Your bed should be a place of refuge, where you can relax after a long day. If you’re not careful, however, your bed can turn into a breeding ground for pests that can cause allergic reactions, infections, and increased anxiety.
We’re speaking, of course, about bed bugs.
The best way to combat these ugly critters is to understand them. Below, you’ll find information on how bed bug infestations begin and what you can do to reclaim your bed.
How Do You Get Bed Bugs?
You can clean your bedroom every day and still end up with bed bugs. While a lack of cleanliness may contribute to the presence of bed bugs, it has little to do with how they end up in a home in the first place.
Instead, the most common source of bed bugs comes from travelling.
Say you stay at a hotel where a previous guest had bed bugs at their home. They’re bringing the mites into the hotel through their bags or clothes from home, a few drops off of the guest’s belongings, and next thing you know, they’re all over the hotel room.
Bed bugs can also enter your home through second-hand items such as furniture or even clothes from thrift shops.
How a Nuisance Becomes an Infestation
Make no mistake, once you have a few of these little bugs, it’s only a matter of time before you’re looking at an infestation.
A female bed bug lays between four and seven eggs per day, with an egg gestation rate of about 10 days. 20 days later, the bed bugs from the eggs are now adults with the ability to reproduce.
As you can see, it’s a nasty cycle and even bringing a few bed bugs home with you leads to a major problem.
How to Handle Bed Bug Infestations
Once you’re facing a bed bug control problem, there’s really no easy way to get rid of them without calling an exterminator. While you can find remedies online, most won’t get rid of the problem altogether, making them pretty ineffective.
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of, mainly because of the aforementioned reproductive cycle. Remember, it only takes a month before a whole new generation is ready to welcome more babies.
Plus, as Why-U-Buggin bed bug control points out, bed bugs can hide in the smallest of cracks that your average bug spray just can’t get into.
Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite
As you can see, bed bug infestations are as disgusting as they are frustrating. You’ll want to tackle the problem head-on as soon as you notice the presence of bed bugs in your home.
And though you may not want to bring in termination services, trust us when we say they’re the quickest, most effective way to get rid of them for good. Spending a little money now sure beats having to get all-new furniture in a few months.
For more tips on keeping your home pest-free, make sure to check out the rest of our blog!
Leave a comment