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How To Avoid Bed Bugs


Summary: Get out the magnifying glass and flashlight because today we are checking for bed bugs. Like vampires, they only feed at night.

Everyone is freaking out about bed bugs. Bed bug paranoia has taken over as hotels, hospitals, nursing homes and movie theaters fight infestations, real or imagined. So, I thought I would tell you what I do when I check in to a hotel or go to a movie theater.

First, bed bugs are small. They are only about an eight-inch long, so they don't exactly stand out when they are sitting on a couch or chair, especially when it's covered in a dark or patterned fabric. You really need to do some close-up visual inspecting to find them.

Of course, you also need to know what they look like. I cannot

Bedbugmattress.jpg

tell you how many people bring me little bugs they think are bed bugs, but are not. I've provided a picture of one, but you need to know their color and size changes according to when they last had a blood meal.

Bed bugs hide during the daytime and come out at night to feed when their victim is sleeping. They need a still body to climb on. They don't do well when their host is moving around, so it is unlikely that you'll find a feeding bed bug on you when you are working. That is not to say a bed bug won't hitch a ride on your clothing and drop off when you arrive home. They are well known for their hitchhiking capabilities.

It can be difficult to locate the source of a bed bug infestation because they are such effective hide-and-seekers. They can squirm into the seams of mattresses, the thin cracks in between the wood joints of furniture, or behind wallpaper and baseboards. Because a bed bug is so small and secretive, you might have to be a little tricky in determining whether you have an infestation or not.

My procedure for avoiding bed bugs varies, depending upon the location I am walking into. For example, when I check into my hotel room I leave my bags zipped until I have done my inspection. That inspection involves looking along the angle where the wall and ceiling meet. Bed bugs crawl upwards when looking for hiding places and you can often find them up there.

Bedbugs-annualreport.jpg

I do a partial strip of the bed to check the sides of the mattress for blood spots. Bed bugs deposit their fecal droppings leaving dark brown to black spots, a sure sign of infestation.

This next part is hard to do if you are by yourself. I like to remove the headboard from the wall to inspect the backside. This is a favorite bed bug hiding spot. I also remove the bedside table bottom drawers to check the underside of the drawers. Bed bugs will hide under a drawer, rather than inside the drawer. Lastly, I check the closet ceiling and along the frames looking for bed bugs.

Seems like a lot to go through, but I have yet to pick up a single bed bug in my travels. I've been careful, but also lucky. I go to lots of movies, but in a dark theater you just have to take your chances. It's either that, or a Netflix subscription and stay at home. I also go out to eat a lot and there is little I can do to protect myself when I slide into a booth. No telling who was sitting there before me and what is hiding under my seat cushion. We all need to go on living, but make ourselves aware of our surroundings and try to avoid situations that scream “bed bugs”. What a world!

For more bed bug information please click here .





Comments

Teen =[[
10 May 2009, 01:57
I HAVE BED BUGS IN MY NEW APARTMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dawna
12 Jun 2009, 13:48
i live in a 2 bedroom apartment in brooklyn. we found at least 5 bedbugs in my daughter's room over the 3months and i recently found three in my room- only one had blood. we found no droppings or eggs or black spots but I have steamed, cleaned and sprayed everything. We even called the exterminator who found nothing but treated the apartment. right after the exterminator I got beaten once on the arm... what shoul i do next? i am deathly afraid especially since i have a new baby at home. I used bedlum spray and mother earth-d powder
Dawna
13 Jun 2009, 15:50
Thanks Much.

