Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite. If you are like many Americans, you heard this little night time rhyme a lot growing up. Of course, as a kid, these silly words were nothing more than something funny your parents said to make you laugh before bedtime. Now that you are all grown up, however, you have come to know that not only are bed bugs real, but they do bite people while they sleep. If you would rather not have pests biting you in your sleep, here are a few things you ought to know bed bugs in Saratoga County .
Bed Bugs Are Hitchhiking Pests
Bed bugs do not get into homes in the ways other pests do. In fact, they don’t even live out in nature. The only way bed bugs can survive is if they stay inside temperature-controlled buildings, near people they can feed on. The question is, how do they get from one building to another. It is actually quite simple. All they have to do is climb aboard any item we carry around on a day to day basis and let us transport them to their next home.
Bed Bugs Need Blood To Survive
Bed bugs are parasitic pests that require a regular blood meal to survive. To get a blood meal safely, bed bugs will wait until their prey has fallen into a deep sleep. It is only at this point that they will emerge from their hiding places to get a bite to eat.
Bed Bugs Never Bite Just Once
When bed bugs feed they almost never bite just once. Most often bed bugs will latch onto a part of skin, take a small amount of blood in, detach, and then crawl a few inches to a new location. They will repeat this process several times until full.
Bed Bugs Can Be Dangerous
For the longest time, bed bugs were believed to be no more than nuisance pests with the way they keep homeowners up at night. Recent studies, however, show that bed bugs might in fact be dangerous. Chagas disease, a disease more common in South America has been found to be carried and transmitted by bed bugs. Along with this, studies show that severe bed bug infestations can lead to insomnia and anemia, both of which can severely affect your health.
Bed Bugs Love Businesses As Much As They Love Homes
Bed bugs are not exclusively home pests but can be a major problem for businesses that give people a place to sleep. Hotels, motels, hospitals, and nursing homes are just a few places bed bug infestations are common.
How You Can Prevent Bed Bugs
The best thing you can do to keep bed bugs out of your home is to simply understand how they get inside in the first place. Specifically, you have to know two things. The first is that bed bugs can use any item you carry around to sneak into your home. Checking items before bringing them inside is one of the best ways to prevent bed bugs. The second thing you need to know is that it only takes 20 minutes for bed bugs to transfer from one solitary object to another. When out and about, be vigilant not to leave any luggage, bags, or other items in one place for too long.
In addition to understanding bed bugs, one other thing you can do to prevent infestations is to simply wash used or dirty clothing at a high temperature after returning home from vacation. This will kill off any hidden bed bugs before they get a chance to infest your home.
How Hard Are Bed Bugs To Eliminate?
Bed bugs are one of the most difficult pests to get out of homes. Not are they amazing at hiding and avoiding danger, but they can also live upwards of 5 months inside your walls without a blood meal. To ensure that bed bugs are handled properly, the professionals here at Old School Pest Control are here to help.
Give us a call today to have your home inspected for bed bugs.