Recently, a two-man bed bug team was sent to a home in Plainfield, NJ. The homeowner suspected bed bugs after waking up a few days in a row with mysterious, unexplained insect bites. Often, because bed bugs hide out of plain view when not feeding, bites are the earliest sign of a bed bug problem. Even if you’re not sure it’s bed bugs, the best course of action is to have a professional inspection to determine the issue. By and large, most bed bug treatments by Cowleys Pest Services uses two technicians with experience in bed bugs. These are one of our most challenging infestations. We use two technicians because it gives us two sets of eyes during the inspection to pick up the often-subtle signs of bed bug activity. Also, bed bugs stay out of sight. They are often hide on the underside of mattresses, box springs, recliners, sofas, and other furniture and a complete inspection requires some heavy lifting and repositioning. With bed bugs, we want targeted applications of products to the bed bug infested areas of home. It serves little purpose to just arbitrarily apply product and hope for the best. Bed bugs prefer to stay nearby their host between blood meals, so we start out inspection with the bed, bed linens, pillows, and nightstands and any adjacent furnishings or objects nearby. My eagle-eyed partner, while examining a doll, found some specks of bd bug excrement and a live adult hiding in the seam of the doll. The lesson here is that bed bugs will find the smallest cracks and crevices anywhere and you can’t assume that anything is off-limits to these pests. We keep a hep-vac with us during the inspection so we can suck up any bed bugs right then and there. Allowing no bed bugs to escape is key. Upon further inspection, we found several more live adults and some fresh eggs. These eggs are coated with a glue-like substance and are quite sticky so they are not easily dislodged. We systematically and methodically inspected every piece of furniture, vacuuming every harborage area. Only then were we ready to apply product to those areas. We advised the someone to put the “possessed” doll in the dryer for a half-hour. The high heat would kill any bed bugs that may still be hiding in any of the pinhole seams of the doll. Bed bugs in Plainfield, NJ
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