What are bed bugs?
Do you think you've got a bed bug infestation? Bed bugs are small creatures often found buried in furniture, bedding, cracks and crevices, anywhere which has had human interaction. Bed bugs hide near their food supply, so they’re ready to feed. Bed bugs are nocturnal and come out at night to feed on their/your blood supply. In heavily infested areas bedbugs will feed on their blood meal during the day. After feeding, they take 5-10 days to digest, mate and reproduce. Ideally you want to kill the bed bugs before they have a chance to mate and reproduce.
Identify and Isolate the situation.
Bed bugs aren’t the easiest thing to find, there are signs you need to look out for such as Blood Spots, these are arguably the most common indicator. If you find tiny small brown spots on your bedding, it's most likely that you have bed bugs. But don’t panic this can be treated! Other signs to look out for are Fecal Droppings, Shed Skins and in some very rare cases you can see the Bed Bugs, but this is usually a large infested area, but they can be a long distance from your bed, 100 feet is easily by a bed bug for a feed!. If you can visually see the bedbugs this is when you know the situation is increasingly getting out of hand and they have begun to reproduce. The best thing to do in this situation is to kill them immediately.
Preparing your mattress.
Firstly, you need to strip your bed and hoover it down, collecting all of the dead skin cells from the bed bugs and always remember to empty the Hoover in an outside bin. Heat is the best thing to kill the bedbugs, so get your steamer out and go over your whole mattress. Another tip is to use a Hairdryer, Iron or any heat as it instantly kills the bedbugs, this needs to be maintained for a few minutes before they eventually die. Make sure you wash all the bedding with hot water for 30 minutes and dry on the high heat to kill all of the bugs. Now your mattress is taken care of you will need to treat the rest of the room, using a specialist bed bug spray. You could try a shop bought spray but these will usually only kill the adult bed bugs and not the eggs, and, as they are not residual (only professional sprays are) after a few days the eggs will hatch out and there will be no insecticide remaining to kill them.
Bed Bugs can be found anywhere, so make sure you disinfect all baseboards, furniture, window frames, anywhere which is likely for bed bugs to nest. If mattresses are ripped or torn it is best to wrap securely with cling film or similar and to dispose of them.
What to Bed Bug Bites look like?
Are you experiencing some levels of discomfort and irritation? Do you think you’ve been bitten by a bed bug? Bed bug bites look very similar to a mosquito bite, but are much smaller, they’re a small red itchy bump with a dark centre often found in a straight line pattern, this is because they follow a vein or capillary searching for fresh blood. First things first, wash and disinfect the contaminated area with warm water and soap. Not only does the heat instantly kill the bed bugs, ice does too. Once the specific area has been disinfected with warm water, apply an ice pack for a couple of minutes to make sure they’re completely gone. If the pain gets too much, antihistamine will help calm the irritation.
If you can’t get rid of bed bugs on your own, it’s time to get the professionals involved. We have specialist equipment ready to deal with your infestation. Please don’t hesitate to contact our team today!