The mere mention of the insect is enough to make most people feel a little itchy and squirmy. Even if you’ve never confronted bed bugs before, you’re well aware of just how much of a nuisance they can be. But what do you do when a bed bug infestation strikes close to home?
The Problem With Bed Bugs
“Bedbugs are pretty much the vampires of the pest world,†Fischer Environmental says. “They feed on the blood of humans and animals. The small, oval-shaped, brown-colored bugs take up residence in our living quarters and reproduce quickly. Bed bugs don’t cause diseases, but they do bite and leave odors and stains in their wake.â€
Pretty nasty, right? But just because bed bugs don’t cause deadly diseases doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore them. Bed bugs tend to feed for three to ten-minute intervals before crawling away and lying dormant for a period of time. By the time these bites turn into itchy welts, most people won’t be able to find the bugs and, therefore, can’t attribute the bites to them.
Bed bugs are annoying, frustrating, nasty, and, in some cases, costly. If you want to reclaim your home – instead of sharing it with thousands of tiny insects – you must act quickly.
These Methods Don’t Work
Let’s start by discussing some of the methods that don’t work. There’s a lot of buzz on the internet about DIY bed bug infestation treatments, but many of them are simply false and unreliable. For example:
Mothballs. You may have heard that mothballs are a good deterrent, but this is just an old wives’ tale. Mothballs have no proven effect and tend to irritate the sinuses.
Household cleaning products. You can find a whole slew of homemade formulas online, but don’t try any of them. Rubbing alcohol, kerosene, gasoline garden pesticides, and other chemicals are more dangerous than helpful.
You also don’t want to throw out your furniture. Furniture can be treated for bed bugs. If you throw the furniture away, you risk spreading the infestation. There’s also no guarantee that bed bugs left in the home won’t infest your new furniture.
Here’s What You Should Actually Do
So, what should you do? Is there an answer to effectively removing bed bugs without harming your home and family? Yes, and it’s a rather simple three-step process:
Identify. There are a lot of different creepy crawlies. Your first step is to verify that you do, in fact, have bed bugs. Use this little guide to assist in your determination.
Call. If you do have bed bugs, call a professional immediately. This isn’t something you want to handle on your own. It can, and will, get worse if you don’t eradicate them properly.
Control. In between the time you call the professionals and the time they arrive, take steps to control the spread.
If you do these three things as soon as you suspect a bed bug infestation, you’ll be just fine.
Have a Plan
When it comes to important decisions in life, it’s wise to already know what you’re going to do. For example, a teenager would be smart to already have a response prepared for the first moment they’ll be exposed to drugs at a party or friend’s house. Trying to make the right decision in the moment will be difficult, as emotions and situational factors enter the picture.
Well, the same goes for a bed bug infestation. You need to have a plan for what you’ll do before it ever happens. Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting time trying to formulate a response – valuable time that could worsen the situation.
What will you do?
