Category Archives: Bed Bugs Minnesota

Contrary to what you may think, bed bugs dont have a preference between a spotless space or a filthy environment. As long as they have access to a food source, they can live anywhere, so claims that bed bugs are attracted to dirt and debris are simply unfounded. That being said, clutter does make it easier for these insects to hide, which may fuel the misconceptions. Their ideal environment is warm and provides access to a blood meal. Given those conditions, you may be wondering how fast bed bugs spread? Lets look at some of their travel habits and what you need to know about how quickly they can make themselves at home.

There's no escaping them. Bed bugs can be found in all 50 states, warns Oregon State University. And the news gets worse: Not only are bed bugs present everywhere, but the university's researchers warn that these pests "are on the rise...and not just in unsanitary locations."

Contrary to what you may think, bed bugs don't have a preference between a spotless space or a filthy environment. As long as they have access to a food source, they can live anywhere! Claims that bed bugs are attracted to dirt and debris are simply unfounded and misleading. That being said, clutter does make it easier for these insects to hide, which may fuel such misconceptions. Their ideal environment is warm and provides them with access to a human blood meal.

Given those conditions, you may be wondering how fast bed bugs spread? Let's look at some of their travel habits and what you need to know about how quickly they can make themselves at home.

Bed bugs spread so easily and so quickly, that the University of Kentucky's entomology department notes that "it often seems that bed bugs arise from nowhere."

Bed bugs don't have wings, but they spread quickly by hitchhiking and are agile and fast-moving once they're in your home. Typically, you pick up one or more of these unwanted hitchhikers when you visit a home or hotel that already has a bed bug infestation. The bed bugs hide themselves in your clothing, luggage, furniture and other items, and you inadvertently introduce them to your own house when you return home.

"Once bed bugs are introduced, they can crawl from room to room, or floor to floor via cracks and openings in walls, floors and ceilings," warns researchers at the University of Kentucky.

Bedare typically only found within about 8 feet of a person's resting space. However, what's more concerning is the distance that bed bugs spread from one infestation site to another. This distance is almost limitless due to the ability of bed bugs to survive without food for extended periods of time.

Research shows that adult bed bugs can survive for over a year without food. This means that the pests can hide on furniture, used items, clothing, footwear, luggage and other materials you've brought. They can then wait until they've traveled great distances, only to be unpacked and brought into a new home with a fresh supply of food (i.e., you and your family).

Ultimately, it can take mere minutes to travel from room-to-room, with infestations growing in a matter of weeks or months. Every day, bed bugs can lay between one and 12 eggs, and anywhere from 200 to 500 eggs in a lifetime. Those numbers should speak for themselves if you're wondering how long it takes to get an infestation of bed bugs and how quickly those bed bugs can spread. It doesn't take long for a problem to grow out of control, so the sooner you contact a pest control professional for inspection and treatment, the better off you'll be.

Bed bugs need to take blood meals from warm-blooded hosts preferably humans to survive, and they'll hide near their sources until ready to feed. How fast bed bugs spread from room to room depends partly on how long it takes to move an infested piece of furniture, clothing, luggage and/or another household item from one room to another. They can also move throughout the house in search of other hosts. If the conditions are favorable, they'll continue breeding wherever the item (or items) is moved.

The rate of how quickly bed bugs spread from house-to-house increases the more time you spend traveling or inviting people over to your home. Bed bugs are great hitchhikers, and hotels, hostels, airplanes, cruise ships and public transportation are ideal places to pick up these uninvited guests.

Bed bugs need blood meals to survive as well as to breed, but they don't physically live on human hosts. In fact, how bed bugs spread from person-to-person really doesn't have anything to do with people themselves but rather, the movement of infested items. For example, house guests could unknowingly bring them into your home from their travels and kids could bring them back on their backpacks after attending school.

Bed bugs are opportunistic, hiding and waiting until it's convenient to feed. And if their areas are disturbed, they'll find a way to move to a neighboring location, which can make the situation much more difficult to inspect and treat. Contact a Terminix bed bug control professional to get professional help in stopping the spread of bed bugs in your home.

Stopping the spread of bed bugs is all about slowing and preventing the transmission of these pests as they migrate from location to location.

First, always inspect anything that you're bringing into your home, especially if it's items from another household (e.g., used books, used clothing, used furniture, used children's toys, etc.) or if it's your own items that you used and stored in a hotel room, airplane, train, cruise ship, etc. Signs of bed bugs you should look for include:

If you notice any signs of bed bugs on your possessions, isolate the items and treat them for bed bugs before you bring them into your house.

If you're trying to stop the spread of bed bugs in the midst of an ongoing, current bed bug infestation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the following strategies are the most effective for keeping an infestation from spreading:

A bed bug infestation needs immediate professional treatment and control to keep these resilient pests from spreading throughout your entire home. Even one single missed bed bug can lead to a re-infestation if you are not careful.

At Terminix, we can help provide on-site inspections and put together a bed bug treatment plan tailored to the severity of your problem, the layout of your home and your personal lifestyle needs and preferences. Contact Terminix's bed bug professionals today!

Excerpt from:
How Fast Do Bed Bugs Spread | Terminix

What are bed bugs?

Bed bugs are insects that feed on the blood of people and animals. Bed bugs do not cause any diseases, but are a nuisance and can be uncomfortable. Bed bugs are also highly contagious.

The scientific name for bed bugs is Cimex lectularius. They are small, brownish red, flat bugs. They can live for months without feeding.

