The Importance of Professional Bed Bug Treatment Services
During a professional bed bug inspection, a pest control technician searches for fecal spots, shed nymphal skins, and live bugs. This thorough inspection allows the technician to develop a treatment plan that will be most effective for your home.
Without encasements and heat monitors, your bed bug infestation may come back. Look for companies that offer guarantees.
Detection
For a successful bed bug treatment Staten Island, early detection is key. Infestations can go undetected for months, costing occupants more money to exterminate and causing stress and embarrassment. Bed bugs are nocturnal and leave signs such as small blood spots on bed sheets or inexplicable bite marks on the skin. They also leave a distinctive smell and fecal material. They often hide in the cracks and crevices of the bed frame, box spring, headboard, wall voids, behind switch plates, and in stuffed couches and chairs.
If you suspect an infestation, consider a professional inspection using sniffing dogs. Visual detection has a 50% accuracy rate, compared to the 97-98% accuracy of canine scent detection. Likewise, avoid DIY treatments, such as total-release aerosol foggers, which can harm occupants and may miss infested areas. A professional pest control company offers a variety of bed bug treatments, including fumigation and crack and crevice spraying. Both require occupants’ cooperation during and after the treatment to prevent re-infestation.
Treatment
In addition to eliminating the bugs, professional pest control services can offer valuable tips on avoiding them in the future. This will help you and your family stay bug-free for good!
Visual inspections are the most effective way to detect an infestation of Bed Bugs. Look for a sweet and musty odor around beds, couches, upholstered chairs, reddish-black spots on pillows, blankets, sheets, or mattress covers, and accumulations of shed nymphal skins.
Infestations can be difficult to eradicate due to their tenacity and ability to hide in hard-to-reach cracks and crevices. This is why they must be addressed by professionals using proven methods.
Treatment options for severe infestations include spot treatments, crack and crevice injections, and fumigation. Fumigation is similar to heat treatment, except that your home must be completely sealed for 14 to 21 days. This requires moving all items into a garage or other covered area where they can be left undisturbed for the duration of the treatment.
Prevention
Preventing bed bug infestations is crucial to IPM (Integrated Pest Management) programs. It requires diligence from all occupants of the affected room or area, educating people about what they can do to help prevent an infestation, and understanding how and why they get infested.
Bed bugs are excellent at hiding and are most often found close to beds and upholstered furniture, where they are primarily harborage sites. Therefore, inspections should start with a close look at the bedding (pillowcases, sheets), blanket corners, mattress covers, and the seams, piping, and tags of mattresses and box springs. In addition, watch for a characteristic odor and accumulations of cast nymph skins.
Infestations can spread from room to room via several methods, including short-distance crawling, travel in clothing and luggage, and sharing clothes or stuffed toys. If you suspect an infestation, wash all clothes immediately and seal any items that cannot be laundered immediately in plastic bags or bins to keep them from spreading.
Follow-Up
Once physical repairs, cleaning, and treatment are completed, it is essential to continue monitoring for surviving bed bugs. This can be time-consuming as the eggs may take up to a month or more to hatch. When this hatch, following up with conventional chemical treatment is essential.
Professionals should inspect the space before giving a price quote or beginning any pesticide application. They should also provide a list of steps that need to be taken to prepare the area for treatment. This should include emptying closets, wardrobes, and dresser drawers, washing or drying all items (typically launder on the highest heat setting), vacuuming using a HEPA-filtered vacuum with a crevice tool to improve dust removal in cracks, and spraying new harborages with a minimally toxic pesticide labeled for use on bed bugs.
It is also a good idea to purchase and utilize preventive products such as mattress encasements to help keep your bed bug free. Finally, all occupants of the space need to remain vigilant and report any new sightings immediately.
