How Do You Get a Bed Bug Infestation? | Pest Control

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My name is Jeff White and I'm the research entomologist for Bed Bug Central and the host of Bed Bug TV bedbugcentral.com. I have no idea how I got into bugs and bed bugs and here I am six years later and having a lot of fun working with bed bugs and I'll be talking to you about pest control. People see stories on the news about bed bugs taking over the world in mass transit vehicles. You know in movie theaters and they immediately think oh my god I don't want to bring bed bugs into my house and so one of the most important things that you need to know is how to avoid bringing bed bugs home with you. The first this is is that bed bugs have to be brought from one infestation into another place. They don't just exist naturally say outdoors and so you don't have to be scared say about walking down the street, taking your dog for a walk at the park and picking up a bed bug. People you know see stories and say oh my god you know what if they live outdoors can I take my dog for a walk and pick them up like ticks. That's not how bed bugs work. And so somethings that you need to be aware of are that discarded furniture is something that you typically want to avoid. You know somebody might have thrown a couch out and it may have had bed bugs on it. 20 years you may not have thought anything of bringing a piece of furniture in off the street if you didn't have a couch in your house, but that may now have bed bugs on it and so you want to avoid bringing in discarded furniture and if you absolutely have to you want to make sure you know how to do an inspection to see if it does in fact have bed bugs on it. If you're going to purchase used furniture ask the company if their doing anything to address bed bugs because those furniture can have bed bugs on them and many companies now are starting to do things before they resell those items. Lastly if you're going to travel you want to make sure you do a brief inspection of the room that you're staying in, but more importantly know what to do with your belongings when you return home. A hot wash and/or hot dry cycle can kill all bugs on clothing. You also want to know what to do with your suitcase and so do some research. See what's out there. See how to avoid bringing those bugs in and how to treat that suitcase properly. And those are some things that you need to be aware of if you're concerned with bringing bed bugs into your home.