They are the consummate uninvited
houseguests, bleeding you dry as a food source and lingering in your home with
no intention of leaving.
Increased international travel, changes in pest management practices and a lack
of public awareness has led to a resurgence of bedbugs in the United States
unseen since World War II.
Spotting and eradicating the elusive bedbugs is no easy task and some cities
have declared them an epidemic. Summer travel offers an ideal time for exposure
and the issue has become so pervasive, that it prompted the EPA in April to hold
its first-ever bedbug summit.
Angie’s List, the nation’s leading provider of
consumer ratings on local service providers, including
pest control companies and
allergists, went to its highly rated providers for tips on avoiding,
identifying and eliminating bedbugs.
“Bedbugs are expert hitchhikers, so it only takes one night in an infested
location for a person to take bedbugs with them to their next destination,” said
Angie’s List founder Angie Hicks. “Usually, the first indication of exposure to
bedbugs is bites on a person’s skin, though it often takes a week or longer for
people to react to bites.”
The nocturnal, appleseed-sized bedbugs feed exclusively on blood, though they
have the ability to survive for months at a time without a meal. Not everyone
has an adverse reaction to bedbug bites, but symptoms typically appear as a row
of itchy, red welts. Bedbugs are not known to transmit disease, but their bites
can cause an allergic reaction or infection.
“The key to preventing an infestation of bedbugs is to minimize your risk of
exposure to them,” Hicks added. “Because bedbugs are non-discriminatory about
the environment in which they live, you can pick them up anywhere from a summer
camp, to a college dormitory, to a hospital, or even the most posh hotel. We
recently polled Angie’s List members nationwide and more than half of those who
had been exposed to bedbugs said they got them after staying in a hotel.”
Angie’s List offers 5 tips to minimize your risk of exposure to bedbugs:
Leave it: Don’t be tempted to pick up
that used piece of furniture someone put out for trash pickup. The ideal habitat
for bedbugs is on mattresses and box springs, where they are usually guaranteed
a food source for eight hours a day. However, bedbugs have also been found in
rental or reconditioned furniture, and inside delivery vehicles. One Angie’s
List member rented a medical lift chair that was infested with bedbugs.
Inspect it: Always inspect the room in
which you’ll be staying if you’re away from home. Leave your luggage outside the
door and use a flashlight to check mattress seams and along bed frames,
headboards and box springs for signs of bedbugs. Look closely at sheets and
blankets for evidence that could include exoskeletons (shed skins) of younger
bugs and “spotting”, which are small, dark stains from excreted blood. If you
notice signs of bedbug activity, immediately request another room.
Protect it: When you travel, keep your
personal items in sealed plastic bags. Keep bags and luggage off floors and
beds.
Clean it: Thoroughly inspect your
belongings before bringing them back into your home. If you suspect bedbugs,
unload your luggage on a hard surface, like a bathtub. Immediately wash items
you believe might be infested in the hottest temperatures possible. Wash by hand
items that can’t be laundered; dry, then thoroughly vacuum and discard the bag.
Clear it: A cluttered area in your home
offers an unlimited number of hiding places for bedbugs and make eradication
even more difficult. Keep your rooms and closets tidy, and avoid putting items
under your bed.
“If you think you might have bedbugs, it’s important you address it quickly and
contact a qualified professional to provide a thorough inspection and diagnosis
before you seek treatment,” Hicks added. “Female bedbugs can lay up to five eggs
per day, so a major infestation can happen quickly. Since visual confirmation of
bedbugs is so difficult, some companies offer canine investigation, in which
they use specially-trained dogs to locate infestations of bedbugs.”
Be leery of pest control companies that try to treat bedbugs like they would a
general pest. What works for termites or carpet beetles won’t work for bedbugs.
“You can’t just hire any pest control company to treat bedbugs, so do your
research and find one that specializes in bedbug eradication,” Hicks said.
“Treating for the wrong types of bugs is costly and ineffective. It takes a
specialized treatment and likely will require multiple treatments.”
Angie’s List offers 5 effective ways to treat for bedbugs:
Cleaning: Thoroughly clean an infested
room. Launder linens in hot water. Remove clutter, turn over drawers and
furniture and clean thoroughly. Disassemble bed frames and clean. Repair and
seal cracks and holes around baseboards, window frames and moldings. Vacuum
thoroughly and discard the bag.
Dust treatment: There are organic
insecticidal dusts available that are all-natural, but lethal to bedbugs and may
be used by a qualified professional in conjunction with other treatments.
Heat treatment: Some pest control
companies use specialized equipment to heat up a room to at least 120-degrees
Fahrenheit for two or more hours to kill off bedbugs.
Mattress covers: Use
entomologist-approved bedbug mattress covers. By encasing mattresses, bedbugs
are restricted to the surface, where they can be more easily detected and
eradicated. Encasements should be bedbug “bite-proof” and “escape-proof”.
Structural fumigation: The most extreme
and costly method, but also the most effective. Not to be confused with
“fogging” or “bombing”, structural fumigations require the structure be covered
with a tarp and vacated for several days, while a fumigated gas is released. Be
sure to contact a pest control company that is licensed in fumigation services.
*1,284 Angie’s List members took the poll. Responses are representative of
Angie’s List members but not the general public.
Disclaimer: The Google Translation that has been added to
pages within the Pendleton-Gazette was done solely as a tool to help those who
speak other languages. It is not guaranteed to be 100% full prove (accurate)
when a translation is performed because of sentence structures in languages
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