Bed Bugs Go To School

It is time for college students to return to school–or adventure out for the first time. If you are a college student, or the parent of a student, there is something you need to know. This is the time of year when bed bugs go to school too. It isn’t that bed bugs are interested in higher learning. While these insects are definitely smart, they aren’t exactly “college” smart; but they are smart enough to know how to spread and how to keep themselves from being detected by humans as they spread. Here are some facts you need to know about bed bugs before you or someone you love heads off to college.

Bed Bug Facts

  • Bed bugs go through five development stages called instars. In the first stage, they can be as small as the tip of a pen.
  • Bed bugs must feed on blood to develop, but their bites aren’t always immediately noticeable. Bites from nymphs can be small and have no rash associated with them at first.
  • A home can be infested with bed bugs and the homeowner may not know it. That means returning students may not even know they’re bringing bed bugs with them.
  • Many students travel to college from other countries where pest control measures are much more lax.
  • These bugs don’t just infest dirty places. They can be found in the cleanest of environments. They will live anywhere they can get a blood meal.
  • Bed bugs can be picked up on the way to college. These pests have been found in planes, trains, buses, taxis, and other forms of public transportation.
  • Infestations are more common in areas of high population or where people travel.
  • Bed bugs can avoid detection easier when there is more clutter.

Bed Bug Tips

  • Learn to know what bed bugs, and their eggs, looks like. A bed bug egg does not need the mother in order to hatch.
  • Learn to recognize bed bug bites. These are most often recognizable by the rash that develops around the bite wound.
  • Be prepared to look closely when you see a tiny bug crawling around.
  • If you’re a college student, keep your room free of clutter.
  • If you see a bed bug or notice signs of bed bugs, report it immediately.
  • Bed bugs leave black streaks, blood stains, and shed casings when they infest. Look for these signs on mattresses, sheets, pillowcases, upholstered furniture, baseboards, outlet covers, and electronics.
  • Keep your guard up.

An ounce of precaution goes a long way when it comes to bed bugs. Don’t let the bed bugs bite; and if you can help it, don’t let them come back home with you.

If you get bed bugs or want to keep from getting bed bugs in your Macon, Georgia, home, give Active Pest Control a call. This is a pest that can be controlled. We’ll walk you through your options and help you keep these disturbing bugs from finding a home inside your house.

Bed Bugs By Beaches Bite

I dare you to try to say that heading ten times fast. But there is an important reason for this fanciful alliteration. According to the 2015 biennial report, Bugs Without Borders, which surveys U.S. pest professionals on the prevalence of bed bugs in America, ⅔ of respondents reported that bed bugs are worse in the summer, and that 75% of bed bugs found were found in hotels/motels. This makes visiting beaches during the summer months a notable danger zone for picking up bed bugs.

Not only do these reports show that bed bugs are particularly troublesome for families taking summer vacations to the beaches, they also indicate that bed bug cases are on the rise. In this recent report 99.6% of pest professionals surveyed cited that they had treated for bed bugs in the past year. That is up dramatically from 15 years ago, when only 25% indicated that they had treated for bed bugs within the year.

Why the increase in bed bugs? Many pest controllers believe it is a mixture of an increase in travel and a lack of public awareness. They also point out that these are hard bugs to get rid of. Seriously. Pest professionals have reported treating for bed bugs in a prosthetic leg, a casket with a deceased body, a vent above a bathtub, a dance club, a 911 call center, a tow boat on the Ohio River, and more. These are challenging bugs to get rid of.

Are beaches any worse than other areas with hotels and motels? Bed bugs don’t swim in the ocean. They live predominantly inside where they have access to people. You’re not going to have too much trouble with these bugs on the beach, unless you brought them from your room.

Do bed bugs only bite people while they sleep? Though bed bugs are mostly found where people sleep, like hotels, motels, nursing homes, hospitals and such, they can also be found in office buildings, movie theaters, retail stores, day care centers, schools, trains, buses, taxis and even airplanes.

How do bed bugs live in places where people don’t sleep? These bugs can feed on a fully awake human without detection. Their mouthparts slip in through the skin and deposit an anticoagulant that thins blood for painless extraction. While you’re munching on a tall bag of popcorn, those bed bugs can easily be munching on you.

