What Attracts Bed Bugs & Can You Prevent Getting Them?
For many of us, we find out we have bed bugs the hard way. You wake up from a peaceful sleep to a sharp pain to find bed bugs sucking the blood out of you. If this happened to you, and you’re already covered in bed bug bites, you need to check out our article on how to get rid of bed bugs. If you’re looking to avoid this before it occurs, you’re in the right place. When it comes down to what attracts bed bugs into your home, it really just means being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bed bugs are a common phenomenon and are invariably found in many households. They prefer dark, crummy corners of your beds where they dwell peacefully throughout the day, but just as darkness sets in at night and you lie down on your bed, they wriggle out from underneath the mattress to feast upon you. Although bed bugs do not spread disease, they can be a nuisance especially if you are allergic to their bites and saliva. Needless to say, it is best to just get rid of these loathsome beings for the sake of your safety if not for a sound sleep!
Bed bug on a mattress
How Do You Get Bed Bugs
Bed bugs aren’t the normal pest that flies in unannounced and disappears into your home. These bugs don’t fly nor jump and are fairly slow crawlers, so they need another means of transportation. The most common way for bed bugs to travel into homes is what’s known as the hitchhiker method. Unfortunately, you can find yourself in a bed bug infested place without knowing it. They can be in the furniture you’re sitting on or on a person you cross paths with, the remorseless bed bugs will crawl onto you from there unnoticed until you get back home. Then, even if it’s just one bed bug, it will make it’s way to your bed, couch, or cabinets, and start a new bed bug colony of its own, feeding on you for their necessary meals.
This is known as a bed bug nest and they are common during bed bug infestations. We can see adult bed bugs, bed bug eggs, shed skins and nymphs.
Until the problem is noticed and eliminated, these types of infestations cause a chain reaction, infecting the next person who enters your home who unknowingly gives a hitchhiker bed bug a ride back to their place.
Things You Can Do To Prevent Bed Bugs:
Bed bug repellents
Another way of preventing these insects from causing a massive infestation at your home is the routine use of spraying cans. Bed bugs are highly resilient insects so make sure to choose a spray which is strong enough to kill them on repeated use. Also, there are several options of organic chemical sprays which are much less harmful than insecticides which may are not suitable for houses occupied by children.
Seal up the hiding spots
In order to avoid extermination, bed bugs usually live in tiny cracks and holes which are a common occurrence in every household. The wood planks on your beds or the window and wall cracks in the corners- such are the common hiding spots of these insects. Seal up all these places and make sure to find any additional such spots so as to repeat the process in those as well.
Bed bug infestation in a wall crack
Use of protective cover
Make sure to cover blankets and other heavy-fabric material in a protective plastic encasing so as to prevent the admittance of bed bugs. Plastic covering makes sure to properly seal the entire blanket or bedspread and keeps bed bugs and other insects at bay. In fact, on purchasing new mattresses, keep in mind to not remove the plastic cover and then set your bed accordingly.
Routine clean-up
As self-explanatory as it can be, bed bugs reside underneath the mattresses or in tiny corners of your bed which gives them quick access to your skin while sleeping. Our skin comes in contact with the bed sheet and bed covers of our bed almost every day and that lead to leaving certain body tissue all over the fabric. This attracts these nonsensical creatures the most as they feed on these and later on our exposed skin. In order to prevent this from happening, routinely washing of bed sheets and covers are a must to keep them from having any skin remnants and avoid attracting these bed bugs.
What To Do If You Think You Have Bed Bugs:
Identifying bed bug bites
Bed bug bites can be vastly similar to several other bites such as mosquitoes, fleas, or even spiders. However, bed bug bites are typically arranged in a symmetrical format specifically in the regions which are in close proximity to your mattress and can even occur under the fabric of your clothes. Bed bug bites are unlike mosquitoes which leave random marks all over your body and spider bites which are much more painful. Your first step after noticing any type of bite marks is to correctly identify which type of insect it is.
Bed bug bites
Don’t stress yourself out
Take a deep breath and relax. Bed bugs can be irksome creatures and can irritate the living daylights out of you but they are not impossible to remove. Mothers worry the most considering their children but instead of taking stress over this matter, let’s just devise a plan on how to exterminate them.
Search for evidence
Bed bugs can be easily traced by simply noticing their presence itself or coming across bed bug excrements and eggs. You can also search for evidence if you find yourself getting red, flat welts across your legs, hands, arms or in fact any part of your body. Also, seeing tiny spots of splattered blood on your bed sheet or clothes is a common sign of bed bugs. Bed bug sites cause a lot of irritation and itchiness and hence these are the signs which could confirm their presence among you.
Unclutter
Clutter gives bed bugs a suitable environment to live and reproduce. In order to prevent getting bed bugs, the first and foremost measures would be to unclutter your entire house and make sure to clean every nook and cranny. It is imperative to keep a tidy indoors as well outdoors.
If your home is cluttered, you’re giving bed bugs the opportunity to live a happy life. Clutter creates infestations faster as it becomes easier for them to hide behind things and go unnoticed.
Use of heat to kill bed bugs
Bed bugs thrive in normal, humid conditions and they expand easily. Using heat to kill bed bugs on the mattresses or blankets might work but the temperature of heat must be pretty high in order to achieve that target.
Keep all your bed bug infested belongings under the direct exposure of sunlight and let the sun work its magic on them. Or you can simply purchase dry-heating equipment which would help you to remove the bed bugs in a simple manner.
Patience is key
Let’s not assume that bed bugs can be eradicated in just a matter of a few days. Bed bugs live on for days, weeks, months and even for years. It is a highly painstaking process to remove these vile creatures and requires immense patience to deal with this. Remember to not lose hope and keep your efforts and endeavors up and you will surely reach your results soon.
Call a professional exterminator near me
While there are several do-it-yourself ways to remove bed bugs, sometimes the infestation becomes too serious of a problem to resolve by ourselves. Pest control treatment is the easiest way to eradicate your bed bug problem. Professionals are aware of the proper usage of chemicals and in the right dosage to remove these insects and also avoid the reoccurrence of these blood-sucking beings thereby creating a permanent solution. While most of the professionals use insecticides as their bed bug repellent, in case you are wary of the usage of chemicals in your home, look for organic pest control treatments. Although these methods may take time, they do guarantee the same results.
Before freaking out over what attracts bed bugs and how to prevent them, make sure to be aware of the signs. Knowing the signs of bed bugs is the best thing you can do for yourself to tackle the problem as soon as it happens. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to avoid bringing bed bugs home unless you properly check yourself every time you enter your home like a tick inspection. Plus, bed bugs are so small, you won’t notice them until there is an abundance. If you are faced with an infestation of bedbugs, make sure to get professional help.
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