Are bedbugs hitching a ride into your home?

Bedbugs have been in the news a lot for the past few years. You may have felt safe here in south Louisiana, but they are showing up in our area, and just a few of these hitch-hiking pests can turn into a full-fledged infestation.

Unlike other pests, bed bugs don’t feed on filth (they feed on you!), so spotlessly clean homes, hotels, and businesses can still have a problem with these small, agile bugs.

Just a few of these tiny pests can quickly multiply, feasting on your family and spreading to unsuspecting guests. Our technicians have been seeing bedbugs at customers’ home in the area – learn how to stop them in their tracks.

Prevent hitch-hikers when traveling

It’s summer, which means vacations, travel, and visiting your friends and family. Unfortunately, this also means that you’re visiting lots of places where bedbugs love to live.

Bedbugs can hitch a ride on your clothes if you sit on upholstered furniture like chairs and couches that are infested. Any public place, like doctor’s offices, malls, or airports can have bedbugs just waiting for a ride to their new home.

Just 1-2 nights at a hotel can put you at risk for bringing home bedbugs. They can easily hide in your luggage, even in the tiniest cracks, as they flatten themselves down to find tiny crevices to rest in during the day.

When staying in a hotel, remember that online bedbug ratings and reviews aren’t the best way to determine whether a hotel is “safe.” Infestations can change from day to day and room to room, plus, there’s no way to ensure these reviews are real.

Before you get comfortable in your home away from home, check for signs of bedbugs:

• Use the flashlight feature on your phone and take pictures of anything suspicious.
• Put your luggage in the bathtub until you’re confident your room is safe – there’s nowhere for bedbugs to hide in the tub.
• Look behind headboards and under beds. Tiny dark spots show where bedbugs have been.
• Strip the mattress, making sure to check seams where bugs love to hide, again checking for tiny stains.
• Check behind and inside night stands and dressers, they have cracks that can make a convenient home.
• Check your sheets in the morning; if bedbugs have been snacking on you during the night there will be tiny blood spots on the sheets.
• You may also spot cast shells or fecal stains.
• Any decorative grooves on furniture can provide a good place for bedbugs, even on leather or metal (like around or in screws and grommets).

You can check your home for bedbugs the same way, paying special attention to box springs.

If you think you have bedbugs

There are a lot of treatments that promise to rid your home of bedbugs quickly and easily. The problem is, you may have these pests hiding in places you haven’t looked, or don’t expect them. Treating just a few rooms will cause bedbugs to relocate, regroup, and return.

Dugas Pest Control has comprehensive bedbug treatments to eradicate these pesky bugs and prevent them from spreading through your home. Contact us with your bed bug questions.