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Residential Treatment

We provide actual service and treatment services for our residential customers. Our bed bug procedures are very thorough and are based on entomological knowledge of the life cycle of these insects. We guarantee our results for one year in each room serviced. If bed bugs reappear in any treated room within one year of our treatment, re-treatment will be performed at no charge providing all recommendations are followed.

Please note that Bed Bug inspections cannot be free of charge. They can be intensive and time consuming. However, should we find Bed Bugs during our inspection and you decide to use our services for treatment, we will credit the cost of the inspection towards the actual treatment.

Background:
Unless you are over 65 years of age, you probably don’t remember bed bugs!

• They were practically eradicated from the United States after World War II by the regular use of strong, residual pesticides like DDT and Malathion.
• Between the 1970’s and the 1990’s there was a growing concern for the environment and pesticide toxicity, so the pest control industry adopted more targeted approaches to dealing with crawling pests that were commonly found; cockroaches and ants.
• Bed bugs were not a problem back then, so very little to no research was being done on them.
• The last ten years saw the first cases of bed bugs back in the United States and has seen their rapid spread due to:
  • Reduced residual pesticide usage.
  • Increases in international travel.
  • Lack of public awareness.
• South Florida has two major international passenger shipping ports and two major international airports.
• Between 2004 and 2007 the hospitality industry saw the first wave of bed bugs in South Florida.
• Between 2007 and 2010 residential settings started to have challenges with bed bugs as the people moved the bugs from the hotels to their homes.
• Earlier this year, we started seeing the movement of bed bugs from people’s homes to their places or work and now even in retail clothing stores.

How do I know if I have bed bugs and how do I find them?

If you answer yes to two or more of these questions, you may want to take a close look at your bed and surrounding area.

• Has someone living in my house traveled in the last six to twelve months?
• Did I pick up or purchase any new or used furniture in the last six months?
• Did I move into a new home (especially apartment) in the last six to twelve months?
• Am I waking up with red marks that look like mosquito bites, sometimes in straight lines?
• Do I have blood stains on my sheets?
• Do I have small marks on the mattress that look like they were made with a lead pencil?

Chances are that you will see the signs of a bed bug infestation before you actually see the bed bugs. Bed bugs are cryptic and hide during the day coming out at night when it is dark and quiet to feed on our blood.

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, get a good flashlight, carefully strip your bed and take a close look at the following which account for 93% of the places where bed bugs hide in the home:

• Mattress and box spring seams/piping (both top and bottom), especially the corners. Also under the mattress tag. Under the box spring where the felt is attached with staples. It is best to remove this felt covering and inspect the inside of the box spring.
• Behind the headboard, especially in the corners where wood meets wood on three sides.
• Under the drawers and under the bottom of the night stand.
• Under cloth furniture coverings placed on top of bed room furniture.
• In the seams and under cushions of couches, sofas, love seats, sleepers, recliners, plush chairs and ottomans. Especially cloth ones.

You are looking for the following. A bed bug is brown to reddish brown in color, oval shaped with ridges going left to right along the top of the abdomen, no more than ¼” long and about as wide as it is long. It crawls (does not fly or jump) at about the speed of a fast moving ant. Like all arthropod insects it has six legs and two antennas and it is visible with the naked eye.

Adults are about ¼ of an inch long and the newly hatched nymphs (“babies”) are smaller than half a grain of rice and are transparent until they take their first feeding. They prefer to hide in warm vs cold places. For example, they prefer wood and paper over metal and plastic.

What do I do if I find bed bugs in my home?

Properly removing a bed bug infestation from your home is not a do it yourself project.
It can quickly turn from a project to a nightmare. Here are some do’s and don’ts while we bust some myths.

• First thing, don’t panic. The good news is that they are not know to spread diseases and at the end of the day are more creepy than dangerous. Having said that, I am sure you want them out of your home as soon as possible.
• Bed bugs are not a sign of poor hygiene or sanitation. Don’t feel like this is something you did wrong or brought upon yourself. Many bed bug infestations are accidental and due to factors that you were not aware of.
• Bed bugs do not live on people, nor do they attach themselves or travel with people. They travel with our belongings. Never place your open luggage on the bed in a hotel room when traveling.
• Do not use an insect fogger to kill bed bugs. While it does kill many adult bed bugs in a room, it does not kill the eggs. Additionally studies show that it spreads them to adjoining rooms as they move away from the fog.
• Steam kills each bed bug and egg it comes in contact with, however it is impossible to apply steam to every nook and cranny where the bed bugs can hide.
• Don’t waste time before taking action. Each adult female can lay three to five eggs per day and up to 500 in her lifetime. Their numbers can grow exponentially fast.

What is the best way to eliminate bed bugs from my home?

Bed bugs are difficult to detect, eliminate and impossible to prevent. There is no “silver bullet” or quick fix when dealing with bed bugs. The first step is a thorough and COMPLETE inspection. Every area has to be inspected.

Once they are found, the best solution is an integrated one. Using several methods that work together to resolve the problem. We use vacuum cleaners, steam cleaners, heat and/or chemicals as needed.

The methodology and use of one solution over another depends on several factors;

• Level of infestation.
• Amount of clutter.
• Type of furniture and flooring.

There is always a follow up visit within ten to fourteen days, which usually turns in to a follow up treatment. High level infestations require multiple follow up visits. This assures that we eliminate any newly hatched eggs before they live long enough to reach adulthood, killing their life cycle.

Finally, in a multi-unit setting like apartments and condos, it is highly recommended to inspect the surrounding units (left, right, above and below) to ensure the bed bugs in the unit being treated did not spread to or from a surrounding unit.

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