What To Expect After Bed Bug Treatment

Here is what to expect after bed bug treatment.

Getting rid of bed bugs completely goes beyond applying treatments. In other words, what you do after the treatment matters as well. It determines if the treatment has a lasting effect or not.

So, is there anything to expect after the actual treatment?

Read on as we attempt to find the best possible answer to this question.

First, there needs to be a close partnership or cooperation with your pest management professional. Why is this important? Because the pest technician knows all about bed bug behavior.

Therefore, every tip given by them should be fully implemented. Such tips will be provided in the course of this article.

Bed Bug Life Cycle

How is this relevant to our discussion? In a lot of ways actually.

The presence and feeding behavior of bed bugs depends largely on their life cycle. These are some of the most resilient pests that can be quite difficult to get rid of when their life cycle isn’t considered.

Having said that, what is the life cycle like?

It all starts with the presence of a single or a few numbers of bed bugs. At this stage, the problem is about to get worse especially when eggs are laid. Adult bed bugs will feed anywhere from one or more times a week.

This can sometimes go unnoticed until when the problem is full-blown.

When the eggs are hatched, a new generation of bed bugs begins to develop. This starts from the nymph stage right up to adults where the reproduction process starts for such bed bugs.

This is something you want to avoid at all costs. A qualified pest management professional knows all that needs to be done. Hence the need to follow their instruction.

Cooperating With Your Pest Management Professional

You must cooperate with the pest management professional or technician.

Doing so makes the extermination process much shorter and easier. What to expect after treatment depends on the extermination treatments deployed.

Bed bug development follows several stages. As such, applying a treatment or extermination method won’t guarantee total elimination. This is because there are unhatched eggs in play.

When these hatches, the problem is likely to persist, but only when adequate steps aren’t taken to address and prevent this from happening.

After Bed Bug Treatment: What To Do

In an ideal situation, your home or property should be free from bed bugs after initial treatment.

While this is possible, it isn’t always the case. Scary stuff right? Whatever extermination methods were used, there needs to be an inspection of the property to ensure that these bugs have been completely extinguished.

So, what happens if bed bug presence is still confirmed after treatment?

You don’t need to worry as the pest management technician is well capable of handling the problem. Under such circumstances, one of the things to expect after treatment is the application of an alternative extermination method.

Alternative extermination methods may include one or a combination of several others.

These are called follow-up treatments and are mostly solve the problem at the end of the day. However, you may be required by the technician to follow definite steps in preparing the home for the coming treatment.

Do you have to get involved? You’ll have to at some point. Bed bug treatments are quite challenging but can be fully tackled with your full cooperation.

• How Many Follow-Up Treatments Are Required?

Having established the fact that follow-up treatment is necessary, how many are needed? Conventional chemical treatments require follow-ups two weeks from the initial time of treatment.

By this time, unhatched bed bug eggs should be hatched.

Also, symptoms of surviving bed bugs should be visible. Such surviving bugs should come out from hiding to feed. Having established their presence, the most ideal follow-up treatments are deployed to exterminate them.

• Can I Sleep In My Bed After Bed Bug Treatment?

How long after bed bug treatment can I return home?

This is an often asked question and rightly so due to the nature of the treatment. Whether heat, chemicals, or other forms of treatments were used, some form of precautionary measures will need to be applied.

In most cases, a pest management professional will recommend using covers on box springs and mattresses.

How does this help? In a lot of ways.

First, bed bugs remaining in the mattress and box spring are isolated and won’t be able to come out or escape.

These can’t bite too and are starved. Not only does a mattress encasement trap bed bugs from coming out to feed or escaping, but it also prevents them from coming in.

Bed bugs from other infested areas of the room are unable to penetrate the encasement into the mattress. Remember your mattress area is a magnet of sorts for these pesky bugs because they need to feed on your blood.

So, in answering the question, you can sleep on your bed after bed bug treatment.

Is It Normal To See Bed Bugs After Treatment?

Bed bugs mostly feed at night, hence they are most active after dark or whenever a room is dimly lit.

Because these pests are likely to survive treatment, pest technicians apply several methods to find out or see if there are surviving bugs.

Equipment such as bed bug interceptors and sticky traps is designed to help identify surviving bed bugs. Identifying bed bugs after an extermination exercise points to ineffective treatment.

So, what makes bed bug treatment ineffective? This takes us to our next point;

What Makes Bed Bug Treatment Ineffective?

Here is what makes bed bugs worse after treatment.

We’ve seen that bed bugs can survive extermination and as such, will require repeat treatments. So, what exactly makes such treatments ineffective?

Do you still have bed bugs after the first treatment? Are you still battling bed bugs after the second treatment?

Well, the four main causes are identified. Most, or all of these have repeatedly made treatments ineffective, hence the need to safeguard against such.

• Re-Introduction of Infested Items

This is a common practice for homeowners who do this unknowingly. Certain items can be damaged depending on the type of bed bug treatments used. However, these same items may be infested with bed bugs.

Bringing these in after successfully getting rid of bed bugs in the home will only bring back the problem.

One of the best ways to prevent this is by discussing it with your pest management professional. The best solution for getting rid of bed bugs holed up in such items is applied to ensure they don’t escape.

• Inadequate Inspection

One of the major causes of a bed bug problem lingering after treatment is inadequate inspection.

Here, all hiding spots or sources of bed bugs aren’t well identified. As a result, treatment is applied to identified areas while leaving other infested areas.

What happens is that surviving bugs repopulate and take up the place of dead bugs. Relief may last for only a short time before they make their presence felt.

An experienced professional should do the job of inspection and treatment. This helps lower the chances of having a bed bug re-infestation.

• Ineffective Treatment

Whether heat treatment or insecticides were used to exterminate bed bugs, ineffective treatment is likely to ensure they survive and thrive. Some insecticides might be expired or not applied in the right amount.

In the case of heat treatment, the right temperature or adequate contact time may not have been reached.

Any of these will serve to encourage the problem. The longer a bed bug problem persists, the more difficult and unbearable it becomes.

Calling a reputable and professional pest management service helps reduce the chances of this happening.

• Not Treating All Bed Bug Sources

Skipping a bed bug source or hiding spot will only guarantee one thing; the persistence of the problem. As such, a problem that drags on is likely due to some sources being left out during treatment.

This helps replace areas where such bugs have been exterminated successfully, thus, making earlier efforts ineffective.

What To Do After An Exterminator Treats For Bed Bugs

What you do after an exterminator treats your home for bed bugs is very important as it determines how effective the treatment becomes.

First, treated areas should be out of bounds to all for at least 4 to 5 hours. However, those with a compromised immune system should seek advice on physician advice before proceeding.

Once in, the first thing to do is open all sources of ventilation. All windows and doors should be left open to ensure the toxicity of the chemical used dissipates faster.

Washing and cleaning all surfaces is next. This includes bedding among others.

The next few days are critical in helping remove dead bed bugs, nymphs as well as eggs. Therefore, some thorough vacuuming will be necessary each day for at least 4 days.

This not only picks up dead bed bugs and eggs but also those who have been able to survive the ordeal.

Upon noticing bed bugs after completing the cleaning and vacuuming, it will be necessary to call for repeat treatments. This isn’t done immediately but is scheduled for a proper time.

You might want to sign up for a warranty-based bed bug extermination service. That way, you get total protection at no added cost.

These are several things to expect after bed bug treatments. Each of the above-listed expectations helps in no small measure to keeping your home completely free of these bugs.