Category Archives: Bed Bugs Minnesota

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How Fast Do Bed Bugs Spread | Terminix

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!

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How Fast Do Bed Bugs Spread | Terminix

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A landlord let squatters take over. Tenants are paying the price. – Minnesota Reformer

BEMIDJI The apartment building where Rachael Greene has lived for 14 years has nearly been taken over by squatters.

Every day, she leaves her apartment not knowing what to expect. The hallways are filled with graffiti. The windows are smashed out. Shirtless young men, high on meth or opioids, wander in and out of the unlocked doors.

Its sad because Ive been down that road, Greene, 41, said. But I didnt destroy anything They destroyed my home. And with no care.

Greene is one of just a few holdouts still living in the 16-unit brick building in Bemidji, one of four buildings owned by North Dakota-based NETA Property Management in an affordable housing development called Ridgeway Court.

The apartment next to hers on the second floor was condemned weeks ago. Inside, the floors are littered with used needles, squares of aluminum foil burnt with drug residue and bottles filled with yellow liquid.

The apartment has been stripped of its appliances. Someone ripped out the pipes, too, which caused the apartment below to flood and then fill with mold. Afterward, that apartment was also condemned, and the elderly woman who lived there was forced to move into a hotel, abandoning sopping-wet clothes and the rest of her belongings.

The buildings called Ridgeway Court I and II just north of downtown Bemidji have been slowly declining for the past two years, residents say, ever since the last caretaker quit. NETA, which owns apartment buildings across northern Minnesota, never hired another caretaker, nor did much to keep out trespassers or maintain the properties even after a judge ordered the company to fix the locks on the doors earlier this year.

The residents at Ridgeway Court are among the poorest in Bemidji mostly Native American, elderly or disabled and live there because they have nowhere else to go.

The situation has become a political quagmire for a city whose citations go unheeded by an absent landlord.

The Bemidji mayor, city manager, police chief and city inspector either did not return multiple calls and emails or else declined to comment.

The citys last resort condemning the buildings threatens to force the remaining tenants into homelessness in a city short on affordable housing and shelter space.

One of the buildings was already deemed uninhabitable by the city, forcing out 10 families. The building remains boarded up, collecting more graffiti.

The best-case scenario: a non-profit organization secures enough funding to buy the properties and makes them habitable. Otherwise, the remaining tenants will likely be forced out either through foreclosure or the city declaring the buildings too dangerous to live in.

Residents say it doesnt have to be like this. They point to the other half of Ridgeway Court, on the other side of a chain link fence, which is owned by Walker, Minn.-based D.W. Jones Management.

They operate Ridgeway III and IV, an affordable housing complex where squatters have not been allowed to take over.

Greene, a member of the Red Lake Nation, would like to stay in her apartment if a new owner took over, fixed it up and did something about the cockroaches and bedbugs shes constantly fighting to keep out.

She would also move if she and her partner could find a landlord that accepts Section 8 housing vouchers and would look past their years-old criminal convictions from their drug use days. Greene has a stalking conviction and her partner has a weapons conviction.

Shes turned her life around since then with the help of counseling and suboxone, a medication that helps people quit opioids. Shes been in recovery for six years, and is now in college studying to be a counselor.

Her recovery is challenged daily at Ridgeway Court, where drug use is rampant. If she loses her apartment, she fears shell lose everything including her sobriety.

Its scary to think that if I go back on the street that I might end up like them again and be an addict all over. And I dont want that, Greene said through tears.

The shortage of affordable housing is particularly severe in Bemidji and the surrounding area. And even though rents are lower than in larger cities, wages are even lower.

People in Beltrami County have among the lowest incomes in the state half of renters earn less than $26,000 a year. Renters in Beltrami County are among the most likely to be cost-burdened, with over half spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Nearly one in three renters pays more than half their income on rent.

Ridgeway Court was supposed to help. The U.S. Department of Agriculture financed the construction of the buildings through a program aimed at increasing affordable housing in rural areas.

The USDA gave developers $1.7 million in loans with an interest rate of 1% for 50 years. In exchange, the apartments had to be rented to low-income tenants at affordable rents and adequately maintained.

However, the main tool the federal agency has to enforce the rules foreclosure would hurt residents most, forcing them to leave while the properties would likely sit vacant for months if not years.

