Bed Bug Bites | What You Need to Know? Pictures, Symptoms, and Treatment

To avoid bedbug bites, at first, you have to recognize bed bugs clearly. Don’t be confused with other bugs as bed bugs. If so, you may end up with the wrong treatment for other bugs as bedbugs.

Remember, bed bugs are very smaller than an apple seed in size, very much irritating in our usual life. You can pick up bedbugs from anywhere in your home. Because bedbugs are everywhere: in restaurants, movie theaters, on trains, even in airplanes.

Where do Bedbugs come from?

Bedbugs are hitchhikers and come in contact with unintentionally. They can come from anyone or more of the following sources:

01. Furniture & fixture: At the time of dissembling furniture & fixture, being disturbed they can come into your home.

02. Incorrect pesticide application: If the applied pesticide is unable to kill bedbugs, they will find some places to hide them.

03. Shortage of food: While they find a shortage of food i.e. no host may cause them to migrate to neighboring rooms.

04. Shortage of spaces: Also a shortage of harbourage spaces may cause them to migrate to neighboring rooms.

05. Infested materials: Infested materials like furniture and fixtures or clothing moved down a hall or passed on to others without removing bed bugs or treating properly.

Other sources of bedbugs

06. Vacuum bags: Vacuum cleaners are used for multiple rooms without cleaning the vacuum bags very well. There will be a lot of dead and live bedbugs, their eggs, and nymphs. So, frequently the vacuum bag should be put in a plastic bag, seal it, and thrown outside trash.

07. Commercial laundry machines: If commercial laundry machines wash some bedbugs infested clothing and do not treat it properly then it may cause to migrate bed bugs or their eggs.

08. Traveling: Bedbugs also can be migrated from traveling suitcases, infected persons or vehicles, clothing used hotel beds, and mattresses. Keep in mind that the above all points is to prevent bed bugs infestation in your home.

Regardless of the sources of bedbugs, you should inspect them properly and take action immediately. Aware of bedbug symptoms and recognizing them can help you to stay free from a bedbug infestation.

How to inspect your bed for bedbugs?

Find here a detailed inspection guide on How To Inspect your Bed For Bed Bugs. Here we explain about your bed and specifically your bed mattress. This is the most commonplace of bed bugs infestation. Usually, the primary infestation sites are associated with where people rest or sleep. So, we start inspection from this point and go thoroughly to the other probable places that are suspected of being infested with bedbugs.

To inspect your bed for bed bugs infestation you’ll need the following things:

1. Flashlight, a cake icing spatula is suitable, Screwdrivers & Wrenches for Dismantling Items,

2. 10x Magnifying Glass or Inspection Mirror, Carpet Adhesive,

3. Garbage Bags, Clear Packing Tape, Staple Gun for 1/4″ Staples,

4. A Vacuum Cleaner with Filter Bags, Bed Bug Bully, or similar nonpesticide bedbug killer spray.

In every infested home usually, we found one primary area of infestation where people rest or sleep. This guide will focus on that primary infested area and all items associated with your bed mattress. Our main objective is To Look For Bed Bugs in All stages: adults, nymphs, and eggs including Fecal Spots, & Skins.

Bed bugs are very expert in hiding. So the person inspecting for bedbugs must look along edges, cracks and crevices, folds, and seams. Holes in wood for screws are also important and should be checked.

Now Start with clothing with special concentration on the folds and seams of bed sheets and blankets. After checking each item, move them from the bed and keep them on the floor. Keep in mind that you are checking bedbugs in different sizes of the life cycle including red spots, skins, and dead bedbugs.

Whenever you find any bedbug or their symptoms, stop your inspection, and start treatment activity. Tape your garbage bags around the infested area and use a vacuum cleaner to take out them into the vacuum bag.

Tips & Warnings:

Don’t leave the place until you make sure that you have removed all bedbugs from the infested area. If possible keep someone to help you. Even if you don’t find bedbugs, I recommend you to use Bedbug Bully or similar products on all the linens, pillows, and bedsheets. It’s natural and specially formulated to kill bed bugs and their eggs.

