What Causes Bedbugs: 7 Ways How They Infest Your Home

Bed bugs are tiny, wingless, flat insects with a reddish-brown appearance about a quarter inch long (they quite look like apple seeds). They hide during the day in cracks and crevices of walls, floors, and furniture, on beds (mattress seams, bed frames, box springs, and headboards), and are active at night. They can move quickly while crawling but cannot fly or jump.

Spending the night at hotels, Airbnb, motels, etc.

The most common reason for bed bug infections is travel locally and abroad. Hotels, motels, and Airbnbs with high turnover rates are the common places to find bed bugs.

Bed bugs can enter your luggage if you leave it on the bed or other furnishings, in addition to being carried home after using the beds in these lodgings.

According to the Journal of Travel Medicine, no matter how pleasant or hygienic a hotel is, bedbug infestations have also been found there. Bedbugs bite, they infest personal belongings, and subsequently contaminate peoples homes because of recently visited hotels.

Transferred through clothing/cloth materials

Schools, colleges, and even daycare facilities are another way that bed bugs spread. Your children may unintentionally bring these insects home from school or when they return from college on break since they spread so readily via pockets in clothing and baggage. And that’s how bed bugs discover a new location to live, consume, and breed.

Spending time in public places

If you visit a public location, be vigilant for bed bugs and the telltale indicators they leave behind, like a musty odor, black feces, insect shells, and blood stains.

If you use public transport, be careful to look because you might also pick them up from there.

Using second hand furniture

Another cause of bed bug infestation is purchasing used furniture or getting one from a friend or family member. Unknowingly, you might buy second hand furniture that already contains bed bugs or their eggs.

You should carefully inspect all the nooks and crannies in any used furniture you pick up from a garage sale or thrift store to look for the tiny insects because they don’t only hide in beds.

When you’re visiting other people’s homes

It’s possible for bedbugs to exist in even empty, spotless homes. Without any food, they may live for more than two months. It’s also thought that they can travel between apartments using cracks and holes in the walls as well as the tubes that wires and pipes go through. They can detect carbon dioxide in human’s exhale and they will follow the scent until they find a person to feast on.

Guests coming to your home

Visitors who stay at your house could unknowingly bring bed bugs with them. They might have brought the pests with them from their own home or carried them while traveling. 

Once they have left, you can wash your bedding at the hottest temperature as a precaution to prevent the occurrence of an infestation. Bed bugs cannot survive in temperatures of 50 degrees celsius or 122 fahrenheit.

Changes in pest control practices

According to a study in China about bed bug infestation and control practices, changes in pest management methods have been identified as one of the top causes of the worldwide bed bug recurrence in 2011. Chemical treatment of bed bugs is only about 60% effective as it does not destroy the bed bug eggs. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, travelers typically carry bed bugs from one location to another. Bed bugs are transferred through the folds and seams of overnight bags, clothing, baggage, beds, furniture, and other places they might conceal. 

Bed bugs are masters of camouflage. Even without blood as their main food source, their flat, slender bodies enable them to cram themselves into tiny spaces and occupy them for extended periods over over a year without food as they lie on wait for their next victim.

If you suspect a bed bug infestation in your home, it’s best to contact professionals to inspect and eliminate it quickly. There are a number of pest control treatment methods that are effective in killing bed bugs and their eggs. The most effective of them is heat treatment which has a 100% success rate. You can learn more about bed bug heat treatment here.

Heat treatments involve raising the temperature in your home using specially designed equipment to kill bed bugs. Taking preventive measures is important after using this method to eliminate the risk of re-infestation. 

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