Residential Bed Bug Control Northern Virginia

Have you ever wondered how bed bugs manage to get into your home? These little insects don’t have wings, they can’t jump and they don’t move very fast. Something like that shouldn’t be very effective at getting around, right? While they might not have the skills of other insects, bed bugs excel at hitchhiking, using you to transport them from place to place. Let’s say you go to a friend’s house that has bed bugs, if you set down your purse, you might be taking a few biting bed bugs back home with you. Bed bugs also love hiding in luggage. This is the reason hotels and motels are infamous for bed bug infestations. However, bed bugs have also been found in restaurants, movie theaters, schools, office buildings, hospitals, army barracks, and even public transportation. There are even instances where cars have been infested with bed bugs. Imagine driving to work and being bitten… yuck! 

Whenever you visit a location that has an infestation of bed bugs, there is a risk that you will be bringing them home. Bed bugs are photophobic, which means they do not like being in the light, they prefer dark places to hide such as the interior spaces of luggage, as well as purses. Imagine when you send your kids to school in the morning with their backpacks. If there is an infestation of bed bugs at their school, your children could be transporting bed bugs back home. When you go to the office you bring might bring a briefcase, computer bag, or a purse, you could be at risk as well. Bed bugs are not picky; they will hop in and ride home with you. When you go on vacation and stay in a hotel or at your friend’s house you bring your luggage. You already know that bed bugs love hiding in luggage.Since people leave their luggage close to where they sleep, bed bugs are even more likely to climb inside.

Bed bugs are also kind of lazy, and they like to be close to their food supply. Objects stored around beds are most likely to house hidden bed bugs. Even if you don’t carry a personal object with you, your clothing offers plenty of dark hiding places that a bed bug would love to use. That’s right; bed bugs will use the clothes on your back to hitchhike to your home. If you sit down to order food at a restaurant, or sit back to watch a movie in a theater, bed bugs can easily grab onto your clothes and take a ride home with you.

If you happen to bring a bed bug home with you, it will wait for night to arrive. Once it is dark, the bed bug will climb out of whatever item it used to get to your home and, if it’s hungry it is going to try and find a meal. Bed bugs will come after you when you are at your most vulnerable. When you drop into bed and fall asleep, that is when they attack. A bed bug can travel up to 15 to 20 feet per night looking for you and they are adapted to find you. They can sense the heat produced by your body. They can also detect the carbon dioxide you exhale. If you are sharing your home with a bed bug, it will find you. If you start getting bit and decide to move to a different room in your house, the bed bugs will still find you. It might take a few days, but they will find you. If bed bugs are in your home, you cannot hide from them.

It only takes a few bed bugs to create a full blown infestation. A female bed bug can lay up to 250 eggs in her lifetime. New bed bugs begin laying their own eggs after a few weeks. When the eggs hatch a hungry little nymph bed bug emerges. The moment you fall asleep their hungry mouths will find you and have their first meal. New eggs are laid, and more bed bugs emerge. The process repeats and the number of bed bugs continue to increase. In a few months you could have thousands of bed bugs feeding off of your body every single night. Bed bugs are what nightmares are made from.

If you think that the best way to find out if you have an infestation of bed bug is by finding a bed bug, you are wrong. Remember that bed bugs love to hide. An adult bed bug is about the size of an apple seed, only flat. Now step into your bedroom and imagine all of the places in your room where you could hide a flat apple seed. Anywhere you could put an apple seed, is a potential place for a bed bug to hide. At Green Pest Service, our technicians have found bed bugs inside of mattresses, on box springs, behind pictures, inside of electrical outlets, inside heat vents, under nightstands, behind wall paper, in boxes stored under beds. It is rare to find a bed bug wandering around in the middle of the day, but if you do, you probably already have a massive infestation.

In order to catch a bed bug infestation before it become massive, you need to become a bed bug detective. You need to be familiar with the secret life of bed bugs. Getting bit will be your very first clue. If you are getting new bites each night, it is time to be suspicious. Remember though, bed bug bites look a lot like the bites from mosquitoes, fleas, and other insects. Just because you have bites, doesn’t mean bed bugs. A bite from a bed bug will itch and looks like a little red welt. Sometimes you will notice that bed bug bites are in lines or groups. Bed bugs are lazy. They will bite you, move up a bit and bite you again and then again. Bed bugs target exposed skin; because of this most people get bed bug bites on their arms, face, neck and legs. Even with thousands of bed bugs biting, you won’t ever feel a thing. Their little needle like mouth is coated in a numbing agent. Bed bugs are like little anesthesiologists. They bite you, drink your blood and leave you an itchy welt. If you are allergic to bed bug bites, you are going to get a lot of swelling as well.

Despite all of this, there is a bit of good news. Unlike mosquitoes, bed bugs are not known to transmit diseases. So at least you don’t need to worry about getting sick. The bad news is that people who have suffered through a bed bug infestation often deal with acute insomnia. The knowledge that thousands of little insect are feeding off your body every night, would be enough to make anyone terrified of sleeping.

