Category Archives: Bed Bugs North Carolina

Bed bugs got their name because they gravitate to the sleeping areas near people initially. Common hiding spots for bed bugs include headboards, mattresses, and box springs. If you dont eliminate an infestation quickly, the bed bugs will travel to other parts of a home, including upholstered furniture, floors, behind baseboards, in wall voids behind outlets, and inside keyboards and electronics.

Bed bugs tend to come out at night and prefer to stay hidden. Catching a live bed bug in the open is nearly impossible. If you do see one crawling over your bedding, the infestation in your home may be so severe that getting rid of them will take more effort and time (and maybe some professional help).

Checking some of their favorite hiding spots more closely is one way to check for bed bugs. Monitoring any bite marks on your family, your pets, or yourself is another way.

Bed bugs thrive in places where people rest long enough to allow the bugs to finish feeding undisturbed. Feeding times for bed bugs are between 3 to 10 minutes.

After feeding, bed bugs tend to hide out of sight in nooks and crevices you may not expect. Knowing how bed bugs eat and survive will help you look at the common living areas below for any indicators of a bed bug infestation.

Beds

Your bed is most desirable to a bed bug looking to grow its brood. Food sources are always close by and there are so many places to burrow until its time to feed again or lay eggs.

Check for unusual spots on the sheets, pillow, mattress pad, mattress, and every seam and crevice of your bed. This includes your headboard, bed frame, the floor, especially if you have an area rug or carpet, and other places around your bed.

Couches

Your average favorite show on TV lasts about 25 minutes, which is plenty of time for bed bugs to feel sated until their next meal. Any upholstered piece of furniture where people hang around on a regular basis works well for bed bugs. This could be an armchair, ottoman, or even a wheelchair. Check every side of your seat and under the cushions for dark spots.

Baseboards and door hinges

So long as it is close to their blood supply, bed bugs will be there. Thats why baseboards, particularly in the bedroom and living areas where you frequently relax, are decent spots for bed bugs to live. Theyre not only excellent and convenient hiding spots but also the fastest way to travel from one room to another.

Bed bugs can choose any unusual spot that has crevices, including door hinges, so long as it is close enough to you, their food source.

Electrical fixtures

A spreading bed bug infestation can travel through walls and floors into adjacent rooms. Another access point besides baseboards are light sockets, outlets, and switches. These little nooks are great places for the bugs to hide until they are ready to feed when youre sitting next to outlet by your desk, in your favorite chair, or fast asleep in bed.

Electronics

Your laptop can easily house bed bugs in all of your keyboard crevices. Other places that have little electronic spaces for plugs (and bed bugs) are TVs, computer CPUs, and fans or air purifiers. If any of these electronics came from an infested area, bed bugs may be hiding in there.

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Bed Bug Control | Hawx Pest Control

Hey, Myrtle Beach! Here's everything you need to know to get the New Year's holiday started off right. Today is Friday, December 31, 2021 the last day of the year! Keep your safety and health in the forefront of your mind if you are venturing out and about. The Grand Strand is crowded with visitors and locals going out to NYE events. Happy New Year!

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Horry COVID Update + MB Bed Bug Law + Get In On The MLK Parade - Patch.com

Bed Bug Hotel and Apartment Reports. Click on the city below to find our latest bed bug reports in North Carolina on hotels. To report a new bed bug incident, navigate to our city page below to see further details.

Recommended tips after hotel check-in: 1. Pick up the mattresses in the rooms and look under it. Check around the edges of the box springs. 2. Check under the box spring. 3. Lift up each headboard an lay it on the bed. Carefully inspect the hole where the headboard was lifted out of. Also, inspect all niches and corners of the headboard. 4. If you decide to stay in the hotel, do not put any clothes in dressers. Keep them in your luggage and your dirty clothes in plastic bags.

Happened in June 30-July 3rd, saw a bed bug on abdomen upon leaving the room on July 1st but thought I could have picked it up anywhere. After sleeping July 2nd into the 3rd, woke up scratching everyw...

I traveled to Charlotte on 6/11/2020 through 6/14/2020. I stayed at Hyatt Place Arrowood. The first night I slept in the bed and woke up with bite marks, I thought it was just the bugs in North Caroli...

