Any insect infestation inside your home is a nuisance, costing precious time and money to remove. However, many insect invaders are just that — a nuisance. Others can cause significant damage to your property. Bed bugs are arguably the worst kind of home invaders. Not only do these bugs get into your home, but they are actually feeding on you! And thanks to their powerful genes, bed bugs are not easy to get rid of due to pesticide resistance. So what can you do if you spot them in your home, or more likely, see bites on your body? Arm yourself with as much information as possible to help you spot bed bugs and take the steps to get rid of them,
Identifying Bed Bugs
Common bed bugs have the scientific name Cimex lectularius or Cimex hemipterus. The layman’s term “bed bug” comes from their preferred place of residence: near beds, bedding or sleeping areas in general. Bed bugs are individually about the size of a grain of rice or an apple seed. They are round, flat insects and are reddish-brown in color. Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs cannot fly or jump, but they can crawl up to 100 feet in order to reach their food source.
Their key feature that causes much discomfort to humans is that they tend to enjoy feeding on our blood. They consume blood by biting humans and other animals. Unlike mosquitoes, they are not carriers of disease, but their bites can lead to both allergic reactions and anxiety from repeated bites. These bugs are also quite hardy: bed bugs can last for up to 400 days in between meals given the right temperature and humidity level.
Bed bugs breed rather slowly when compared to other insects. Their method of reproduction is called traumatic insemination. During this process, the male breaks through the female’s abdomen and introduces his sperm. A healthy female bed bug can lay between 200 and 500 eggs in lifetime, with the capacity to lay between 2 and 5 eggs per day. An egg takes about 10 days to hatch, and then 5 or 6 weeks to develop into an adult. And that’s if conditions are favorable — the ideal temperature for bed bugs is between 80 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In temperatures closer to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, it can take up to 4 months for a larvae to mature into an adult bed bug.
How to Treat a Bed Bug Infestation
You might think a bed bug infestation is pretty unlikely. After all, bed bugs were nearly eradicated in the 1950’s with the introduction of pesticides and better hygiene. Unfortunately bed bugs have made a comeback in the last 20 years, with a large-scale outbreak at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and a highly broadcast epidemic in New York City in 2010. Experts claim a myriad of reasons for the recurrence — pesticide resistance and a surge in global travel are two examples.
If you have found yourself having to deal with a bed bug infestation, don’t panic. There are several steps you should take to ensure that you thoroughly eliminate the bugs and prevent future attacks.
1. Identify the Source
So how did you end up with a bed bug infestation on your hands? The most likely reason is picking them up while traveling. As mentioned before, bed bugs flock to beds, bedding or sleeping areas in general. And you have to sleep somewhere when you travel — think hotel rooms, rental houses and even bunk beds at summer camps. And speaking of summer, you’re more likely to encounter them in summer months when temperatures are higher and they mature at a faster rate. However, they don’t like extreme heat so they don’t live on our person, but latch onto our luggage and even shoes for the trip home.
2. Preparatory Steps
Getting rid of them is your next challenge, as bed bugs are increasingly resistant to pesticides. Studies have shown that bed bugs have developed resistance to neonicotinoids, the most commonly used insecticide on the planet. You’d have to use concentrations of 1,000 percent for neonicotinoids to effectively kill bed bugs! Pyrethroids are the new insecticide of choice, but bed bugs are already developing resistance to them as well. The most reliable way to remove bed bugs today is through treatments that don’t involve chemicals. Before you do that, you’ll need to prepare your home for the treatment.
The best way to get your home ready for treatment is to make the infested area as inhospitable to bed bugs as possible. Start by eliminating clutter. Get rid of cardboard boxes, magazines and newspapers. Move clothing off the floor. Get rid of things you don’t use. And before you move any of these things, check to see if they are infested with bed bugs. You don’t want to spread the infestation by moving infested items to a non-infested area.
Next up: Clean everything in the bed bug-infested area. Clothes, sheets and all items that can endure high temperatures should be washed and dried on high heat. Inspect the area for bed bugs — the floor, walls, baseboards and all furniture. Vacuum up bed bugs and their eggs and remove the vacuum bag immediately.
Your bed is the most coveted bed bug living area. Make sure it is sealed off as much as possible to ensure treatment will be successful. Move your bed away from the wall — at least 6 inches. Remove all bed bugs and bed bug eggs from your bed. Purchase encasements and put them on your box spring and mattress. Make sure they are zipped up tight — they will keep new bed bugs out, and keep existing bed bugs in so they’ll eventually die. Use traps of petroleum jelly or talcum powder under the feet of your bed to catch bed bugs, and inspect them regularly to remove those that get caught. Make sure sheets are tucked in and nothing is touching the floor, and remove anything from underneath the bed.
3. Treatment
Now that the infested area is prepared, it is time for treatment. Given that chemical treatments are no longer effective, a combination of heat, encasement, and vapor can be used to kill the bed bugs. If you plan to treat the area yourself, you can use your dryer’s heat setting, plastic bags for encasement, and foggers to spread vapor. You’ll need to look at each item to determine if it is appropriate for the high heat setting of your dryer, and run it for at least 30 minutes. For those items that can’t go in the dryer, placing them in sealed plastic bags to encase the bugs is an effective way to kill them. Remember that they can live over a year without food, so you’ll have to be ready to part with the items in the plastic bags for a long time. Using a fogger to release vapor that kills bed bugs is another option. If you want to use a fogger, make sure to get an EPA-approved fogger and read all the safety information. If used incorrectly, foggers have the potential to start an explosion.
If these tactics don’t work or you prefer to leave the it to the professionals, you can schedule an appointment with an exterminator. Expect a full home inspection so they can determine the extent of the infestation, and the same types of treatments mentioned above — just on a larger scale. An exterminator may use a combination of steam heat, ambient heating services, freezing using liquid carbon dioxide (CO2 snow), pesticides in dust form, traps and even dogs to sniff out the bed bugs.
As part of the treatment, the exterminator may advise you on extra measures like sealing cracks in walls or encasing additional items, depending on your specific situation.
4. Post-Treatment Care
Once the treatment is complete, you’ll still need to do some legwork to make sure you completely remove the bed bug infestation. That means checking the infested area regularly for signs of bed bugs, and removing any bed bugs or eggs immediately and re-treating the area. Making sure you keep your home inhospitable to bed bugs is important as well, so remember to get rid of clutter, keep the area clean and keep your bed sealed as well.
With the rise of global travel and pesticide resistance, bed bugs are having an unfortunate resurgence. The only way to avoid them completely is to keep yourself isolated — not a terribly realistic option. It is important to know that although bed bugs are a nuisance, they don’t carry diseases. And even though chemicals no longer work to eradicate bed bugs, there are ways to remove them — and exterminators who can help if you don’t want to go it alone.
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