Just saying the words “beg bugs” makes your skin crawl. No one wants to share a bed with them and a lot of us find it difficult to admit that we have them and put off having our homes treated because we don’t want anyone to know.
There is a common misconception that having bed bugs means that you have a dirty home, and this is just not true. Bed bugs don’t care about how clean or dirty your home is. Bed bugs get into your house by being carried in. Do your kids have sleep overs? Someone staying at your house could bring them in unknowingly in their overnight bag or your child may bring them home the same way. Ever buy a used piece of furniture online, if the prior owner had untreated bed bug issues then there is a good chance that you just brought these little pests right in the front door.
Bed bugs are great at hide and seek! You’ll often not know that you even have them until you wake up with bites on your body. Bed bugs are nocturnal and come out to eat at night. Once they are done feeding, they will hide in the folds and crevices in your mattress or couch.
Bed bugs will thrive as long as they have food, and since you need to sleep every night they will always have a food source. Bed bugs can live up to a year without food so getting treatment for them is very important as they will not go away on their own. Bed bugs only need to feed every 5-10 days, then they hide, mate and lay eggs.
They are also commonly mis identified as ticks, since they are of similar shape and size. An easy way to figure out if you have a tick or a bed bug are their bites, ticks stay attached to us and grow as their bodies fill with blood but bed bugs only feed for about 10 minutes and leave small bite marks for us to find in the morning.
If you think you may have a bed bug issue you can check your mattress by pulling the ribbed seam at the edge of the mattress away from the top or bottom of the mattress all the way around paying special attention to the corners, and then do the same on the box spring. You can also check the bottom of the box spring, because bed bugs like to wedge themselves in the plastic corner protectors and where the dust cloth is stapled to the box spring.
If you find any bugs you can email us a picture at info@barrierpestcontrol.com for identification. Please reach out to Barrier Pest Control for any pest needs at 208-463-4533.
