Early Signs of Bed Bug Infestation

A crack in a bed frame with a bed bug infestation.

The warm weather of New Mexico makes it a haven for insects year-round. While there are steps you can take to stop pests from taking over outside your home, preventing bed bugs is a different matter. Bed bugs can spread rapidly and take over your home quickly.

Sometimes it isn’t easy to identify bed bugs or realize you have an infestation. Ultimately, keeping an eye out for signs of an infestation can help you identify the problem before it gets out of hand. Professional services provided by Pest Defense Solutions eliminate a bed bug infestation before they are able to take over your home!

How to Identify a Bed Bug

Bed bugs are small, flat, oval-shaped insects. They are reddish-brown in color and are about the size of an appleseed. Comparatively, they appear larger after feeding. Because they are nocturnal and feed at night while you are sleeping, you may not notice bites right away.

Bed bug bites can be easily mistaken as bites from another type of insect such as mosquitoes or chiggers. Although bed bugs don’t transmit any diseases through their bites the area can become itchy and swollen. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends you contact a dermatologist if you have multiple bites, if they blister, are pus filled, or are showing other signs of infection or an allergic reaction.

Where to Check For Bed Bugs

Bed bugs can be found anywhere people reside. Since these pests are nocturnal, they feed at night and will most often hide where humans and mammals sleep. They are called bed bugs for a reason!

Common infestation signs include:

  1. Spots on Your Sheets: After feeding, bed bugs often leave behind small blood stains on bedding, mattresses, furniture, or even your pajamas. 
  2. Bed Bug Excrements: Yes, it is gross to think about! This pest leaves droppings that look like small dark spots the size of a period. These spots may be concentrated in one area or scattered across your sleeping area.
  3. Shed Skins: As a bed bug grows, they shed their skin. They often leave their skins and hide in seams and crevices of mattresses, bedding, carpet, or floorboards.This is a clear sign of an infestation.

How Do Bed Bugs Get Into Your Home

Considering bed bugs are small and hide themselves well, you can unknowingly bring them home with you. Any area frequented by the public are locations where bed bugs can occur. Some common places include: 

  • Traveling: These hitchhiking insects can easily latch onto your luggage, clothing, and other belongings when traveling. If you stay in a hotel or other lodging area that has bed bugs, you may accidentally bring them home with you.
  • Used Furniture: They love to hide in used furniture, especially mattresses and upholstered items. If you buy secondhand furniture without inspecting it thoroughly, you may carry bed bugs into your home!
  • Shared Spaces: Bed bugs can move between homes and apartments through openings like wall voids, floor cracks, and even the ventilation system.

How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

DIY remedies or treatments do little when it comes to eradicating a bed bug infestation from your home. At the first sign of bed bugs, call the extermination experts with Pest Defense Solutions. With over 15 years in the Albuquerque area, we are the leaders in bed bug extermination. We thoroughly inspect your home and formulate a plan that is suited to you and your family’s needs. The sooner you call a professional, the sooner you can take your home back. 

Clean Now for a Pest-Free Spring!

A basket of cleaning supplies on a windowsill

In Albuquerque NM, spring brings renewal to the desert landscape, temperatures warm and wildflowers paint the once-arid desert. This time of year also means it’s time to freshen your home and plan for a deep spring clean. Spring cleaning has many benefits such as decreasing stress, reducing clutter and improving your overall mental and physical health. In addition to improving your health, spring cleaning is the perfect time to check for signs of spring pests in your home and take preventive measures to ensure your home is not attracting any unwanted guests. 

How to Prevent Pests in your Home

While you are cleaning and organizing your home, it is important to check areas where pests commonly hide for signs of an infestation like droppings, dead pests, wood shavings and egg casings. Below are a few steps to add to your cleaning routine that will help keep pests out of your home.

Thoroughly Clean Kitchens and Bathrooms

Kitchens are often ground zero for pest infestations. It is the area in your home with the highest availability of food and warm hiding spaces that many pests find attractive. When spring cleaning your kitchen it is important to clean areas where crumbs or spills are common. Clean under large appliances and cabinets. Food often gets stuck in these hard to reach areas making it an ideal place for pests to scavenge. 

