How To Avoid Bed Bugs On Spring Vacation

Are you planning to take a vacation from your Atlanta home? Are you going to cash in on some much needed time off? If so, we’d like you to consider adding bed bug prevention to your vacation plans.

Are you familiar with this quote from Edmund Burke? “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Well, the only thing necessary for bed bugs to ride back to your home and create an infestation is for you to do nothing. Bed bugs are hitchhiking bugs. When you take a trip anywhere, you have a chance of picking these pests up, especially nowadays with infestations cropping up everywhere. Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do to keep your home and your family safe.

3 Easy Things You Can do To Avoid Bed Bugs

  1. Check bedbugregistry.com before you travel. This is a great resource for finding out if someone has had a bed bug experience at the place you’ll be staying. While one bed bug incident should not deter you from staying somewhere, several incidents, or reviews that describe inhospitable responses to bed bugs, should be used as a gauge to determine where you stay. It is also a good idea to call ahead and ask what their bed bug plan is. If they have a quick response, there is a good chance they have put the necessary protocol in place to safeguard against this growing problem.
  2. Check your room. It may seem like a big hassle, but checking your room for bed bugs can be as quick as 3 minutes. Put your bags on the bathroom floor while you use a flashlight to check the seams on all the mattresses and box springs in the room. If you find black residue, black streaks, brown stains, shed insect shells, white eggs, or tiny six-legged insects crawling around (especially if you see more than one or two of these together) you should bring it to the attention of the management. For added protection, you can also check the baseboards, outlets, and upholstered furniture for similar evidence.
  3. When you get home, wash all clothing, and any bedding you brought with you, on the highest temperature, and run those items through the dryer. Heat kills bed bugs in all stages of development. If you accidentally brought eggs home with you, this could get them before they hatch into a problem.

If you ever see bed bugs, or signs of bed bugs, in your Atlanta home, call Active Pest Control. We have the solutions for all of Georgia’s pests. Help is just a call away.

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 Bug Dangers

It is a simple fact: if you leave your home and go out into the public for work or pleasure there is always a slight risk that bed bugs may come into contact with you or your belongings and that they could accidentally be introduced into your home. We aren’t telling you this to scare you or make you want to live as a hermit; we are just trying to make you aware. Being aware will help you to take some necessary steps to help protect yourself and your family from bed bugs and reduce the chances of an infestation occurring in your home!

Bed bugs can be found in any place where there are large groups of people. Common places to come into contact with bed bugs include libraries, movie theaters, shopping centers, schools, airports, bus stations, hotels, motels, and even hospitals. In fact, just recently a hospital in Salisbury, North Carolina, became infested with bed bugs after a patient introduced them into the hospital. However, due to the hospital’s quick action the infected areas were treated by an experienced exterminator and all bed bugs were eliminated.

Since bed bugs have the potential to be in so many public areas, it is best to always be vigilant and try to protect yourself against them; just like you would try to prevent yourself from catching a cold from the grocery cart! Some tips to protect yourself and your family from bed bugs include:

  • When out in public keep your belongings with you (coats, bags, purses). Don’t place these items on the floors of public places.
  • Inspect upholstered seats for bed bugs before sitting down on them.
  • Before bringing luggage into a hotel room inspect the room, mattresses, and box springs for bed bugs.
  • Keep your luggage up off of the hotel floor.
  • Wash all clothing in hot water immediately after returning home from a trip.
  • Vacuum and wipe down your suitcase before storing it away in your home.
  • Routinely wash outerwear that you and your family wear on a regular basis.

It is important to remember that bed bugs don’t care about the cleanliness of the environment that they are in. They will live in a cluttered home, a budget motel, a 5 star hotel, or even in a sterilized hospital environment as long as one thing is available- a blood source. Bed bugs solely feed off of the blood of people; so as long as people are present they will be able to feed, breed, and thrive. The only true way to get rid of bed bugs whether you are a homeowner or business owner is with the help of a professional pest control specialist.

If bed bugs do ever hitchhike their way uninvited into your home, the best defense against them is to take quick action, don’t be embarrassed, bed bugs can infect any business or home. Active Pest Control can get rid of bed bugs from your home through our experienced and effective bed bug control program. Our professionals will inspect your home locate where the bed bugs are and then provide treatment services that include conventional methods and/or bed bug heat treatments. After an infestation is eliminated having routine inspections performed by our professionals will help to stop future problems with bed bugs from occurring!

For more information about bed bugs and how Active Pest Control can help you to control bed bugs in your home contact us today!