Category Archives: Bed Bugs Kansas

Red welts cover your skin, and youve seen little red-brown bugs crawling on the mattress, but are you sure its bed bugs? Bed bugs can be mistaken for many other insects.

You need to know what pest youre dealing with to develop your action plan. The last thing you want to do is pay for an expensive treatment that doesnt target the nuisance pest.

First, lets review what bed bugs look like:

Bed bug nymphs are smaller than adults and are whitish-yellow. When full of blood, they look bright or dark red. Without any blood, their bodies are translucent and almost invisible.

Bed bugs are the size of a poppy seed when they hatch from eggs. Bed bug eggs are about the size of a pinhead and are pearl-white.

Now lets take a closer look at 9 common insects that are often mistaken for bed bugs:

Baby cockroaches (cockroach nymphs) are often confused with bed bugs because of their similar coloring.

These young varieties of the most common cockroaches include German cockroaches, American cockroaches, brown-banded cockroaches, and Oriental cockroaches. Cockroaches have a flattened, oval appearance, long antenna, and long bristly legs.

Depending on the species, color ranges from reddish-brown to dark brown and from tan to black. Because theyre nymphs, they havent grown their cockroach wings, which also leads people to confuse them with bed bugs.

Where cockroach nymphs hide: Cockroaches thrive in moist areas where food is prepared or stored. Prime breeding grounds include restaurants, grocery stores, commercial kitchens, sewers, and steam tunnels. You may even see cockroaches hiding in your crawl space, bathroom, or basement.

Cockroach nymphs in your home may be a sign of an infestation.

Health risk: Because bacteria sticks to a cockroachs body, cockroaches may spread illnesses to people, such as salmonella and gastroenteritis. People allergic to cockroaches may experience asthma attacks, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Booklice, which range in color from translucent white to gray or brown, are easily mistaken for adult bed bugs and baby bed bugs.

Where booklice hide: Booklice enjoy a moldy meal from the paste of old book bindings and wallpaper. If booklice are in your stored pantry items, this may be a sign mold is growing on your food.

Health risk: These bugs are a nuisance, but pose no threat. Their damage is typically minor.

Fun fact about booklice: Booklice, also called psocids, are not actual lice. Although they resemble lice in appearance, these little bugs feed on mold and fungi rather than blood.

Adult carpet beetle varieties vary in length, are oval-shaped, and can appear to be bed bug look-alikes. There are many species of carpet beetles, including the black, common, furniture, and varied carpet beetle.

These small pests feast on your animal origin materials, including furs, wools, feathers, or leather. Despite their name, theyre not fans of eating the synthetic materials of todays carpet. Theyll make an exception, though, if your carpet has a blend of synthetic materials, animal fabrics, food, sweat, and oils.

Where carpet beetles hide: Youll usually find carpet beetles around the edges of rugs and carpets, underneath upholstered furniture, or underneath baseboards.

Health risk: Carpet beetle larvae dont pose much danger to you, but they can cause significant damage to your carpet or your favorite wool sweater. The damage usually appears in one ruined patch, rather than many scattered holes. Carpet beetles also leave behind molted shells.

Spider beetles may resemble a bed bug that has just feasted on blood.

What is a spider beetle? These bugs look like small spiders due to their long legs and large, rounded abdomens. The American spider beetle has a reddish-brown to black, shiny, globe-shaped abdomen and pale yellow legs, head, thorax, and antennae.

Where spider beetles hide: Spiders beetles may forage in grain mills, pantries, warehouses, and attics that contain bird, rodent, or bat droppings.

Health risk:These pests can bite, and they may infest your foods.

Like bed bugs, bat bugs have an oval body and a short, broad head attached to the prothorax. The main difference between these two look-alikes is that bat bugs have longer (and more) hairs on their thorax.

Where bat bugs hide: Bat bugs develop in colonies of roosting bats, most often occurring in attics, behind walls, or in chimneys. When bats leave or are removed from the home, the remaining bat bugs may move into your living space and hide in dark crevices and fabric folds, including your mattress.

Health risk: Bat bugs primarily suck the blood of bats and will only bite humans if their bat host is unavailable. Although bat bugs are not known to transmit any diseases to people, their presence can cause anxiety and insomnia in some people.

