Most of us wouldn’t pick up hitchhikers on the side of the road for fear of our safety. Yet, this is exactly what some of us are doing with bed bugs when we are frequenting places like museums, airports, movie theaters, and hotels, says Michael Cantrell, owner of Montgomery Pest Control in Gaithersburg, Maryland. They are “hitchhikers” says Cantrell. He goes on to say that due to their sticky nature, it is quite easy for bed bugs to get transferred between people.
What is a Bed Bug?
A bed bug is a parasite that looks similar to a tick but is a bit smaller. It takes a bed bug 32-48 days to go through its 5 nymphal stages before it reaches full maturity. Once fully grown, a bed bug can live from 7 to 12 months without food. And can have a total life span of nearly 2 years.
Traveling and Bed Bugs
Bed bugs have made a huge return to the U.S. over the past several years. Whether it is a Gaithersburg bed bug control company like Montgomery Pest Control, or any other reputable pest control company in Gaithersburg, they will be able to elucidate the reasons why bed bugs are making their way back to the mainstream. It’s quite simple, Cantrell shares, due to the growing number of people traveling from other countries to the U.S., plus American citizens traveling outside of the States, raises the chances for bed bugs to be spread from person to person, and home to home.
Is Being Dirty the Cause?
Although some think that dirty people or places have a higher chance of being infested by bed bugs, this is simply not the case, according to Cantrell. Even if you scrub your house from top to bottom, you are not going to get rid of any bed bugs that reside within your domicile. Bed bugs are attracted to CO2 and warm places. So as we exhale CO2 from our bodies in our comfy beds at night, these blood thirsty pests are drawn to us for a feast.
What Products Kill Bed Bugs?
Competent Gaithersburg pest control companies like Cantrell’s have great solutions if and when you believe you have a bed bug infestation problem. While some people want to save money and not call a professional, this usually is a bad choice, says Cantrell, when dealing with bed bugs. Products over the counter are usually just repellents; and while you may get the critters out of some areas of your home, you are merely driving them deeper into the walls and voids of your house. And though some companies use steam to get rid of bed bugs, this will kill some of the bugs, but not all of them.
While bed bugs are maturing within their eggs, they are protected from outside chemicals and elements. So, by simply spraying a repellent, steam blast or even poison upon the area where these insects are located will only kill the pests that have already hatched. To make sure all the bed bugs are gone for good, Montgomery Pest Control uses Drione Dust and Demand CS to kill bed bugs. The two poisons are residual, meaning they last up to 30 days after being first sprayed. So even if some of the bed bugs haven’t broken out of their eggs (it takes anywhere from 7-18 days for them to hatch), the moment they do, the potency of the spray will still be enough to kill them.