Tips for eradicating bed bugs

Bed bugs are more than a nuisance. They can also create health hazards for humans and pets.

The most challenging part of dealing with a bed bug problem is they are very difficult to see because of their size. On a good day, one of the little creatures could be smaller than a pencil eraser. They are also great little hiders that are able to find refuge in the smallest of cracks and crevices. Oh, they love to create their homes in mattresses/bedding and furniture cushions. Hence, the name “bed bugs.”

Since they reproduce quickly and can create serious health hazards, you can’t live with them. You have to take steps to get rid of them as soon as you know they exist. To help you in that endeavour, here are seven (7) tips for eradicating bed bugs. Note: These tips are listed in order to represent how bug extermination from a professional exterminator like Exterminateurs Associés might be considered a last resort option.

Initially, it will be very difficult for you to realize bedbugs have come home to roost in your home. When they first arrive, they are very good about hiding their whereabouts as they set up home. The first sign you have a bed bud problem might well be when they start biting you or your family members.

When you get that first indication the bugs are among you, you need to find out where they are nesting. There are two signs for which you can be looking. First, you should be looking for larger concentrations of bugs. That’s a good indication the nest is nearby. Second, these little nuisances will give out a “musky” odour when there is a large concentration of them in a small area.

Areas of concern would be baseboards, furniture cushions, under the mattress, electrical outlets, areas of concentrated trash (stack of newspapers, etc.), and wall and furniture cracks.

After you figure out the source or sources of the problem, you need to contain it and prevent it from getting worse. Remember, these bugs reproduce very quickly. A small, manageable problem can very quickly turn into a huge infestation.

Your containment efforts should include vacuuming up infested areas and cleaning all surfaces and materials that are connected with the infested area. Everything you can identify as infected should be sealed in plastic bags until discarded or washed. You would want and need to toss all vacuum cleaner bags and dispose of anything you don’t really need.

After addressing the source of the problem and containing it, you need to get ready to treat infested areas. That should include putting away books, papers, clothes that are lying around, disposing of all trash, and removing loose items from infested areas.

After doing the initial cleanup, you should consider sealing cracks (floor, ceiling, wallpaper, furniture), sealing up of electrical outlets (favourite bedbug hiding place), and moving all furniture, especially your bed or beds, at least six inches away from any walls and other furniture. This will prevent the bugs from being able to climb on cleaned furniture.

If you are going to attempt to eradicate bed bugs on your own, it’s best to try non-chemical options first. That is going to require deep cleaning of everything in areas where you saw at least one bug.

Hint: Bedbugs do not like extremely hot and cold conditions. You can kill them at hot temperatures of at least 115°F and cold temperatures below 32°F.

Here are a few deep cleaning suggestions to eliminate these bugs:

• Wash clothes and bedding materials in hot water with detergent for 30 minutes, subsequently drying everything at hot heat
• On hot days above 95°F, you can sit furniture and contaminated items outside all day long
• Put bags of contaminated items in the freezer at 0°F temperatures for at least four days
• Steam clean furniture, flooring, and walls with hot steam and cleaning chemicals

If you decide to try chemicals and insecticides, we would recommend the following: Pyrethrins and pyrethroids, pyrroles like chlorfenapyr, neonicotinoids nicotine), desiccants, and perhaps foggers and bug bombs. Note: Be wary of using chemicals that are harmful to humans.

As you put everything back together and or in place, you will want to make sure you eliminate potential hiding places. Do one more check for cracks and crevices. Don’t store paper items and clothing on counters or the floor. You might want to consider sealing mattresses and furniture cushions in anti-bug covers or plastic.

After you have identified hiding places, thoroughly cleaned everything, and sealed up possible hiding places, you need to spend the next few weeks monitoring the results. A daily check of the areas where the infestations were the worse could help you identify an ongoing issue before it becomes a major problem once again.

Many times, the elimination of these annoying little bugs is too much for a layperson to handle. Bug extermination can be a tedious and time-consuming process when administered by someone who has little to no experience in dealing with bed-bug issues.

If problems persist after your initial efforts, that would be the right time to consult with a professional exterminator like the Exterminateurs Associés. With the right knowledge base, experience, and chemicals, professional exterminators stand a much higher chance of success than you would, especially if your infestation were to be significant.

