Traveling Bed Bugs Into Your Home – The trojan horse no one is talking about: You order a product from your favorite retailer; let’s just say a brand-new throw blanket. After receiving the package, being all excited about your new purchase, you immediately put it on the couch. Later that day, you take a nap on the couch to wake up and find that you have several red blotches on your arm. Curious to find what the cause of these blotches, you closely investigate your new blanket. With an unexpected surprise, you find that there are several bed bugs all over your brand new blanket. They had found their way into your couch cushions, on your clothes, and now you have found yourself in pure disbelief. This is the story of what many people come to find when they order packages online. With the increase of online ordering has also come the increase of unintended passengers hitching a ride into our homes. Bed bugs are a serious pest that have the ability to hitch rides onto items we may not expect.
When receiving items, whether it’s from the store or a garage sale, we rarely inspect them to see if there are any critters living inside. I know personally, I would rather assume nothing is residing within my used furniture. What we may not know is that bed bugs use a variety of products to trojan horse themselves into our homes. Here are a couple items you should be cautious of and take a closer look at before bringing into your residence without inspection:
Used Furniture
Picking up furniture from the thrift store may come at a higher cost than you paid for. Bed bugs are notorious for burrowing themselves into furniture and they can live for about a year without a blood meal. It’s important to do a thorough look through and cleaning when getting used furniture. This will help you identify if there are bed bugs with in it and help rid other pests who may be seeking shelter.
Traveling Bed Bugs On Shipped Packages
As mentioned before millions of people order products online every day. Its important to inspect your packages before potentially infesting your home. Best way to do this is by looking at the packaging itself. Is there any dark red discoloration on the packaging? If there is, you may have bed bugs in your package.
New & Used Clothing
When taking an Uber ride to work, or the bus to the grocery store, make sure to take the time and inspect your clothing before or after you leave. You may carrying potential hitchhikers who may want more than a free ride. Bed bugs are bloodsucking insects who can quickly become an out-of-control pest if not treated immediately.
If you have found yourself in the unfortunate circumstance where bed bugs have taken over your residence, call U.S. Pest today and request a free inspection today so we can help! Don’t let these pests take over your home. They infest quickly and are very hard to get rid of. Contact us today!