How do I keep the bed bugs at the beach? Here is the most important question of all. Any time you travel you want to be sure to do an inspection of your room. Search for dried, brown blood stains on pillowcases and sheets and for black areas on the seams and corners of mattresses, or in the stitching of upholstered furniture. Use a flashlight to do an inspection for tiny, rust-colored bugs in the bed or on the backboard. Keep a wary eye out for anyone who has a line of mosquito-type bites on their body. These bites can be a warning sign for you and your family.

Enjoy the summer and enjoy the beach, but don’t let those bed bugs ruin your fun or hitch a ride home with you. Awareness is the key to prevention. If you suspect that you may have been unfortunate enough to bring them to your home or business here in Georgia, contact the professionals here Active Pest Control and we will help you get rid of bed bugs for good, beach or no beach!

Bed Bugs In Chattanooga Apartments

Are you dealing with bed bugs in your apartment or housing unit? These bugs can be a torment. Not just because they feed on you while you sleep. When you have bed bugs, people think you’re a dirty person. This bug has earned a reputation of living in filth and unsanitary conditions. Though it is true that bed bugs thrive in bacteria-filled environments, the truth is, they’ll live anywhere that has a food source, no matter how clean. Here are some questions you may be asking yourself, and a few answers to protect your apartment from bed bugs.

How do bed bugs move through an apartment building?

Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They ride inside items we carry, and even on us. If you’re wondering how you can miss bugs crawling all over you, a baby bed bug can be the size of a sharpened pencil tip, and these bugs like to crawl along seams and in creases and crevices. And, sometimes, only their eggs hitch a ride on you–eggs that don’t require the mother in order to hatch. One tiny batch of eggs in the seam of a sweater can turn into a full-blown infestation.

For homeowners, this is a bug that will never work its way in through their exterior walls. These little blood eaters live inside, near their food source. But in an apartment building, they will travel through outlets and into wall voids to pass from one apartment into the next. As long as they don’t have to go outside, they’ll be happy to explore.

Does cleaning prevent bed bugs?

Bed bugs can live in the cleanest apartments, but keeping a clean apartment can deter them. If a momma bug enters your apartment and finds it free of bacteria and limited on nesting sites, like mattresses, upholstered furniture, and clothing laying on the floor, she may decide to continue on to another apartment. Using a mattress cover and keeping things clean can slow these bugs down.

What should I do if I find bed bugs in my apartment?

Contact your apartment owner or manager. Most owners and managers have a plan for taking care of bed bugs. On rare occasions, like recently, in a Chattanooga apartment building, drastic action is needed, but usually this is not the case. Apartment owners know that bed bugs have an adverse effect on their bottom line, and they are aware of the sensitive nature of this invading pest. If you work together and get a pest control company involved, you can solve this problem quickly and effectively, for everyone involved.

Bed Bugs And Your Summer Vacation

Summer is only days away. You’re already seeing the signs in the weather forecast, it might even feel like summer is already here. Are you planning a summer getaway? Maybe a trip to the amusement park or perhaps you’re planning on sinking your toes into a the sand and not budging for a few days. Whatever your plans, vacation is a time to relax and recharge your battery. It can also turn into a disaster if you find that you brought bed bugs home.

For many pest control companies across the country, calls about bed bug infestations increase during the summer months. That’s because people are traveling more and that means they are increasing their chances of encountering bed bugs.

Here at Active Pest Control, our Tennessee pest control experts are here to help make sure that you’re not making a bed bug SOS call this summer. Listed below are some helpful tips to help prevent bed bugs from coming home with you as a summer vacation souvenir.

  • When traveling and spending time in airports, train stations, or bus stations keep bags, coats, and suitcases up off of the floor. Inspect your seats for signs of bed bugs or actual live bed bugs in the cracks or crevices of seats.
  • Before booking your hotel research it for incidences of bed bugs and read the reviews from other customers.
  • At the accommodation you choose, conduct a thorough inspection of the bed. Pull back sheets to inspect seams, search the box spring for blood, excrement and bugs.
  • Inspect furniture in the room too. This includes sofas, chairs, nightstands etc.
  • Keep your suitcase up off of the ground and keep items that are not being used in sealed plastic bags.
  • When returning home, do not bring your suitcase or bags inside. Rather unpack in the garage or even driveway.
  • Wash all clothing in the hottest temperature the fabric will permit.
  • Vacuum out and wipe down your suitcase before storing it.

Though bed bugs are not a threat to your health or your home, they are a very stressful pest problem and can be difficult to eradicate. A single, pregnant female can become a major infestation quickly. Be proactive before, during and after your trip and keep an eye out for these bugs.

