Bed bugs infest senior housing in South Plainfield
Challenge
I was sent to one of our commercial accounts in South Plainfield, NJ where a 55 + senior community had ongoing issues with bed bug activity. Higher density housing, such as apartment complexes and similar multiple unit living arrangements, can have hitchhiking bed bugs left behind in common areas. Everywhere from the recreation room to the laundry room often have bed bugs moving from unit to unit, resulting in multiple infestations. Once again, we were faced with a potential bed bug problem in one of the units. A two-person team of Cowleys bed bug specialists went out to inspect and perform any necessary treatments to resolve the infestation.
During our inspection, we observed bed bug activity once we carefully removed the bed covers. The images show what signs and evidence of bed bug activity to be on the lookout for if a homeowner is having any issues with bed bug activity.
Solution
After our inspection, we first vacuumed all of the crack and crevice areas as well as the mattress, bed frame, and all of the seams. Bed bugs commonly hide in the pinprick-sized holes of matters and boxspring seams. We then covered the box spring and mattress with encasements, which is critical to keep bed bugs from entering or exiting.We then removed all the the outlet wall plates to apply a dust inside the outlets. Bed bugs can easily crawl into the socket holes to hide when they are not feeding and is a very common hiding spot for these insects. This dust will suffocate the bed bugs inside the outlets.
After completing the inspection and the treatment applications, we set up a two-week follow-up to re-inspect and begin the second treatment. Bed bugs are resilient insects and we always have a follow-up visit to inspect and assess the progress of the first treatment and to perform additional treatments as necessary.
