What are bed bugs?

At the most basic, bed bugs are insects whose complete life cycle is from egg to nymph to adult. Adults are slightly smaller than apple seeds and reddish-brown. You can see them with the naked eye. However, the other life cycle stages are much harder to see. They are known to feed on human blood. There are many species of bed bugs, but you don’t have to worry about them munching on you, as they mainly feed off birds and bats.

How do you know if you have bed bugs?

Bed bugs primarily live on the bed because that’s where their food source is. However, they can be everywhere – carpets, dressers, baseboards, lamps, books, or behind pictures on a wall. Other signs of their presence are their fecal matter, which are tiny black dots that look like clusters of dirt and their shed skins.
Bed bugs are stealthy. You may not even know you have them until you have a full-blown infestation. Tell-tale signs are bites anywhere on your body (but not all humans react to the bites). Sometimes they itch; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they look like small mosquito bites or little red dots.

How do you treat Bed bugs?

Grizz Pest Management does not recommend trying to treat bed bugs on your own. Over-the-counter materials are often not strong enough. Also, novices don’t know where exactly to treat or how much to treat an area.

Our treatment protocol is labor-intensive and commonly involves two-three treatments depending on the infestation level. Every item in your home will be flipped and inspected for treatment. In addition, homeowner cooperation is paramount in getting rid of them. You will need to wash and dry clothing and bedding thoroughly. Although not ideal, sometimes homeowners will have to dispose of infested furniture completely.

Home is not the only place they can survive and thrive. Restaurants, buses, train cars, and personal vehicles — these are all places populated by people, and therefore, offer a ready food source. They are not shy about hitching a ride either. If you sit down on a bus seat, and they happen to crawl on your clothing, you can easily take them home.

Interesting Facts

• In laboratory settings, an adult female can survive without eating for 413 days.
• One adult female usually lays between 5-10 eggs at a time, but over a lifespan, that number reaches the hundreds.
• They prefer human blood, but if that food source is unavailable, they will feed on animal blood.
• Bed bugs are not known to spread disease. People can have allergic reactions to their bites, but they are not harmful.