Bed bugs surprise new tenants - Bed bug control & removal in Brick, NJ apt
Challenge
A tenant who had recently moved into a Brick Township apartment found himself with a severe, entrenched bedbug infestation, even though he had only been living there for a week or so. He was certain that he did not bring any bed bugs with him when he moved and he believed that, in all likelihood, this infestation was already in the unit well before he had arrived. All indications were that the prior tenant left this infestation as a “gift” for the next tenant without having the courtesy to have the infestation treated or even informing the management office. Although Cowleys treats bed bug infestations in single-family homes, it is far more common to find these particular pests in places with high population densities. Multi-person residences such as apartments, college dormitories, motels/hotels, and nursing homes are notorious trouble spots for bed bug infestations. Bed bugs have poor mobility and they can only get around by “hitchhiking” on persons or their belongings, so bed bugs have to be brought into a residence. They can’t get there on their own.
With this apartment unit in Brick, bed bugs were everywhere. We even found a few of them inside his kitchen light fixture. We also came across bed bug casings and droppings, which are the remnants of bed bug activity and, for us, these are sometimes the only visible sign of bed bug activity in its early stages. Bed bugs are stealth insects. They hide in the smallest of nooks and crannies when they are not feeding, so they are a challenge to find, especially during the early stages of an infestation. Casings are the “skin” that bed bugs shed when they molt. Bed bugs go through five stages of maturation before reaching adulthood, and at each stage, after a blood meal, the bug sheds its exoskeleton. These discarded skins look somewhat like a live bed bug since these skins are just their outer layer. The difference is that these empty shells are translucent and don’t move. We often find these skins clustered along the seams of mattresses or upholstered furnishings. Their droppings appear as tiny rust-colored or black spots. Bed bugs are parasites that live exclusively on human blood, so these droppings, not surprisingly, are the color of partially digested blood.
Solution
Because of the severity of this infestation and the importance of bed bug containment in an apartment complex, Cowleys treated this infestation as a bona fide emergency, immediately sending a team of bed bug specialists to treat the infestation. Cowleys has a set of detailed field-tested bed bug protocols developed from our years of experience in treating these difficult infestations. With severe infestations like the one in this apartment, we have an intensive multi-week process that includes an initial treatment and a series of follow-ups. We return in order to make sure that any residual bugs that may have escaped an earlier treatment are killed. The apartment will be intensively vacuumed, steamed, and chemically treated. We will stay on the job and do whatever it takes to make sure that these infestations are successfully resolved.
In important lesson here is that prospective renters should carefully inspect the unit that they are interested in renting prior to signing a lease. Often, the first find evidence of bed bugs are egg casings and dark spots of fecal deposits. Bed bugs like to stay near their food source, which happens to be us. So, it is especially important to check the mattress and box spring, especially the seams and underside, if you are not bringing your own. In this day and age, with bed bug infestations on the rise, tenants must be vigilant about bed bugs. Don’t start moving your belongings into an apartment unless you are sure that the unit is free of these nasty, biting pests.