A spokesperson for USDA Rural Development said in a statement that the department is continuing to work with the property manager of Ridgeway Court 1 and 2 Apartments to ensure all residents continue to have access to safe, affordable housing.

NETA manager Reed Sabbe declined to comment, saying in an email, We are in discussion with USDA Rural Development regarding the properties. Once discussions are over with, we will be able to provide a statement.

Conditions in Greenes building, Ridgeway Court II, began to deteriorate quickly in January after someone threw a rock through the window of the mechanical room one night.

The freezing temperatures caused a waterline to rupture, which drowned the boiler, causing residents to lose both water and heat for several days.

Temperatures dropped lower than -20 degrees.

We stayed here and had to tough it out because we didnt want squatters coming into our apartment, Greene said.

NETA Property Management gave residents one small space heater each, which could barely keep one room warm. Many turned on their ovens, causing their electric bills to soar.

Residents had to buy cases of bottled water to cook and clean. Some melted snow to flush their toilets. They say NETA did not reduce the rent or cover the cost of the water or utilities.

The incident caught the attention of Reed Olson, a Beltrami County commissioner and executive director of a nonprofit that runs two homeless shelters in Bemidji. He began getting to know the tenants and connected them with pro bono attorneys at Legal Aid Services of Northwest Minnesota and the St. Paul-based Housing Justice Center.

Olson urged Bemidji City Attorney Alan Felix to sue NETA to force the company to comply with the citys housing code. So did Larry McDonough, an attorney at the Housing Justice Center, who was friends with Felix in law school back in the 1980s.

His response, to be honest, was kind of disappointing, McDonough said. (He said) theres a lot of gang issues there and he thinks the landlord is doing the best that he can.

McDonough then filed a lawsuit on behalf of Annadine Houle to try to force NETA to make repairs.

Houle, 67, and her grandson rented a two-bedroom, first floor apartment at Ridgeway for the past three years, paying her portion of the rent not covered by a federal voucher about $320 a month with her Social Security.

Houle, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, is disabled from arthritis in her shoulders and neuropathy in her legs, and sometimes needs a walker to get around. Shes also recovering from a stroke.

Still, she commanded some respect from the squatters. Enough to leave her alone, but not enough to prevent them from breaking into other apartments and not enough that she felt safe letting her 10-year-old grandson play outside.

Houle was the only tenant willing to put her name on the lawsuit: Other residents feared retaliation from both NETA and the squatters.

Im an elder, and I said, If they do something to me, well thats what was meant to be, Houle said during a recent interview at the casino and hotel on the Leech Lake reservation, where she moved after her apartment was condemned earlier this month.

Houle said even after NETA apparently replaced the broken boiler in January, the heat in her apartment did not work. She cranked the thermostat as high as it would go and kept the oven running with the door open, but it never approached warmth.

Then there were the broken laundry machines, which squatters smashed open to get the quarters inside. NETA never replaced the machines, forcing residents to go to laundromats.

All the problems stem from the lack of security, residents say. The locks on the doors were always broken. Windows were seldom repaired. The security cameras were spray-painted over. And the nearest NETA representative was in Fargo, more than two-and-a-half hours away.

Emma Nisly, a Ridgedale resident until two weeks ago, said she wouldnt leave her apartment unless someone was there to guard it against squatters.

Nisly sent email after email to Sabbe and another NETA employee, alerting them to broken windows and graffitied walls and units taken over by squatters.

Sabbe or the other manager would respond sympathetically, saying they were sorry for the inconvenience and would see what they could do. But Nisly said they seldom did anything. One time, they suggested she and the other residents try to take the building back themselves.

Really? Thats not our responsibility, said Nisly, who is disabled.

She did call the police. She and other residents begged police to remove the people doing drugs in the vacant units. But when officers arrived, sometimes after more than an hour, they would tell residents they needed a manager from NETA to tell them who was trespassing.

We were looked at as the low-income or the ghetto people, so we must be all bad. But were not all bad, Nisly said.

In March, Beltrami District Court Judge Jeanine Brand ordered NETA to fix the heat and security door.

But the repairs didnt last, and conditions at the properties continued to decline a slow-moving crisis that city officials and the courts watched get worse and worse.

Around the end of April, after Houles apartment was flooded from a leak from the abandoned unit above, she thinks the squatters ripped out the copper pipe to sell. Soon mold was growing on the walls and carpet.

