Nothing can undermine the peace, comfort, and calm of your Phoenix, AZ home like bed bugs. These blood-feeding micro-predators are rapid breeders and excellent hiders. Whether you’ve recently woken to a rash of itchy bites or have spotted these insects on the underside of your mattress or in your sheets, you need help fast. Read on to discover why bed bugs are always a pest control emergency.
The Physical and Psychological Effects of Bed Bug Infestations
When bed bugs bite, they leave small amounts of their saliva behind. The proteins in this saliva trigger a histamine response that results in small, raised bumps. Some people also have immune reactions to these proteins that cause red, irritated rashes around the bite zones. Bed bug bites are painful, unsightly, and extremely itchy. Worse, scratching the affected areas can result in open wounds and secondary skin infections.
Bed bugs attack when people go to sleep. Various chemical signals alert these pests to sleeping bodies, including pheromones, changes in carbon dioxide output, and changes in body heat. According to the American Journal of Medicine (AJM), after many days or weeks of waking up to fresh bites, bed bug victims can eventually develop:
- Insomnia
- Hypervigilance
- Anxiety
- Depression
According to the AJM, people who battle bed bug infestations unsuccessfully can even develop symptoms that are highly suggestive of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including avoidance. After all, no one wants to climb into a bed crawling with biting critters.
Breaking Breeding Cycles
The first step in do-it-yourself bed bug treatment is often purchasing bed bug “bombs” or sprays at local home and hardware stores. These products are rarely 100% effective. They’re designed to kill living adults and render nymphs or recently hatched bed bugs incapable of reproducing. However, they do not affect unhatched eggs. Within several days or weeks of treatment, new bugs arrive and household residents wake up to fresh bites.
The key to any effective chemical bed bug treatment is breaking the breeding cycle. Bombs, sprays, and other poisons must be timed perfectly. This way, all generations of bed bugs are either eradicated or rendered incapable of reproducing. If even just two reproducing bed bugs remain, infestations will invariably recur.
There’s Nowhere Bed Bugs Can’t Hide
Another major challenge of DIY bed bug treatment is targeting these parasitic insects where they hide. While you might find bed bugs living on your mattress or within your bedding, bedbugs can hide behind drywall, under carpeting, and in electric outlets among other inconspicuous and hard-to-reach areas. This is why, when you’ve got a full-blown bed bug infestation, you can’t target them successfully with store-bought products even when timing the use of these products correctly.
Bed Bug Infestations Spread
Unlike most other infestations, bed bugs are pests that must be brought into the home. Whereas ants, mosquitoes, spiders, and rodents thrive naturally in the local environment and must be deterred from getting in, bed bugs enter buildings by hitching rides on clothing, in luggage, and on people or pets. Until you deal with your infestation, everyone who visits your home is subject to developing a bed bug infestation of their own. When egg-laying females attach themselves to your guests, your problem will travel with them.
How to Know If You Have Bed Bugs
If you’ve spotted one or more tiny insects in your bedding or on your floors, there’s a chance that you have problems with carpet beetles or other small-sized, common household bugs. Even baby roaches can be mistaken for bed bugs given their comparable shapes and sizes. If you suspect a bed bug infestation due to being bitten, you might have problems with spiders, fleas, or other blood-feeding critters.
The best way to identify a bed bug infestation is by scheduling professional bed bug detection. This way, you can accurately target the pest problem in your home before your infestation has the chance to spiral out of control.
The Signs of Bed Bug Infestation
In addition to rows of itchy bites on your arms, legs, abdomen, back, or face, you might find tiny, black dots on your covers or sheets. These black or dark-brown spots are bed bug excrement and are usually found right where bed bugs feed. You can also check your mattress and bedding for white, oval-shaped eggs. Bed bug eggs are approximately the size of small apple seeds.
We help residents of Phoenix, AZ reclaim their homes and enjoy peace of mind. We offer expert bed bug detection and bed bug removal services. We also provide pest control services for rodents, ants, bees, spiders, cockroaches, and more. If you think you have a bed bug problem, don’t delay. Get in touch with Green Home Pest Control today!