After treatment on pillows and bedsheets, closely inspect your empty mattress. Instead of your hand, use the spatula or a similar household item for wood splinters, sharp metal fragments, and concealed items. Inspect your mattress in 3 steps: (1) Start inspection with the piping and check all stitching lines, (2) Look at the sides of the mattress, and then the body, (3) Pay special attention to any labels, tags, buttons, or similar things if any on the mattress.

Finally, look at your box spring and bed frames. Use the flashlight to check in dark places and complete each step very carefully.

Prevention

Prevent bedbugs prior to enter into your residence. Never move any infested furniture into your home. Avoid secondhand furniture, especially a mattress or box spring into your home. Inspect carefully rented furniture before accepting it into your home & ask the renter to ensure whether it’s free from bedbug infestation. Always try to avoid renting bedroom furniture.

The traveler should check motel/hotel rooms before unpacking & Check the mattress, box-spring, and behind the headboard to find bedbug activity.  Never keep luggage on the bed or the floor near the bed. The safest place is to keep luggage in the bathtub or shower.

How not let the bed bugs bite?

Find here how not to let the bed bugs bite. It’s involved with how not to invite them home and what to do if unfortunately, they arrive. First of all, don’t be afraid. Gouge said, Take your breath gently, and try to understand that bedbugs are not coming from the uncleaned environment.

And they never transmit any disease. But it does not mean that we should keep them as house guests. Instead, we should take care of them seriously and exterminate them as soon as possible. Before attempting to kill bedbugs you have to be ensured that you are actually infested with bedbugs. So, you should recognize them and search to find any symptoms of bed bug infestation.

How do you know you have bedbug infestation?

Search to find any bedbug existence, their eggs, husk or dung, or a spot of blood on your mattress, bedsheet, sofa, etc. Also search if there are red, itchy welts in people of the household. Red & itchy welts are from an allergic reaction to their saliva.

Gouge also said bedbugs can live weeks, months, or even a year without food, and make your life stressful. Recent studies find link bedbugs infestation to anxiety or even suicide. So, the extermination of a bedbug infestation is necessary and for this, you need dedication, persistence, and a really good pest control professional.

Contact a pest control professional if possible

Gouge said it’s easier, and faster if you contact a pest control professional as soon as you find an infestation. But professional exterminator is expensive and there are several brands of over-the-counter products available to kill bedbugs. These products can kill them effectively but we recommend a pest management professional. Because they have the proper equipment, specialized products, and knowledge of using them effectively.

She also said that a frustrated victim can make the situation worse. Sometimes they put gasoline or rub alcohol around the edges of the mattress, spray pesticides on the bed, apply pesticides even to their own body which is far more damaging and dangerous than bedbugs. Nobody should do this.

She suggests the following fair and simple rules to prevent bedbugs and minimize infestation. But people usually wait until the problem reaches out of control, said Doug Brunner, contract administrator at University – Termite & Pest Control in Tucson. People hesitate to call pest control because of social shame or disgrace. It’s also not true that if you have bedbugs, you are obviously doing wrong.

Bedbugs are everywhere

He said you can pick up bedbugs from anywhere to your home. Because bedbugs are everywhere, in restaurants, movie theaters, on trains, even in airplanes. Bedbugs are hitchhikers and come in contact with unintentionally.

Actually, University uses integrated pest management that includes everything from vacuuming to specific pesticide applications. We must follow a protocol that will ensure to prevent pests from re-entering. Brunner said, usually such treatment costs $70 an hour, and an average home requires three to four hours. Also, this Treatment will be followed up two weeks later including re-inspection & more treatment if needed.

Several effective methods to kill bedbugs

Remember, Vacuums and pesticides are not the only effective methods of killing bedbugs; there are several other methods that are also effective. Such as, Burns Pest Elimination uses dogs, & heat to find and eradicate bedbugs, & K-9 Patrols can sniff out the existence of Bed Bugs infestation.

