How Do You Get Bed Bugs? This is Surprising!

bed-bug-bites

Most people that find out they have a bed bug infestation, wonder how they got bed bugs in the first place. You can get bed bugs from a few rather unexpected ways, including your pets and second-hand suitcases or furniture.

Bed bugs are parasites that live in dark crevices and feed off of animal and human blood. They attack at night by providing a numbing agent and anticoagulant that keeps you from knowing that you are getting bit.

While bed bugs do not typically transmit diseases, they are extremely annoying and their bites can cause severe rashes and skin irritation. Surprisingly, you can get bed bugs from a range of different situations, which we discuss below

Video explaining where bed bugs come from

Pets Can Give You Bed Bugs

Bed bugs can travel in from the outdoors as they can hitch a ride on your pet. If your dog or cat sleeps outside or is outdoors a lot of the time they can get bed bugs that attach themselves to their hairs and feed off of their blood and eventually make their way indoors into your home.

They will find other areas to hide and come out to feed on human blood as well and infest the home they are in.

Suitcases Can Spread Bed Bugs

When you travel and stay in a motel or hotel that has a lot of people coming and going, you could end up with some bed bugs attaching themselves or getting into your suitcase where your clothes are.

During the night they will feed on your blood and then make their way to your suitcase. Bed bugs can infest rooms in places where people from other countries have a major bed bug problem as they are unable to treat the problem.

Typically these people are traveling from a non-industrialized country that has little to no hygienic supplies. If you travel to one of these countries and the room you are staying in has bed bugs you can pick them up and take them with you back to your home.

Video showing how to prevent bed bugs when traveling (they can hitch a ride on your luggage).

Furniture and Bed Bugs

If you get used furniture, bed, or upholstered furniture, bed bugs could be infested in these items and you could bring them into your home without realizing it has an infestation.

Avoid getting any used bedding or furniture unless you treat it for bed bugs by spraying it with a pesticide, vacuuming it, then wrapping it in plastic to trap the bed bugs. Leave the items in the sun for several days.

This could help eliminate the number of bed bugs, but it can’t guarantee getting rid of the bed bugs and bringing them into your home.

Video explaining how you can get bed bugs from used furniture (it is possible).

Remove Bed Bugs

There was a pesticide called dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane that was used to help eliminate bed bugs but it has been banned and is no longer available for use. Other pesticides to consider are pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

They can remove the majority of the bed bugs but with a major infestation, you may have to use another treatment alongside these pesticides as bed bugs can become immune to them. Try a chlorfenapyr that will take about 10 days to fully kill off all of the bed bugs that have built a resistance to the previously mentioned pesticide.

Other methods of getting rid of bed bugs is using the following:

  • Hydroprene – prevents the bed bug larvae from maturing and becoming adults.
  • Clean all clothing in hot water.
  • Strip all bedding and clean sheets, pillows comforters, and blankets, and clean in hot water.
  • Remove curtains and clean them in hot water.
  • Remove all clutter in your home to remove anywhere for the bed bugs to hide.
  • Vacuum everywhere from ceiling to floor, under furniture, and every crevice where bed bugs could hide.

When all else fails call upon an exterminator that can come in and destroy these pesty bugs from staying in your home. They will spray chemicals into the baseboards, behind pictures, walls, and in electrical sockets and small crevices throughout your home. Every room needs to be treated as bed bugs will travel into areas that are not treated to escape and start infesting other rooms.

Photo by mommyedition.com​

Published
Categorized as Bed Bugs

By David Jackson

I enjoy learning about new pest control strategies and sharing what I learn at NeverPest.com. I aim to create a reliable resource for people dealing with all sorts of pest issues.

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