Anyone who has ever had a bed bug infestation can tell you how difficult these persistent pests are to kill. Through their incredible resilience and ability to go undetected, it can seem nearly impossible to get every last bug out of your home. The problem is do it yourself bed bug treatments, fall short of success and homeowners get frustrated.

The good news is that with a proper understanding of how these pests survive and thrive in your home, and why some treatments fail, you can greatly increase your chances of a successful extermination. If you have tried to eliminate these bugs from your home, but they just don’t seem to go away for good, you may be committing one of the following cardinal mistakes.

You didn’t kill all the bed bugs

Bed bugs are experts at going undetected. They can climb walls, hide in small cracks, and sneak from one room to the next with ease. That means that even if you do find them in one area of your home, chances are there are more hiding in other rooms as well. The reason why many homeowners lose the battle is they only treat the items where they initially found bed bugs. They may have eliminated the pests from their mattress, but the remaining bugs hiding throughout the house will soon reproduce and lead to a new infestation. Besides finding the actual insect, there are other signs of bed bugs important in detection.

You used the wrong treatment

One of the key reasons why bed bugs have become such an epidemic in recent years is their incredible ability to adapt and survive. As exterminators and homeowners continue to use pesticides to get rid of them, they are beginning to adapt their genetic makeup to become resistant to these deadly chemicals. When treating bed bugs on your own with pesticides, some bugs may not be affected, you could be dealing with pesticide-resistant bed bugs. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know which chemical treatments your specific infestation is resistant to, so using alternative methods or contacting a professional are your best bets to keeping a bedbug-free home. If you do have bed bugs, there are things you should not do.

You weren’t persistent enough

Treating bed bugs is a war, not a battle. If you think a single home remedy will get rid of your infestation, you are in for a rude awakening. Even the most effective treatments used by pest control professionals are not foolproof and often require multiple applications to ensure their success. One reason accounting for bed bugs’ incredible resilience is their unique ability to inbreed. Even if you kill 99% of the bugs in your home, the few that remain can quickly reproduce and lead to a new infestation. The key to treating bed bugs is persistence, another reason why we recommend against treating bed bugs on your own.

You didn’t apply preventive measures

The final step to treating bed bugs is the most important of all: prevention. No matter how thorough your extermination was, if you don’t take the necessary precautions to keep them out, a new infestation is likely to occur. There are a number of simple prevention tips you can perform each day, such as de-cluttering your home to remove hiding places, placing traps near high-traffic areas, and using bedbug-resistant mattress encasements.

Also, be aware of activities that are known to bring them into your home. Bed bugs are great at attaching themselves to clothing and luggage in order to get a free ride back to your home. If you travel a lot, frequently use public transportation, or have a friend with a bed bug problem in their home, be sure to check your clothes for bed bugs before returning home. The extra few moments you take to prevent these bugs each day could be the difference between pest-free bliss and a costly infestation.

When dealing with bed bugs, it’s better to overestimate your enemy than hope a lone home remedy will do the trick. Treating these bugs is a long process that will likely involve multiple attempts at eliminating them from your home. The best defense you can use is to actively inspect each of your rooms and don’t hesitate to contact your local pest control professional so you can sleep easy once again.

If you believe you may have an infestation of bed bugs, if contact your property management company immediately if you are in an apartment and if own a home it is highly recommended you contact your Albany bed bug removal specialist as soon as possible. Identifying the presence of bed bugs and starting service as soon as possible isimportant to get rid of bed bugs quickly. For homeowners in Ghent, Schenectady, Albany, Troy, Saratoga and Lake George, we offer effective bed bug services to help solve your bed bug problem. Contact Thomas Pest Services today, for more information about bed bugs or Albany bed bug treatments.