Nonetheless, Pointe Pest Control has experience managing bed bug infestations. We can recommend several treatments based on your particular issues that will work safely and efficiently. Give us a call to set up and appointment.
Bed Bugs: What Works and What Doesn’t
It’s important to understand that killing most of the bed bugs is not effective. You have to eradicate the population. Most insect treatments that you can buy over the counter might kill the majority of bed bugs, but they won’t kill all of them. Even if they did kill all of them, they won’t keep the eggs from hatching. Furthermore, these treatments can fail for a number of reasons. Among the most likely are:
The area was inadequately prepared. A bed bug treatment requires that you remove all loose clothing from the room. You’ll want to throw it in the wash and make sure that the temperature is hot enough to kill the bed bugs. Loose clothing in the room during a spray gives the bugs a great place to hide.
Exterminating bed bugs requires multiple treatments. Spray and pray doesn’t work on bed bugs. You may get the majority of those that have hatched, but you won’t get the eggs. Those can either be treated using a second spray or by heating up the temperature of the room to over 117℉.
Bed bugs can adapt. Basic natural selection dictates the rules here. If you spray for bed bugs, you will kill off the majority of the population. Those left behind, however, may be immune to the treatment. Instead of ridding yourself of the bed bugs, you’ve bred super bed bugs.
Foggers don’t work. Foggers are not effective against bed bugs. The bed bugs will avoid the fog and hide in other nooks and crannies. Using a fogger is not a recommended way to manage a bed bug infestation.
How the Pros Deal with a Bed Bug Infestation
There are a couple of different ways to handle a bed bug infestation. One involves a whole-room heat treatment. The other involves the use of various pesticides and bed bug liquid treatments.
Whole-room heat treatments. When an infestation is centralized in a few locations, a whole-room heat treatment is remarkably effective. Pointe Pest Control will use specialized equipment that will raise the temperature of a room to over 117℉. Typically, we will raise the temperature of the room to at least 135℉ to ensure that the job is done completely and immediately. Bed bugs, indeed, most forms of life will not be able to live for long at that temperature. Bed bugs will die immediately. The room, of course, needs to be prepared in order for this to work properly. Bed bugs cannot be offered a safe place to retreat. This method does have the benefit of killing the eggs, however. It can be used in tandem with pesticide-based treatments.
Pesticide treatments. Insecticide treatments can be very effective against bed bugs. Those that are carried out by licensed pest control specialists usually are. We use three different kinds of insecticides in order to treat bed bugs because they are so resilient. A fast-acting pesticide can reduce the bed bug population immediately. A residual insecticide will ensure that when the eggs hatch, the babies will die off immediately. In addition, we use a dust-based insecticide so that the bed bugs cannot hide inside cracks, crevices, or electrical outlets.
