Apartment Living: Finding the Right Place to Call Home

If you've just found out your child's friend, your friend, a child you babysit, a child at your child's school, or anyone else who has been in your home or around someone who lives in your home has bed bugs in theirs, then your first instinct may be to freak out. However, you should learn more about these intrusive pests, so you can truly determine whether you have a need to worry and so you know what you should do to protect your home from an infestation. Here are some frequently asked bed bug questions and their answers.

What do bed bugs look like?

The first thing that you want to do is to know what it is that you are going to be looking for when you are concerned about bed bugs. This way, you won't mistake another bug for a bed bug and freak out. These bugs are very small and a reddish-brown color. They have a hard shell and they don't have wings. They have a wide body that tapers down to a very tiny head.

Where do bed bugs like to hide?

This is a tricky question because most people think they are mostly found on beds. While they do like to hide in the crevices of beds, like around the seams or the buttons older beds use to have, they can also be found just about everywhere. Some places to look include in areas where wallpaper is coming up from the wall, in cluttered places, in piles of neglected laundry, in the cracks of furniture, or inside any other dry areas.

How can bed bugs affect your health?

Although bed bugs don't pose any risks of spreading any diseases that are known, they can leave you with a lot of little bites. In some cases, a person may end up being allergic to them. Kids do need to be told not to scratch at the bites, or they can end up with them getting infected.

How can you get bed bugs?

If you end up bringing bed bugs into your home, you can soon find yourself dealing with an infestation. Bed bugs can travel in on a person's clothing, a pet's fur, or any other items that came from a place with bed bugs. This is how many people get them from hotels; they bring their luggage to and from the hotel while the bed bugs climb aboard like little hitchhikers.

If you have further questions about bed bugs, contact bed bug control companies to help get rid of them.