Ticks are blood-sucking parasites, like bed bugs, and they can resemble each other until you look closely. The key difference? The number of their legs. Bed bugs, which are insects, have six legs; and ticks, which are arachnids, have eight.

Ticks attach to humans, pets, livestock, and wild animals. There are many types of ticks, each with different physical traits. Most ticks are small, dark in color, and flat when unfed.

Where ticks hide: Ticks are most commonly found attached to their host or outdoors in moist, shady areas with tall grass or overgrown vegetation. Occasionally a tick may be found indoors after being brought inside. Tick infestations indoors are rare, but they can occur if a female tick lays her eggs in your home.

Health risk: Ticks can pass many pathogens, like Lyme disease, to people, pets, and other animals. If these diseases are left untreated, many can become life-threatening. Its essential to know how to identify a tick dentify and how to remove a tick.

Fleas can be another bed bug impostor. Fleas can move quickly through fur, woven fabrics, and hair due to their narrow bodies, spiny legs, and backward-pointing bristles. Their hind legs make them excellent jumpers. These blood-suckers feed on cats, dogs, mice, birds, people, and many other warm-blooded animals.

Where fleas hide: Dogs and cats offer a feast for fleas, and pets are the chief way fleas get inside homes. Look for flea larvae in floor cracks, carpets, mattresses, or pet beds. Fleas especially like places where they can feed on food, animal waste, and adult flea feces.

Health risk: Though rare, fleas are capable of passing diseases (including typhus and plague) to people. Some people and pets may also experience severe allergic reactions to a fleas saliva. Your pet may experience anemia due to blood loss.

Is it a bed bug or lice? These two pests often are mistaken for each other.

Lice are host specific, so lice infesting dogs cant migrate to you, and you cant transmit this pest to your dog.

Head lice only affect people and are typically gray but can take on their hosts hair color. The female is about 1/16 to 1/8-inch long and flat in shape while the male is a bit smaller. Head lice cannot jump or fly.

If you have head lice and dont get treatment, the lice will continue to feed on your blood and may excrete dark red feces onto your scalp.

Where head lice hide: Head lice typically gather near the lower back of the head and behind the ears.

Health risk: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), head lice may cause severe itchiness in the scalp and lack of sleep. Excessive scratching may increase your chance of developing a secondary skin infection. Knowing safe and effective ways to remove lice can help you manage these risks.

Mites and bed bugs can look similar to some people.

There are thousands of mite species, many of which live on animals. Mites are tiny, and many can be seen with the naked eye. They measure 2 mm (or less) in length, have eight legs, and have little to no segmentation.

Where mites hide: Mites have a free-range lifestyle. Some feed on decaying organic matter, while others forage on insects and other mites. Some mite species inhabit their hosts ear canals, lungs, intestine, and bladder, particularly in domestic animals.

Health risk: According to the World Health Organization, some mites are vectors of rickettsial diseases, such as typhus fever, and several viral diseases. Certain mites cause scabies, a contagious, intensely itchy skin condition in which tiny mites burrow into the skin.

Although bed bugs have many doppelgngers, some signs may point to a bed bug infestation.

For starters, where did you find the suspected bed bug? Not all bed bug look-alikes are going to be hiding in the mattress, so where you find the bug can help you with identification.

If you found the bug in the bed, then odds are higher that you may have bed bugs. Is your head itchy? Then youre probably not dealing with bed bugs.

Keep in mind that bed bug bites are not enough to determine a bed bug infestation, as their bites look similar to flea bites and mosquito bites.

Conduct your own investigation. What pest in the bug lineup of photos above is the best match? If it looks like the cockroach nymph, you dont have a bed bug problem but may have a different pest problem to solve.

Bed bug removal is costly, so be sure you are dealing with a bed bug and not a cockroach or other pest control problem. Knowing ways to prevent bed bugs and how to check for bed bugsare essential to managing bed bugs.

When your bug investigation hits a dead end and youre stuck identifying the bug you found, call an expert.

A pest control professional near you can help identify the bug that caused your welts, draft a treatment plan and close the case of the mysterious bug you found in your home.

