Bed Bugs aren’t a cute bedtime story anymore; they’re a blood-sucking nightmare.  We understand the impact the bed bugs can inflict both financially and emotionally.  Adult bed bugs may be 1/5 inch long.  Their bodies are flat, which allows them to crawl into narrow cracks and seams.  Places where they like to hide include: 

 

• Piping along the edges of mattresses

• Folds of fabric in the box spring and mattress

• Bed frames and head and footboards of bed

• Picture frames 

• Anywhere that two pieces of matter create a line or seam. 

 

They are usually nocturnal, active at night just before dawn, with a peak feeding period 1 - 2  hours before sunrise. Bed bugs may attempt to feed at other times and have been observed feeding during the day.  The heavier the infestation, the greater chance of seeing bed bugs during the daylight hours.  They reach their host by walking, or sometimes climb the walls to the ceiling and drop down on the host when they feel a heat source. Bed bugs are attracted to their hosts by warmth and the presence of carbon dioxide when we exhale.

 

A female bed bug can lay more than 200 - 500 eggs in her lifetime.  Newly hatched bed bugs are nearly colorless and very hard to spot.  They try to feed every 5 to 10 days.  Recent studies have shown that bed bugs can live from 6 – 18 months without a blood host.  Bed bugs that are actively feeding usually live 6 – 10 months.  

 

Bed bugs do not really bite you.  The bed bug has two tubes.  It injects its saliva and an anesthetic with one of its tubes, while sucking blood with the other tube.  The bed bug returns to its hiding place after feeding for about 5 minutes.  The “bite”, or injection site, is usually not felt because of the anesthetic that was injected.  However, the bites may cause itching hours later.

People react differently to bed bugs.  Since people react differently, the mere presence of itchy welts is not the sole indicator of bed bugs.  It is possible for an initial infestation within a household to go undetected until other evidence is found.  

 

Bed bugs are excellent ‘hitchhikers’ and spread very easily by hitching a ride on luggage, linens, clothing or any other item transported from one place to another. Once acquired at a location, the now hitchhiking bedbugs may then be transported and brought back to the homes of the guests in their luggage, clothing, etc. where a new infestation can then take place inside the home.

Because they are such prolific breeders, a few bugs can easily become an infestation in a relatively short period of time.  Although they may initially stay close to their food source, such as a bed, as their numbers increase they can be found throughout the home.  They will travel up to 20 feet to their host for a blood meal.

 

K9 Service

 

Since bedbugs are very small and can get into extremely tight spaces, human inspections are only 20-25% effective. The canine relies not on a visual inspection, but on his nose, which is one hundred times more powerful than the human nose. Dogs have a proven track record of 97% accuracy with zero false positives. Our dogs can detect both bedbugs and their eggs in places you would never be able to see. By finding out exactly where the bugs are, you can save money by targeting only those areas during the eradication process.