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Protect Your Home from Bed Bugs

Used furniture

Bugs can be introduced into the home by bringing infested furniture into your home. Although it most commonly happens when someone picks up an item off the street or out of a dumpster, you must also exercise caution when buying second hand off the internet, or even from thrift stores. If you are unsure about an item, don’t risk it! Particularly high risk items include mattresses and box springs, bed frames, and bedside tables.

Staying in a hotel / hostel

This is another common way of picking up bed bugs. If you stay in a hotel room that has been infested, the bugs could find their way into your luggage or clothing and you could bring them home with you. We recommend to keep your luggage as far away from the bed as possible – the bathroom is usually a good place. After a bug bites you, they tend to hide close by the bed, so never store your luggage near the bed or put your clothes inside hotel dresser drawers. As an extra precaution, you can launder your clothing when you return back home, being sure to dry it for a bit longer than usual (about 20 minutes).

Sleeping overnight in an infested home

This is basically the same as the previous point. If you have any idea that a friend or family member may have bed bugs, don’t stay there until the problem is dealt with! You can take the same precautions as staying in a hotel, but it’s best to avoid the situation entirely.

Having someone sleep at your house when they have an infestation at their home

Usually bugs will only be on someone’s clothing in severe infestations, but this is a potential way for bugs to be introduced into your home. If you know or suspect someone has bed bugs, don’t let them stay at your house!

Hitchhikers

This is when bugs drop off someone else’s clothing in a public place, then crawl onto you, such as at a movie theatre or on the bus. This is actually not as common as the media may lead you to believe – hitchhiking is a very rare occurrence compared to all the other methods. There is not much you can do to guard against this – if you are concerned at any point, you can try some of the monitoring/prevention techniques outlined in the next point below.

Spread

This is possibly the most common way of contracting bed bugs – spread in a multi-unit building. Bed bugs are very flat and can move from unit to unit in a building, even concrete buildings. Usually an infestation has to go unnoticed for a few weeks before it spreads. If you live in a single detached home, you are safe from this method of contraction, but if you share a wall with any other living unit – such as a townhouse or apartment – you could potentially get bed bugs from your neighbour if they have bed bugs and have not received treatment (or received ineffective treatment). The best ways to protect yourself in this case are to monitor very closely and catch an infestation before it starts. Bed bugs will always gravitate towards your bed as they need to feed, so protecting the bed area is the best way to protect yourself. You can purchase Interceptors which catch bugs at the bed legs. You can also purchase mattress and box spring encasements – these work by eliminating harbourage on the bed, forcing bugs to hide in plain sight on the white mattress encasement. They also prevent the bugs from infesting a mattress so you would never have to discard your mattress even if you did get bed bugs.  Interceptors and mattress encasements can be purchased directly through The X-Terminators. Call us at 604-639-5268 to order yours today. We can deliver and install mattress covers also.

The X-Terminators best Pest Control/ Bedbug Control Services provides complete bed bugs control solutions or prevention either residential or commercial in Vancouver BC and nearby suburbs. Get a free quote on your bed bug extermination today!