You Better Watch Out…for Bedbugs!

It’s a holiday season and that means lots of traveling to visit family and friends. Did you know that these pesky little critters might sneak into your baggage and tag along during your travels? No one wants to find a bug in his or her bag, much less a bedbug. Our Clark Exterminating team has come up with some prevention tips, as well as what to look for if you suspect you’ve got some stowaway passengers tagging along on your holiday trip.

Where to look:
Bedbugs are most commonly found in, you guessed it, beds. They can be found in folded areas of a bed and also like to hide out in box springs and mattresses. They aren’t exclusively found in beds, though. They’ve also been found in or around baseboards, wallpaper, and upholstery. They can sneak into your luggage when you’re not around and come out to bite when you’re sleeping or sitting still. According to PestWorld.org, bedbugs are commonly found in hotels, apartments, and office buildings. They can be found in very clean homes, but a cluttered home can make a bedbug infestation hard to exterminate effectively.

What to look for:
Bedbugs are reddish-brown or mahogany and very small. A full-grown adult is about the size of an apple seed. They have six legs and their coloration can change based on if they’ve had a meal or not. The more a bedbug eats, the bigger it is – like a mosquito. If an adult bedbug has recently eaten, it will become engorged and redder in color. Female bedbugs lay their eggs around mattress seams, and the eggs are extremely small. A typical bedbug egg is about .09 inches and is pearl white in color.

Signs you might have bedbugs: Bedbugs can sneak into your home without you having any idea. The first sign you may have is a bedbug infestation: you wake up itching and you didn’t go to bed itching. Bedbugs are not the most ideal houseguests. They can make quite a mess if they’ve made their way into your home. Bedbugs can leave blood spots on sheets and mattresses, along with fecal spots, eggshells and they can have a nasty odor.

How to keep bedbugs out:
While traveling this holiday season, scan your hotel room before unpacking all of your belongings. Check around the headboard and make sure there aren’t any unexpected guests, ahem pests, hanging out with you. Search for little brown spots or bugs themselves, and if you wake up with a bite you didn’t go to bed with, tell the hotel manager as soon as possible, and get the heck out! If you’ve found bedbugs in your belongings, unpack your suitcases outside of your home and put the clothes into a hot wash cycle in your washing machine. Heat will help kill the bugs.We all love gifts this time of year. But finding the unpleasant surprise of bedbugs in your home is not a gift we want at all! Clark Exterminating is here to help keep them out for good. Give us a call and we will get you the help you need to treat those bedbugs.