BED BUGS

Unfortunately, immigration, worldwide travel, rental furniture and changes within the pest control industry have caused the recurrence of bed bugs in Minnesota and elsewhere. In the late 1940s, DDT had the bed bug population under control as the best pesticide available to ensure a good night’s sleep. People born after 1945 don’t really understand how bad these blood-feeding bed bugs can truly be, unless they’ve heard the distressing stories from elderly relatives.

Believed to have evolved from bat bugs, these pests are up to 1/4-inch long and 1/8-inch wide. Typically reddish-brown and baring a slight resemblance to a woodtick, these pests use their mouth, equipped with piercing-sucking parts, to pierce the skin of their host and suck the blood. A dark reddish-brown stain is an indicator of bed bugs, and these stains can be found in their hiding areas (cracks, holes and under bed posts and mattresses). Females feed about once per week if the host availability and other environmental conditions are favorable. One female can lay between 200 and 500 eggs in their lifetime, with eggs hatching within 10 days. The cycle time from egg to egg laying for a female can happen from 45–60 days.

It’s difficult to escape these vile insects because bed bugs can detect a human host from as far as five feet away. Harborage areas are usually close to the host; however, they can be found harboring as far as 20 feet from where the feeding will take place. Bed bugs are nocturnal insects, and some have become resistant to contemporary products used in pest management.

Abra Kadabra successfully uses direct steam heat over all possible bed bug areas to eliminate all stages of the bed bug life cycle. We follow up with a residual insecticide of the affected area. We provide these services for residential clients as well as commercial clients, where we’ve found this to be a huge issue, especially in apartment buildings, condos, hotels, transitional housing and multifamily housing.