Bed Bugs and How to Keep them Away

Caregiving for a Senior? Keep Them Comfortable By Learning What Keeps Bed Bugs Away | Visit the 1Heart Caregiver Services Blog and See How to Prevent Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are a nuisance. The presence of these tomato seed-sized insects in your home or place of work can cause much inconvenience as they regularly bite the skin of each human prey they can find, and feast on their blood.

Knowing this, you cannot take any chances of letting these creatures enter your premises, especially if you are caring for an elderly loved one. They breed pretty fast. Before you know it, you can have an army of bed bugs in a month or two as each female bed bug can lay up to 3 eggs per day and 250-500 eggs per lifetime (6-12 months or longer). More so their egg-to-egg life cycle can last as short as 4-5 weeks.

Although they are not known to transmit any diseases, bed bugs may cause various physical and mental problems to people plagued with this parasite, so it’s best to learn how to prevent bed bugs before they happen in the first place.

A person bitten by this insect may, but rarely get a whole-body allergic reaction. He/she may even get secondary infections such as impetigo, ecthyma, and lymphangitis as a result of the bite reaction. Anyone living in a bed bug infested home can also develop anxiety and sleeping problems leading to insomnia as these creatures usually prey on their victims at night.

Here are some tips on what keeps bed bugs away:

• Make sure to seal cracks and crevices on walls, baseboards, etc. so that any of these creatures won’t be able to hide or move within these areas.
• Reduce clutter. Bed bugs also like to hide in any item they can squeeze into.
• Any item that you intend to bring to or from your home or place of work should be placed inside plastic or paper bags
• If you suspect any washables to have bed bugs, dry them on high heat (the heat can kill the bed bugs).
• Vacuum often if any of them has successfully gained entry.

Now, if your place is already inhabited with bed bugs then it would be hazardous to your health and safety if you were to eliminate these creatures yourself, since it requires the use of chemical treatments. It is strongly suggested that you hire an experienced pest control professional as soon as you can before the infestation goes out of hand.

Sources:

www.epa.gov, www.webmd.com

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