How to get rid of bed bugs

How to get rid of bed bugs

What is a bed bug?

Bed bugs are small, flat and oval-crawling insects (parasites). Adult bugs are reddish-brown, but nymphs (babies) are transparent. Bed bugs usually live close to a human – dark, hidden locations like sofa or bed mattress seams, cracks in a wall, behind wallpaper. They mainly feed on human blood at night when the person is asleep. After feeding, they return to their hiding place. At normal room temperature, the bed bug feeds every 5 to 10 days, but it may not feed for months if food is not available. The person usually don’t feel the bite of the bug, but it can cause skin irritation (itching) and allergic reactions. The lifespan of a bug is about a year, during which the bug female can lay hundreds of eggs.
Where do bed bugs come from?

Bed bugs can occur in different ways:

  • from a neighboring apartment through various slots, ventilation systems, electrical ducts, etc. In this case, it is important to get rid of them also in the neighboring apartment, where the bed bugs come from;
  • from a hotel, restaurant, ship, train, taxi or plane with personal belongings (clothes, bags). Bed bugs are found all over the world;
  • when purchasing used furniture or other items with live bed bugs inside.

One inseminated female bed bug is enough to have a bed bug infestation within a few weeks.

How to get rid of bed bugs?

Bed bugs are a very difficult pest to treat, as they are small and can hide into any gap, as well as they have high resistance to poisons. Therefore, we do not recommend buying poisons available in stores and trying to get rid of the bed bugs on your own, because it will not eliminate the problem – the bed bugs will only hide for the duration of the poison and then return. In-store poisons do not have as strong effect as professional ones, so the best way how to get rid of bed bug is to call professional pest control specialists who know what treatment methods and means use.

PELIAS use following treatment methods to get rid of bed bugs:

  • treating the bed/sofa, other furniture, floor moldings with professional means. PELIAS uses only means registered in Latvia;
  • with heat treatment – using special equipment, the room is heated above 50 degrees, because in this heat the bed bugs and their eggs die. The room temperature is controlled by a thermometer.

It should be noted that bed bugs may live inside the sofa / mattress where there is no guarantee that they will be accessed and killed by heat treatment or poison. Therefore, in order to reduce the possibility that any bed bug survives and re-causes a bed bug infestation, PELIAS pest control specialists recommend:

  • throw out pillows, a sofa / bed mattress on which a person sleeps, if it has been used for more than a year;
  • put clothes, located in the room where the person is sleeping, in plastic bags. These clothes must be washed at a temperature of at least 60 degrees.