If you are getting bit each night, it is time to take your detective skills to the next level. The second, and most important, sign of an infestation are reddish brown spots. Bed bugs gorge themselves on your blood and defecate at the same time. That’s right, if you have a bed bug infestation; the little critters will be drinking your blood and then doing their nasty business on your body, in your bed and on your pillow. Try inspecting your bed sheets and your pajamas, looking for reddish brown spots. If you are not certain, get a bit of water on your finger and rub it across the mark. If it turns red, you are looking at your blood after it has passed through a bed bug. Finding these spots is the best indicator of a bed bug infestation.

If you decide to run down to your nearest home and garden center and stock up on pesticides, you will be wasting your money. Bed bugs are resistant to many of the pesticides you can purchase. If you think you can move out of your home and into a hotel room and wait for the bed bugs to starve, you better be ready for a very long stay. Bed bugs can go several months without a meal. Besides, if they can’t find you, they will go after your pets. Since bed bugs are so difficult to treat, biologists recommend hiring a professional pest control company.

Nobody likes to have bed bugs infesting the peace and tranquility in their lives. Bed bugs are a major problem for households throughout the country. They require a safe place with a temperate environment so they can survive and thrive.

Our households present them with the ideal environment for that, and the best breeding ground possible. Despite all the measures you can take to make sure they never get into your home, it is virtually unavoidable. They can find a way into your home whether you like it or not.

These tiny creatures are incredibly elusive and will hide in any crevice or crack they can find. Anything that presents even a slight opening can be a hiding spot for bed bugs. They’re called bed bugs but they definitely don’t just stick to beds, you can find them everywhere.

While it may be extremely difficult to perfectly prevent bed bugs from entering your home, you can stop a bed bug infestation from getting completely out of control if you take the right measures.

Here are some important tips to take note of:

• Power Outlets

Open power outlets offer one of the most ideal places for bed bug infestation to fester. They use them to avoid extermination as they can climb into the holes and will remain there until they feel it’s safe to come out. When there is a very bad case of a bed bug infestation in your home, these critters will use the electrical outlets to travel through the walls to other parts of your home. As such, it’s important you don’t leave the power outlets uncovered. That’s the first tip to prevent an overwhelming infestation.

• Vacuum the Floors

As we’ve stated before, bed bugs are everywhere. When you have an infestation, these annoying little bugs will be in your carpets, closet, curtains, etc. To prevent an outright breakout of the bed bug infestation, you need to vacuum with a vengeance.

All the carpeting, the areas where the carpets meet the walls and even the floor that’s bare of carpets need to be vacuumed thoroughly.

Make sure you dispose of the vacuum bag by putting it in a sealed bag before you throw it in the trash can. This way, those critters will not be able to leave the trash can and find their way back into your house again.

• Examine Your Pets

Just like human beds, the bed bugs can infest your pets’ bedding as well. It provides them an ample amount of space to breed, lay their eggs and spread. Monitor the area where your pet sleeps. Wash the bedding regularly and, of course, make sure you give your pet a good wash as well.

• The Clutter Needs to Go

If bed bugs have entered your home, preventing them from spreading is crucial to avoid a full-on infestation. If you have a lot of clutter in your home, it can make it impossible to get things under control.

Remove all the clutter. The more you have, the more difficult it gets to prevent a serious bed bug infestation. The areas closer to the walls need to be seen to first. All the good hiding spots for bed bugs are in those hard to reach areas.

Try purging any thing that you do not need anymore and, whatever essentials remain, organize them in a way that they no longer provide the bed bugs with their proverbial Garden of Eden.

**Before donating or selling any extraneous clutter that you’ve decided to purge, be sure to inspect it for any bed bugs in order to prevent the spread from leaving your home and disrupting others’ life as well.

• Cover Your Mattress

Another tip for the prevention of a bed bug infestation is to properly cover the mattresses in your home. There are encasements for mattresses which you can easily get from the local stores. These do not prevent an infestation in your home, but they do protect your mattress from infestation. The fabric covering the mattress should be of the best quality. It has to be tear resistant and durable. Mattress safe covers have no folds near the zips where these critters can find safe havens.

• Avoid Using Moving Blankets

A lot of the cases of bed bug infestations come along when you move to a new place. People tend to assume that it is because the new place was infested with bed bugs but often times, the reality is different. A lot of moving companies offer you moving blankets for the furniture. The blankets keep your furniture and other belongings safe in the truck while they move it from your previous home to the new one.

Unfortunately, the blankets they offer can be infested with bed bugs already. You can never be sure about that so, in case of a move, would be to use your own blankets. At least that way you know that the blankets are properly washed and bed bug-free.

These were all tips to prevent a bed bug infestation from getting out of control, but getting rid of bed bugs properly requires expert experience and equipment.

That is where we come in. Green Pest Services is your professional solution to bed bugs. If you know you have a bed bug infestation, or are suspicious, give us a call.

Our technicians understand bed bugs. We know how they behave and where they hide. With Green Pest Services on your side, the bed bugs will be eliminated and you can finally sleep tight without any bed bug bites.