Bed bugs infest senior apartment in Belmar, Nj

Today, I was called out to service an apartment building for which we handle all of their pest control needs. The property manager contacted me because an elderly tenant was concerned that she may have bed bugs, and for good reason. After waking from her afternoon naps, she would find mysterious, itchy insect bites on her arms. Whenever someone observes bites on the body after taking a nap or waking up from a good night’s sleep, bedbugs should be considered a top suspect. It may not be the case, but until I am able to affirmatively ruled out bedbugs, I will assume the worst — that there is a likely bedbug infestation.

Just because these pests may be called bed bugs, don’t think for one second that these little blood-suckers are confined to beds. No doubt, beds are one of their favorite nesting spots. These external parasites don’t like to venture far from their hosts (us!). Also, they prefer to enjoy their blood meals when we are not moving targets, and it is easy for them to draw blood and have a relaxing meal while we are fast asleep. However, bed bugs often seek out other nesting spots besides beds. And that brings me to this particular assignment.  

During a bed bug inspection, it is critical to conduct a thorough and systematic inspection of the entire living space for evidence of bedbug activity (live bed bugs, eggs, and fecal stains). Here, since the tenant had complained of bites after her nap, to target my inspection, I started where she believed that she was being bitten. She led me directly to the couch in question. First, I thoroughly inspected the couch cushions before attempting to move the couch itself. When inspecting potentially bedbug-infested furniture, it is important to move any items on the furniture slowly and deliberately. The last thing you want to do is to start flicking off bed bugs in all different directions, giving them a chance to hide in new locations and making things worse by spreading the infestation. Some good news — there was no evidence of bed bug activity on the cushions. I set them aside. Next, I slowly moved the couch forward so that I could inspect the bottom and back sides of the couch. It did not take me long to discover the source of this poor woman’s grief —  bed bugs had taken hold of the backside of her couch with many hiding in the couch seams.

I immediately set up a bed bug treatment for the following day. I did not start the treatment right then. Before treatment, the occupant of the infested living space needs time to prepare for treatment. Otherwise, for example, if there is excessive clutter, the treatment is less effective. I went over with the tenant what preparatory work needed to be done. Most importantly, she needed to reduce the bed bug harborage areas by either discarding built-up clutter or by bagging the items using sealable plastic containers or tied-off plastic garbage bags. In the meantime, I did a thorough vacuuming to remove all of the live bedbugs that I had observed during the inspection. The tenant was relieved that she was well on the way toward a bedbug-free apartment. The property manager was also relieved that the infestation was caught while it was localized to just this one unit. There is no greater headache than a bed bug infestation that has spread throughout a building.