Bed bugs Kansas City may seem like a common misconception that bed bugs are only found in cheap, dirty hotels or hostels. This is not true! In fact, bed bugs prefer cleaner environments, and they do not discriminate between budget accommodations and luxury properties. Bed bugs Kansas City exterminators Milberger Pest Control can help if you travel and unknowingly bring bed bugs home with you.
Beg bugs are like little vampires – they feed off human blood. They usually do this at night while we’re sleeping, which is why they’re most commonly found in and near mattresses. But they can also be on the walls, in the headboard, in the carpet, or in other furniture like a couch or that dresser in your hotel room.
It might feel a little paranoid, but a few minutes spent checking your room can prevent a lot of pain and annoyance. Unfortunately, bed bugs are small – usually 4mm to 5mm at most – so they’re easy to miss. They are about the size and shape of an apple seed.
You don’t have to see the actual bug to have a good idea that there’s an infestation.
Here are two main things to look for, other than the bugs themselves, to determine if your room has a bed bug problem:
Stains: Bed bugs leave behind tiny black or brown stains as small as the period at the end of this sentence. If the bug gets squashed, you could see slightly bigger, rust-colored stains. Look for these stains on the sheets and on the mattress itself.
Shells: Bed bugs usually lay their eggs in the mattress, so you could find tiny eggs and eggshells, about 1mm small. They also shed pale yellow skins as they grow larger, which will stick around on the mattress as well.
The important thing to remember is the sizes you’re dealing with. Bed bugs and the incriminating evidence they leave behind are all small, so you have to look closely. Here’s what to do as soon as you get into your hotel room:
- Put your suitcase or backpack in the bathroom. If you can prop it on the tub or counter instead of on the floor, even better. Do the best you can to keep your luggage off the bed and off the floor, especially carpets.
- Look very closely at the sheets for tiny stains, eggs, and skins that have been shed. You should pull back the blankets and look at the entire length of the sheets as well as the blankets themselves.
- Take the sheets off the bed and inspect the mattress. Use a credit card or something similar to check out the crevices and seams where the tiny bugs are likely to hide.
- If possible, flip the mattress to check the other side, and inspect the box spring, bed frame, and headboard.
If you suspect bed bugs, ask for another room or even consider switching hotels. Just because one room is infested doesn’t mean the entire hotel is, but it’s also not so hard for the bugs to move from one room to another. Bed bugs Kansas City exterminators Milberger Pest Control can help!
For more information about bed bugs Kansas City, call Milberger Pest Control at (816) 761-1313 in Missouri and (913) 384-6760 in Kansas. To request a free quote, click here.