Pest Control: Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite
The rise of air travel in the last ten to twenty years has brought some problems for the pest control businesses. London is the busiest international city on the globe, with thousands of visitors passing through each day. With so many travellers from a wide variety of countries, it’s not surprising many bring parasites with them. Bedbugs can be carried to hotels, hostels and houses in people’s clothing, bed linen or suitcases.
Bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) are parasitic little critters, feeding on the blood of sleeping humans. Their bites can cause pain, irritation and marks. There is also a more serious risk of secondary infection setting in on untreated bites. The bugs aren’t large – even the biggest adults are no more than 5mm in length – making them harder to spot than more conspicuous pests such as rats and pigeons. They vary in colour from transparent to mahogany brown. Their fast rate of reproduction means an infestation doesn’t take long to set in. Their eggs are yellow/white in colour and a mere 1mm long, making them even harder to spot than the adults.
Diagnosis is an important point here. Mosquitoes and fleas can cause bites very similar to those left by bedbugs. An initial inspection will help pest control firms to establish exactly what sort of pest infestation is afflicting you before beginning any form of treatment.
The bedbugs are so named because their resting places – where they spend a lot of their time – are tucked away in the cracks and crevices of rooms, e.g. bed frames, mattresses, skirting boards and behind the wallpaper. Depending on how large and old they are, they only come out to feed one night every 2 or 3 weeks. The extended space between feeding times means residents don’t even discover they’ve got a bug problem until there are so many of them that bites become a nightly issue. The result is that, as with many pests, the control services are often not called in until the infestation is well and truly established.
Bedbugs are interested in finding people to feed off, not how clean a place is, so having an infestation isn’t necessarily a sign of poor hygiene. Bed bugs are carried in by people, not dirt; so it’s really your guests who should be considering their own cleanliness! Unfortunately, a lot people can’t shake the notion that insects mean your place is unclean. It is therefore doubly important for London’s hotel and hostel owners to call in a pest control firm as soon as they notice any sort of an issue. The presence of bedbugs can damage the reputation of a venue – particularly if a client decides to sue for damages because they have been bitten – and in these days of Tripadvisor and the like, negative feedback can be death for small businesses.
In order to manage a bedbug infestation, any potential hideouts must be checked. When it comes to bed frames and other furniture, this will entail dismantling them. In particularly bad situations, the furniture may need to be taken away or replaced to be able to minimise the chance of re-infestation. For the very same reason, it is advised you don’t bring any kind of new furniture into the house, hotel or hostel before the whole area has been fully taken care of.
Bedbugs can be challenging to treat, but London’s pest control companies are here to help you. 3 treatments are typically required to remove the problem, but it is the best strategy to help keep you bite free and your establishment’s reputation unblemished.
Follow this link to the Terminex website. They offer pest control services in London and Hertfordshire.
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