Most people think that bed bugs are mostly attracted to dirty, or unkempt homes. However, these pests can be found in the tightest homes on the planet. However, a lot of the time when homeowners find out they have bed bugs they want commercial disinfection in Medford to clean every inch of their homes. And who wouldn’t?
Bed bugs don’t typically just crawl into your home on their own. In fact, bed bugs get into people’s homes by taking rides on clothing, bags, and even luggage.
How Do Bed Bugs Spread to People’s Homes
Bed bugs can travel short and long distances to be able to get to their main source of food, blood. They may even enter your home, regardless of just how clean you may think your home really is. They can do this in two different ways:
# Passive Dispersal: This takes place when bed bugs travel long distances from their last infestation location such as someone else’s home, school, hotels, or even stores. And then they get to their new location after they have made their way into your clothing, furniture, or bags and even other items.
# Active Dispersal: This takes place between neighboring apartments. Bed bugs can make their way from an adjacent apartment that is infested with bed bugs. They can make their way through outlets, gaps in the walls, and vents.
Things That Attract Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are known for using various measures to get to their next meal which include visual, thermal cues, and olfactory measures. They are very strategic when they bite their targets during the night time hours, that’s because we as humans are mostly inactive at night. Bed bugs are most active at night between the hours of 12am to 5am, that’s when we are in our deepest state of sleep.
Here are a few things that attract bed bugs that bite you at night time:
# Carbon Dioxide: Humans produce more carbon dioxide during our sleep. Bed bugs will follow the gradient that carbon dioxide gives off in concentration in the air which leads them directly to us.
# Heat: Bed bugs have a way of using sensory structures on their antennae to be able to detect body heat.
# Body Odor: Bed bugs are in fact attracted to a wide variety of odor molecules that we produce from our bodies. Body odor is the reason why bed bugs are twice as likely to be attracted to our dirty laundry than to our clean laundry.
