Our Bed Bug Control & Treatment Services

The Truth About What Causes Bed Bugs:​

Many people have heard of bed bugs, but many do not know much about them. Most people believe that if you get bed bug infestation in your home, it’s dirty. However, this is not the case.

​The truth is that bed bugs can make their way into any home, regardless of how clean or dirty your house is.

To get bed bugs in your home, all you have to do is contact them. You can come into contact with these pests in many different ways. Sleeping in a hotel is one way that many people get bed bugs. If the hotel has bed bugs, even just One can hitch a ride on to you or your luggage and make their way into your home.

​You can also get bed bugs if someone who has them spends the night at your home or visits your home. They can bring the bed bugs with them, and they can find their way into your beds or your furniture.

Another rarer way to get bed bugs is to pick them up from a public place, like a bus seat.​

Bed bugs will thrive as long as a year with or without food. They come out during the night to eat. Since they eat at night, they often take shelter in your mattress since we are in bed. They are very hard to detect, and frequently you will not realize you have bed bugs until you wake up with bites all over your body.

​We are all terrified of getting a bed bug infestation because of people’s negative ideas about them. Many of us assume that having bed bugs means filthy people who do not clean or bathe. The reality is that anyone can have bed bugs.

Bed Bugs Signs and Symptoms

Signs of bed bugs may include blood stains on your sheets or pillowcases, dark or rusty spots of bedbug excrement on sheets and/or mattresses, bedclothes, and walls. 

Can I Spot Bed Bugs in My Home?

You can check for the following signs; however, bed bugs are extremely hard to detect to an untrained eye! 

The following are some of the best ways to detect signs of a bed bug infestation!

First, look for the following; 

1. Reddish or rusty stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed.
2. Dark spots or specks (bed bug excrement) on your mattress, bedding, clothing, or walls.
3. Tiny eggs or eggshells are pale yellow skins that bed bugs shed as they grow.
4. Live bed bugs are commonly found in the seams of mattresses, crevices in bed frames, and other hiding spots near the bed.
5. A sweet, musty odor, often likened to coriander, produced by bed bugs.

Remember to inspect not only your bed but also surrounding furniture, wall cracks, and any other potential hiding places for bed bugs. If you suspect an infestation, it’s essential to take action promptly for effective control.

THE TRUTH ABOUT BED BUGS

In the developed world, bed bugs were largely eradicated as pests in the early 1940s but have increased in prevalence since about 1995. Because infestation of human habitats has been on the increase, bed bug bites and related conditions have been on the rise as well. The exact cause of this resurgence remains unclear; it is variously ascribed to greater foreign travel, more frequent exchange of second-hand furnishings among homes, a greater focus on control of other pests resulting in neglect of bed bug countermeasures, and increasing resistance to pesticides. Bed bugs have been known as human parasites for thousands of years. 

The name “bed bug” is derived from the insect’s preferred habitat of houses and especially beds or other areas where people sleep.  Bed bugs, though not strictly nocturnal, are mainly active at night and are capable of feeding unnoticed on their hosts.

Bed bug control is most effective when an IPM approach is implemented with diligent participation by the residents.  In multi-family housing, diligent participation is also required of the building management.  IPM takes advantage of all appropriate pest management options, including the judicious use of pesticides.  Although bed bugs may sometimes be controlled by non-chemical means alone, this approach is often very difficult, potentially less effective, and usually more resource-intensive. 

Bed bugs are a people problem, being spread by the movement of people from one location to another.

• Except for the egg, all stages of bed bugs, from nymphs to adults, feed on blood.
• Bed bugs are capable of surviving for over a year without feeding.
• It may take several weeks for an immature bed bug to fully digest a blood meal.
• Bed bugs can get a blood meal from other bed bugs.
• Generally speaking, bed bugs spend most of their time hiding, preferring undisturbed areas.
• While bed bugs are commonly active at night, they will feed in the daytime essentially attacking their host in its sleep.
• Bed bugs will typically avoid crawling on their host when seeking a blood meal. 

