If you are reading this, you have probably already had a problem with bed bugs in Ottawa. You have probably seen a lot of information and advice on the internet and in other forums, which is not always true.
From The Bed Bug Coop Ottawa Pest Control, we are Ottawa Exterminators to eliminate and control pests. We will try to give you practical information on how to combat this annoying pest, the measures you can take to avoid them, and the best products and solutions available to help you solve your problem.
Contrary to what you can read in various articles and forums on the internet, the first recommendation is that do not to throw away mattresses, sofas, or other infected material to buy new furniture. We will explain why: many people contact us to tell us that when they discovered the bedbugs in Ottawa, after informing themselves, they threw away all the infected material and bought new mattresses, sofas, and others. But that after a momentary improvement after a few days or weeks, they are seeing them again and suffering from bites, with which this new material that they have bought and in which they have surely spent a lot of money is also already infected.
What Are Bed Bites Like?
Bed bug bites can cause different symptoms depending on the sensitivity of each person. Around 50% of people develop no obvious symptoms or mild symptoms. In comparison, the other 50% can develop a significant allergic reaction in some cases, with a red dot in the center of the bite. A reddish, slightly swollen around it of variable size, from 2 or 3 mm in diameter to more than 2 cm, usually causes annoying itching and irritation.
These bites can be confused with those caused by other insects because, for non-professionals, they are quite similar to those caused by other blood-sucking insects, such as mosquitoes or fleas. Still, while mosquitoes usually make isolated bites, fleas usually focus on ankles and lower legs, and bed bug bites usually occur in the areas most in contact with mattresses and pillows since they tend to bite us. At the same time, we sleep in almost any body area, depending on our habitual sleeping position ( back, abdomen, chest, face, arms, legs, hands).
They can make groups of a single bite, or several in a row in a line or zigzag, since sometimes they do not find a good capillary at the first bite from which to extract the blood they need to feed, and they repeat two or three bites close to each other.
Normally bedbugs bite us while we are asleep and in a somewhat “delicate” way to avoid waking up (since the normal thing then would be for us to defend ourselves and kill them). The bite is produced when the bedbug sticks its fine buccal stylet into our skin, searching for a capillary from which to extract our blood. Once nailed, it injects us with its saliva, which contains anticoagulants to prevent a scab from forming, and then begins to suck the blood. The subsequent irritation is due to the allergic reaction to the anticoagulant saliva injected into us rather than to the bite itself, which is usually very fine and clean.
So What To Do If I Discover Bed Bugs At Home?
Before buying new mattresses, sofas, furniture, etc., the first thing is to finish them off, and once we know that we have finished with them, we can now buy new mattresses, pillows, rugs, sofas, etc. This seems like logic and common sense. It is not always applied since many times when a bedbug problem is suffered, anxiety and nerves are generated in the family, making us make decisions that are too hasty given the urgency of the problem.
We need to do this in the first place to make sure that the insect or bed bug bites that we have are actually due to bed bugs. You can consult photos, biology, and other technical, truthful, and contrasted information on our Ottawa Pest Control website.Â
