Facts About Bed Bugs and Air Duct Cleaning

What are Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are small parasitic insects that feed exclusively on the blood of warm blooded animals.   Bed bugs have been known human parasites for thousands of years, and were once largely eradicated through the use of heavy pesticides in the 1940’s.

How do you get Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are bought into home on infested furniture or in luggage and personal belongings after staying in infested lodgings. In apartment buildings, townhouses, hotels and other connected dwellings bed bugs can migrate from one infested unit into other via electrical wiring, plumbing and adjoining walls.

How do you know if you have Bed Bugs?

Bedbugs are elusive and usually nocturnal, which can make them hard to spot.  Much of the time, a bed bug infestation is only suspected when bites appear on a person.  Oftentimes, the bites are misidentified, thus allowing infestations to go unnoticed, which gives the bed bugs time to spread to other areas of the house.

How do you identify Bed Bugs?

Adult bed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch (4-5mm) long, brown in color, with a flat, oval-shaped body; while young bed bugs (also called nymphs) are smaller and lighter in color.

Eggs are white in color and approx. 1 mm in length and glued to the surface they are laid on. Eggs are laid in the crevices and surfaces where the adult bed bug hides during non-feeding periods and hatch in 6 to 10 days depending on temperature.

Are Bed Bugs in your air ducts?

Highly doubtful…  While trace amount of bed bugs can be found within the air ducts of a home infested with bed bugs, ventilation systems are not a likely place to find bed bugs unless the air vent register is very close proximity to the bed mattress.

During non-feeding periods, bed bugs will hide in cracks and crevices in close proximity to the host (e.g., mattress seams, bed frame, headboard, box spring, behind wall hangings or baseboards, torn wall paper, bedroom furniture, etc.).  Since bed bugs are only about the width of a credit card, they can squeeze into really small hiding spots. If a crack will hold a credit card, it could hide a bed bug.

Chemical treatments for Bed Bugs

Hire a professional if you intend to chemically treat your home for bed bugs.  Use caution as to the chemicals that are used and where they are applied, always review the material safety data sheet.

Do not allow pesticides to be applied when the heating and cooling system is in operation.  Do not allow pesticides to be applied within the air ducts, very few chemicals are approved for the use within ventilation systems.