Owning and operating rental properties can be a very lucrative business. But, as with any lucrative business, there are challenges to be overcome. Tenants that are behind on their rent, leaking faucets and sinks, and the occasional pest control issues can come up. If you are a landlord and are having an issue with bed bugs on your property, this is the article for you. Having bed bugs in a rental property is not a game ender for your business. Bed bugs are a defeat-able insect. These pests can be beaten. But as with anything, having the right Tulsa exterminator on a job is key to correcting this issue. 

HOW’D THEY GET IN HERE?

Bed bugs are not found in homes because a person is dirty, or doesn’t clean up after themselves. Bed bugs do not care about the condition of a home. Unlike cockroaches, they are not there in search of food in the kitchen or pantry.

Bed bugs are blood feeders. They search out humans for food. Because of this, it doesn’t matter what state of cleanliness your tenant maintains. Bed bugs travel by means of hitching a ride off of someone. If you’re in a place where there are bedbugs, or someone there has bedbugs in their home, then you can be susceptible to bringing an unwelcome guest home. The bed bug will attach itself to your clothing or to a bag, and hitch a ride to your home. And if you have bed bugs in your home, they can hitch a ride on your pant leg to some other place. These insects can be found in waiting rooms, bedrooms and homes of relatives all over the country. 

TREATMENT OF BED BUGS

If bed bugs are found on your property and the tenant chooses to stay, they can be dealt with. A reputable Broken Arrow pest control company will see to it that they use every available means to eliminate the pests. They will focus mostly on the beds and couches, because this is where bedbugs will predominately stay. These insects are going to stay as close to their food source as possible, and they tend to bite at night. This puts them in mattresses, pillows and couches. By treating this furniture, we can catch them in a place they are guaranteed to be.   

In addition to furniture, any cloth items in the house can be used by a bedbug to hide in, or to ride on to another destination. That includes clothing, linens, towels and all of the above. In order to treat these things, we cannot use pesticides. The best solution for your tenants clothing is to use heat. Having your tenants run their clothing through the wash will do this very effectively. The dryer on high heat will be high enough to kill off any bedbugs that are hiding in your clothing. If your tenant has clean clothes, they can run those clean clothes through the dryer alone, and any dirty clothes can be put through both washer and dryer.

After they are done it’s important to put them in some form of plastic sealed container, such as a trash bag or a large covered tub. This will protect these clothes from getting re-infested from bedbugs. Your tenant can then pull each individual item that is necessary for their day out of these bags and use them as needed. 

HEAT TREATMENT

Your Tulsa exterminator is going to use multiple methods to get rid of your bedbugs. Many exterminators use heat as one method. Heat treatments are usually done with a large heater brought into the home. They are trying to bring everything in the home above the temperature of 120°F. At that temperature, bedbugs don’t last more than about four to five minutes. The difficult part about this is that you have to get everything up to 120°, including the center of mattresses,  pillows and inside your walls. This is almost impossible to do without overheating things in the house. Glues and paints start to break down about 200°F, so heat treatments alone are usually not effective at getting rid of bedbugs. 

CHEMICAL TREATMENT

Chemical treatments must be used in conjunction with heat treatments. Bed bugs have a unique ability to be able to adapt to different pesticides. They can grow immunity to over used pesticides, and have in many cases. You may be tempted to use an over-the-counter pest control product in order to get rid of these insects. That’s a mistake. This is because most pesticides used by over-the-counter products have been already overuse against bed bugs.  They will have already built up an immunity against them. A good Tulsa pest control company will vary the pesticides they use on a weekly basis. 

And yes, these treatments should take multiple weeks. But in addition to taking a few weeks to finish, these treatments should also come with extensive warranties. A bed bug warrantee can be anywhere from one to three months. It’s important to make sure that you are getting adequate protection with your bed bug treatment. 

BED BUGS IN AN EMPTY HOME

In some cases, once the tenant has moved out, a preventative treatment may be enough. These bugs are not going to stay in a home that doesn’t have people in it. They can’t survive without a blood meal longer than a full year. In these cases, a preventative treatment may be best. This way if there are any bed bugs that have stayed in the house after the tenant left, these bedbugs will have to go through pesticide before they can get to the new tenants. This intern will kill office pass before they can cause a problem with your new tenants. 

ELIMINATE THEM FOR GOOD

If you’re having an issue with bed bugs or any other pests in your rental property, home, or business, call TermMax Pest Control. We are the best Broken Arrow exterminator in the state. We serve the greater Tulsa area including Owasso, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Prattville, Turley, Jenks, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Claremore, Catoosa, Coweta and much more. Call today for a free estimate. We’re here to help!

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