A common saying before one goes to sleep is to not let the bedbugs bite. Most people who use this have never experienced a full blown bed bug attack and do not understand just how annoying these little creatures are. A young bedbug is called a nymph, and it undergoes a few stages before growing into an adult. The nymph is very small and light red in color, but with time it turns brown and grows to up to 4 or 5 mm in length. The adult is easily recognizable because of its oval shape and the color and size changes after getting a bloody meal.
Most of the time, these bedbugs are never seen during the day. They stay in hiding and inactive when there is nobody in the house, and only come out when there are people to bite. They are attracted by the body temperature heat and the prospect of blood. When they bite, they leave and uncomfortable, itchy rash, that normally takes hours or even days to subside. One might think that they are only found in the bed corners. One can also find them in bedding, clothing, cracks in the walls and floors, and in furniture upholstery. They are disruptive pests, denying one sleep and making their days uncomfortable. This can reduce one’s productivity and increase stress levels.
In Singapore, many people thought after the Second World War that the bed bug menace was over. It turns out there are many households struggling with bedbugs, and bedbug control is most sought after services in the country. A simple internet search will bring many hits of companies with different approaches, and the choice will generally depend on the size of one’s house or apartment, the extent of the bedbug infestation and the overall cost.
Going it alone is perhaps the easiest and first step one considers. The government, through the center for disease control has laid out suggestions on how one can go about integrated pest management in their home. Cleanliness is the first step, and one should avoid clutter and accumulating dirty clothes or bedding since this is where most bed bugs thrive. One should also seal cracks where bed bugs can hide in. vacuuming and heat treatment are effective, but sometimes one might need pesticides. One is advised to use non-chemical pesticide options, or when they use the chemical ones, to use them cautiously. A do it yourself approach is relatively cheap, and will cost about 20 dollars or so because of the price of the insecticides.
For a small apartment, companies offer bed bug control services for between 25 and 40 dollars. A small apartment means one that is one or two roomed. These control services normally involve a thorough inspection of the premises. The bed bug experts look for possible bed bug hiding places and growth areas. They then treat the most obvious areas they might hide, like steaming the mattress and spraying the bed. They might leave instructions to the home owner or come around for follow up treatment after some time.
There are more advanced methods of control, but which rely on the thoroughness of the initial inspection. The reason why bedbugs are so hard to kill is because they find such good places to hide that they cannot be seen easily by the naked eye, or reached by sprays and pesticide powder. Some companies have come up with innovative methods of inspecting houses. A good example is the use of a thermal imaging camera. These cameras reduce instances of human error and guesswork in the control of pests.
It is a high power infrared camera that enables the user to see through walls and wooden obstacles. The infrared is sensitive and detects heat to the smallest of degrees. It can be used to smoke out the bedbugs and termites. They can then effectively be smoked out. Such comprehensive methods can cost as much as 500 dollars. Bed bugs are annoying and irritating, and spread very fast. Once one’s house is infested, there can be no easy control mechanism. The best policy is always prevention, and this happens by maintaining high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. With such deep seated problems, if one detects a bed bug problem they should control it as early as possible.