The physical symptoms of bed bugs are the presence of bug bites. However, some people do not react to the bug bites and may not notice them. Others may have a stronger allergic reaction to them that may require medical attention. Most people do not notice the bug bites until a few days after they occur because the insects inject an anesthetic, a substance that induces insensitivity to pain, before biting.

Bed bugs spread by traveling on items from infested areas. They often travel in clothing or suitcases, but can also travel on furniture, boxes, or linens.

There are many ways you can lower the risk of getting bed bugs:

Anyone can get bed bugs. Getting bed bugs is not related to the cleanliness of your environment. They have been found in luxurious hotels, at movie theaters, and on airplanes, all of which are cleaned regularly. They gather where people sleep, hiding during the day, and coming out at night to feed.

Diagnosis for bed bugs

There are a few different way you may notice the presence of bed bugs:

If you think you have bed bugs make sure to check in the places bed bugs like to hide, such as:

Treatments for bed bugs

The best way to get rid of bed bugs permanently is to work with a pest control professional to come up with a plan that combines home remedies and professional pesticide solutions.

Here are things you can do at home to help bed bugs stay away:

Heat is one of the best ways to kill bed bugs. Pest experts use professional heating elements to kill bedbugs. You can also use a steam cleaner with a diffuser to kill bed bugs hiding in fabrics and baseboards.

Vacuuming can suck up bed bugs but it doesn't kill them. Make sure to seal the vacuum bag or trash bag with tape and immediately throw out in the garbage outside of your house.

Heat kills bed bugs and so does prolonged exposure to cold temperatures of zero degrees Fahrenheit. You can freeze items like electronics that do not have LCD screens, pictures, books, shoes, and toys. Place the items in a sealed plastic bag prior to freezing and make sure to freeze items for at least four days straight.

In order to keep bed bugs at bay, you need to be vigilant. Keep checking to see if your efforts have worked. If any bed bug eggs are present after treatment, they can come back, so vigilance is key. Experts recommend checking at least once a week for a while after the primary infestation is gone.

Possible complications

Bed bugs are a nuisance for most people. However, some people who have allergic reactions to bed bug bites may need medical treatment for the bites. Getting bed bugs doesn't mean you or your home are dirty. You can get rid of bed bugs with the help of a professional using pesticides, and at-home treatment with vigilance.

What causes bed bugs?

Bed bugsare blood-sucking insects. They usually survive on the blood of other creatures.Bed bugslive usually in the cracks and crevices of beds. When they sense that a person is asleep, they move towards them and feed on their blood.Bed bugscan also be found in sofas, mattresses, chairs, sheets, blankets, suitcases, cardboard boxes, cluttered areas, and other similar furniture items.

The most common causes ofbed bugsare described below:

What does a bed bug bite look like?

The bite of abed buglooks like a cluster of red spots. They are painless at the start but later may become reddish welts.

Below are a few common symptoms that distinguish bedbug bitefrom otherinsect bites:

Bed bugs feed on humans and other warm-blooded hosts to survive and reproduce. They find a host by detecting carbon dioxide emitted from warm-blooded people or animals. They respond to warmth/moisture. To feed, they penetrate the skin of the host and inject a salivary fluid that contains a blood thinner to help them obtain blood.

How does a bed bug bite affect an individuals health?

Below are common health issues an individual may develop due to bed bugs.

Read more from the original source:
How Can I Permanently Get Rid of Bed Bugs at Home?

From Good Housekeeping

The resurgence of bed bugs in American homes has caused many a sleepless night but not everything you hear is true. Before you start pointing fingers at the reasons your home is infested or why you do or don't have a bed bugs problem, know this: Entomologist Richard Pollack, Ph.D., has found fewer than 10% of the critters people identify as bed bugs actually are bed bugs. That's also why he doesn't trust websites that list reports of bed bugs at hotels.

If you suspect you've got some unwelcome visitors at your house, here is everything you need to know about these nasty insects first:

Bed bugs most notoriously hitch rides on luggage, but traveling isn't the only way to pick them up: They can easily be carried into the house on secondhand furniture, clothing, boxes, and pillows, so inspect such items very carefully. Encasement products like Good Housekeeping Seal holder AllerEase mattress protector can also prevent bugs that do make it inside from hunkering down in crevices.

But while reports of bed bugs at movie theaters and in retail stores have made headlines, it's rare that someone actually brings them home, says Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, an urban entomologist at Cornell University.

Whether you have a messy home or a neat home, bed bugs only care that their food source, a.k.a. people, are nearby. Luckily, there's no evidence they transmit diseases as they feed. The real threat: Itchy, red bites, which are the first sign of an infestation.

Unfortunately, long-sleeved pajamas won't shield you from bed bug bites. In fact, that's one of the tell-tale signs of an infestation. "If you wake up with numerous bites, especially under your clothes, it could be bed bugs," says David Dunham of Go Green Bedbug Dogs.

Not everyone experiences the same skin reaction though. "It's common for one person to become the host or the person getting all the bites, while their spouse or partner will get no bites at all," he adds. "Usually the person not getting bites will discredit their partner's concerns.

Photo credit: Getty Images

"You should ask lots of questions to the companies you interview, because a good company will answer them and will never pressure you to make an appointment," says Dunham. Asking the company about their success rate and if their treatment comes with a guarantee, should their efforts not be successful, is a must.

While some bugs will die in the washing machine, it's the heat of the dryer that will kill more of them. At least 60 minutes on a high-heat setting should do the trick, according to New York State Integrated Pest Management. Immediately dispose of the used plastic bags and put clean clothes in new ones. Don't take the items out of the bag until the infestation is successfully controlled.

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Everything You Need to Know to Get Rid of Bed Bugs - Yahoo India News