Identifying bed
bugs
Immature bed
bugs are light yellow in color unless they have recently fed on
blood, and then they're
darker in the middle. Adults are reddish brown and turn darker after
a blood meal. Even though bed bugs are small, about 1/5th of an
inch, they can be readily seen with the naked eye. They're
wingless, oval and flattened in appearance,
and they crawl at a steady
pace.
Bed bugs are
active at night when they leave their daytime resting place
(deep inside cracks and crevices)
to seek out human blood. Checking
the bed linen in the middle of the night is
the best way to find
them. Bed bug bites are normally
two or three in a row, and blood spots are
often found on the sheeting.
Look for bed bugs under folds in mattresses, along seams and in
between bedposts and bed slats. When large numbers of
bed bugs are present, they produce a
distinctive, pungent odor. Numerous dark
fecal spots on linen or near cracks are another indication of a
larger infestation.
Behavior
After feeding,
a female bed bug will lay eggs in their daytime refuge. An immature
bed bug may take several months to mature to an adult.
An adult can live for up to one year.
During development, the young bed bug will feed frequently on the
blood of humans but they can exist for
many months between blood meals.
Bed bugs
inject saliva into the blood stream of their host to thin the blood
and to prevent coagulation. This saliva
causes intense itching and welts the next day. The delay in the
onset of itching gives the feeding bed bug time to escape into
cracks and crevices. In some cases, the itchy bites can develop into
painful welts that last several days.
The good news
is that this insect is not known to transmit human disease.
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Bed bug control
The first step
in control is to eliminate the possibility of bed bugs physically
climbing over a mattress or bed to feed. Pull the bed away from
shelving or the wall, and coat the legs of
the bed with a band of Vaseline or mineral oil about
two inches wide. To
prevent or exclude bed bugs from the sleeping area,
carefully examine
and remove them,
and then caulk cracks and place
a chalk or silica aerogel barrier around the bed at floor level.
Double-sided carpet tape may be effective in trapping bed bugs and
excluding them from sleeping areas.
Gentrol and
Phantom are registered pesticides for bed bug control and can be
applied by professional pest control contractors. Gentrol contains
the active ingredient (S)-Hydroprene, an insect growth regulator
(IGR) that disrupts the normal growth development of cockroaches and
stored product pests, drain flies and fruit flies, as well as bed
bugs. Phantom® uses an active ingredient known as chlorfenapyr. It
is non-repellent and relatively long-lasting. If residual pesticides
are applied, the base of the bed legs is a good place to begin.
Mattresses should not be treated with insecticides.
Rather than
replacing one mattress with another that is also likely to become
infested, consider encasing the mattress with a bed bug tight cover.
Since freezing
weather will kill bed bugs, you may be able to place suspect
furniture outdoors during the winter for a period of time to
eliminate an infestation. Do not bring used furniture into the home
unless it can be visually inspected as bed bug free. It is important
not to abandon infested furniture without marking it as
"infested with bed bugs."
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an Appointment Today
Or Call Toll-Free: 1-800-PEST-CONTROL
(1-800-737-8266)
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