NETA sent a repairman who cut out the moldy carpet and drywall, but didnt replace it.

In May, the city condemned the NETA building next to Greene and Houles at 2830 Ridgeway Ave. It was the most extreme action city leaders could take against NETA, which ultimately hurt the remaining 10 families the most. Four families moved to other units NETA owned at Ridgeway. The remaining six were forced to find new homes.

I feared that without action, we may have disastrous situations on the horizon, Bemidji City Inspector Ben Hein told the City Council in May.

Bemidji City Council Member Audrey Thayer lamented that the city hadnt acted sooner during a May council meeting.

Its sad, and Im personally upset that weve waited this long to address the issues of people who need to be heard in this community, Thayer said. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

NETA sent a letter to residents alerting them of the notice to vacate, and that they were going through the foreclosure process with the USDA. Foreclosure would be a long process in which the federal agency would take ownership of the properties and try to find a buyer.

A representative from NETA also offered to buy tenants out of their leases for a few months rent. Its a good deal for NETA since it wouldnt have to honor the rest of the leases and provide housing for the residents.

Since then, McDonough said attorneys have lost contact with the families that moved away. The building remains boarded up.

Houle continued her lawsuit with McDonough and attorney Rebecca Stone at Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota.

In June, Judge Brand ordered NETA to fix the security door for a second time and install a security alarm. But in the same ruling, she dismissed the rest of the case, including consumer fraud claims for failing to provide services like on-site laundry and security cameras the company promised.

Houle didnt receive any restitution for the days without heat and water, soaring electric bills, or damage to the building.

McDonough said he was surprised by Brands order, and hoped there would be another hearing to verify that the work was actually done.

Because every other repair theyd done seemed kind of like Scotch tape and cardboard, McDonough said. And then if something goes wrong, (they) blame it on the high-crime area.

In late July, Houles apartment flooded again. Houle returned home from a medical operation to find water coming in through the ceiling.

I cried. I cried because it was terrible, Houle said. It was everywhere in my bedrooms, in my bathroom. I have never, ever had to live in a place like that.

Thats when she and her grandson moved to the hotel in the Leech Lake casino with financial assistance from a non-profit called Village of Hope.

She said they still feel sick from living with the mold for months.

NETA didnt help with Houles relocation or pay for her damaged belongings. Houle filed another complaint in court, hoping a judge might force NETA to repair her apartment or find her another place to live. Instead, the next day NETA terminated her lease.

The company cited a provision in the lease saying they can terminate if the property is significantly damaged. Houle and her pro bono attorneys continue to fight that in court.

Houle spent a month searching for another place to live. She doesnt have any evictions or criminal convictions on her record. But few landlords are willing to accept federal housing vouchers, and she cant afford a place without one.

Recently, she found a trailer park that accepts vouchers and moved there with her grandson.

One recent weekend in August, Olson, the county commissioner and shelter manager, went into Houles former building through the unlocked door to install smoke detectors and vacuum the hallways. The cleaning crew also included Bemidji City Council Member Emelie Rivera and Village of Hope Executive Director Sandy Hennum.

The goal was to prevent the city inspector from having to condemn the entire building before the remaining residents can find other places to live.

Olson says its self-interest because he runs one of the few overnight shelters in town.

This shelter system just cant absorb that many families, so thats really why were trying to stabilize them so that they dont end up homeless, Olson said.

McDonough and Olson fear if the properties are foreclosed on, the USDA subsidies will be reallocated to other rural projects in the country eliminating desperately needed affordable housing from Bemidji.

Olson says at least one non-profit organization is considering taking control of the properties. It would be a bailout for NETA but would maintain precious affordable housing.

Despite all the problems with the buildings, Nisly said she paid her rent every month, right up until she moved out because if she got evicted, shed have nowhere else to go.

Nisly hasnt been able to find another affordable apartment that accepts federal housing vouchers. She was only able to move out two weeks ago when her son got a place nearby and invited her to live with him.

NETA offered to reimburse her three months rent to terminate her lease, which she accepted. Her son took a video of the unit before they left to prove that there were no holes in the wall and the appliances were still in the unit, at least until they drove away.

That leaves Greene and two other households in the two-story brick building at 2910 Ridgeway Ave., searching for somewhere else to live.

