As humans, we have a tendency to look down upon those species lower than us on the food chain.  Of all these species, none is more disposed as insects.  These creatures are small, often dirty and can carry disease.  Its for these and many other reasons that most of us dislike insects.  Of all of these insects, one of the worst of them is the bed bug.  They infest our homes and beds, and feed off of us.  So how do you check for bed bugs?  First, pull the sheets back from the mattress and find all the piping and seams.  Here is where bed bugs will hide.  Inspect the entire mattress for insects, eggs and refuse.  

Bed Bugs found in your bed will feed off of human blood.  Because of this, often a tell tale sign can be red spots on the bed.  As they eat, they will also deficate, so you can often find small black spots very close to the red ones.  These insects often gather together near seams to conserve energy and digest recently consumed food.  Crushing these insects will often make a larger mess, so it is recommended that you suck them up with a vacuum to kill them.

BED BUG LIFECYCLE

Bed bugs start as an egg.  They hatch from an egg as a nymph.  A nymph looks much like an adult, but is smaller.  This differs from other insects with a complete metamorphosis, in that those insects will start as a larva, cocoon and then become an adult.  The nymph will quickly seek to feed and grow.  At a certain point, the insect will outgrow its exoskeleton.  To get past this, the bed bug will molt.  

Molting is the process of losing it’s exoskeleton.  This takes a lot of energy.  In order to get that energy, the bug must take a blood meal.  In it’s lifetime, a bed bug will molt five times before becoming a mature adult.  One in the adult stage, the insects will mate and the female will lay more eggs.  Before she can lay these eggs, she will also take a blood meal.  Every lifecycle event requires a blood meal to have the energy to complete their cycle.  A Tulsa pest control company can help.

WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

Bed bugs can travel from place to place by hitching a ride off of a pant leg or back pack.  One trip to an infested home can be all it takes.  Hotels and motels are hot spots for these insects.  It’s important that, when on a trip, you check the mattresses that you are sleeping on before you sleep there.  Expensive hotels are not anymore safe than cheap ones.  These insects do not care about the cleanliness of their surroundings.  

Waiting rooms and health care facilities are also areas that bed bugs can use to spread to new households.  These insects have grown at an alarming rate in recent years.  It’s important to be vigilant against spreading infestations by treating them quickly before they get out of hand.  Catching an infestation earlier than later make it much easier to stop their spread.  Contact your Oklahoma pest control company for more details.  

ARE THEY SAFE?

No one wants bed bugs in their home.  But, being that they are a biting insect that feeds on our blood, the question often comes up, are they safe?  Thankfully, they are safe.  Bed bugs have not been found to spread any diseases with their bite.  The method by which they bite has been found to be quite efficient.  They do not allow blood to reenter the blood stream once it has been removed, making it a relatively safe endeavor.  They do inject some saliva at the entry point, but no known diseases have been transmitted this way.  

But this doesn’t mean that bed bugs do no damage.  The toll that they take on us is a psychological one.  They prey upon the fears that we have of bugs.  And they attack us at night when we are most vulnerable and in what should be our safest place:  our beds.  This can be very taxing on people and should not be taken lightly.  Call an Oklahoma exterminator for more help.

BED BUGS IN HISTORY

Bed bugs have been around for a very long time.  It is believed that they are related to bat bugs.  These bat bugs are blood feeders that prey upon bats.  It is believed that when we lived in caves, these insects came down and started feeding upon us.  This started a long history of infestations.  The Romans, Sumerians and ancient Mesopotamians all wrote about these insects.  

In the 1940’s, we almost got rid of them.  The advent of DDT was almost their demise.  At the time, people dosed everything in this new wonder pesticide, including their beds.  It worked to kill off bed bugs, but unfortunately had other negative health side effects as well.  After DDT was outlawed, bed bugs made a return in the 90’s.  Ever since then, they have been getting more and more prevalent.  

HOW TO GET RID OF BED BUGS

Bed bugs are difficult to completely rid yourself of without help.  They are very good at building a resistance to common pesticides.  This is why over the counter solutions seldom work.  This one size fits all approach just can’t keep up with their natural immunity.  If you are dealing with a bed bug infestation, it is probably time to call in help.  That’s where TermMax Pest Control comes in.  We serve the Tulsa, Owasso, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Pratville, Sand Springs, Bixby, Coweta, Catoosa and more area.  Contact your Tulsa exterminator today.  We’re here to help!

to top