How Bed Bugs Get Into Yakima County Homes In The First Place

When you find bed bugs inside your Yakima County home, you might have some ideas about how those little blood suckers got in. You may think they came into your home through an open door or window. You might think they got in through cracks in your foundation wall. You may even suspect that they took advantage of the gaps you've been noticing in the weatherstripping around the doors that lead into your finished basement. If you think any of these, you would be wrong. Bed bugs don't live in your yard. These insects are almost exclusively indoor insects. They don't come into your home from the outside. They're carried in. But you can know this and still have some misconceptions about how bed bugs get into homes. Let's take a closer look.

Hotels & Motels

If you believe that you can pick bed bugs up from hotels and motels and bring them home with you, you would be right. But, if you think this is the only place you can pick bed bugs up, you would not only be wrong, you would be extremely wrong. While there was a time when hotels and motels seemed to be the only businesses that were dealing with bed bugs, this is no longer the case. Bed bug infestations are appearing in a growing number of businesses, many you may never expect. This is because people bring bed bugs to work with them. In the 2015 Bugs Without Borders survey administered by the National Pest Management Association, 45 percent of pest control professionals across the country reported having encountered bed bugs in office buildings. How many office buildings do you know of that have beds? Not many, right? This is only one of many surprising locations these insects have been found.

Passive Dispersal

Bed bugs infest your home by accident. If you understand how this occurs, you might be able to catch them before they infest your home.

Places bed bugs hide:

• Bed bugs are attracted to tight spaces. When they get into tight spaces, they hide or lay their eggs. If they do this in a piece of luggage, pocketbook, book bag, article of clothing, piece of furniture, etc. they can be accidentally transported to a new location to infest.
• Bed bugs are attracted to the scent of clothing that has been worn. They'll crawl into laundry items and hide, or lay their eggs in these items. It is important to always keep your laundry in a sealed plastic bag when you stay the night somewhere.
• Bed bugs are photosensitive. This causes them to hide inside dark voids. There are many items they have been found hiding in. One surprising location bed bugs get into is electronic devices, such as computers, alarm clocks, and televisions.

Facts about bed bug eggs:

• Bed bug eggs do not need to be tended by their mother. They can hatch on their own.
• In its lifetime, a bed bug can lay as many as 500 eggs. If an item is brought into your home with eggs in it, a large infestation can happen quickly.
• Bed bug eggs are only about 1 mm in length.
• Bed bug eggs may be scattered about as individuals or packed together in a batch.
• A large number of bed bug eggs can fit onto your thumbnail.

What To Do About Bed Bugs In Yakima County

It is difficult to remember to check items for bed bugs or eggs every time you bring things into your home, or to take steps to prevent bed bugs from getting into your things when you spend the night somewhere. On top of this, bed bugs can come home with you from work or come home with your kids from school. It is very difficult to keep them out of your home, even if you take extreme measures to do so. The best course of action is to address infestations quickly when they appear. We can help you with that. At Prosite, we provide Yakima County homeowners with comprehensive bed bug services. You don't have to let the bed bugs bite. Reach out to us today to schedule service.