Go Back To School Without Bringing Bed Bugs Home

As the dog days of summer come to an end, kids say goodbye to friends at summer camps and catching fish along the shores of Jacksonville beaches. Their first days of the new school year come with fresh supplies, new outfits, and pictures in the front yard. Although we all relish these milestones, returning to school can also pose some unexpected challenges when it comes to pest control, particularly bed bugs. These insects will catch a ride on your child's backpack or clothing and weasel their way into your home. While managing a few bed bugs is possible, tackling them in large numbers requires help from the experts at Lindsey Pest Control.  

Identifying bed bugs

Bed bugs can enter your house as adults or nymphs. Nymphs are hard to detect because they're the size of a period at the end of a sentence and ginger-brown. As adults, however, they become easier to spot as they darken in color and grow to about the size of an apple seed. They feed off of human blood, so signs of an infestation will also appear as itchy red welts on you or your child's body. If you find signs of bed bugs in your home or on your child's school supplies, please inform the school so that they can take the proper measures to check the classrooms and ensure an infestation does not spread.  

How to help your child detect and avoid bed bugs

Bed bug management is a challenge because it has nothing to do with the day-to-day cleanliness of your home or belongings. Vacuuming and washing surfaces will not touch the hard to reach places where bed bugs breed. These nocturnal insects hide in the seams and crevices of clothing, bedding, or furniture and only come out to feed at night. The only way to exterminate them is through the use of chemicals or intense heat. Since the best offense is a good defense, use the following tips to decrease the chances that these bugs end up in your home:  

• Remind your children to store backpacks in lockers or cubbies rather than on the floor.
• Remind your children to keep track of belongings and communicate with you when they bring home an item borrowed from a friend or retrieved from lost and found.
• Be proactive by checking your child's clothing—if you see any brown streaks, dead skin, signs of bites, or moving creatures, wash your child's belongings in hot water immediately.

Here at Lindsey, we are here to help

These blood-sucking pests can weave their way into every nook and cranny of your home. Once inside, the only and the only to be sure that they're entirely eradicated is by contacting the professionals at Lindsey Pest Control. We are a locally owned business and always have the best interest of your family, your home, and your property in mind. We understand that your belongings are precious, and we will do our best to ensure that they are protected and safe from future bed bug problems. Please call us immediately upon detection for a free estimate. After evaluating the situation, we will work with you to come up with a plan that completely exterminates your bed bug infestation. We use a combination of three methods to tackle, control, and eliminate bed bugs:

• Steam which weaves its way into impossible to reach places in fabrics
• Chemicals applied by licensed experts that will kill these bugs on site
• Portable heat chambers will reach lethal temperatures to eradicate bed bugs deep within your furniture

If you live in the Greater Jacksonville Area, our professional staff will work with you to find the best solution to clean up even the most challenging bed bug disaster.