Bed bugs found on 5/3/20 Found bed bugs in my room, staff treated the situation like it was no big deal, horrible customer service ...

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North Carolina Bed Bug Hotel and Apartment Reports ...

New study says that bed bugs can modify microbial communities in homes they infest, an advance that could lead to better indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Homes infested by bed bugs appear to have different bacterial communitiesoften referred to as microbiomethan homes without bed bugs, according to a first-of-its-kind study from North Carolina State University.

In addition, once bed bug infestations were eradicated, home microbiome became more similar to those in homes that never had bed bugs.

According to American health agency CDC, Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) refers to the quality of a buildings environment in relation to the health and wellbeing of those who occupy space within it. IEQ is determined by many factors, including lighting, air quality, and damp conditions.

Microbes can affect indoor air quality. So NC State entomologists Coby Schal and Madhavi Kakumanu wanted to learn more about the microbiome of bed bugs, whether bed bugs can shape the microbial community in homes they infest, and whether eliminating bed bugs changes the microbiome of homes that were once infested.

The study, held in an apartment complex in Raleigh, compared the microbiome of bed bugs with the microbiome in the household dust of infested homes as well as the microbiome in apartments that had no bed bugs. Nineteen infested homes were studied over the course of four months; seven were treated with heat to eliminate bed bugs after the initial sample was taken, while 12 infested homes were treated after one month. These homes were compared with 11 homes that had no bed bugs.

The results showed similarities between the microbiome of bed bugs and the dust-associated microbiome of infested homes, mostly through the presence of Wolbachia, a symbiotic bacterium that comprises the majority of the bacterial abundance in bed bugs. Bed bug and infested home microbiome differed significantly from the microbial communities of uninfested homes.

"There is a link between the microbiome of bed bugs and the microbiome of household dust in bed bug infested homes," said Schal, the Blanton J. Whitmire Distinguished Professor of Entomology at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper. "No previous study has reported the impact of chronic pest infestations on indoor microbial diversity."

The study also showed that, after bed bugs were eliminated, infested home microbiome gradually became more like those in homes without bed bugs.

"The elimination of the bed bugs resulted in gradual shifts in the home microbial communities toward those of uninfested homes," Kakumanu, an NC State research scholar in Schal's lab and co-corresponding author of the study, said. "This paper is the first experimental demonstration that eliminating an indoor pest alters the indoor microbiome toward that of uninfested homes."

"Bed bug infestations are problematic in many homes in both developed and developing countries," Schal said. "There is a critical need to investigate infestations from the perspective of indoor environmental quality, and this paper represents a first step toward this end."

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Bed bugs modify microbial diversity of homes they infest - THE WEEK

CHARLOTTE, NC It's the two words no homeowners want to hear: bed bugs. Orkin, the pest control and protection service, recently released its annual rankings of the 50 most bed bug-treated cities in the nation, and Charlotte finished in 20th place.

There is some slightly good news for our city. The No. 20 ranking means Charlotte improved from its No. 19 ranking on last year's list.

The rankings were based on metro areas where Orkin performed the most bed bug treatments from Dec. 1, 2018, to Nov. 30, 2019. Both residential and commercial treatments were included.

For the last three years, Baltimore was the No. 1 city in the nation for bed bugs; but its nearby neighbor, Washington, D.C., took the top spot in 2020.

Here are the top 10 cities overall:

"While bed bugs have not been found to transmit any diseases to humans, they can be an elusive threat to households," said Chelle Hartzer, an Orkin entomologist who was referenced in a press release for the rankings. "They are excellent hitchhikers, and they reproduce quickly, which make it nearly impossible to prevent bed bugs."

A description for the blood-sucking bugs on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website sounds like something from a Stephen King novel: "parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep."

The reddish-brown bugs are typically 4 to 5 millimeters in length, or the size of Abraham Lincoln's head on a penny. The creatures are also known for multiplying incredibly quickly, as females can deposit one to five eggs a day in the right conditions.

Orkin provides a range of tips to prevent bed bugs from inhabiting your home:

The complete ranking of the most bed bug-treated cities is available on Orkin's website.

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Charlotte Ranked As A Top 20 City For Bed Bugs: Orkin - Charlotte, NC Patch