In this spooky tradition, people focus around this festival with themes that include ghost and goblins, dressing up, going “trick or treating”, and carving pumpkins.Along with all this are those scary, long fanged blood-sucking creatures called vampires. Much like these vampires, bed bugs require blood to survive. We know human type vampires are not real but bed bugs are.
Unlike other insects, bed bugs cannot leap on to your clothing because they do not jump. They cannot fly, but they do crawl quickly and are very accustomed to hitchhiking their way into people’s lives.
People often search through racks of donated clothing in second hand or vintage stores to obtain the items they need for their costumes. If you are doing this there are things, you need to keep in mind.
- In secondhand stores, these items may have come from a person’s house that discarded or donated these items because they had bed bugs.
- In vintage stores, these costumes are rented for a brief period and may wind up in a person home with bed bugs before returning them
If you should purchase any item from these types of stores, immediately have the item tightly bagged before placing it in your car, and give it a long tumble in your dryer when you get home before you wear them!
Let us not overlook a Halloween party at a friend’s home. Some people do not realize they have bed bugs, so be cautious of where you sit and lay your coat or personal items.
Sometimes parties are held in hotel rooms or suites. Again, be cautious of your surroundings and be careful of where you sit and place your personal items down.
No matter where you go or what you do, maintaining a consciousness of bed bug hitchhikers can help avoid a surprise a few weeks later. Understand they spread easily and it only takes a couple of months for bed bugs to build up to an infestation size.
From now until the end of the year, we have one holiday after another, where people travel and visit each other’s homes. It is during this busy time when people ignore the signs of bed bugs and after the first of the year when life starts to calm down, it is then that people start to notice signs of them. Do not be one of those that notice bed bugs “after the fact”.
- Do not allow bed bugs to go unnoticed for any length of time in your home
- Change your sheets weekly
- Check for signs of bed bugs often. (Live bed bugs, fecal stains, cast skins, blood smears)
- Discuss the possibilities of bed bugs, and share any information of bed bug with your friends and families and especially visitors.
If you stay aware of these simple but important facts of bed bugs, you will be more apt to avoid the presence of them and if you do pick up a hitchhiker or two, be able to get rid of them early.
If you should suspect having picked up a bed bug or two, call us at 508-713-8267 and have our scent detection team come in and find out. Finding them early will save you tremendous physical, emotional and financial setbacks.
Also, if you live/work in Providence, RI or any New England states for that matter, and need Educational Bed Bug Awareness training for corporations (materials on bed bugs posters, power points and books), contact us at MassBedBugBusters.com
