Having bed bugs infiltrate your home can be an absolute nightmare. If you are wondering how you might discover an infestation, one of the signs is bed bug bites. Bed bug bites can be red, itchy and unsettling. One of our customers, Taylor, a student at ASU, discovered bed bugs when she moved into her first house near campus. Here she recounts her story and how she got rid of the creepy crawlers:
“My friends and I decided to rent a house in Tempe our sophomore year of college. We got the house from a family friend who just had the previous tenants move out. These tenants left a mess, including furniture, clothes, and bed bugs! After we took their stuff to the dump and cleaned up, we painted the interior.
While painting, I noticed tiny ‘beetles’ on the walls and found it odd that there were so many of them, especially in my bedroom. On the second day of living there, I began to break out in what I thought was hives. The bumps were incredibly itchy and all over my body. When the situation worsened, I went to urgent care. The doctor thought I was allergic to the paint, and gave me allergy medication. I never even thought it could be bed bug bites. Then, my roommate began to get the same bumps all over her body.
Realizing we had bed bug bites and a bed bug infestation, we were terrified. None of us even knew what they were before. The bed bugs in our house were light to reddish-brown, flattened, oval shaped and about the size of an apple seed, these were the adult kind. The eggs bed bugs lay are about the size of a speck of dust and the bed bugs typically come out at night while you’re sleeping.
We didn’t know where to begin, until a friend recommended Bug & Weed Mart. As college students, we couldn’t afford to get a professional to treat our house, so when we heard about Bug & Weed Mart, we went to the store to get the supplies we needed to treat the problem.
The store manager in Tempe, Mike, took us through a step-by-step instruction to eliminate the bed bugs ourselves. After a lot of hard work, we were officially bed bug free, for a fraction of the price. We now know that there is an easy, inexpensive test to check if you have bed bugs. The stores also carry mattress protectors to prevent the bugs from getting into your bed and spray to use on luggage to prevent bugs when traveling.
This experience taught us to be very careful when buying furniture, clothes, and shoes secondhand. Thoroughly check items you’re buying, especially from a yard sale or secondhand shop. I also recommend confirming with your landlord that your apartment or house rental has been checked and is bed bug free before moving in. Talk to the landlord and ask if there has ever been a problem with bed bugs. These preventative tips will help keep you safe, but bed bugs are everywhere and can hop between items and places quickly. They breed incredibly fast, so it’s important to stop them in their tracks immediately.
Thank you to Bug & Weed Mart for all your help; I don’t know what I would have done without it!”
We appreciate Taylor sharing her story. If you have any questions or concerns and think you might have bed bug bites, visit one of our Valley-wide stores and bring photos of any pests you may find in and around your home. We can tell if it is a bed bug or some other pest and then provide you with the materials and instruction you need to address the problem.