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Featured Pest:
The Bed Bug
- Bed bugs are flat, tiny insects, oval in shape and brown until
after they feed, when they turn brownish-red. An adult is about 3/16ths of an inch long or about the size of an apple seed.
During the day they disappear in mattresses, sheets, furniture and behind baseboards, picture frames and wallpaper if torn.
At night, they come out to feed, attracted by breath and body heat.
- Adult bed bugs can live for more than one year
without feeding. They can also tolerate extreme temperatures.
- Female bed bugs lay from 10 to 50 eggs every 3 to 15
days, with 70 degrees and above being the insect's ideal temperature. No eggs are laid at temperatures under 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Coated with a sticky substance, the eggs are deposited in clusters, near the crevices where the bugs hide. Eggs typically
hatch in six to 17 days at 70 degrees and above, but at lower temperatures, hatching can take as long as 28 days. While nymphs
can survive about two months without feeding, with a good food supply, they develop into adults in two to six weeks. The origin of bedbugs in your home or business likely hitch-hiked from places you or a visitor
have traveled. Likely candidate are summer camps, vacation rentals, international travel, or even from staying at hotels.
They are not an indication of poor sanitation, but they will reproduce much more quickly if there are many people in a small
area. A single bedbug from your luggage can begin the infestation. The common signs are waking up with bites on your body,
noting blood spots on the sheets, a distinct sickly sweet odor upon entering the room, seeing clusters of reddish brown to
dark brown dots on the braiding of a mattress or box springs, at baseboards, or a crack in the wall. It is possible for one
person in a bed to be bitten and the other not. Also some persons are more sensitive to the bite than others*. If you suspect
bedbugs but don't see these signs, place aluminum pans with a little soapy water under all the legs of the bed. When you wake
up you may find a bedbug or two floating in the water. They come out at night because they detect the carbon dioxide as you
breathe and this attracts them to you while you are sleeping. If you were to wake up in the wee hours and turn on the light
you may see a dark brown to reddish brown insect with an oval body and tapered abdomen. If they are engorged with blood they
will be distinctly more red and larger. Those which have not had a recent feeding will be paper thin. Because of this thin
body they can hide in very slender cracks. They can move in between threads of fabric, disappear into a seam of the mattress,
or hide between the grain of porous wood or cracks. Treatment is extensive because bedbugs have so many hiding places. We
begin at the infested bed treating the mattress, box springs, bed frame and headboard with appropriately labeled materials.
We will continue to move outward in the room to include the flooring, both carpets and wood floors, baseboards, night stands,
behind picture frames, chest of drawers, and dressers. Since wood is a favored harborage area, any wood which is not sealed
must be treated. Any bedding which can be washed or dry cleaned, should be. The material used to treat objects that touch
humans kills bedbugs on contact but does not leave a residue, therefore it is not harmful to humans once it is dry. The good
news is that they can be eliminated and you will not have to replace your mattress and box springs. It is important not to
delay. As you try on-line remedies or home cures, the bedbugs can spread. A child who is getting bitten solves her problem
by taking her pillow and blanket into another room but unfortunately she doesn't see the bedbug on her blanket and the infamous
hitch-hiker has invaded another habitat. Many do-it-yourselfers successfully battle ants or mice but this is one of the
insects you should trust to a professional. *All-Star Pest Services, LLC. will not treat
without confirmed evidence of bedbugs. There are some skin conditions (scabies) or other parasites such as mites which may
be the source of bites. If bedbug evidence is not present, we may suggest that you see a dermatologist.
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