The process involves continuous application heat of at least 113 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. This will kill bed bugs. Since the typical hair dryer produces heat in excess of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, you should have no difficulty. The trick is not to burn yourself in the process.
Ultimately, you will need to contact a professional exterminator. The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll find relief.
Filed under Kill Bed Bugs by on Mar 2nd, 2012. 
Being fully nourished, a female bed bug can lay up to 3 eggs per day. It only takes two weeks for the eggs to hatch, so you can understand how quickly one bug can spark an infestation. From the eggs, emerges a nymph. Bed Bug nymphs are difficult to identify because their bodies are translucent. The nymph immediately looks for its first meal. The nymph can mature to an adult bed bug in about four months. Bed bugs can live up to ten months, but can go a long time between feedings. Simply leaving your house for a long weekend will not starve-out the bed bug infestation.For the do-it-yourselfer, you should consider reading “Bed Bugs – How To Prevent And Treat Bed Bugs“. It’s an eBook, so you can download it right away and start dealing with your unwanted house guests. It has advice like how to conquer your infested mattress and how to kill the adult bugs AND eggs.
A professional bed bug extermination technician can cost up to $500 for an preliminary inspection. It will most likely cost thousands for more a complete eradication. If you are going to attempt to kill the bed bugs on your own, you should consider asking a professional for advice or guidance. Do-It-Yourself pest control stores can provide a volume of information.
Filed under Bed Bug Infestations, What Are Bed Bugs by on Feb 23rd, 2012.
Bed bugs are found throughout the world and are significantly increasing in numbers in North America as well as in many other countries. Even though we do not understand fully all of the reasons behind this increase, we suspect possible contributing factors such as a reduction in the use of urban pesticides, the more extensive world travel of different cultures and resistance to pesticides. This sudden increase in bed bug infestations has resulted in anxiety among the public, increased negative exposure of the hotel industry and a need to educate public health officials and pest control professionals on safe and effective control measures
During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of bed bug infestations reported from homes, resort hotels, apartments, universities and cruise ships. The females produce 2 to 3 eggs every day throughout their lifespan, which can be several months. The elongated eggs are cemented in cracks or crevices close to the hosts. There is no larval stage; the young hatch as nymphs, mini versions of the adults.
The key to minimizing the likelihood of a bed bug problem is to educate yourself about bed bugs before they become an issue.
Here are a few tips to try to get ahead of these annoying little blood-suckers:
While On A Trip
- Get familiar with what bed bugs look like. The adult bed bugs are easy to spot. They are dark brown and are about the size of a tick. Baby bed bugs (nymphs) are more of a challenge. They are usually tend to be translucent and very small. Regardless of what part of the growth cycle a bed bug is in, they are very flat. This means they can hide nearly anywhere.
- Forget this idea that bed bugs thrive in a filthy environment. Unlike roaches and ants, bed bugs are right at home in an immaculate, luxury hotel. All a bed bug needs is a place to hide and a nearby human to snack on.
- Inspect your hotel room. Two of the most frequent hiding places for bed bugs are the mattress and the headboard. Take it upon yourself to look, before you unpack your suitcase.
- Place your luggage on a metal rack or other stand as far away from the bed and walls as possible. This will reduce the risk of unwanted stowaways.
- Pack only what you need for your trip. Before you go home, consider visiting a coin-operated laundry. Toss your clothes (clean and dirty) in the dryer for a few minutes, until they are heated all the way through. The heat should be enough to kill the bed bugs and the bed bugs eggs. This should prevent an accidental infestation of your own house.
In Your House
- Declutter. The fewer hiding places your provide, the less likely the chance of infestation.
- Talk to your neighbors, especially if you live in close proximity such as an apartment building or condominium.
- Consider buying a mattress cover and caulk all cracks and crevices in your bedroom. The fewer places a bed bug can call home, the better.
Filed under Bed Bug Infestations by on Sep 16th, 2011.