Sage Garvey, director of technical operations at Burns said that they have 13 specially trained dogs to sniff out bedbugs all over the state. The team of canines includes labs, beagles, Bassett hounds & others trained on the odor of bedbugs. Garvey said dogs are far better and faster at detecting bedbugs than humans. While the dogs get the smell of bedbugs, they alert with body language to the handler and the handler makes a visual confirmation.

Burns uses expensive chemical and heat treatment to kill bedbugs. This treatment can cost $400 to $2000, based on the area of property & infestation extent.  Garvey said a convection oven is built in the infested property and heated up to 138 degrees for 10 hours to kill bedbugs.  He also said we are provably at our peak in terms of incidence, the increase in bedbugs took the pest control industry by surprise.

Tips & Warning

While returning home, leave your suitcase in the garage, machine-wash, and dry all clothing at a high temperature, or dry clean.  Remove clutter, as an uncluttered home is much easier to monitor and eliminate bedbugs.

Wash your bedding weekly, dry on high heat up to 140 degrees, keep an additional 40 minutes after they are dry.  Do not take your blankets, pillows, or stuffed animals to hotels/motels or other homes. This will merely spread bedbug infestation. You can place bedbug monitoring devices under bed legs.

Use a Vacuum cleaner at least weekly, and discard vacuum bags or canister content into outdoor garbage.  Fit mattresses & box-springs with en-casings specially designed to prevent bedbugs movement to the bed section. If an encasement tears, replace it immediately. That’s all about how not to let the bedbugs bite.

Control of Bedbugs

Here we’ll discuss how to control bedbugs and get rid of bed bug infestation. It’s very simple and the best method of exterminating bedbugs. Remember, killing bedbugs with the help of an exterminator is expensive and most people can’t afford it. So, they search for a cheap and easy way to get rid of bed bug infestation.

To control bed bugs and remove bedbugs infestation you can follow the steps explained below:

#01. Inspection:

Inspection is the first step to kill bed bugs effectively. You can ensure whether you have been infested with bed bugs or not and if infested then what extent. A bed bug detector can help you to ensure its existence.

Usually, bedbugs infestation started from bed mattresses. If so, and the infestation is very serious then discard the mattress and buy a new one.

If you buy a new mattress then keep your old mattress inside a bedbug-proof vinyl cover and keep it like this to let them die due to lack of oxygen. If you want to treat it then a professional exterminator is the best. Check every possible place where bed bugs can exist.

#2. Cleaning:

The second step is to clean everything in the infested room. Remove all the clutter from the room and put it inside a resealable plastic bag. Keep the plastic bag inside the deep freezer for at least 60 days to kill bed bugs and their eggs.

Also, you can kill them by overheating from a dryer running several times at maximum setting. Or keep the plastic bag in the bright sun for a few hours and ensure there is enough heat to kill them.

For non-washable items, you can take them to Dry Cleaner and inform them about the infestation. All dry cleaners may not agree to clean infested things. Some of them may be agreed upon but charge more than usual. Because to clean infested items they need special chemical and attention.

#3. Washing:

Wash all the infested items with a Washing machine at 140 degrees hot water and dry them by cloth dryer at 175 degrees. You can use a portable washing machine or heavy-duty machine with a recommended temperature setting. Non-washable items like animals and similar things you can keep in a plastic bag and let them stay in the hot sun for a few hours.

#4. Treatment:

Apply 1/4 cup of cornstarch in the vacuum bag and then Clean all bed frames, furniture, floor, carpet, and cracks with the vacuum cleaner. After cleaning remove the vacuum bag and seal it or tie it tightly and then burn completely as this bag may contain live or dead bed bugs and their eggs.

Repair all loose fittings and flow hot air from the dryer on cracks and crevices. Also, you can use bedbugs killer spray to instantly kill them in cracks and crevices.

 

Disclaimer:

No warranty of accuracy for any information provided here. This is not a medical advice anyway and can be used for information purposes only. Always ask your doctor for medical treatment while necessary.

Sources of Information:

How to Kill Bed Bugs for Good – Bed Bugs Removal Guide,

Insecticides/Treatments  – Bed Bugs,

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control,

The United States Environmental Protection Agency,

Photo: Google Images – unrestricted.