Main Photo Credit: Red spider mites /Aleksey Gnilenkov /CC BY 2.0

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10 Bugs that Look Like Bed Bugs and How to Tell the Difference

Why Kansas Bed Bug heat Treatment Is The Best

Although Kansas bed bugs seem to be the fear of almost every homeowner, you do not have to worry about them. Kansas Bed Bugs, LLC has the most effect bed bug removal process. Our heat treatment is the best option for you in Kansas because of the following three reasons.

Insecticides and powders may seem thorough, but they simply cannot get to every nook and cranny of a home. These chemicals can also be harmful to family and pets. Not only can they not reach everywhere, but they can leave behind some harmful effects of their own. Heat reaches throughout the entire building, making bed bugs leave their hiding places as they sense the heat and killing them in a matter of hours.

Some bed bugs become resistant to insecticides. They can even survive up to a year without a meal! But the one thing they cant stand is heat. A heat treatment works even on resistant bugs because all Kansas bed bugs die from excessive heat.

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Kansas Bed Bug Heat Treatment - Kansas Bed Bugs

Bed Bug Hotel and Apartment Reports. Click on the city below to find our latest bed bug reports in Kansas on hotels. To report a new bed bug incident, navigate to our city page below to see further details.

Recommended tips after hotel check-in: 1. Pick up the mattresses in the rooms and look under it. Check around the edges of the box springs. 2. Check under the box spring. 3. Lift up each headboard an lay it on the bed. Carefully inspect the hole where the headboard was lifted out of. Also, inspect all niches and corners of the headboard. 4. If you decide to stay in the hotel, do not put any clothes in dressers. Keep them in your luggage and your dirty clothes in plastic bags.

3-19-20 Here on an 11 night stay for work. As a spire member I travel all over the country and stay at Holiday inns. I'm on my third night and felt something crawling on me and found bed bugs in a ...

When we laid down for bed at 1210 on Friday 6 March, my son advised he had a tick in his bed. I knew it was too early for ticks. When I went to look, it was a rather large bed bug. I then pulled the f...

12/16/2019 7:00 AM The manager said she would conduct and investigate but later called and said it was probably a beetle and they would not be treating the room. There were bites on my daughters face...

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Kansas Bed Bug Hotel and Apartment Reports | BedBugReports.com

How to look for bed bugs: Vermins are the little oval-shaped insects with a coffee-brown color that thrive on the blood of human beings and animals. An adult bedbug can grow as much as the size of an apple seed, and it has a flat body. Nevertheless, after they feed, their bodies will experience swelling and will have a reddish shade. Though these insects dont fly, they can move very quickly in walls, floorings, and ceilings. Female bed bugs can produce hundreds of eggs over their lifetime. These eggs are so tiny; they are nearly the exact same size as a speck of dust.

Young vermins are referred to as nymphs. They shed their skin at least five times prior to they reach maturity. Nevertheless, they require to take in blood prior to they can start shedding. If they are exposed to the ideal environment, bed bugs can develop in simply a month and lay 3 or more generations each year. Though bothersome, they do not send any form of the disease.

If youre wondering how to look for bed bugs, you need to understand that being incredibly tiny, bedbugs can enter your home unnoticed. They can connect themselves to clothing, baggage, sofas, toss pillows, bed linen, and other household products. Their flattened bodies enable them to go into narrow locations, even those with a width of a charge card.

However, insects dont have a breeding ground, though they typically come in groups in hiding areas. Usually, their hideout includes box springs, bed mattress, headboards, and bed frames. These are hassle-free places for them to eat their victims at night. Later on, they might spread out through various parts of the bed room, huddling into any covered areas. They also have a tendency to spread to surrounding houses or spaces.

Because bed bugs feed on blood, having them in your living location doesnt imply that you are unclean or filthy. As a matter of truth, you can even discover them in homes and hotels that are spick and span, as well as those that have mess.

The More You Know: To learn if you have a bed bug problem, you may want to start by seeing a bed bug up, close and personal. Heres what a bed bug looks like.

