cleaned or thrown out (see step 2). Anything that cannot be treated in the washer and dryer should be placed in a plastic bag.