While a bed bug will consume its body weight many times when taking a blood meal, much of this added weight is expelled as liquid fecal matter.  The excreted fecal liquid creates stains that may be found in areas where bed bugs travel and hide.  And, because much of the liquid consumed is excreted, these fecal stains may be the most prevalent sign of bed bug activity observed.

You are more likely to notice the “telltale signs” of bed bugs rather than see the actual live bed bugs themselves, and this is especially so in the early stages of an infestation. 

Renowned as “hitchhikers”, bed bugs are dependent upon man to travel from place to place.  It’s possible for you to transport bed bugs to other rooms, floors or locations, often unknowingly.  Many bed bug infestations begin just this way, through the unknown transportation of these pests.

In a home or apartment, the top hiding places for bed bugs are the mattress, box spring, and bed frame.  Bed bugs have also been found to hide in nightstands, headboards, dressers, chairs, couches, pet beds, and even electrical sockets.  Based on their size, bed bugs are capable of hiding nearly anywhere within a hotel room, apartment, dorm room, home, or any such place where a human host is present.

Bed bugs are an “equal opportunity infester”.  They do not discriminate between properties based on location, type, or quality, as might the discerning vacationer or business traveler.  Due simply to their nature, logistics, and other factors, every lodging location and multi-family property is subject to bed bug infestation.

Bed bugs are elusive and usually nocturnal, which can make them hard to spot. They often lodge unnoticed in dark crevices, and eggs can be nestled in fabric seams. Aside from bite symptoms, signs include fecal spots, blood smears on sheets, and molts. Bed bugs can be found singly but often congregate once established.

One of the easiest ways to identify a bed bug infestation is by the evidence of bite marks that appear on the face, neck, arms, hands, and any other body parts. However, these bite marks may take as long as 14 days to develop in some people so it is important to look for other clues when determining if bed bugs have infested an area. These signs may include the exoskeletons of bed bugs after molting, bed bugs in the fold of mattresses and sheets, a sweet, musty odor, and rusty-colored blood spots from their blood-filled fecal material that are often excreted on the mattress or nearby furniture.

They usually remain close to hosts, commonly in or near beds or couches.

Control practices against these secretive pests must be detailed and extensive.  Most of the bed bugs will be located around areas where people rest, but a percentage of bugs will move away from these sites to “hide” in more remote areas.  If people do not address these “remote bugs”, an infestation will continue.  Along with professional pest management controls, a bed bug-certified mattress encasement will help protect you from bed bug attacks.

A comprehensive IPM program to control bed bugs may include a number of methods, such as:

• Using monitoring devices
• Removing clutter where bed bugs can hide
• Applying heat treatment
• Vacuuming
• Using non-chemical pesticides (such as diatomaceous earth)
• Judicious use of effective chemical pesticides

A coordinated community IPM program can alleviate both the discomfort and cost of managing bed bugs.  The underlying philosophy of a bed bug IPM is based on the fact that bed bug infestations will not go away without intervention.  Intervention is most effective when populations are low.  Such a coordinated effort could create a partnership among government, property managers, citizens, and pest management professionals to ensure an effective intervention facilitated by environmental health professionals.  EPA and CDC recommend that pest management and environmental health professionals throughout the U.S. continue to use IPM strategies as they address the bed bug issue. 

Pesticides

The pesticide approach often requires multiple visits due to pesticide resistance and dispersal of the bed bugs.  Few pest control companies will claim to be able to eliminate bed bugs in a single visit.  Insecticide application may cause a dispersal of bed bugs to neighboring areas of a structure thus spreading the infestation.  Furthermore, the problem of insecticide resistance in bed bug populations increases their opportunity to spread. 

Exterminators often require individuals to dispose of furniture and other infested materials.  It is advisable to break or mark these infested items to prevent their being unintentionally recycled and further the spread of bed bugs.

