How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs
The first step in getting rid of bed bugs is understanding what they are and a little about their life cycle. A bed bug is a parasitic insect that prefers to drink the blood of animal hosts and will also feed on the blood of humans when no other host is available. For this reason, the bed bug can most often be found living within homes, particularly in beds, furniture and other areas where human hosts frequent. In most cases, these pests do their dirty work of biting and drinking blood during the night but they are not exclusively nocturnal. The bed bug has been a pest to man for thousands of years and there is no sign that the creature intends to go away any time soon. In fact, in the 1940′s the majority of bed bugs were wiped out in most developed countries but with the invention of faster modes of travel and a more global economy, the bed bug seems to be making a comeback and bringing its painful consequences with it.
Bed bugs communicate nesting areas, feeding grounds and readiness to breed using chemical signals known as pheromones and kairomones. These chemical signals allow the bed bugs to quickly establish colonies in homes and find their victims. These parasites reproduce quickly so one needs to know how to get rid of bed bugs quickly to avoid a full blown infestation. Like the cockroach, bed bugs are extremely resistant to environmental variations, making them difficult to kill.
While the bed bug does have some natural predators, including the cockroach, ants, spiders, mites, centipedes and the masked hunter, biological control of these pests is not usually a welcome option for most people. After all, who really wants to release a colony of cockroaches or spiders into their bedroom to eliminate a colony of bed bugs? For this reason, most people who are seeking help in how to get rid of bed bugs are looking for more viable options. In most cases, the use of both pesticides and non-pesticide treatments are required to eliminate bed bugs from a home.
Bed bugs can be killed by exposure to extreme heat or cold but the temperature requirements necessary for this are usually not attainable in the home setting. The most common method for eradicating bed bugs is the use of pesticides, including pyrethroids, dichlorvos and malathion, but the modern bed bug has developed some resistance to these chemical pesticides. Science continues to develop new advances in the search for effective methods in answer to the question of how to get rid of bed bugs. Other effective methods have included fumigation with high concentrations of carbon dioxide and heat treatment of mattresses. The biggest mechanical aid in eliminating bed bugs from much of the developed world has been the use of the vacuum cleaner, which traps the bed bugs inside of the machine.
Bed bugs are mostly nocturnal so detection can be difficult. In many cases, trained inspectors are able to search for and locate the presence of the parasites and then recommend methods for the home owner on how to get rid of bed bugs. In a relatively new development, bed bug detection dogs are being used in some parts of the world to find the presence of bed bug colonies with greater speed and accuracy than that of human inspectors. As of 2009, there are roughly 100 bed bug detection dogs in the United States and they have exhibited roughly 97% accuracy in controlled testing environments.
If you have encountered bed bugs during your travels or your home has become infested as a result of other vermin bringing the pests into the home or the bed bugs being brought in by visitors or pets, then you need to know the methods how to get rid of bed bugs and begin to utilize these methods immediately. Getting bed bugs under control can be difficult if the problem is allowed to continue. By using extensive cleaning, heat treatments for mattresses and pesticides along with other techniques recommended for bed bug control, you can develop a plan for how to get rid of bed bugs in the most efficient manner possible.
