Bed Bug Question
I have an important question related to bedbugs. First, I’ve never had bedbugs in my life. Never seen one, never had a bite. The other day I found a very small bug crawling on my couch and caught it. Took it to an exterminator because it looked suspicious and it turns out that it is…
I have an important question related to bedbugs. First, I’ve never had bedbugs in my life. Never seen one, never had a bite. The other day I found a very small bug crawling on my couch and caught it. Took it to an exterminator because it looked suspicious and it turns out that it is indeed a bedbug. I’ve thoroughly searched the couch and surrounding area and not seen anymore bugs, or any of the other signs of them (blood stains, shedded skins, etc.). Also no one that lives in my apartment has any bites, or has ever had any bites. We found the bug last week and have been on alert for any new signs, but nothing.
So my question is this. Should I go ahead and do the treatment anyway, or risk it and not do anything? The treatment is very thorough and time consuming (not to mention expensive) and involves basically ripping apart my whole apartment, spending hours and hours cleaning, doing laundry, etc. If I don’t have anymore bugs, it seems crazy to do all that. But then, I also definitely do not want to end up with an infestation.
I searched alot online, but can’t seem to find any information about what to do if you find a bug, but no bites. Usually it’s the other way around. The exterminator had no opinion either way, he said it’s up to us. Thoughts?
Bed bugs can be found in folds, tufts of mattresses, coils of springs, hollow posts of bed stands bed rails, headboards, cracks and gaps during daylight hours. Other than that bed bugs may found in box springs, inside the cabinetry of furniture and the bottom and sides of drawers, behind loose wallpaper, behind pictures on the walls, under door and window casings, and behind baseboards. To find bed bugs always look in dark places, isolation and protection.
Bed bugs are not usually considered to be disease carriers but sometimes they can be harmful as they do suck blood from their host with piercing mouth parts but the bite is painless. Once bedbug bites, the skin becomes irritated or inflamed due to the salivary fluid injected by the bed bugs and it shows up in a small, hard, swollen, white welt at the site of each bite.
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Has anybody ever heard of BedBugChasers.com?? Has anybody had any success treating an entire house with heat to get rid of bed bugs?? Rather than chemicals I would like to treat the whole house rather a room or two just to be safe.
Hi,
I’ll do an inspection for free with a bed bug dog. Starting out in Metro NY I can use a little exposure and some good word of mouth. If interested email me at lbrowning@dicoverydogs.net. There is some pretty good information and links on my website at discoverydogs.net. Thanks and good luck.
Everyone has been on point with the advice. A trained pest control operator has only a 40% success rate in determining whether bedbugs are present in a residence. A bedbug sniffing dog is 94-96% accurate. Finding one bug is reason enough to have an inspection by a PCO or sniffing dog.
I like the idea of the babysitter shaking herself off before entering but in reality, she could not shake herself violently enough to rid the bedbugs. The bedbug’s exoskeleton attaches like velcro to fabrics.
Heat is the key. Get everything that can be put into a dryer, into the dryer. 20 minutes at high heat to kill bedbugs.
Best of luck.
oneeasternparkway has some good advice, but I had a very different experience with Bell Environmental. A few months ago, our son was getting bites but we didn’t see any bugs, so I contacted Bell. After researching the alternatives and keeping in mind our toddler, we were attracted to their freezing treatment. Their beagle Roscoe sniffed out where the bugs were hiding in the outlets and cable jacks next to my son’s crib. The preparation was intense and it wasn’t fun to live through it but it worked! Bell did a 2 phase treatment a couple of weeks apart and was really thorough. They used dry ice on all of our furniture, and left a residual called Mother Earth in the walls. I was really pleased, and told my neighbors about the issues because I wanted them to also take care of any bugs that they may have because I don’t want to get them back. Since treatment we’ve been bite free, but I’m taking a lot of care to make sure that I don’t have this problem at home again! Good luck.
oneeasternparkway has some good advice, but I had a very different experience with Bell Environmental. A few months ago, our son was getting bites but we didn’t see any bugs, so I contacted Bell. After researching the alternatives and keeping in mind our toddler, we were attracted to their freezing treatment. Their beagle Roscoe sniffed out where the bugs were hiding in the outlets and cable jacks next to my son’s crib. The preparation was intense and it wasn’t fun to live through it but it worked! Bell did a 2 phase treatment a couple of weeks apart and was really thorough. They used dry ice on all of our furniture, and left a residual called Mother Earth in the walls. I was really pleased, and told my neighbors about the issues because I wanted them to also take care of any bugs that they may have because I don’t want to get them back. Since treatment we’ve been bite free, but I’m taking a lot of care to make sure that I don’t have this problem at home again! Good luck.
you made the right call, especially picking John.
you can tell him Chris from EasternParkway recomended him.
I’ve spoken to him a length several times on the phone about my problem and he strikes me as extremeley knowledegable and honest, which is a rare combination in the field….
good luck, let me know how it goes…..
Just as a follow up. I’m having Killer Queen come on Saturday to check the place. I searched my bed yesterday and couch, and all nearby furniture and nothing. The bed is spotless as is the couch. Asked the babysitter and she scoured her apartment last night and found nothing. Killer Queen mentioned it might be the cleaning person, which seems the most likely culprit as she goes into different houses each day (and the bug appeared the day after she cleaned). I’ll keep you posted as to what he finds. (Crossing my fingers)
oneasternparkway —
Have the bedbugs been entirely eradicated from your building? I can see that you have had a great deal of personal experience with this.