OK, so you just found bed bugs in your home and your freak out meter is about to blow the mercury. STOP. This is a critical time when you can either do the right thing or you can go nuclear in some incessant need to “do something” and in the process make it all worse. I know the desire to get the flamethrower from the back of grandpa’s closet is huge, but you must pump the brakes on this one. You may kill all the bed bugs but it isn’t worth burning the house down. You will be on the news and bug guys everywhere will share the link on Facebook laughing at you. So, to avoid your 5 min of flame fame, lets go over what you SHOULD do if you unfortunately find bed bugs.
1. Education
Before you do anything you have to know your enemy. knowledge is power. If you are getting your pest control advice from Aunt Joline, Ray Ray an’ them, Russian hack videos, or Facebook…Yes I realize this might itself be shared to Facebook, ignore the irony for a second and check out my Youtube channel and my website for true information. Even normally trusted university studies online need context because the information has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. If you pay attention to this list you will at least be pointed in the right direction. Knowledge is power but you must have the wisdom to manage it.
2. Don’t throw your furniture away
I know the thought of sleeping on a bed or sitting on a couch that has bed bugs may throw your heebie jeebies through the roof but throwing them in the back yard, burning them in effigy and dancing around the flames will not fix the problem. Bed bugs are not only in the beds couches and chairs. They can be behind the baseboards, in the frame of the bed, nightstands, behind pictures, cracks in the wall, pretty much anywhere they can find to hide. Throwing away your furniture will only make things worse. You still have to sleep somewhere, you still have to sit somewhere. Wherever you sleep or sit, they will just come find you there. Bed bugs will be wherever the food is. If you sleep in the tub, they will be there. You are burger king and they will have it their way.
OK, so if you ignore me, throw your bed away, & go get a bright shinny new one they will just infest that one and beds aren’t cheep. Even the cheep ones aren’t cheep. It would be better to keep your old bed buggy furniture and replace them if you so desire AFTER they are eliminated. Then you can have brand new bed bug free furniture at the end. The other issue with throwing your infested furniture away is there will be someone to come along and snatch it up from the side of the road. I have witnessed myself someone doing this even after being told it was infested with bed bugs. They needed a bed and unfortunately this was their only option. Chances are they can’t afford to have their home serviced so don’t do that to them. Now some of you are going to trash the bed no matter what I say, ok, then do something for me. Spray paint bed bugs on it, rip it up, throw mud on it before putting it out on the road. If someone takes it at that point…. then hey, then they get what they get.
3. Don’t Spray
Don’t treat don’t do it, don’t even think about it. Now, I do have a video on here laying out how to do this yourself, it will help, but it ain’t easy, and is very likely to fail. If you try to spray yourself a couple of things are going to happen. So you go to wally world and buy everything that says bed bug on it. PS… just because it says it will kill it doesn’t mean it will fix your problem. Anything stronger than water will probably kill a bed bug but that won’t eliminate them from your home.
If you take your wally world, home depot or even the co-op stuff and lay waste to your bedroom, you might get relief for a day. The problem is you are repelling them into new areas. Spreading them to the baby’s room. I see this all the time, bed bugs living at the ceiling wall corners because you sprayed the bed and they are running away from it. Didn’t fix it though. They just have to walk farther to get a drink. The other issue is resistance. If you use the wrong thing in the wrong area, at the wrong concentration, or in the wrong way you will create super bugs. You know when you take antibiotics and the DR tells you to take the whole bottle? But in your infinite wisdom you stop taking them because you start to feel better? What happens? The bug comes back worse doesn’t it. Because you didn’t fully kill it off. You just wounded it or tickled it a little. Now it is back with a new strategy to fight another day. The same thing happens to insects. Then when you finally wise up and call someone, it takes longer to fix the problem and costs you more money. DON’T TREAT! it’s not worth it.
Now I know you are thinking, “of course they don’t want us to do it ourselves, they want to sell us a service”. Sure do. But even if you decide on another company I want you to follow these rules. Just remember these 3 things before you make a mistake that could cost you allot of money. I hope this helps you refocus in this trying time. Just remember, it is fixable. Just don’t make these mistakes like most do. Knowledge is power. But wisdom brings solutions.
Phoenix Pest Control
(865) 455-8571