Before we talk about how to check for bed bugs, its important to understand when they bite. Usually, bedbugs are active throughout the night and they usually eat sleeping people, biting, and sucking blood while their human host sleeps. Using their long beak, they pierce through the skin and sip the blood for usage. Their feeding process takes a minimum of 3-10 minutes before they end up being satisfied and move away undiscovered.

In the beginning, insect bites will not sting, however over time will become scratchy and irritated. Compared to flea bites that are normally discovered in ankles, insect bites are discovered in parts of the skin that are exposed while sleeping. Moreover, the affected area doesnt display a red area in the middle, unlike flea bites.

Individuals find it tough to spot a bed bug problem since they are minute pests. In truth, the itching from bed bug bites is generally connected with other causes, consisting of mosquito bites. In order for you to know how to find bed bugs, you must find out how to check for bug bites. By being able to distinguish a bed bug bite, you can secure versus these annoyance pests and complimentary your house from such infestation.

Bed bugs bite into a human by inserting 2 tubes into its skin. One tube secretes saliva that makes the bite area numb. This likewise thins the blood, so its simpler for the bug to consume it. The second tube is called the feeding tube and is made use of for one function only; sipping the blood from the human.

Its not unexpected that vermin bites are difficult to find. Not only are their bodies small, however their bites are also impossible to see using the naked eye. Normally, when people are bitten by vermins, they typically complain about a subtle pinch while they sleep in the evening. However in spite of this, generally, the bites will not right away trigger inflammation or swelling on the skin.

However, later on, itching and soreness will appear as soon as your skin reacts to the saliva of the bedbug. In the case that you experience this, it implies that you have actually already been bitten a number of times and your space has now end up being a den for bed bugs, which can possibly lead to an outbreak. Bed bugs enjoy biting in rows. They normally feed for 3-4 times along the part of the skin they travel to. The pattern of the bite is in some way associated to flea bites, and this is the primary reason why misdiagnoses always occur.

If theres one thing that bedbugs dislike, its light. Thats why they always strike throughout the night when their victim is quick asleep in an infested bed. It is difficult to capture living bed bugs in your bedding. Nevertheless, when figuring out how to check for bed bugs, there are indications that will tell you if they are feeding on your skin. These indications include the following:

You Might Have An Interest In: Learning you have bed bugs can be a shock. And it often needs expert intervention. However, here are some home remedies for bed bugs you can follow.

As soon as vermins are satisfied with their meal, they go back to their protected area up until they are all set to feed once again. The major feeding locations for bedbugs are mattresses straps, buttons, creases, and tags. When trying to find how to find bed bugs, keep in mind that these locations are convenient because as it is where they can easily locate and attach to their victims.

As mentioned previously, you must keep an eye out for bloodstains, husks, and feces to figure out if your bed is insect infested. Additionally, you can likewise try to find nymphs, fully grown vermins, and eggs. The fastest method to examine your bed mattress is by using a flashlight and an old charge card.

Perform these easy actions:

If you believe you have actually found out all there has to do with how to tell if you have bed bugs, remember that there are eggs to think about. Bedbug eggs are small and round, which are practically similar to a poppy seed. Nevertheless, these eggs are loosely placed on the bed mattress or bedding, where they are generally laid by an adult bedbug and are simple to scrape and eliminate from the fabric.

On the other hand, fully grown and nymph bed bugs have a transparent color. With this, their blood consumption shows up in their stomach in the form of a red dot. Normally, a fully grown bed bug is comparable in size to a grain of rice.

You can immediately eliminate any insects from material using the very same technique that you utilize to inspect your mattress and bedding. When considering how to tell if you have bed bugs, bear in mind that although bed bugs dont have the capability to leap or fly, they are quick tourists. Usually, they crawl onto individualss clothing and connect till they find possible bed linen to infest.

To assist you identify further bedbug invasion in your materials at home, follow these basic actions:

Get a garbage bag or tarp and utilize it to capture fall out husks, eggs, or feces when you wave loose fabrics such as curtains, clothes, and linens.

Prior to you throw away vacuum bag or cylinder, search for signs of eggs, nymphs, vermins, and husks.

