Your Broken Arrow pest control company are experts at dealing with bed bugs. These insects steal our sleep. They are blood feeders, and feed on us when we’re most vulnerable. Late at night they come out from under mattress seems and bed pillows and bite us in an effort to take our blood to nourish themselves. It’s very unnerving to know that you have an infestation that’s feeding upon you in the middle of the night. So in this article is a good hard look at bed bugs, their life cycle, and what you and you are Broken Arrow pest control company can do to stop them.
BED BUG HISTORY AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL
We’ve had bed bugs since almost the beginning. Entomologists believe that the first bed bug was actually a descendent of another insect known as the bat bug. Bat bugs infest bats, and feed off their blood much the same way that bed bugs feed off of us. When we were still cave men, we would sleep in our caves underneath roosting bats. Some of these bat bugs that were feeding on the bats above us, crawled down the walls and started feeding on the humans. That was when the bed bug was born.
Since then, we’ve had writings in so many different ancient civilizations about the bed bug. There are Egyptian hieroglyphics mentioning the bed bug. The Romans spoke of the bed bugs. There are spell books from the Middle Ages that required crushed bed bugs for their spells and potions. And there were many other ancient civilizations that wrote about these bugs. We’ve had them up until the 1940s when a new pesticide was made available for the fight against bedbugs.
DDT was a miracle pesticide. It solved all sorts of problems. It kill bugs of every different kind in every different way. So when people saw that they had bed bug issues, they started to hose their mattresses and sheets down with DDT. The treatment was extremely effective. In fact, bed bugs almost went extinct during the 40s while DDT was around. The problem lie in the fact that DDT caused cancer. When this was discovered, of course its use was discontinued. Ever since then bed bug populations have been on the rise. Contact your Broken Arrow pest control company for help.
BED BUG TREATMENTS AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL
Whenever you’re dealing with an infestation of any kind of insect, the best solution is a multi faceted one. Attacking an insect from different angles, can make a big difference when it comes to dealing with these insects. For many years, the predominant treatment for bed bugs was a heat treatment. It was discovered that if you can get these bed bugs over 120°F, they die pretty quickly. So many companies will bring in large heat heating units to raise the temperature of a home well above 120°F. Unfortunately, the problem with them is that the heat doesn’t penetrate very well into mattresses, pillows, clothing, and walls. In order to get the heat to penetrate, you have to pump the heat up so high that sometimes paint will peel and glues will break down. This is unacceptable for most homes and most customers.
Chemicals are also used against bed bugs. They are mostly effective, but the main issue is the fact that they bed bugs dwell mostly in the mattress seams. When people go to sleep, they’re usually wearing the least amount of clothing that they do all day at this time. This means there’s a lot of skin contact. So it’s impossible to simply spray whatever chemical in the mattress or sheets and still be safe for you and your loved ones to sleep in your bed. But some chemicals are dosed and formulated specifically for this purpose. Contact your Broken Arrow pest control for help.
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AND BROKEN ARROW PEST CONTROL
Biological control is when you use a natural predator to a certain insect in order to control that insect. A new product on the market, available here at TermMax pest control, that we use on a regular basis is Aprehend. Aprehend is a form of biological control. This is a spore, that is a natural predator to the bed bug.
When bed bugs walk through the spores, they don’t even know that they’re there. The spores will attach themselves onto the exoskeleton, and remain there for a time. As the bed bug goes back to his harborage point, and comes in contact with other bed bugs, it will spread the Aprehend spores around. Eventually, the spore will sprout into a fungus, and it will start to make its way underneath the exoskeleton consuming the bed bug. This will end the lifecycle of the bed bug. Your Broken Arrow pest control company can help with bed bugs.
COMMON HOUSEHOLD SOLUTIONS FOR BED BUGS
There are many over-the-counter solutions for bed bugs. Unfortunately, none of them work. In the 90s, a new kind of pesticide came on the market, known as pyrethrins. This family of pesticides was derived from a natural pesticide found in the chrysanthemum plant. This made pyrethrins a much safer pesticides than most synthetic pesticides. They were used extensively against bed bugs until these bed bugs developed an immunity to them. Today pyrethrins don’t do anything against bed bugs. Unfortunately, all the over-the-counter solutions use these pesticides because they’re so safe. The problem is that these solutions just simply are ineffective.
If you’re having an issues with bed bugs, or any other problems, then its time to call your Broken Arrow pest control company for help. Here at TermMax pest control, we are the best in the business, when it comes to dealing with bed bugs or any other insects. We service greater Tulsa area, including Broken Arrow, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Prattville, Coweta, Claremore, Catoosa, Jenks, Bixby, Turley, Owasso and so much more. Call today for a free estimate. We’re here to help!