It certainly is no laughing matter when your commercial property or home becomes infested with bugs in beds. And unfortunately, bed bugs are nota problem that goes away on their own It certainly is no laughing matter when your commercial property or home becomes infested with bugs in beds. And unfortunately, bed bugs are nota problem that goes away on their own. What’s worse is that you simply cannot use those over-the-counter spray pesticides on infested areas to deal with them. Gulfstream Environmental Services can help with a thorough assessment and eradication program that involves several important steps.

Know your enemy: Identify the signs of a bed bug infestation. First and foremost, determine whether bed bugs are present. Bed bugs are small reddish brown bugs that move by quickly crawling. The eggs of a bed bug are small, white to tan in color and about the size of a rice grain. Look for the presence of the actual bed bugs themselves and their eggs, which can be found in the cracks in the walls and your bedding. Other evidence that is often overlooked includes bed bugs’ spent skins and carcasses. Bed bugs molt, or shed, their skins between each growth cycle – six stages from egg to adult -- and several times as a fully mature bed bug. This molting will create visible piles of empty brown shells, mixed with the carcasses of dead bed bugs.

Know where to look: Bed bugs thrive in soft, nest-type environments – beds and mattresses full of soft fabrics and surfaces are perfect for the pesky critters (and how they got their name). You can often find eggs attached to mattress tags. Look in folds and along seams, carefully inspecting the hidden places in your bedding. However, bed bugs don’t spend all their time simply hopping around on your bed. During the day, they hide in cracks in the floor, in headboards, and even in the baseboards and in walls surrounding your bed. So if you’re looking during the day, you may not see the actual bugs themselves – but you may see the spent skins, eggs, and carcasses.

Bed bug bites: Don’t forget the sole reason a bed bug colony seeks out your bed in the first place: to feast. Bed bugs are looking for a meal, and unfortunately that meal is you! Bed bugs feed, primarily at night, on human blood. While you’re asleep, they crawl from under cracks and all the places they’ve been lurking during the day. They pierce the skin of the host and suck blood for between three to ten minutes before creeping back to their homes. The host generally doesn’t feel the feeding, but often experiences small itchy bumps several hours later.

Bed bug control: Bed bugs spread easily, reproduce quickly, and adapt to all kinds of environments. A single bed bug attaching itself to your coat sleeve can result in a total infestation of your home! Although a single reason for the resurgence of bed bug infestations cannot be pinpointed, increased global travel and resistance to common pesticides are often cited as major reasons for the explosion of the bed bug population.

Because bed bugs infestations so easily spread and are so difficult to eradicate, you need a thorough plan of action to wipe out the problem. A good idea is to call in the professionals, a reputable bed bug elimination company like Gulfstream Environemental Services to thoroughly rid your home of these pests and to keep your home bed bug free.