You can tell when spring is in the air because insects that were dormant all winter are suddenly crawling around and showing up in your house. Even though they do not hibernate, bed bugs may be one of these. To help decide whether you might need spring bed bug control in Cambridge, here is a description of what these pests are doing this time of year.

Are Bed Bugs Active in Spring?

Many familiar insect species such as butterflies and bees awaken from dormancy in early spring, lay eggs, and continue breeding throughout summer and fall. Some die once the weather turns cold, and others hibernate until spring. Bed bugs, however, do not change their behaviour based on the season. Their entire life cycle lasts less than one year, with each individual bed bug reproducing many times and then dying after four to six months.

Why don’t bed bugs change their behaviour with the seasons? Even though they now live in Canada, these insects originated in the Middle East. There, they lived in caves that maintained a constant temperature year-round. Because they have always lived indoors with people, they have never needed to adapt to seasonal outdoor conditions. Therefore, you may need residential pest control for bed bugs every month of the year.

Do Bed Bugs Invade Homes in Spring?

Bed bugs are very sneaky, and use tricks to invade your home that you might never have imagined. Here are some examples of ways they get in:

• Clothing – You may unknowingly transport bed bugs on your clothes from places such as movie theatres or city buses.

• Luggage – Bed bugs can crawl into your suitcase when you stay in a hotel, then move into your home when you unpack.

• Pets – Adult bugs or their eggs can stick to a dog’s fur when it goes outdoors.

• Openings – Insects from neighbouring homes can crawl through any crack in your wall that is 2 mm or wider.

Bed bugs are just as likely to invade your home during spring as they are during any other time of year. Even though they are cold-blooded insects, the weather does not slow down their attacks in winter. Researchers found that bed bugs stay active even when temperatures are as low as 7 degrees Celsius, and it takes at least one week of 18 degrees below zero to kill them.

How Do Bed Bugs Behave in Spring?

Food droppings and garbage do not attract bed bugs the same way they attract other pests such as cockroaches or mice. The only requirement bed bugs have when looking for a home is that humans live there. They spend the day hiding in crevices and then emerge at night to drink people’s blood while they sleep. Their victims usually do not feel the bites because the bugs have a pain-killing chemical in their saliva.

Bed bugs may be sneaky, but they are predictable. You can find them hiding in some of these locations, usually in rooms where people sleep:

• Inside bedposts and headboards.

• Behind wallpaper.

• Between the pages of books.

• Within the folds of curtains.

• Inside electrical outlets.

They usually lay their tiny, white eggs in mattresses, box springs, and couch cushions. Sometimes you can also find eggs along baseboards or in cracks between floorboards.

How Can Truly Nolen Help with Bed Bug Control in Cambridge?

You can count on Truly Nolen’s experienced technicians to locate bed bugs wherever they are hiding. We will immediately treat the bugs we find, then return four times per year to keep your property pest-free throughout spring, summer, winter, and fall. Contact us today to learn more about how our home pest control can get rid of your bed bugs for good.