I wish I could find a good home, Greene said.

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A landlord let squatters take over. Tenants are paying the price. - Minnesota Reformer

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Last Chance to Get Hitched at the Mall – Racket – Racket

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.

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It brings us no joy whatsoever to report that Chapel of Love, the Mall of America wedding venue thats been marrying couples for28 years, is closing at the end of August. OwnerFelicia Glass-Wilcox is retiring; their last day will be August 28. It will be a sad day, but we know that the future will hold many great adventures, plus we have our fond memories or our wonderful clients which we will forever hold in our hearts, reads a farewellFacebook postfrom Glass-Wilcox,who told Bring Me The Newsthat selling the business would have been too much of an uphill battle.The chapel has performed more than 8,300 ceremonies since opening in 94, according to its website, and theyll sneak in a few more before closing the doorstheyre offering$50 off in their August wedding special.

Some good labor news from the world of broadcast journalism. WCCO-TVs employees and newsroom producers are already included in the nearly 117,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Now theyll have some new union siblings among their co-workers. The stations 15 digital content producers and assignment desk editors voted unanimously to join the union, and have been officially recognized as a bargaining unit following a National Labor Relations Board certification. Discussion began with SAG-AFTRA in 2019. Locally, SAG-AFTRA represents employees at Minnesota Public Radio, its stations the Current and MPR Classical, and the radio folks at WCCO-AM.

Is there a Kris Lindahl imposter in Canada, grinning down from billboards with arms outstretched, promising the people of Ontario an unbeatable real estate experience? Thats for the courts to decide. Lindahl, the inescapableTwin Cities mega-realtor, is suing Rob Golfi, a Canadian counterpart whose arms-forward marketing appears eerily similar to Lindahls. (You can read thelawsuithere; you can view two allegedly smoking video guns below.) Bring Me the Newsprovides a nice breakdownof the goofy legal action, which sees Lindahl seeking damages over alleged trademark infringement and breach of contract. In this case, taking legal action was a last resort, and it followed our repeated requests and efforts to resolve the situation outside of court,thestrange-tweetin,doomed-Zillow-partnerin,lake-lovinlocal real estate tycoonsaid in a statement Monday to Racket. As you surely recall, the OG local arm-stretcherfiled a curious trademark applicationto projecthis arms out pose in June, though this international legal complaint is unrelated.

This week, the public may decide, as the former SNL cast member/U.S. Senator is up to a lot of stuff, including hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live and headlining at Acme Comedy Co. A refresher on how Franken canceled himself: In 2008 he was elected to rep Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. About nine years later, radio personality Leeann Tweeden came forward in an interview alleging that hed forcibly kissed and groped her during a USO Tour rehearsal. Then a pic of Franken making a lewd gesture while Tweeden was asleep surfaced. At the urging of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Franken resigned in 2018, and we were ushered into a new Tina Smith era.

Tonight, Franken will be on Kimmel with Bob Odenkirk, fresh from his Better Call Saul series finale. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) will also be there (testing those waters too, eh?). Then, from Wednesday through Saturday, hell be headlining six sold-out shows at Acme. I guess the Acme crowd has forgiven him, but this is the same venue that sold out shows to Louis C.K., so YMMV.

And he documented his experience on Twitter with plenty of bug and rash photos. The voice actor/comedian was in town for some gigs, and upon checking into the downtown Hilton near the convention center, he was unimpressed. The place looked & smelled like the only people staying there were waiting until things with the police cooled down or their wives took them back, he tweeted. After spending some time in his room, he found a bug on his sock and asked to speak to management. First he tried to tell me its a tick, but he had looked up bed bug on his phone and its the twin of the image on his phone, he writes. After cleaning up, Guerreros relocated to a different hotel, one not located next to an off ramp and a crumbling building. The horrors didnt end there, though, as Guerreros had a bite reaction that involved redness and swelling, ultimately leading to trip to the hospital for meds he has to take every six hours for a week. The Hilton, however, says they are officially bed bug-free. The hotel responded swiftly and conducted third-party testing which resulted in no traces of bed bugs in the room, the company told Bring Me the News.

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How Can I Permanently Get Rid of Bed Bugs at Home?

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.

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How Can I Permanently Get Rid of Bed Bugs at Home?

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

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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