New Jersey Bed Bug Control
Bed bugs are small parasitic insects that feed on the blood of human and animal hosts. Since bed bugs hide in carpets, bedding, and even clothing during the day, they can be hard to detect, save for the bites that they leave when they feed on their hosts at night.
To protect your New Jersey home or business from bed bugs, you need to learn about the behavior of this pest, take steps for prevention, and find effective treatment options should an infestation occur.
Recognizing Signs of Bed Bugs in Your New Jersey Home or Business
Bed bugs are increasingly widespread throughout the United States. Although they were almost completely eradicated from the country in the ’70s, they’ve since come back with a vengeance. Frequent travel and population density in big cities exacerbate the problem and make it extremely difficult to control bed bug populations in New Jersey. Bed bugs can be found in buildings throughout the state, both in low-income housing and in four-star hotels in the most affluent areas of Newark and Trenton. Ironically, bed bugs have even been reported to infest the offices of the health department of New Jersey’s state capitol building.
Viking Pest’s certified entomologist, Craig, explains bed bugs range from 1mm to 7mm, and are distinct for their flat, round appearance. They are reddish-brown in color, wingless, and primarily active only at night.
New Jersey bed bug control experts at Viking Pest explain the most common way to know whether there are bed bugs in your home or business is to note the presence of bite marks in the morning. Although bed bug bites can be highly irritating for some people, causing red welts and itchiness that lasts for days, others do not react strongly to the bites and may be the nightly victims of bed bugs without even noticing.
Besides bites, signs of bed bugs in your home or business may include:
- Resting bed bugs hiding in folds of bedding, under mattresses, or in the corners of the carpet during the day.
- Shed exoskeletons left behind when bed bugs grow and molt.
- A musty odor.
- Small rusty streaks of blood left behind on sheets and bedding by bed bugs.
What Risks Do Bed Bugs Pose for My New Jersey Home or Business?
As disturbing as it is to have blood-sucking insects in your place of business or residence, bed bugs do not carry disease and do not pose a health or safety risk for people. That being said, New Jersey has strict laws in place which hold landlords and business owners accountable for keeping their premises insect-free. According to the New Jersey Housing Authority, apartments with bed bugs or other insects are unfit to live in. That’s why the problem must be reported and addressed as soon as possible.
How to Prevent Bed Bugs
Because of their pervasiveness and tendency to harbor in numerous locations (and even on their human hosts) during the day, controlling bed bugs can be a difficult challenge, requiring the experienced insights of a professional, the cooperation of residents, and long-term strategies and follow-up treatments. However, some common-sense practices can help to prevent bed bugs in your New Jersey home or residence.
- Keep clothes and bedding off the floor to limit hiding places for bed bugs during the day.
- Regularly vacuum bedrooms and living rooms to remove adult and larval bed bugs. Seal and dispose of the vacuum bag, and carefully clean around floorboards and baseboards.
- Isolate your bed. Prevent bedding from touching the floor, move the bed away from the walls, and put bed-bug-proof interceptors under the legs of the bed.
- If you’re a tenant of a multi-family building in New Jersey, contact your landlord at the first sign of bed bugs.
Since bed bugs are so easily transported from one place to another, it can be useful to take precautions when traveling. New Jersey pest control experts at Viking Pest recommend checking your bed when you sleep in a hotel and storing luggage on luggage racks. When you return home, immediately wash clothing in hot water.
Helpful Links:
- EPA’s Introduction to Bed Bugs
- Rutgers Bed Bug Information
- New Jersey Health and Safety Alert: Bed Bugs
Hire Viking Pest to Control Bed Bugs in Your New Jersey Home or Business
Viking Pest offers expert treatment designed to effectively and efficiently control and prevent bed bugs from invading your home or business in New Jersey. Our use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques focuses on finding the core of the pest concern and controlling bed bugs from the source. Through IPM, pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, pets, and the environment. Call Viking today for your FREE and NO OBLIGATION estimate at 1-800-618-2847 or schedule online today!