Since Americans traveled in almost record numbers this spring, it’s probable that the prevalence of bed bugs will rise. The first day of National Bed Bug Awareness Week is Sunday, June 4. Thousand Oaks Pest Control, your friendly pest, mosquito, termite, and rodent management expert, would want to help keep your home free of bed bugs after you return from a summer vacation or business trip. You and your family can stay safe if you heed the following advice:
- Before you leave, check travel websites to see if bed bugs have been reported at your hotel.
- Make sure there are no bed bugs in the room or rooms before you unload. Look behind the headboard and behind lamps, as well as in dressers, drawers, couches, and chairs.
- By drawing back the covers, inspect the mattress seams and box springs, particularly at the corners, for pepper-like stains, spots, or exfoliated bed insect skins.
- Bed bugs are easily transported in luggage, on cleaning carts, and even through wall outlets. The rooms closest to an infestation’s source are typically where it spreads the fastest.
- Only the clothing you plan to wear should be unpacked; avoid leaving your shoes on the floor.
- Store your luggage in the bathroom or on a tile floor because bed bugs are least likely to reside there.
- When you go home, thoroughly inspect all of your possessions, including the clothing you are wearing, for bed bugs.
- After unpacking your luggage outdoors or in the garage, put everything in the washer or dryer on the highest temperature setting for at least 10 minutes.
Additional Details Regarding Bed Bugs
At your next trivia night, attendees will be impressed by these amazing bed bug facts while also maybe being grossed out. How much is known about bed bugs is surprising:
- Widespread throughout the world, bed bugs are said to have entered the United States from Europe in the 17th century.
- Bed bugs mostly feed on humans, but they can also eat warm-blooded animals like mice, birds, and domestic pets.
- Adults are quite flat, barely about a quarter of an inch long, and oval-shaped compared to the majority of other insects.
- Bed bugs can produce one to five eggs per day, totaling 500 in their lifetime.
- Bed bugs can live without a blood meal for several months.
- Temperatures range from nearly absolute zero to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, which bed bugs can withstand.
- Bed bugs draw blood for around five minutes before hiding to eat.
- Because they are so small, bed bug eggs can fit through a mattress stitch.
- Bed bugs can ingest seven times their own weight in blood, or 120 gallons of liquid for an average-sized man.
- The anesthetic chemicals in bed bug saliva also promote enhanced blood flow to the bite site. Due to how rapidly and nearly painlessly the bed bug feeds, this aids in keeping the host from waking up.
Expert Bed Bug Solutions
Before creating a successful bed bug treatment plan, a trained pest control specialist must conduct a painstaking, thorough inspection of all known and suspected sites where bed bugs may hide. Do-it-yourself techniques cannot effectively control this insect.
Get in touch with California’s trusted, approachable bed bug and pest treatment expert if you think your home might be plagued with bed bugs. We can provide you with a multi-tiered control and preventive program once we conduct a professional inspection, make an accurate identification, and conduct the inspection. Until the next time, the pest control professionals at Thousand Oaks Pest Control appreciate your help in keeping unwanted pests from entering your home and yard.