Thoroughly examine the creases and seams of your home furniture. You can utilize an old charge card, just like what you made with your mattress, to scrape undesirable feces, husks, and eggs.

Previously, we went over how to tell if you have bed bugs based upon their concealing spots. So how do you capture them? Considering that bed bugs are afraid of the light, they are challenging to get rid of given that they stay in dark locations. You require to carefully browse every dark corner of your home to catch them.

Below is a list of some of their typical hiding areas:

Bed bugs are well-known for infesting lots of homes. Being minute; they can fit in any small and dark area in your house, infesting your beds, mattresses, and other material items every time they have the opportunity. They go undetected most of the time, that makes them a troublesome bug.

However, since bed bugs reside in colonies, a problem will produce an odor that is somehow similar to cilantro or coriander. If you happen to discover this strange smell, call a respectable bug exterminator right now. They are well-informed in removing these pests, and they can prevent a harmful outbreak.

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How To Look For Bed Bugs - Bed Bugs Kansas - Bed Bugs And More

Bed bugs are back, and theyve become a problem in Kansas City.

The Shawnee branch of the Johnson County Library has been closed since Friday after librarians discovered bed bugs inside the pages of a returned book. Since then, library officials have been working to deep clean the branch of bed bugs, including using bug-sniffing dogs, working with a fumigator, and baking the infested materials.

We want to take every step possible that we can to try to contain the issue because you cant move too quickly to stay ahead of bed bugs, said Christopher Leitch, community relations director for the Johnson County Library.

The Johnson County Library in Shawnee is not the only public place that has experienced a bed bug problem. Exterminators in Kansas City said they have seen an increase in bed bugs. In April, staff at Kansas City International Airport discovered bed bugs in chair upholstery in Terminal B, prompting its brief closure. An AMC movie theater in Independence, Missouri faced complaints of bed bugs in October 2017 and August of this year.

Until recently, bed bug infestations were not a common problem in the U.S., as the development of the pesticide DDT in 1939 helped kill bed bugs and other insects. However, growing resistance to DDT, combined with an increase in air travel in the 1980s and 1990s, contributed to the resurgence of bed bugs at the turn of the 21st century. Since then, pesticide-resistant bed bugs have been spreading across major U.S. cities.

Chaz Brantley, owner of Brantley Pest Control, said bed bugs are an increasingly common issue in the area, with a lot of calls coming from South Kansas City. He added that people who frequently travel in and out of Kansas City can bring in bed bugs, especially if they come from bed bug-heavy cities like Denver or New York City.

Were starting to see a heavy increase in bed bugs, Brantley said. And I think a lot of it has to do with Kansas City growing. A lot of it also has to do with where people are going and traveling.

Bed bugs are most commonly found in and around the bedroom, nestling in places such as cracks, mattresses, headboards, dressers and bed frames. According to the Center for Disease Control, bed bugs can travel up to 100 feet in one night.

Candice Porter, pesticide identification and education representative at Blue Beetle Pest Control in Kansas City, said the company has seen a 7 to 10 percent increase yearly in bed bug problems throughout the area. Porter said bed bugs can be picked up from different locations and can easily travel from person to person within a group.

Its the way people live. It's their social network, she said. If you have a friend that has bed bugs, then the likelihood that youll end up with it is extremely high. It just spreads like a virus.

Porter said bed bugs are most commonly found in multi-dwelling family units. A 2016 study from Rutgers University found that 1 in 8 low-income apartments in northern New Jersey had bed bug infestations, and residents were often unaware of the problem.

Porter added that cleanliness has no relation to the presence of bed bugs.

You can be the cleanest person on the planet and still come home with a bed bug, she said. You are food to them. They dont care if youre dirty or clean, they just want you.

The Shawnee branch plans to reopen Wednesday, as long as efforts to deep clean the library and eradicate the bed bug problem are successful. However, if the pests are still an issue, the library could be closed indefinitely.

Were taking every step we can, and extra ones, to makes sure our patrons and our collection are safe and secure, Leitch said.

Celisa Calacal is an intern at KCUR 89.3. You can reach her on Twitter at @celisa_mia.

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Bed Bugs Are On The Rise In Kansas City | KCUR