Tips for managing a cockroach infestation? 

Ah, those pesky cockroaches can be infuriating. It’s hard to find any redeeming value related to cockroaches in the home. To most people, the very sight of them elicits a range of emotions from fear to disgust and everything in between. If you are being victimized by a cockroach infestation, there are a couple of things on which you should be focusing. First, you need to figure out how you and your family might be accountable for the infestation. Second, you need to act fast because cockroaches can reproduce and grow at an alarming rate so the cockroach extermination can be done. 

Cockroaches need food and water to survive. They also prefer a warmer, darker, and dryer environment, which is why they are always looking for indoor passages. It’s your job to make sure your home is not an environment they would appreciate. 

To protect your house from a cockroach infestation, you have to start will getting into the habit of cleanliness. If you keep your food safely put away in sealed containers or the fridge, it would cut off a cockroach’s food supply. Also, you want to keep your floors and countertops wiped down and dry. Remember, a little bit of water can be a lot of water to the little cockroach. By the way, be on the lookout for plumbing leaks. That leaking water is a viable water supply for these little pests. 

Finally, you can do yourself a big favor by keeping your outdoor areas clean and garbage-free. If a cockroach doesn’t get the invitation of your trash and outdoor facet water, they will keep on marching to the next house.

The appearance of one cockroach in your home should set off alarms. Where there is one, there will surely be more in short order. Remember, cockroaches can reproduce very quickly. They lay 25 to 50 eggs a batch per female. The eggs of most species will hatch within a month. At that point, they are mobile and can quickly become a nuisance in mass. 

After hatching, it can take a cockroach 2 to 15 months to reach reproduction capability, depending on the species. Given the math, you can see that your window of opportunity to act could be short. If you see a couple of cockroaches over a day or two, eggs have likely been laid and you are weeks away from dozens of little critters running throughout your house, preparing to create more. 

Your goal is to get rid of your cockroach problem as fast as possible. How? The following five tips offer you enough alternatives that you should be able to find at least one that best suits your needs

Most home remedies include the use of household goods that act as poisons to cockroaches. Caution is warranted because some of these same chemicals can be poisonous to humans. 

An old standard is baking soda. The smell of chopped onions and baking soda is quite appealing to cockroaches. Unfortunately for them, ingesting the baking soda creates enough tummy gasses to cause a cockroach to internally explode and die.

If you use Borax as a laundry product, you are already armed with a lethal weapon in the eyes of a cockroach. Ingesting Borax mixed with water causes them to dehydrate and die within minutes. 

Another clever cockroach deterrent is lemon oil. They absolutely hate the very smell that humans love so much. If you get in the habit of using cleaning products containing lemon oil, they will quickly move on to other locations.

Bait traps or hotels offer a very fast remedy for a cockroach infestation. They can be either circular or tubular devices with an entrance and an embedded odor that cockroaches love. These devices also contain poisons that cockroaches will eat and carry back with them to their home base in your home. After passing the poison on to other members of the nest, you get to kill multiple roaches at the same time. 

Glue strips work for flies and mice. Why not cockroaches? You can purchase glue strips specifically designed for cockroaches with an embedded odor that draws them to the strip. Once they take that fatal step onto the strip, escape becomes impossible. They will struggle and eventually die from dehydration and lack of food. You can strategically place glue strips around appliances and plumbing fixtures for the best and fastest results.

Before and after an infestation, you should be diligent about checking your home for entry points for all kinds of pests. Every three months, take a tour of your home for potential issues. You can prevent initial entry by cockroaches if you can identify and seal off potential entry points with good caulking products. Places to look would include window/door gaps, cracked weather-stripping, and flooring/wall gaps and cracks. You might also want to check around built-in light fixtures.

If progress is slow and the potential for an infestation is increasing, it might be time to call a professional cockroach exterminator. Remember, a good cockroach exterminator can handle a current cockroach extermination problem, identify entry point issues, and advise you on how to protect your home in the future. The best result you can hope for is to say goodbye to cockroaches forever.  

Exterminateurs Associés is a top exterminators Montreal service provider. They can provide a wide range of professional pest extermination services, including cockroach extermination. If prevention is your goal, this is one of the best exterminators Montreal has to offer for quarterly prevention services.

