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Holiday Bed Bug Infestations Now Turning Up
1/24/14
The holidays have been over for a while now and life has gotten back to its normal routine. But if you did find yourself traveling over the holidays you may be just starting to notice some uninvited visitors in your home. If bed bugs have hitchhiked their way home with you after a holiday visit you may just be starting to notice the infestation in your home. While bed bugs do breed very quickly it can take a few weeks (or longer) for an infestation to actually be noticed by homeowners. Bed bugs are very adept at hiding in cracks and crevices throughout your home and are most active at night making it difficult to realize that they are in your home.
Determining if bed bugs are present in your home can be a bit tricky but there are noticeable signs that bed bugs leave behind if they are living in your house. Signs of a bed bug infestation include:
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Red or rust colored stains on your bedding or mattress. These are droplets of blood that may be left behind as they feed or from where bed bugs become crushed if they are accidentally rolled over on.
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Black flecks of bed bug feces on your bedding or mattress.
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Waking up with unexplained bug bites; however this can be tricky since bed bug bites can look very similar to other insect bites including mosquitoes and fleas. Also some people may have no reaction to bed bug bites
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Seeing actual adult bed bugs. Adult bed bugs are visible to the naked eye and look like apple seeds with legs. Using a flashlight check areas underneath your mattress and box spring and in the cracks and crevices of wooden furniture, flooring and walls.
If you do see signs of bed bugs or are just suspicious that bed bugs may be present in your home your first step should be to contact an exterminator that has experience with bed bug treatments. This is one pest that you should not try to eliminate with DIY methods. Bed bug treatments found at big box stores are more often than not completely ineffective and can be dangerous to use around your family and pets if not mixed or applied properly. The longer you wait to get help for bed bugs in your Kansas City home the more time they have to breed and invade more areas of your home.
A professional pest control service will be able to thoroughly inspect your home, usually with bed bug detection dogs. Bug dogs are very efficient, fast and accurate at finding bed bugs in your home, and because of their keen sense of smell they can locate bed bugs in your home that a human eye may miss. Once an infestation is determined treatment will immediately being usually with heat treatments, chemical treatments or a combination of both. Professional bed bug treatments are very effective at killing all stages of bed bugs and ensuring that your entire infestation is eliminated and that you and your family can get a good night sleep again without the worry of bed bugs.
For more information on bed bugs or contact the Kansas City pest control pros at Schendel Pest Services for help getting rid of bed bugs in your home or business. In business since 1947, Schendel offers comprehensive bed bug treatments and can dispatch one of their highly trained bed bug dogs to confirm bed bug activity.