How to make a bug hotel in your backyard as insect populations decline

Table Of Content

• What is a Termite Inspection and Do You Need One?
• What Attracts Cockroaches? Ways You’re Inviting Cockroaches Into Your Home
• Regularly wash and heat-dry your bed sheets, blankets, bedspreads and any clothing that touches the floor.
• Feeding:
• Chicago Woman Keeps Her Home Thanks to National Rebuilding Day: See What’s Happening in Your Community

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Bed bugs are reddish-brown in color, wingless, range from 1mm to 7mm (roughly the size of Lincoln’s head on a penny), and can live several months without a blood meal. Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus) are insects that feed every 5 to 10 days, primarily on the blood of humans. They’re typically active at night and their bites often result in itchy bumps on your skin. Bed bugs, unlike lice, don’t travel directly on people and spread from person to person. In this way, people can spread bed bugs to others, without even knowing it.

What is a Termite Inspection and Do You Need One?

If you live in an apartment complex or shared living space, you may need to work with your landlord or property owner to properly address the infestation in the entire complex. It can be challenging to locate all the sources of bedbugs around your home yourself, but a professional may know exactly where to look and how to isolate the infestation. Unlike other indoor pests like fleas or mosquitoes, bedbugs are relatively large and easy to spot. These bugs are found across the world and can survive in places between 46 degrees and 113 degrees Fahrenheit. They usually live close to where people sleep, generally within eight feet of a bed.

What Attracts Cockroaches? Ways You’re Inviting Cockroaches Into Your Home

You’ll leave these bags (tied tightly) in the room being heated so that the bed bugs get baked with the rest of the space. Most everything in your home, including furniture, can withstand this heat for the hour and a half necessary to kill off the bugs. Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep.

Regularly wash and heat-dry your bed sheets, blankets, bedspreads and any clothing that touches the floor.

You might consider having a pest control professional inspect the furniture as it is difficult to detect an infestation if you are untrained. The primary cause of bed bugs is human activity, particularly those that involve frequent travel. Since these pests are stowaways, bed bugs effortlessly hitch a ride on luggage, clothing, furniture, and personal belongings of people who have been in an infested place. Poor sanitation does not directly lead to bed bugs as they solely depend on blood meals for survival and reproduction. Nevertheless, clutter can provide more hiding spots for these bugs, contributing indirectly to their infestations.

Here's How You Can Avoid Paris's Bed Bug Problem - House Beautiful

Here's How You Can Avoid Paris's Bed Bug Problem.

Posted: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

With travelers coming and going, some guests will unknowingly introduce bed bugs into the room in which they’re staying. And as new guests take up residence, they can easily pick up an unwanted parting gift via their suitcases. That’s why checking for bed bugs is one of the 7 things to always do when you check into a hotel room. The first and most well-known way bed bugs can spread into your home is via your clothes. These pests won’t travel directly on your skin or hair, nor will they likely travel via the clothes you’re wearing — they’re not fans of our body heat or the aggressive movement. But, still they will happily hitchhike on any alternative textiles, including packed or bagged clothes.

Before you start treating your home, do a little prep work to maximize your odds of success. Make sure all your linens, carpets, drapes, clothing, and other hiding places have been cleaned or thrown out (see step 2). Anything that cannot be treated in the washer and dryer should be placed in a plastic bag.

Feeding:

A cluttered home provides more places for bed bugs to hide and makes locating and treating them harder. If bed bugs are in your mattress, using special bed bug covers (encasements) on your mattress and box springs makes it harder for bed bugs to get to you while you sleep. Be sure to buy a product that has been tested for bed bugs and is strong enough to last for the full year without tearing. Once your home is treated professionally, your belongings should be okay.

Consider using different types of pesticides if repeated treatments are needed. You may have to follow these steps more than once to kill all the bugs and their eggs. It’s best to clean household drains every 2 weeks by pouring a mixture of baking soda and vinegar into them and then rinsing the drain with boiling water.

Feed birds at least 50 feet away from the house, and sweep up spilled seed. While freezing can kill bed bugs, temperatures must remain very low for a long time. Home freezers may not be cold enough to kill bed bugs; always use a thermometer to accurately check the temperature. Putting things outside in freezing temperatures could kill bed bugs, but there are many factors that can affect the success of this method. Does it lower your risk to zip your mattress and box spring into protective bags?

Bed bugs like to hide in cracks and crevices like walls, luggage, boxes, and clothing, but since they feed on humans while they sleep, they’re most commonly found in beds. They’re flat and oval-shaped, with red or brown bodies, roughly the size of an apple seed. Watch for adults, nymphs, and eggs, as well as exoskeletons (casings that the bugs leave behind when they molt) and dark, rust-colored spots (feces). As the adage goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—and that couldn’t be more apt for tackling bed bugs. The best way to treat bed bugs is to avoid getting them in the first place. Unfortunately, these persistent insects might wiggle their way into a home, especially if the resident is an apartment dweller or often stay in hotels.

Because bed bugs can breed quickly, time is of the essence when combatting an infestation. Bed bugs are one of the most difficult pests to eradicate in the home and can be found nearly all over the world, including the U.S. Infestations may occur nearly anywhere where people may frequent, including hotels, hospitals and even forms of public transportation. Due to their small size and flattened body, bed bugs can hide in some unusual places, including couches, picture frames and behind electrical switch plates.