One of the most common questions we get from customers dealing with a bed bug infestation is: Can bed bugs come back after treatment? The answer is a bit complicated, but the short answer is that yes, technically you can have bed bugs in your house again after receiving treatment. However, the bed bug control treatment performed by our Clegg’s Pest Control team does eradicate all of the bed bugs currently in your home. How can they come back then? Let’s explain.
When you receive bed bug treatment from our experienced Clegg’s team of pest pros, we identify and exterminate the entire infestation currently in your home. Our bed bug specialists are experts in bed bug identification, and we work hard to ensure that we find and eradicate every trace of the insects in your home. Therefore, to understand how bed bugs can come back after treatment, we first must ask the following question:
Where Do Bed Bugs Come From?
Most bed bug infestations do not originate in your home. Like an infection or illness, bed bug infestations are contagious! If you have bed bugs in your home or business, it is likely that they were brought in by another unsuspecting person or pet.
For example, your home could be 100% clean and free of bed bugs, and then you have a friend visit for the weekend. That friend brings with them a suitcase they usually use for business travel.
Your friend doesn’t know it, but their suitcase contains bed bugs that they picked up in one of the hotels they stay in for work. But, now that infested suitcase is in your home! The bed bugs leave the suitcase and find their way into your furniture or bed, and boom, now your home is infested.
Plus, because adult bed bugs can live a year without feeding, it could be months before you recognize that you may have an infestation, and too much time will have passed to identify the cause—the “patient zero, so to speak. This is part of what makes bed bug infestations so common. You can get them from anywhere, and you may not even know you have them!
Knowing that bed bugs can be brought into your house by other people, we now have the answer to the question…
How Can Bed Bugs Come Back After Treatment?
A properly performed bed bug treatment by a member of our Clegg’s team will ensure that your home or business is free of the insects. However, it is possible that after we rid the property of bed bugs, they can be brought into the property from another place, or by another person.
It can be easy to think that it is impossible to completely free your home from bed bugs. That is not true! If you have bed bugs, or suspect that you have them in your home, contact our Clegg’s team.
Our bed bug treatment plans are highly customizable for your specific situation, and we will quickly and effectively exterminate the bed bugs in your property. After treatment, as a home or business owner, there are some steps you can take to prevent bed bugs, and they don’t include forbidding anyone from entering your house!
How To Prevent Bed Bugs
Here are some helpful tips for bed bug prevention:
- Vacuum your suitcases when returning from travel, especially if you stayed in a hotel or inn. Consider asking guests to check their suitcases before staying for a visit
- Think about keeping your suitcase in a large plastic bag during hotel stays
- Regularly inspect areas where pets sleep to check for signs of bed bugs, as animals can bring the insects into your home
- Never bring secondhand furniture like beds or sofas into your home, especially mattresses, without having them inspected for bed bugs.
- As bed bugs can be very difficult to detect without training, consider having one of our bed bug specialists inspect furniture in question before putting it in your home.
Have any more questions, or need to schedule your FREE Bed Bug Inspection? Or, curious about how termites come back after treatment or other pests return? Call or text our team today at (888) MRCLEGG, or fill out an inspection request form online!