Getting rid of bed bugs is not an easy process, and most cases of bed bug infestation will require treatment by a pest-control expert. A variety of low-odor sprays, dusts, and aerosol insecticides can be used to eradicate bed bugs. These must be applied to all areas where the bugs are observed as well as spaces where they may crawl or hide. The pest-control company can help you determine if the mattress can be disinfected or must be discarded. Since beds cannot readily be treated with insecticides, it’s often necessary to discard infested mattresses and beds.
The pest-control expert may recommend certain forms of deep-cleaning such as scrubbing infested surfaces with a stiff brush to remove eggs, dismantling bed frames and furniture, filling cracks in floors, walls, and moldings, encasing mattresses within special bags, or using a powerful vacuum on cracks and crevices.
Get rid of infested mattresses and box springs or cover them with a plastic mattress bag to trap the bugs. Wash clothes and bedding in hot water, and dry on high heat. Clean furniture and vacuum cracks in wood floors and doors where bugs may hide. Shake out suitcases. Use an insecticide in the cracks of floors or bed frames, but read the label; do not apply to areas that come in direct contact with skin. If you still can’t get rid of them, call an exterminator.
Filed under Kill Bed Bugs by on Aug 22nd, 2011.
You can look to see if you can identify the fecal stains, egg cases, and exuviae (shed skins) in crevices and cracks on or near beds. You should also look at other areas such as under wallpaper, behind picture frames, in couches and other furniture, in bedsprings and under mattresses, and even in articles of clothing.
While fecal stains and skin casts suggest that bed bugs have been present, these do not confirm that the infestation is still active. Observing the bed bugs themselves is definitive confirmation that an area is infested. You may require professional assistance from a pest-control company in determining whether your home contains bed bugs.
Filed under Bed Bugs In Your Home by on Jul 13th, 2011.
Many news reports in recent years have focused on the discovery of bed bugs in upscale hotels, and a number of lawsuits have been filed by guests in these fashionable hotels who awoke to find hundreds of bed bug bites covering their skin. Searching on travel-review web sites regularly reveals information and even photos confirming the presence of bed bugs in hotels.
Since the bed bugs can arrive on the clothing or in the suitcases of guests from infested homes or other hotels harboring the pests, hotels can be an easy target for bed bug infestations.
Training housekeeping and maintenance staff to check for bed bugs is strongly recommended in order to identify an infestation. A professional pest control company should be contacted immediately if an infestation is found.
Hotel staff should examine guest rooms closely, including sheets and bedding. In infested rooms, sheets and pillowcases used by guests who are bitten by bed bugs may have small bloodstains, which appear as small reddish brown spots. Mattress seams should be examined for brown spots that could be bed bug feces, for shed skins, and for active bed bugs. Cracks and crevices should be examined using a flashlight. Sites to be searched include behind bed headboards, furniture seams, draperies, floor moldings, areas where wallpaper is loose, and behind picture frames and baseboards, especially those located near the beds. If a centralized forced-air heating system exists, the heating ducts in guest rooms should be checked for signs of bed bugs.
Filed under Bed Bugs In Hotels by on Jun 10th, 2011. 1 Comment.
Bed bugs were common in the U.S. before World War II and became rare after widespread use of the pesticide DDT began in the 1940s and 1950s. They remained prevalent in other areas of the world and, in recent years, have been increasingly observed again in the U.S. Increases in immigration and travel from the developing world as well as restrictions on the use of stronger pesticides may be factors that have led to the relatively recent increase in bed bug infestations. While bed bugs are often reported to be found when sanitation conditions are poor or when birds or mammals (particularly bats) are nesting on or near a home, bed bugs can also live and thrive in clean environments. Crowded living quarters also facilitate the spread of bed bugs.