Tips for eradicating bed bugs

Bed bugs are more than a nuisance. They can also create health hazards for humans and pets.

The most challenging part of dealing with a bed bug problem is they are very difficult to see because of their size. On a good day, one of the little creatures could be smaller than a pencil eraser. They are also great little hiders that are able to find refuge in the smallest of cracks and crevices. Oh, they love to create their homes in mattresses/bedding and furniture cushions. Hence, the name “bed bugs.”

Since they reproduce quickly and can create serious health hazards, you can’t live with them. You have to take steps to get rid of them as soon as you know they exist. To help you in that endeavour, here are seven (7) tips for eradicating bed bugs. Note: These tips are listed in order to represent how bug extermination from a professional exterminator like Exterminateurs Associés might be considered a last resort option.

Initially, it will be very difficult for you to realize bedbugs have come home to roost in your home. When they first arrive, they are very good about hiding their whereabouts as they set up home. The first sign you have a bed bud problem might well be when they start biting you or your family members.

When you get that first indication the bugs are among you, you need to find out where they are nesting. There are two signs for which you can be looking. First, you should be looking for larger concentrations of bugs. That’s a good indication the nest is nearby. Second, these little nuisances will give out a “musky” odour when there is a large concentration of them in a small area.

Areas of concern would be baseboards, furniture cushions, under the mattress, electrical outlets, areas of concentrated trash (stack of newspapers, etc.), and wall and furniture cracks.

After you figure out the source or sources of the problem, you need to contain it and prevent it from getting worse. Remember, these bugs reproduce very quickly. A small, manageable problem can very quickly turn into a huge infestation.

Your containment efforts should include vacuuming up infested areas and cleaning all surfaces and materials that are connected with the infested area. Everything you can identify as infected should be sealed in plastic bags until discarded or washed. You would want and need to toss all vacuum cleaner bags and dispose of anything you don’t really need.

After addressing the source of the problem and containing it, you need to get ready to treat infested areas. That should include putting away books, papers, clothes that are lying around, disposing of all trash, and removing loose items from infested areas.

After doing the initial cleanup, you should consider sealing cracks (floor, ceiling, wallpaper, furniture), sealing up of electrical outlets (favourite bedbug hiding place), and moving all furniture, especially your bed or beds, at least six inches away from any walls and other furniture. This will prevent the bugs from being able to climb on cleaned furniture.

If you are going to attempt to eradicate bed bugs on your own, it’s best to try non-chemical options first. That is going to require deep cleaning of everything in areas where you saw at least one bug.

Hint: Bedbugs do not like extremely hot and cold conditions. You can kill them at hot temperatures of at least 115°F and cold temperatures below 32°F.

Here are a few deep cleaning suggestions to eliminate these bugs:

• Wash clothes and bedding materials in hot water with detergent for 30 minutes, subsequently drying everything at hot heat
• On hot days above 95°F, you can sit furniture and contaminated items outside all day long
• Put bags of contaminated items in the freezer at 0°F temperatures for at least four days
• Steam clean furniture, flooring, and walls with hot steam and cleaning chemicals

If you decide to try chemicals and insecticides, we would recommend the following: Pyrethrins and pyrethroids, pyrroles like chlorfenapyr, neonicotinoids nicotine), desiccants, and perhaps foggers and bug bombs. Note: Be wary of using chemicals that are harmful to humans.

As you put everything back together and or in place, you will want to make sure you eliminate potential hiding places. Do one more check for cracks and crevices. Don’t store paper items and clothing on counters or the floor. You might want to consider sealing mattresses and furniture cushions in anti-bug covers or plastic.

After you have identified hiding places, thoroughly cleaned everything, and sealed up possible hiding places, you need to spend the next few weeks monitoring the results. A daily check of the areas where the infestations were the worse could help you identify an ongoing issue before it becomes a major problem once again.

Many times, the elimination of these annoying little bugs is too much for a layperson to handle. Bug extermination can be a tedious and time-consuming process when administered by someone who has little to no experience in dealing with bed-bug issues.

If problems persist after your initial efforts, that would be the right time to consult with a professional exterminator like the Exterminateurs Associés. With the right knowledge base, experience, and chemicals, professional exterminators stand a much higher chance of success than you would, especially if your infestation were to be significant.