If you suspect bed bugs, the chances are you need to consult a professional. Bed bugs will sneak into your home uninvited and quickly infect the entire area. Despite your best efforts to keep these bed bugs away, an infestation may be unavoidable. Therefore, it's important to identify the signs of infestation and how to get rid of these unwanted pests once you realize you have a problem.
What Is Biting Us?
There are a lot of insects that may make you think that you have bed bugs and that you don't want any of them in your house. In fact, contrary to common belief, even though bed bugs are disgusting loathsome creatures, they are safer than fleas. Fleas are mistaken for bed bugs because they leave the same types of bite marks on a person.
As gross as it may sound, the truth about bed bugs is we normally notice them by seeing several dots of bloodstains on our white sheets. During the night when they come out, they bite us, drink their fill of blood, and move on. Because the wounds they make do not stop bleeding right away, the first sign of bed bugs is sometimes bloody sheets. So if you've noticed several spots of dried blood on your blankets and sheets, you probably have bed bugs. But if you are just seeing bites on your skin, it might be something else. Able Pest Management can help you figure out what’s biting you, and we can make it stop.
Bite Patterns - A Sure Sign Of Bed Bugs
Sometimes bed bug bites can be small dots on your skin. These bites are usually in sequential formations. This is because a bed bug will bite you, drink a little bit of blood and then move a little further down your skin before biting you again, creating a line of dots on your skin. Some people react differently, and these dots can rise and look just like mosquito bites. However, bites are usually smaller and nearly always in a sequential formation. They can look almost like Braille or a dot-to-dot pattern like stellar constellations.
How Dangerous Are Bed Bugs?
Unlike fleas, bed bugs don't carry many known diseases. But they can suck so much blood from a person that they might cause anemia. People who live in homes infested with bed bugs can suffer from sleep loss and blood loss, and both can cause a great deal of anxiety. Nobody likes imagining being eaten alive by parasites when they should be resting. No one wants to be bitten a hundred times a night, even if they're not at risk of contracting a disease.
How To Identify Bed Bugs
The good news is these insects are visible to the human eye. You can see bed bugs despite what many people think. You can look for them and identify them. Here's what to look for:
- Check inside pillowcases. Bed bugs hide in the fabrics of our beds and pillows and stay out of sight during the daytime. However, they do leave behind signs of their presence such as shed skin and fecal matter. These indications of bed bug activity can accumulate on pillowcases and sheets.
- Check mattress seams. Their skins and their feces accumulate rapidly inside of creases and the seams of mattresses. By holding back the seam of a mattress, we can usually always detect the presence of bed bugs.
- Look under your mattress. Lifting the edge of your mattress and looking at the box spring may reveal the presence of bed bugs.
- Use Trap-tests. If you're still in doubt, most hardware stores have kits to test for bed bugs, and they're pretty reliable.
- But if anything is biting you while you sleep, call the experts at Able Pest Control. They can inspect your home and make a plan for getting rid of your bed bug problem.
Call Able Pest Management Now
There's nothing quite as embarrassing as having a guest reveal your bed bug infestation. Luckily, there are several things you can do to prevent infestations. However, once you have bed bugs, it's a complicated process to rid yourself of all of them. If you try DIY methods for bed bug control, you may solve your problem temporarily. However, if you leave even a few of these pests, they will reproduce rapidly and return to your home in greater numbers later on.
To ensure you rid your Honolulu homes of all bed bugs, it's important to trust the professionals at Able Pest Management with your bed bug needs. We have the experience, tools, and knowledge needed to kill them all the first time so that you can sleep peacefully knowing that your bed bug problem is gone. So, no matter what is biting you, call us today and Able Pest Management will take the bite away.