What Should You Do When You Find Bed Bugs?

You’ve been noticing a few bite marks on your arms or legs, but thought they were mosquitoes or some other bug. Now you just found a small brown, tick-like bug in your bed.  You do a little research and realize it’s a bed bug. What now!?!?!  The first thing you need to do is call an expert.  Don’t try bed bug treatment on your own.  They are not like other bugs, they are much harder to kill and harder to contain. 

Don’t Throw Away Your Furniture!!!!

Often people just start throwing away any infested furniture in the house.  There goes the bed, out the window. There goes the couch, your favorite chair, your daughter’s end table.  Don’t do it!  This is just wasting money, and it most likely will not solve the problem.  Getting rid of bed bugs is expensive; don’t add to the expense by throwing away your furnishings. You can kill the bugs right where they are and save your stuff. 

Don’t Try to Kill Them Yourself

There are a lot of things about bed bugs that make them hard to kill.  They don’t groom themselves, so you have to use special chemicals with residuals. They can survive heat up to 113 degrees, and they don’t mind the cold, even below freezing (You can put them in your freezer for a week, pull them out, and they would start walking around again). So you can’t get your house cold enough to kill them (unless you happen to live in outer space…), and to get it hot enough requires special equipment (Like the kind we use to kill bugs, here at Rock Pest).

Get More Information: Are Bug Bombs the Best Way to Kill Bed Bugs?

Don’t Wait to Get Treatment

Bed bugs don’t need to eat that often. Amazingly, they can live over a year without feeding on anyone and still be alive to munch on you.  So even if you move out of your house, wait a year, and move back in, you will still have bed bugs. So, this is not a problem you can wait out. I had one customer say he would simply go to sleep every night wrapped in plastic, just his face showing until he starved them out.  That was not going to work, I’m sorry to say, but I admired his dedication!  One pregnant female bed bug coming home with you can result in over 180,000 bed bugs in six months.  Not a pretty picture.  I’ve been in houses where the floor is moving with bed bugs. Don’t wait to get treatment!

Don't DIY: Call a Heat Treatment Expert for Bed Bug ControlWhat Should I do?

Call an expert.  Here at Rock Pest we use heat to kill the bugs.  Our special heaters slowly heat the infested area to at least 125 degrees, and then we hold it there. This allows the heat to saturate into every corner, nook, cranny, and crease.  When you come home, your house is bed bug free. Even if you don’t use us, please call an expert.  Don’t try to treat it on your own. Many times before they call me, customers have spent hundreds of dollars on treatments that don’t work. I implore you; don’t let that be your story! Get help quickly, don’t try to do it on your own, and you will save yourself time, money, and stress.