Detection and Treatment of Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are among the creepiest pests due in large part to hiding in broad daylight, coming out only at night. They’re small, flat, oval, brown parasitic insects that feed on blood. While they don’t cause a health concern of epidemic proportions, it’s important to get them out of your Phoenix home.

While the sun is up and you’re most likely to detect them, bed bugs are hiding in cracks and crevices like mattress seams, box springs, joints of bed frames, edges of carpets, and behind pictures and headboards. If you can’t see them during the day, how do you know you have them?

Detection of Bed Bugs

If you’re waking up with bites on your body that you didn’t have when you went to bed, there’s a good chance you have bed bugs.

1. Visual Inspection – Remove the bedding and inspect around edges and in crevices for actual bed bugs. If you don’t see any on a cursory inspection, remove the mattress and box spring, looking around the edges for the nighttime pest.
2. Other Evidence – Bed bugs will leave a trail where they are traveling and infesting. If you see blood stains, dark or rusty spots, egg shells, or shed skins on your bed, couch, walls near this furniture, that’s a sign of bed bugs.
3. Interceptor Device – Bed bugs are on the move at night when you’re likely asleep. Installing an interceptor device under the legs of beds and couches will catch bedbugs on the move whether they’re heading to an infested area or a food source. It’s kind of gross but it is one or two less bed bugs that can get you.
4. Bedding – Don’t let bedding hang off the edges of the bed and onto the floor. This will make it more difficult for these pests to get onto your bed.
5. Cover your Bed – Consider a mattress encasement to protect your bed from these pests. It’s expensive but worth the investment if you’re worried or have experienced an infestation.

Treatment of Bed Bugs

If you’ve confirmed or suspect a bed bug infestation, continue checking the area for signs of bugs so you can tell your pest control professional where you’ve seen the pests. Inspect cracks and crevices of bookcases, telephones, carpet edges, molding, and clothing that may have touched these areas.

Because they reproduce quickly, it is important to deal with the problem quickly.