Bud bugs sneak out of bedroom into living areas of Middletown, NJ home

Challenge

Liquid applications alone cannot control bed bugs. Bed bug eradication requires a combination of integrated methods that work together to support each other. For example, cleaning all items within the area of infestation and reducing clutter are equally critical steps to eliminate bed bug habitats. Another critical step to be done by the pest control technician is a thorough inspection of the infested areas and the surrounding living spaces. From my experience, even the most entrenched bed bug infestation is resolvable. It just takes organization and persistence.

I was recently assigned a bed bug infestation in Middletown residence. This particular job showed the importance of an inspection. The homeowners were 99% positive that they caught the problem early and the bugs were contained to one of the children's rooms. The homeowner's did the right thing by contacting a pest control service as soon as they noticed the problem. All too often, homeowners try ineffective do-it-yourself remedies that gives time for the infestation to spread and become more entrenched.

It is always important to inspect all living spaces in order to determine the full extent of the problem. Also, you want to inspect before any cleaning or rearranging has occurred. The last thing you want to do is disturb and spread the bugs before treatment. Because bed bugs are masters of stealth and nymphs can be as small as a poppy seed, bed bug inspections must be painstakingly systematic and methodical. Once the bed bugs are located and the size of the infestation is known, room preparations can then start. If you don't fully treat all infected areas at the same time, there will be surviving bed bugs and the infestation will take longer to treat before it is completely resolved.

In this Middletown house, unfortunately, the homeowners' hope that the bed bugs were limited to the children's room turned out to be overly optimistic. Unfortunately, these parasitic bugs are linked to their human hosts for survival and have a knack for tagging along. It's something they have instinctively done for time immemorial. As you can see, these bugs managed to find their way to the living room where newly born nymphs were glued to the bottom of the living room couch and an adult was found hiding on luggage stored under the bed in the master bedroom.

Solution

With the living spaces carefully inspected, room preparation for treatment could now begin. If I did not properly inspect these rooms, they may well have gone untreated, delaying resolution of the infestation. All you need are a few surviving bugs for the process to start all over.

This Middletown residence is currently being treated. Because the homeowners acted quickly, the level of infestation was low even though the bugs still had enough time to spread throughout a few rooms.  When we encounter a low to moderate bedbug infestation, we use a number of tools to help us solve the problem.