Imagine you are driving down your street, and as you go to pull into your driveway, you notice that your neighbors house looks like a scene right out of the X-files. Giant hoses run from several windows down to official looking machines littered about the lawn. What would your first response be? Probably something like, “great! The neighbors have bugs.” This would be followed by a quick mental checklist of how many times your neighbors have visited your house in the last year. It is only natural. You’ll want to protect your family.
This scenario gets even worse when those hoses are coming out of an apartment window. It is disturbing to think of bed bugs crawling inside the walls of your apartment complex. It is enough to make you want to find a new place to live.
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Whether you are a homeowner, property manager, or apartment renter, getting bed bugs can be a humiliating and reputation damaging event. This is the number one reason why bed bug sniffing canines are essential in bed bug treatment. With their powerful noses, dogs are able to smell bed bugs in beds, furniture, and even walls. This allows pest controllers to treat some bed bug infestations with a focused application of pesticides, and a few mattress covers.
Bed bug sniffing canines also make heat treatments faster and more efficient. If it is necessary to treat your home or apartment complex with heating units, you’ll know that infested areas will be properly targeted. This reduces the chance of reinfestation, and makes it unnecessary for pest technicians to leave heating units longer–to be sure that all areas have been thoroughly heated.
Bed bug dogs are also used to inspect homes and buildings as a routine measure, to protect homes before bed bug infestations can take root. If you have recently returned from a vacation, or trip abroad, a bed bug inspection could save you a lot of money, and prevent a full bed bug heat treatment.
If you decide that an inspection is too much for you to afford right now, at least run down through this quick checklist.
- Look for mosquito type bug bites, with rashes around them.
- Peel down covers and look for small brown seed-like bugs.
- Check sheets and pillowcases for dried brown blood stains.
- Inspect the corners and edges of your mattresses and box springs for black sticky fecal residue.
- Use a flashlight to search upholstered furniture for these brown bugs. They can be very tiny in the larvae state, so look closely.
Getting bed bugs is humiliating. Most people don’t realize– that, though these bugs prefer dirty houses, they will live in any house with humans. These are blood eating insects. As long as they can find a blood meal, they will be happy to stay. Until this perception changes, it is vital to get fast, discreet service. If you find bed bugs–or want to keep from finding them–hire a pest control company with a K-9 unit. There’s no need to broadcast your infestation. Having bed bugs is bad enough.
Contact Wil-Kil to learn more about our bed bug canine services.