Spring is also the perfect time to clean out your cabinets and throw away any expired or unwanted food. Pests such as rodents and ants are known to invade cluttered cabinets and get into your food. Ensure open food products are stored in airtight containers and keep an eye out for any holes or cracks where pests could enter.

Bathrooms are another area where pests are common. They are often attracted to easily available sources of water and are able to enter your home through drains or windows. While cleaning window sills and cabinets, check for holes around your windows and leaking pipes or faucets. Some pests will enter through drain pipes. Pouring bleach down your drain regularly will help deter any pests from entering.

Reduce Clutter

Clutter is the perfect hiding place for pests such as spiders, rodents or ants. They will use clutter as a place to hide or build their nests. Reducing clutter within your home not only makes your house look cleaner and decreases stress but it will also make your home less hospitable to a variety of pests. 

In addition to reducing clutter within your home, you should also clean any clutter around the outside of your home as well. Some pests will be attracted to piles of leaves or grass clippings you may have in your yard. Make sure to dispose of any unwanted organic matter in your yard as you landscape in preparation for summer.

Mosquitos thrive in a cluttered yard. They are attracted to standing water that can form in places like buckets, tarps and kid’s toys. Emptying and tidying any areas with standing water will help keep mosquitoes from swarming your yard in the spring and summer.

Inspect the Exterior of Your Home

Pests often enter through small holes or cracks in the exterior of your home. Examine your foundation and walls for any possible entrance points before vegetation begins to grow in the spring and possibly hide any defects. Make sure to seal any holes or cracks with a sealant. This is also the best time to look for signs of termite or carpenter ants on the exterior of your home.

Spring Preventative Pest Maintenance 

Pests become more active during the spring as the outside temperatures rise. While spring cleaning can help keep pests at bay the best way to ensure pests do not invade your home is by calling the experts at Pest Defense Solutions. With over 10 years of experience, our technicians are able to expertly identify areas where pests may enter your home and help create a plan to keep your home pest free all year long. Get started with your free quote today!

DIY Pest Control: What are the risks?

Man doing DIY pest control sprays pine tree

It may seem like DIY pest control is a good way to save money, time, and unnecessary hassle: You don’t have to contact, pay or wait around for a professional exterminator. You can simply purchase some pesticide products at your local hardware store and you are ready to start your DIY adventure. However, DIY pest control carries significant downsides. If you’re considering this approach, you need to make sure you understand the downsides involved so you can take measures to minimize the risk to yourself, your family, and your home. 

DIY Pest Control Risks

Do-it-yourself pest control carries many risks, from overusing pesticides to killing beneficial insects and wasting money on pest control products that don’t work. There are also risks from pesticides if you misuse them. Misuse of pesticides is the most common cause of illness and injury from pest control. You could also be injured by pests themselves, like getting bitten or stung while applying the product. There’s also a risk of electrical shock if electrical equipment, such as a bug zapper, is installed and used improperly. Pesticides need to be treated with caution and it is important to always follow the guidelines on labels, as well as, read all of the instructions, to minimize the risk of injury.

Pesticide Exposure

Exposure to pesticides can have a range of adverse health effects, even when used correctly. Improper use of pesticides may lead to chemicals leaking into water supplies, vegetable gardens, and possibly the air inside your home. Many DIY pest control chemicals have the potential to contaminate the ground and air around your home if not used properly. It’s important to read the instructions carefully and use the right amount of pesticide as directed. 

For example, pesticides should be kept away from food and water supplies to avoid contaminating or poisoning people. When applying exterior treatments, often people forget that fish, frogs, and other animals may be living in or around their backyard ponds. If the product is applied too close to a water source, it can be harmful to all species that are using it. Another example, of misapplication that’s common with DIY pest control, is when homeowners forget to look for open windows while applying products on the exterior of the home, sometimes exposing those on the interior without knowing.  Pesticides should also be stored in a place that’s out of reach of children and pets so they don’t come into contact with them. If spraying pesticides inside a home, it’s crucial to ensure there is adequate ventilation to allow the chemicals to dissipate. 

Health and Safety Issues

There are several health and safety issues to be aware of when undertaking do-it-yourself pest control. For example, you should always wear protective clothing and gloves when handling pesticides and other chemicals. Pregnant women and young children should avoid entering areas where pesticides have been used. You should also wear protective equipment like a mask and eye goggles when you are working in areas where there might be pests or rodents. This will reduce the risk of getting bitten or stung. You should also clean up any mess that pests leave behind so they don’t attract more pests. Some pest droppings can contain harmful bacteria or roundworms that can make a human ill or cause death. Proper sanitation of areas should be done carefully and after sufficient research, if you’re unsure of the possible risks involved.   