Bed bugs can live in any area of the home and can reside in tiny cracks in furniture as well as on textiles and upholstered furniture. They tend to be most common in areas where people sleep and generally concentrate in beds, including mattresses, box springs, and bed frames. They do not infest the sleeping surfaces of beds as commonly as cracks and crevices associated with the bed frame and mattress. Other sites where bed bugs often reside include curtains, edges of carpet, corners inside dressers and other furniture, cracks in wallpaper (particularly near the bed), and inside the spaces of wicker furniture.
Since bed bugs can live for months without feeding, they can also be found in vacant homes.
Filed under What Are Bed Bugs by on Sep 26th, 2010.
Bedbugs are most often found in hotels, hostels, shelters, and apartment complexes where lots of people come and go. Because bedbugs hide in small crevices, they can hitch a ride into your home on luggage, pets, furniture, clothing, boxes, and other objects. Bedbugs are found worldwide, but are most common in developing countries. Once rare in North America, they may be on the rise due, in part, to increases in international travel.
Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs are not a sanitation issue; they don’t discriminate and can be found in any hotel — luxury to inexpensive — and any home — big, small, clean or dirty as well as dormitories and cruise ships.
These nocturnal creatures can hide in beds, floors, furniture, wood, and paper trash during the day. We humans usually become their dinner during the night, with peak biting activity just before dawn. They can obtain their meal in as little as three minutes, after which they are engorged and drop off the host, then crawl into a hiding place to digest their meal. Bedbugs can live for 10 months, and can go weeks without feeding.
Filed under Bed Bugs In Hotels by on Sep 26th, 2010. 1 Comment.
News reports of bed bugs are on the rise. The Flathead County Health Office says it’s seen an increase in questions about the pests. Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of, and even if you can manage to kill them, their eggs can lie dormant for months before hatching. Pest controllers also report an increase in calls about them.“I used to do, let’s say 10 years ago, we’d do only 1 or 2 a year,” says Gary Stetson of American Pest Control. “In the last 18 months, I’m doing 1 to 3 a month. That’s 50 percent at least, maybe 60 percent more than 5 years ago.
We’re told bed bugs don’t spread disease like fleas, but just are still considered a public health issue because they itch, and scratching them can lead to infection.If you suspect you have them, wash your sheets and curtains and vacuum your carpet. You can also try over-the-counter pesticides, but professional pest control usually has the most success against them.
By Will Wadley
Filed under What Are Bed Bugs by on Sep 26th, 2010.
Being able to identify a bed bug problem can help keep you and your family safe at home and when traveling.
Bed bugs leave dark fecal stains on mattresses and other places they infest. If you don’t see any bed bugs, you still might see their feces.
Bed bugs move through 5 stages of growth on the way to maturity. At some point during each stage they will become too large for their current exoskeleton. When that happens, they will shed their exoskeleton and grow a new one that is larger. You may see these molted exoskeletons close to where bed bugs hide.
Bedbugs are small, flat, wingless insects with six legs that, like mosquitoes, feed on blood from animals or people. They range in color from almost white to brown, but they turn rusty red after feeding. The common bedbug doesn’t grow much longer than 0.2 inches (0.5 centimeters) and can be seen by the naked eye to the astute observer. Bedbugs get their name because they like to hide in bedding and mattresses.
What Are Bed Bugs?
- Tiny insects that suck blood
- Live in dark places in your home – cracks in skirting boards, floorboards, picture frames, peeling wall paper etc
- Approx 1/5 inch long
- They don’t carry diseases
- Bites can cause itching and localised skin swelling
- Active at night
Signs Of Bed Bug Infestation
- Bites – showing as a whitish swelling
- Blood spots on sheets, mattresses
- Shed skins, eggs visible under beds, edge of mattresses, cracks of woodwork etc
How Do You Get Rid Of Bed Bugs?
- Professional help from pest control companies
Why Seek Professional Help?
- Use of dangerous chemicals to eliminate the bed bugs
- They are the experts
- Years of experience
- Advice regarding chemical residues in your house
- Advice on safety for pets
Filed under What Are Bed Bugs by on Sep 26th, 2010. 1 Comment.
