Adult bedbugs are oval-shaped, flat and up to 5mm long – similar to an apple seed. Their color varies between dark yellow, red or brown.
Where they live?
- Blood stains on your sheets or pillowcases.
- Dark or rusty spots of bedbug excrement on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes, and walls.
- Bedbug fecal spots, egg shells, or shed skins in areas where bedbugs hide.
- An offensive, musty odor from the bugs' scent glands.
Are Bed Bugs cause of concern?
Bedbugs aren't dangerous and don't spread any diseases, but some people experience a reaction to their bites and they can be stressful to live with.
Life Cycle
An individual bed bug can lay 200 to 250 eggs in her lifetime. The eggs hatch in about 6 to 10 days and the newly emerged bed bug nymphs seek a blood meal. Immature nymphs molt five times (they shed their outer exoskeleton in order to grow) before reaching adulthood.
What can I do to prevent Bed Bugs infestation?
STEP 1:
Make sure you really have bed bugs, not fleas, ticks or other insects.
STEP 2:
Destroy Bed Bugs
It can be difficult to eliminate bed bugs, but it’s not impossible. Don’t throw out all of your things because most of them can be treated and saved. Throwing stuff out is expensive, may spread the bed bugs to other people's homes and could cause more stress.
STEP 3:
Eliminate Shelter & Harborage
A cluttered home provides more places for bed bugs to hide and makes locating and treating them harder. If bed bugs are in your mattress, using special bed bug covers (encasements) on your mattress and box springs makes it harder for bed bugs to get to you while you sleep. Leave the encasements on for a year. Be sure to buy a product that has been tested for bed bugs and is strong enough to last for the full year without tearing.
STEP 4:
Maintain a Bed Bugs Free Property
Regularly wash and heat-dry your bed sheets, blankets, bedspreads and any clothing that touches the floor. This reduces the number of bed bugs. Bed bugs and their eggs can hide in laundry containers/hampers Remember to clean them when you do the laundry. Raising the indoor temperature with the thermostat or space heaters won’t do the job. Special equipment and very high temperatures are necessary for successful heat treatment. Black plastic bags in the sun might work to kill bed bugs in luggage or small items, if the contents become hot enough. Bed bugs die when their body temperature reaches 45°C (113°F).
To kill bed bugs with heat, the room or container must be even hotter to ensure sustained heat reaches the bugs no matter where they are hiding Thorough vacuuming can get rid of some of your bed bugs. Carefully vacuum rugs, floors, upholstered furniture, bed frames, under beds, around bed legs, and all cracks and crevices around the room. Change the bag after each use so the bed bugs can’t escape. Place the used bag in a tightly sealed plastic bag and in an outside garbage bin.
Contact a Flora Termite Professional
Call Flora Pest Control Professional an experienced, responsible pest control professional can increase your chance of success in getting rid of bed bugs.