Negligence

There are situations where you can be held negligent or liable for your pest control practices. If you spray pesticide in a stuffy room or trap pests in a building without proper safety precautions, you could cause significant harm to other people creating civil and possibly even criminal liability. This is doubly true if you’re trying to eradicate a species of pest that’s protected by law.

Some products require you to vacate the area after application and you need to ensure that nobody would come in contact with that product for the proper amount of time. 

Conclusion

While DIY pest control could save you money and time, it also comes with considerable risk. If you’re not careful, you could make things worse by harming yourself or others with pesticides or getting bitten or stung by the pests you’re trying to eliminate. Professional pest control specialists know how to find the pests that are invading, where they are coming from, how they got in, and how to stop them. Plus, they are trained to find the reasons why the pests are there and offer methods of preventing further infestations. 

Pests need three things, food, water, and shelter. Your pest control professional will help to show you how your home is providing these to the pests and then how to stop it. With the integrated pest management approach, your professional pest technician will also be looking for ways to improve your landscaping and other factors around the home that will lead to less pest activity over time. When factoring all of this in, hiring a professional exterminator is not that expensive, not that much of a hassle, and likely to be more effective than a DIY approach.

Professional Pest Control

For nearly 15 years, Pest Defense Solutions has been providing safe, effective, and affordable pest control services in the Albuquerque NM area. Contact us today for a free quote!  

What to Ask When Choosing a Pest Control Company

Technician servicing a lawn in Albuquerque - Pest Defense Solutions

No one has time to waste once they’ve discovered a pest infestation in their home. You need to act quickly, and you want to know that the pest control company you choose is knowledgeable and reliable.

So who do you turn to? There could be a dozen pest control companies in your area that claim to be the best, but before you decide on one, you should feel confident that they will get the job done quickly and thoroughly. We’ve laid out some questions that you can ask to feel secure in your choice of exterminator:

Where can I read your reviews?

Transparency is an important quality to look for when hiring a provider for any service. In the bottom right corner of the Pest Defense Solutions website, you’ll see that we display an overview of our ratings and a link to read our reviews.

We are proud to show a 4.4 out of 5 star rating that accounts for over 250 reviews! If you are able to quickly find a company’s results and are seeing lots of positive feedback, you can trust that they will provide you with quality service.

How do you assess a customer’s situation?

Every pest outbreak has a different origin and needs a unique plan for its resolution. Talk to an exterminator that you’re considering about what their pest control process looks like. At Pest Defense Solutions, we take a comprehensive approach that has seen much success over our 15 years of business:

  • We start off with an inspection session. One of our experts will come out to the site and take a look at the pest outbreak to discover how it started and how bad it has become.
  • They then draft a plan to remove the pests and shut off the source of the outbreak.
  • A return date is scheduled, and if we don’t fix the problem on the first day, we send our technicians back until the job is completed and your house is protected from repeat offenders.

How safe are your pest control methods?

Some popular pesticides contain harmful ingredients that can unintentionally poison nearby plants and animals. Ask an exterminator that you are considering if they’re using entirely EPA-approved products and keeping up with the newest environmentally-friendly strategies.

At Pest Defense Solutions, we always stay updated on the latest advancements in eco-conscious pest control to continue our quality service with an eye on our impact on the environment.

Is your company licensed and insured?

A trustworthy pest control company will continually train their employees and have their business accredited and insured properly. You should choose a company that has liability insurance in case your home is damaged during the extermination process.

Can you prevent future pest problems?

A good exterminator will remove pests from your home and make sure they don’t return. When a pest control company takes the time to pest-proof your home after getting rid of the pests, it means that they see you as more than just a customer. Our policy at Pest Defense Solutions is to send technicians back to the site until we believe that your home is no longer susceptible to similar infestations.

If you’re experiencing an outbreak right now, reach out to your local pest control experts at Pest Defense Solutions. We are trained to tackle the unique pest problems that Albuquerque homeowners face with care and efficiency. Contact us today for a free quote!