Bed bugs have a pretty horrible reputation, and this reputation is well-deserved considering the behavior of these small pests. Finding a bed bug infestation in your Columbus home can be disgusting and even a little traumatizing. While they might be tiny, bed bugs are known for being difficult to get rid of and for being able to spread quickly around a home or apartment.
While you likely know that bed bugs tend to live in mattresses and that they bite people in their sleep, you might not realize that they are essentially bloodsucking hitchhikers. They usually get inside by hitching a ride on things like purses and luggage or when someone brings home secondhand items that are already infested.
While bed bugs are tiny, you can see them with the naked eye if you know what to look for, so we’ve provided a brief guide of what bed bugs look like:
- They are reddish-brown.
- They are a flat, round shape except after they’ve just had a blood meal.
- They only get about as big as an apple seed.
- They have small heads in proportion to their bodies.
Why Are Bed Bugs So Hard To Get Rid Of?
If you’ve noticed bed bugs in your home, the first thing you'll want to do is eliminate them as quickly as possible. However, you might find that the steps you take to remove them aren’t very effective and that they keep coming back. There are a few reasons for this, as bed bugs are notorious for being difficult pests to eliminate.
- One of the main reasons bed bugs are so hard to get rid of is that they can multiply quickly. While one female bed bug only produces one egg per day, the number of bed bugs can grow exponentially. This makes it difficult to keep the numbers down, especially if the removal methods don’t kill all the bugs.
- A second big reason getting rid of a bed bug infestation is so difficult is that bed bugs don’t have to feed all that often. They only need a meal once per week. This means they spend a lot of their time digesting their food and not even looking for their next meal. This gives bed bugs a lot of time to hide and can make it hard to get to every bug.
Why Do Do-It-Yourself Bed Bug Removal Methods Fail
Another big component of why bed bugs are so hard to get rid of is that it’s hard to eliminate every single bed bug at every stage of their life cycle. For any bed bug control method to work effectively, all of the bed bugs need to be taken care of, including the eggs. If bed bug eggs are left intact, they will hatch and continue reproducing.
Second, do-it-yourself bed bug removal rarely works because many methods don’t actually find and eliminate every bed bug. It can be difficult to do so because of their ability to hide and their large numbers. And many over-the-counter pesticides don’t work. Bed bugs are resistant to some insecticides, so the infestation can come back again even if just a few of them survive.
How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs
Because bed bug numbers grow quickly and are resistant to DIY removal methods, the most effective way to get rid of them is to contact the experts at 1st Response Pest Management. Instead of wasting time and money trying unsuccessfully to remove an infestation of these pests, contact our trained technicians who have years of experience handling these difficult bugs. To learn more about our bed bug removal options or get a free quote, give us a call today.