Non-residue methods of mattress treatment are desired in place of contaminating mattresses with insecticides.  Spraying the mattress with insecticide is undesirable as the room must be suitably ventilated, sufficient time must be given after application before the mattress can be used again, and there is a risk of the user having an allergic reaction to the chemicals.  Other possible side effects of insecticide exposure include cancer and neurotoxicity.  Concerns over the possible effects of pesticides on the health of people and pets make the practice of chemically treating mattresses problematic.

Physical isolation

Humans are attempted to be isolated with numerous devices and methods, including zippered bed bug-certified mattress encasements, bed bug tents, bed-leg moat devices, and other barriers.

Bed bug-certified mattresses and box spring encasements are effective at eliminating 70% of bed bug-hiding spots.  In addition to reducing hiding spots, quality encasements are tested to be bite-proof, penetration-proof, and escape-proof, offering the ability to use and reclaim the mattresses and furniture during and after completion of a thorough pest management program.  Many pest management companies will use mattress and furniture encasements in conjunction with regular pesticide control methods.

Even with isolated beds, bed bug infestations persist if the bed itself is not free of bed bugs, or if it is re-infested.

Disposal of contaminated belongings

Disposal of items such as mattresses, box springs, couches, etc., is a costly process and rarely solves the problem.  Instead, new furniture is usually infested.  The movement of infested furniture also facilitates the spread of bed bugs.

Vacuuming:

Vacuuming helps reduce bed bug infestations but does not eliminate bed bugs hidden inside of materials.

Cold treatment

Freezing equipment is used to kill pests with cold temperatures.  An example of this would be Cryonite, which uses the cooling properties of CO2 to spray snow at a temperature of -78.5°C.  Though bed bugs can tolerate a broad range of temperatures, -14 to 44 °C, they cannot survive body freezing or extreme heat.  As with approaches such as vacuuming and steaming, freezing sprays may not reach bed bugs that are hidden inside walls, furniture, or appliances.

Clothes dryer

A clothes dryer can be used to kill bed bugs in clothing and blankets.  Infested clothes and bedding are first washed in hot water with laundry detergent and then placed in the dryer for at least 20 minutes at high heat.  This does not eliminate bed bugs in the mattress, bed frame, or the surrounding environment.  Sterilized fabrics from the dryer are thus easily re-infested.  Continually treating materials in this fashion is labor intensive and by itself does not eliminate the infestation.

Steam

Steam treatment can effectively kill all stages of bed bugs.  Unfortunately, bed bugs hide in a diversity of places, making steam treatment very tedious, labor-intensive, and time-consuming.  There is also the risk of the steam, not penetrating materials enough to kill hidden bed bugs.  The steam may also damage materials such as varnished wood or cause mold from the moisture left behind. Steam treatment processes must be very thorough and must be repeated. The primary areas to be treated are the mattress, box spring, bed frame, bed covers, and pillows, as well as the carpets, curtains, and other items in the infested room.

Room or building heat treatment

This method of bed bug control involves raising room temperatures to or above the killing temperature for bed bugs, which is around 45 °C.  Heat treatments are generally carried out by professionals and may be performed for a single dwelling or even to heat-fumigate an entire building.  A drawback for heat treatment is the amount of time required to bring core temperatures high enough to effectively kill bed bugs that may have taken refuge within materials.  This contributes to professional heat treatments being generally expensive procedures.  Following a heat treatment, a room may be easily re-infested as bed bugs are able to retreat into cracks and crevasses in walls, ceilings, and floors where they may escape treatment.

Contact Four Seasons Exterminating, we offer a free bedbug inspections! 

Why Choose Four Seasons Exterminating

We’re passionate about helping people just like you get rid of unwanted pest problems. As such, we are proud to be the only pest control company in the local area to be Quality Pro Certified promising excellence in value, service, and trust.

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