Preventing Bed Bugs From Entering your Home

Be wary of acquiring secondhand beds, bedding, and furniture

Just the mention of bed bugs is enough to send chills down your spine, and creepy itches up your pores. Imagine finding them inside your home. What horror! What a chore now to get rid of them. Bed bugs are found all over the world and tolerate almost any climate, so they certainly wouldn’t have a problem snagging a ride home with you. If that’s not enough to disgust you, here are four more discomforting facts about the pest we call bed bugs.

1. Bed Bugs Are Teeny-Tiny

A lot of people think they know exactly what bed bugs look like and end up mislabeling other innocent insects as bed bugs. In reality, bed bugs are extremely tiny measuring in at about one millimeter. That means they’re almost too difficult to see with the naked eye. Since bed bugs are so small, they’re also difficult to find which is why the team at Professional Pest Management is the way to eradicate them from your home permanently.

2. They Like To Eat & Run

Bed bugs aren’t trying to be intentionally rude, but they do like to eat and run. Bed bugs gorge themselves on blood and when they’re hungry, they can ingest several times their weight in food. Then, they’ll hide out for several days until their next meal. Bed bugs only eat about once a week, but they can go for almost a year without food if nothing’s available.

3. Bed Bugs Are Intelligent

For such a small insect, bed bugs have proven themselves to be rather intelligent. Bed bugs are experts when it comes to hiding from you. Despite their name, these critters enjoy hiding in places like baseboards, electrical outlets, inside wallpaper and under bed frames just to make you crazy! They also love to travel and will hitch a ride in your bag or on your clothing.

4. You Probably Won’t Feel Them Bite

Perhaps one of the worst facts about bed bugs is that you’ll never feel them bite. Microscopic bed bug saliva acts much like anesthesia. It increases blood flow and makes you oblivious to pain. This means a bite won’t wake you up and you’ll keep sleeping while they feed. The only evidence you’ll find is a bite the next morning and droplets of blood on your bedding.

The last thing you want in your home are bugs that are small, quick-witted and have an appetite for blood. If the worst happens, remember that professional pest control is the only way to get rid of bed bugs for good.

At a minimum, such items should be examined closely before being brought into the home.

Examine beds and headboards for signs of bed bugs when traveling

Elevate your luggage off the floor

Be vigilant

Warehouses, storage facilities, trucks, and railroad cars may be infested, so common bed bugs can infest homes by stowing away on new furniture stored or shipped from these places. Familiarity may help to avoid infestation or at least prompt earlier intervention by a professional.

View the Original Article here: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Bed-Bugs.