No pests are welcome in your home, but the worst kind of pest is the one that is tough to spot and can easily be brought inside. Bed bugs lie firmly in this category, and these blood-eating parasites pose greater health risks than some other invasive pests do. Learning how to spot the early signs and avoid bringing bed bugs inside will help you to sleep soundly -- literally.
What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are tiny, almost microscopic insects that feed on the blood of large animal hosts. While they infest mattresses, furniture, and articles of clothing, bed bugs are spread from household to household by unwitting people or pets. Bed bugs are hitchhikers: they lie in wait on or inside infested items and containers, waiting to be brought into our homes and places of business. What’s so nefarious about bed bugs is that their populations can grow for weeks without you spotting the signs -- and once an infestation has taken hold, it can bring a mess of problems.
The Dangers Of A Bed Bug Problem
Because they are so small and they tend to hide during the day and feed at night while we’re asleep, bed bug populations are hard to notice until larger problems are already forming. Aside from the nasty bites themselves, which appear as small pink or red welts left behind on the skin, bed bugs can introduce all of the following problems:
- Infection: While bed bugs aren’t known to spread any diseases (rare for blood-feeding parasites) they can cause other health risks than just itchy bites. Repeated scratching at welts can lead to infection, for instance.
- Anemia: For some people, like those who take blood-thinning medications or who have existing health conditions, a little prick of the skin can lead to a lot of blood loss. Repeated bites by bed bugs over a long period of time can result in general weakness as a result of blood loss.
- Insomnia: Whether a population is large enough to fully wake you up with their feasting or if you simply lose sleep thinking about the possibility of an infestation, bed bugs have cost many homeowners precious hours of sleep.
Bed Bugs: Nightmares To Control
While the direct effects of bed bugs in your home -- namely, their bites -- are probably the most pressing concern for you, the real reason why bed bugs are such nasty pests is that they are incredibly difficult to get rid of. For one, they don’t just hide in bedding. Bed bugs can infest furniture, carpets, curtains, clothing, and more meaning they can easily take hold in other territories of your house if you manage to drive them from the bedroom. For another, improper methods will almost never work to fully eradicate a bed bug population. Unless a solution kills all bed bugs -- from their eggs to their developing larvae to the adults -- an infestation can easily grow back.
Big Blue Bug Solutions Is Here To Help
Rather than bother with unproven or ineffective do-it-yourself methods, the best way to handle bed bugs is by partnering with pest professionals. At Big Blue Bug Solutions, our friendly and expert staff can inspect your home thoroughly for bed bugs or any signs of an infestation. If a problem is found, we guarantee our solutions will eliminate every last bed bug. And if you want to get started on lawn treatments and/or other pest preventative solutions to make sure many other pests never move in in the first place, Big Blue Bug Solutions can do that, too.
Don’t wait for bed bugs to become a nightmare for your property, turn to Big Blue Bug Solutions.