I sprayed & laid down more powder again this weekend. Is it okay to spray once weekly while I monitor
phani
23 Aug 2009, 09:07
We had bed bug infestation in my son's room. My cousin sleeps there he had no reaction to bites untill it was late. I was panicked so called gaurdian pest control they gave an appointment for later in that week and they no suggestions as to things that needed to be done. So we moved the mattress to the garage and other stuff to the back ward as the temprature was 90 degrees. later we put everything in the bags and put them in the garage untill pco came and treated. My son had captain's bed. PCO came in twice and treated, but no luck. We hired a different PCO and got our house steam vaccumed. Looks like we spread the infestation to our master bed room New PCO treated my son's room and whole house, but no luck Infestation spread to guest room. My parents sleep in the guest room. After 3 treatments from the new PCO we still have bed bugs in almost all the rooms. I think our couch is also infested. PCO put precor in the couch in the master bed room and other carpeted areas after a week we still have bites. We have single family house which is 2560 sqft with 4 bed rooms, Office room, loft, 21/2 bath, basement, garage. We have 6 people in my house. My parents are visiting. First we found bed bugs in my sons room in june. After 5 treatments from diffrent PCOs we still have them in all the rooms. We have furniture in all the rooms. Loft and office have book racks. Please help us we are desperate. It looks like we don't have any space in the house that is not infested. Please kindly help us.
Jennifer
11 Sep 2009, 17:48
I think I might have bed bugs - but I don't think it's an infestation; how can I tell? I looked in my mattress and pillow case creases; I looked against the baseboards, and where the ceiling meets the wall - various corners - and I can not find any trace of bugs, blood or droppings. I do have a few pattern (small) bites that look like pimples - around my knees. One on my arm, a few randomly on my leg. Could it be another type of bu? Can I find these bugs during the day, at all? or, do I have to wait until it is dark outside to find them? Please help!!
angela
07 Jul 2010, 14:34
i am a property manager and some of the units in a completely different building next door are having problems with bed bugs. i am MORTIFIED! my only phobia in life is bugs. i have a 2 yr old son and a 3 bdrm apt. we just sold our clean furniture because we want to invest in new stuff but i have a tenant that just last week was told by wil kil pest mgt that all their furniture, dressers, mattress' for this couple and their 4 children had to be thrown away... she was devastated and i am completely scared to get these horrifying critters. is there anything i can do to prevent ever getting bed bugs from possible neighbors? should i buy mattress covers before we buy new mattress' so theres never a "possiblility" of them getting into our mattress'? should we even buy new furniture now that we sold ours? ive read/ heard they can be in new furniture. i just read an article about jc pennies giving them to a customer and thats a large company. are these infestations when you have to get rid of furniture covered on homeowners/ renters insurance???...any advice is greatly appreciated.....thanks
Ask the Exterminator
07 Jul 2010, 16:20
You never really have to throw anything away that can be properly treated. Mattresses and boxsprings can be encased in zippered covers. Dressers can be treated. Maybe the most difficult item to treat is an upholstered sofa. All the folds make it very hard to spray all the hiding bed bugs.

A mattress cover will not prevent bed bugs. It just seals them inside in the event bed bugs get inside the mattress. Otherwise, the surface of a mattress can be treated successfully. A boxspring is another matter. Once bed bugs get into the inner-workings of the boxspring you really need to encase it or discard it.

Seldom do you find bed bugs in new furniture. It can happen during the delivery of the furniture. Usually, delivery services deliver the new furniture and pick up and cart away the old infested furniture. Same truck. During the return of the used furniture bed bugs can follow up and sit inside the delivery truck. When new furniture is carried into the truck, the waiting bed bugs hitch a ride into their next home.
Karen Bowling
18 Aug 2010, 11:48
I got bed bugs in the middle nineties. Lucky for me we were building a new house and were going to move in 4 months. I lost 30lbs. during that time. I notice blood on our sheets. My husband ask me if I have been scratching sores or what. I told him I thought it was him. I never notice any bites on me or him. We had squirrels in our attic for maybe three years. Never really bothered us. I notice a trail of black spots going out our bathroom window. My neighbor across the street had her mattress on the porch.
I would just suck the bugs up with my vacuum. I wondered what the bugs were and I looked it up on my kids CDI. I typed in bed bugs because they were in my bed. I was playing around and even laughed to myself. When I saw the picture of them and what they did I freaked out big time. I couldn't sleep or eat. I was disgusted and ashamed. I bomb the house 2 or three times and called exterminator. None of that helped. The exterminator said the signs look like bedbugs but he never heard of bedbugs in America. He said they are in third world countries. Well I thought well we are getting lots of immigrants why not? I know what I saw and I knew I was right. My husband didn't believe me. I prayed God would let me find one so he could take it to the university. Just as I looked up one was on my ceiling. I freaked out called him home. He caught it and took it to the university for identification. They were amazed and said they were shocked that it was out in broad daylight. Anyway this story goes on and on. I ended up throwing everything away even my kids toys. I bought new furniture and beds.
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