Some people worry about bed bugs when moving their belongings. At A Mother’s Touch Movers, a premier moving company in Melbourne FL, we use efficient, clean trucks, so you don’t have to worry about bed bug infestations when moving with us. You should be diligent year-round about these pests living in your home, however, since they cause skin irritation, and bed bug infestations should be caught before they become widespread.
Here’s a quick primer on bed bugs so you know what to look out for when moving into a new home, buying secondhand furniture, and keeping your belongings pest-free:
• Bed bugs feed on blood every 5-10 days and cause itchy bites on humans, although they are not known to spread or transmit disease. They are mostly active at night.
• Bed bugs travel in luggage, on bedding, furniture, clothing, and in boxes from infested sites to new locations, and are capable of surviving months to a year without feeding on blood.
• They hide in multiple places, including near piping, around the bed, carpet, closets, cracks on the headboard and bedframe, seams of the mattress and box spring, seams of couches and chairs, curtain folds, drawer joints, in electrical appliances, under loose wallpaper, and at the corner where the ceiling and wall meet.
• They can be difficult to identify given their small size. Adults are the size of an apple seed, the width of a credit card, long, brown, flat, and oval-shaped if not fed recently (balloon-like and reddish-brown if fed recently). They also produce a musty-sweet odor. Eggs are the size of a pinhead and pearl-white in color.
• Because itchy bed bug bites can look like bites from other insects like mosquitoes, hives, or rashes, bites on the skin are not the best indicator of an infestation. Some people do not even react to bed bug bites.
• Look for these physical signs of the bugs: live bugs, eggs and eggshells, dark spots (bug excrement) that may bleed on the fabric like a marker, reddish or rusty stains on sheets, pillows, or mattresses, and an off-putting, musty odor.
• If you think there may be an infestation, clean clothing, linens, bedding, and curtains in hot water and dry them on high. For un-washable items, place them in the dryer on high for at least 30 minutes. Scrub mattress seams to remove bed bugs and their eggs, and then vacuum your bed and the surrounding area. Use a woven, zippered cover to tightly encase the mattress and box springs, and reduce clutter around the home to limit hiding places.
• When using shared laundry facilities, transport items to be washed in plastic bags, remove from the dryer directly into a bag, and fold at home.
• When unpacking luggage, inspect the bags carefully and immediately wash clothing and linens. High temperatures in dryers can kill bed bugs, while just washing generally does not.
• Never store suitcases in your bedroom or under the bed.
• If you are uncertain about whether you have bed bugs in your home, call an exterminator. It is usually the most effective to hire an experienced pest control professional for extermination.
When moving with A Mother’s Touch Movers, your belongings are treated with care. Contact A Mother’s Touch Movers to schedule your bug-free move today!
