Have you heard of the bed bug? Did you know you may have tiny critters crawling on your bed? Those critters are known as bed bugs, and they not only live on your bed, they can infest other furniture.
Bed bugs sound disgusting, but they can also be an incredible and costly nuisance. They can travel fast and often infest places very quickly.
Learn more about these bugs and how we can help rid your home of them.
Life cycle of a bed bug
You can divide the lifecycle of the bed bug into three phases: eggs, nymphs, and adults. This is important because depending on where they are in the stage of their life cycle, can depend on how aggravating they are and how we treat them.
Bed Bug Eggs
Female bed bugs have a greater frequency of egg production, which leads to a quick infestation of any place. An adult female bed bug can lay more than five eggs every day during her life. Bed bug eggs only take a week to hatch, so you do the math. That’s a lot of eggs!
Bed bug eggs are difficult to detect, so read on to learn how you know if you have bed bugs.
Bed Bug Nymphs
Once the baby bed bugs hatch, they search for their first host before transitioning to their next life cycle stage, nymphs. And that host is you. They repeat the process of transformation and begin searching for a blood source until they are fully matured. This five-stage molting procedure only takes around five weeks.
It may be difficult to detect the difference between nymphs and adults, as they look pretty similar; however, nymphs are a bit smaller and lighter in color. And consider this, the nymphs also need five to ten minutes to suck your fresh blood to survive.
Bed Bug Adults
An adult bed bug satisfies its thirst for blood at least once a week. Interestingly, they can survive for a longer time without food. An average adult bug has a life expectancy of around four to six months, or even a year, depending on the conditions.
What are the feeding habits of bed bugs?
Bed bugs do not need to penetrate your skin to feast on your blood. Rather, they using sucking mouthparts to get to your blood. While feasting the bed bug injects saliva into your skin, which causes skin irritation and allergic reactions, similar to mosquitoes.
Young bed bugs can live without your blood for 80 to 140 days. Interestingly, adults can live for 550 days without food. During this period, without food, bed bugs remain in the dormant phase until they find a host.
These creatures are attracted to hosts who emit greater heat, carbon dioxide, and moisture. In normal circumstances, bed bugs try to find food every three to four days. The feeding procedure can take five to ten minutes.
Can bed bugs travel?
You bet they can, and usually do when an infested piece of furniture or other item is moved from room to room or house to house.
Bed bugs do not have wings, so they need to crawl or hitch a ride, to travel from one place to another. Fortunately, this means infestation will spread gradually. These little creatures can move within ceiling openings, floors, walls, and pipes – smart move.
Generally, bed bugs spread to the entire house or travel to other houses through your clothes, furniture, linens, and even luggage. This means people play a greater role in the bug’s infestation.
What are the signs of bed bug infestation?
Bed bugs can cause itchy skin, whereby scratching it can cause irritation. This can be the first sign of an issue, in particular if you wake up with skin issues. Bed bugs can also be mistaken for other bug bites such as mosquitos, so be sure to pay attention to other signs you may have an infestation.
Here are some other ways to detect bed bugs in your home:
- Bloodstains on your pillowcases or sheets
- Rusty or dark spots of bugs excrement on mattresses or sheet
- An uncomfortable, musty odor coming from your room because of bug’s scent glands
- Bug fecal spots, shed skin, or eggshells in a hidden area of your furniture or bed
If you’re still not sure, remove your bedding to look for signs. Check the corners of your room and even electrical outlets for signs of bed bugs.
How do I treat bed bugs?
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to eliminate, and require a professional with the experience and equipment necessary to truly eradicate these pests. So, the best thing you can do to treat bed bugs is call someone like 855Bugs who knows how to get rid of bed bugs.
If you suspect that you have bed bugs in your home or office, give 855Bugs a call as soon as possible to schedule a FREE inspection. Our experienced Sales Inspectors and Technicians know where to look and what they are looking for! We use industry proven methods to eradicate bed bugs in a multi-step process. Our process includes first determining the level of infestation, step two is the initial treatment, followed by one to two follow up treatments depending on the severity of infestation.
If you’re unable to hire a professional, there are certain steps you can take to minimize the bugs impact and hopefully decrease their numbers.
The first step is to wash everything you can in hot water, then dry them on the hottest temperature.
Prior to vacuuming, use a stiff brush to clean your mattress, and you may want to consider purchasing a new one. Vacuum the infested room and remove garbage as fast as possible. It’s wise to do this to your entire house, even if you’ve only spotted the bugs in one area or room. If you have cracks in your wall or loose wallpaper, fix those issues.
Also, get rid of all clutter in and around your home. These steps can help to keep these pests from increasing in number, but will rarely result in getting rid of every bug. That’s where the professionals come in.
Remember, bed bugs aren’t just partial to people’s homes. They can also be found in commercial establishments and businesses. 855Bugs is ready to help business owners get rid of bed bugs and get back to serving their customers.
In summary, bed bugs aren’t life threatening – but they can threaten your sanity. They can be incredibly irritating and disruptive. It’s important to know and understand your options if you spot them. Call the experts at 855Bugs if you think you may have bed bugs. We can identify them instantly and provide you with a plan that will get rid of them quickly, to get you back to living bug free.
