It is that time of year again when all the kids are back in school; routine is restored, friends will be made, and memories will be had. The memory you don’t want to have from this school year is bed bugs, yep, bed bugs. When the kids go back to school there is always a chance that they will come into contact with these parasitic pests and accidentally introduce them into your home. The professionals at Schendel Pest want to help make sure that a full-scale bed bug infestation doesn’t happen in your home by providing you with some tips to help identify and prevent bed bugs and what you should do if they do invade your house this school year!

Identifying bed bugs is easier than you may think. A common misconception is that they can’t be seen, but the truth is adults, while small, can be seen by the human eye. Adults grow to be about ¼ of an inch in length, have six legs, are reddish brown, and are basically the same shape as an apple seed. Along with seeing adults, other ways to identify a bed bug infestation include finding their excrement (black fleck) or drops of blood on mattresses and linens or finding piles of their cast skins.

Preventing bed bugs is difficult, especially when kids are traveling back and forth from school on a daily basis; but there are some steps that you can take to lessen the chances that your kids will bring bed bugs home along with their uneaten lunch at the end of the day!

• Make sure that your kids know that it is never a good idea to borrow or share their clothing with other kids. Items like coats, hats, sweatshirts, and scarves should never be shared. If they do happen to bring home their friend’s sweatshirt at the end of the day, take precautions and wash it in hot water.

• Inspect your child’s backpack for signs of bed bugs in their backpack on a regular basis.

• If your child is away at college and they bring home a load of laundry to wash, and you know they will, wash it immediately on the high heat setting.

• Whether your child is in kindergarten or college, make sure they know what bed bugs and their signs look like. Make sure they know that if they ever see bed bugs to let you know.

If bed bugs do come home with your child and make themselves at home in your house, there is no reason to panic. Bed bugs are a tough pest to treat and eliminate, but professionals have the products, experience, and training needed to do so very successfully.

At Schendel Pest Services, we can get rid of bed bugs from your home or business. We have a K-9 bed bug inspection team that can quickly and easily locate any bed bugs living in your home, office, or other business. If our inspection team does discover bed bugs there, we can eliminate them through our very effective heat remediation services. Heat is a very safe, eco-friendly, and non-invasive way to completely eliminate any bed bug adults, eggs, and larvae – and it typically only takes a day!

Give us a call today to find out how Schendel Pest Control can implement a successful bed bug control plan in your home!