By Melissa Hamel
In part one of our two part series entitled “Are Bed Bugs Affecting Your Holiday Plans?“, we discussed how bed bugs are disrupting holiday travel plans as well how to avoid picking them up while traveling this holiday season. Now it’s time to focus on what to do to avoid bed bugs that may be hitching a ride into your home on your holiday visitors or returning college student.
Expecting your college student of traveling family members this holiday season?
Let’s not forget about the numerous reports of bed bugs in college dorms or on airplanes and other modes of public transportation. Rightfully so homeowners are concerned about their student or traveling family members bringing home an uninvited holiday guest. While you may not be able to prevent this from occurring you can arm yourself with information including what bed bugs look like and how to identify a bed bug problem. Here are a few things you should know about bed bugs.
Bed bugs are tiny insects that come out mainly at night to take a blood meal from their sleeping victim. During the day the congregate in hard to see areas including:
- In furniture cracks and crevices
- In the folds of upholstered furniture and even curtains
- Behind electrical outlets, light switches and wall hangings
Although visible to the naked eye, bed bugs are masters at avoiding detection. Fortunately they leave behind a few clues. Small red bites on your skin upon waking and blood spots or dark fecal matter on the sheets or mattress are clear indicators that bed bugs are present.
Because college dorms are a haven for bed bugs you should thoroughly inspect your son or daughter’s luggage and clothing as soon as they arrive home from school. In fact don’t let suspect items into the house until you are sure they are bed bug free. Washing all clothes in the hottest temperature permitted is also strongly recommended to kill bed bugs that are present. While you can’t necessarily treat visiting family and friends in the same fashion as your son or daughter you should try to inspect their luggage as well if they’ve arrived via airplane, taxi or other mode of public transportation.
Taking a proactive approach and keeping your eye out for signs of bed bugs will help you detect a problem early and therefore combat it before the infestation becomes severe.
If you are worried about a bed bug problem in your home or simply want peace of mind, contact Modern Pest Services. We’ll inspect your home for bed bugs and if we identify an infestation we can help you get rid of bed bugs completely. Best of all we offer highly effective bed bug heat treatments in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. For more information on bed bugs or to find out how Modern can help you achieve and maintain a bed bug free home, please call us at 1-800-323-7378.