There is only one way that bed bugs will get into your Raleigh, NC, home: they will be carried in. Bed bugs don’t live in your yard, and they don’t come in from your yard. But there are many ways bed bugs can be carried in. Some of them may even surprise you!
Bringing Bed Bugs Home From Vacation
This is the one most people know about. If you go on vacation, you can pick bed bugs up at a hotel, motel, or resort. You can also get them in other forms of lodging. You can get them in a bed and breakfast. You can get them in a hunting cabin. You can get them in the home of a friend or relative. This last one is the most unexpected. Who checks for bed bugs when staying at someone’s house? But you should. Bed bugs can live in a home for months before they are detected.
Getting Bed Bugs From A Visitor
When someone comes to stay at your home, they can bring bed bugs with them. They can bring them from their own home or they can pick them up along the way, especially if they stay somewhere overnight. But are you aware that someone can bring bed bugs into your home even if they come over during the day and stay for a few minutes? Bed bugs can get into items such as pocketbooks, book bags, duffel bags, etc. When these items are set down in your home, bed bugs can move from these items into your home.
Sleepovers
When your child goes to a friend’s house for a sleepover, it is possible for them to come back with bed bugs. You can also get bed bugs when someone comes to sleep over at your home—even if that friend is an adult staying in your spare bedroom or on your couch. Anytime someone sleeps over there is a chance of getting bed bugs.
Schools And Daycares
When you drop your children off, it is possible to pick them back up with bed bugs on board. At daycares, kids have nap time near each other, they have close contact with each other, and they store their belongings near the belongings of other children. All of these are ways for bed bugs to transfer. In school, items stored in lockers together, or bags, clothing, and other items set near each other can allow bed bugs to transfer.
Public Transportation
Bed bug infestations have been found in taxi cabs, buses, trains, planes, and other forms of public transport. This is because bed bugs don’t have to wait for humans to be sleeping. Like many other insects, they can feed on people while they’re awake.
Assisted Living And Nursing Homes
When bed bugs bite the elderly, the bites don’t tend to be as bad. This is because there can be little or no allergic reaction. Itchy or painful welts are usually the first warning sign of a bed bug infestation. Without this warning sign, bed bugs are able to spread more effectively. If you visit a senior, or have a senior over to your home, it is possible to get bed bugs.
Work
When you go to work, you can pick bed bugs up and bring them home. While working a job in a hotel, motel, or some other form of lodging will put you at higher risk, you can get bed bugs in an office building, retail store, public library, and in other worksites that you may not expect to come in contact with bed bugs.
College
Do you have college kids? When they come home, they could bring bed bugs with them. College dormitories house students from all over the world. This is an ideal location for bed bug infestations to break out. Dorm rooms are also easy places for bed bugs to infest because they tend to be cluttered. It is much easier for bed bugs to move around in a cluttered space.
What To Do When Bed Bugs Get In
No matter how you get bed bugs, it is important that you take immediate action to get rid of them. If you don’t, you can spread the bed bugs and get them again from your neighbors, friends, relatives, coworkers, and others. Contact Innovative Pest Solutions for bed bug control in Raleigh. We use advanced bed bug control methods and products to arrest infestations expediently and discreetly.