If you suspect that bed bugs may have arrived home with you, contact Active Pest Control for help. Our trained bed bug control experts will inspect your home and treat for bed bugs if detected. We offer a few options in bed bug removal including bed bug heat treatment and will let you know what method of remediation would work best for your situation. Don’t stress about these biting insects this summer, give us a call instead.

Beating Jacksonville’s Bed Bug Blues

Bed bugs can show up practically anywhere, including here in Jacksonville and the surrounding suburbs. They turn up at hotels as people travel to and from major hubs, carrying their luggage from their homes and unknowingly spreading them through their infested clothing. Even top tier accommodations can’t avoid bed bugs when someone brings them from another country and they end up contaminating the hotel.

People can also pick them up from furniture at furniture stores, as two Jacksonville area families claim they did when they purchased rented or bought furniture from Aaron’s, Inc. in 2014. Most local furniture stores work with Jacksonville pest control specialists to perform quality assurance review, but sometimes this may not be enough as they rest in crevices, only to later infest your home.

Bedbug treatments are notoriously difficult and expensive, often running more than $3,000 for a single-family unit. And, unfortunately, once you have them, you almost always need professional help to ensure the problem is completely eliminated.

At the University of Georgia, entomologists studying bed bugs say that the critters are becoming more commonplace as they become resistant to certain pesticides, particularly here in Georgia. While these researchers are trying to find new ways to eradicate these pests, it’s hard to know if we’ll ever be able to eliminate bed bugs completely. Prior to the recent resurgence, they had been mostly eradicated throughout the developed world since the 1940s.

Bed bugs are typically elusive and may hide in cracks and hidden areas throughout your home or business. People often don’t know they have bed bugs until they notice the bite marks, which typically have a red, swollen area with a darker center, and are grouped together in a single area or are in a straight line. In addition to leaving painful bites, they can also carry disease, so if you notice them it’s important to call an exterminator right away.

If you’re concerned about the threat of bed bugs in your Jacksonville area home, schedule an appointment with Active Pest Control’s Jacksonville pest control specialists via our quick service contact form. Our team of pest control professionals will eliminate insects starting at the source, and can offer your tips and suggestions to prevent further infestations.

Post Vacation Bed Bug Tips

You just got home from a relaxing vacation in the Caribbean…fast forward a few weeks and you have now realized that you brought home with you more than sea shells and trinkets. This unwanted souvenir is a bed bug and now all the unwinding you did in the tropics is completely overshadowed by the stress these pests have created. No one wants the memories of a great vacation replaced by bed bugs.

While bed bugs pose no known risks to the health of humans, that doesn’t mean anyone wants them in their home. Bed bugs generally only come out at night to feed. Their meal of choice, human blood. Sounds like something out of a horror movie doesn’t it? They leave behind red, rash-like bumps that itch. While they are more of a nuisance than anything, the idea of bugs crawling on you, biting you while you sleep can make it rather difficult to get any rest.

There are some things you can do to try to avoid a bed bug infestation after you get home from your trip.

  • Before you leave for you vacation, leave trash bags in your car. When you get home from your trip, put your luggage in the trash bags and leave them there until you are able to get them thoroughly cleaned.
  • While in your hotel, avoid unpacking your clothing. Don’t leave your suitcase on the floor, and if possible, leave your suitcase in the bathroom.
  • Take a few minutes to look around the crevices and cracks of the hotels mattress and bedding with a flashlight. If you think you see any signs of bed bugs, ask for a different room on a different floor.
  • When you get back from your vacation, remove your luggage from the tied off trash bags when you’re ready to wash your items. Wash all clothing in hot water as hot as your washing machine will allow. Anything that cannot be washed should be tossed, if at all possible.
  • Vacuum out your suitcase before you put it back in your closet and as close to the door as possible (outside would be best).
  • Keep an eye out for the signs of bed bugs once you get home. Signs include copper stains on sheets, discarded bed bug skins, rash-like red, itchy bumps on your body or spotting bed bugs or bed bug eggs.

If you think you may have brought bed bugs home with you from vacation, it is important to contact a professional as soon as possible. Bed bugs can multiply quickly and it doesn’t take long for a couple bed bugs to become an infestation and many over the counter pesticides won’t help with these guys! However, the pros at Active Pest Control can!