In this day and age where bed bugs have become a nightmare, there are many articles and information on the internet about bed bug treatment. Much of this information is very reliable but some of it can be misleading. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are battling with bedbugs, you should be in a position to differentiate the good information and the misconceptions about their treatment. You should make sure that you know what will work and what will not. This will save your time and money. Here are some of the common misconceptions about bed bug treatment:

1. The use of sniffing dogs is always the best method of detecting bed bugs

The past couple of years has seen an increase in the number of pest control companies adopting the usage of sniffing dogs to detect bed bugs. The dogs are usually trained to do so and a single detection service can cost you approximately $800 but this may vary from company to company. In as much as the company may assure you a success rate of more than 95%, this may not be true.

Recent studies have shown that these claims are exaggerated. In the studies, sniffing dogs were used to detect bed bugs in peoples’ apartments and the results indicated that the accuracy rate was far way below from the one which is commonly advertised. It was around 40%. So be informed that there are other better ways of detecting bed bugs in your home. Do not rely so much on sniffing dogs.

2. Bed bugs can be killed by turning up the heat in your apartment

You might have read an article online indicating that you can kill bed bugs in your home by turning up the heat. This is a misconception. Where else bed bugs can be effectively killed by a number of heat treatments, turning up a thermostat is your home can never kill bed bugs. This is not considered as a heat treatment.

For this particular method to work, your entire home has to heated to over 130 ºF for more than one hour and the temperature should be even in all the rooms of your house. This means that the furniture and the walls have to reach that required temperature in an hour. That is not possible if you just turn up your thermostat.

Heat treatments are normally conducted by professionals where the entire home is enclosed and different sources of heat are usually used to safely raise the temperature evenly in the entire apartment. So leave that to the professionals. You might end up starting a fire while attempting to kill bed bugs with heat.

3. Bed bugs can be killed by turning off the heat in your apartment

The same way that there are misconceptions that bed bugs can be killed by turning up the heat in the house, other people believe that they can kill bed bugs in their homes by doing the opposite-turning off the heat. If you are planning to do so, this method will totally fail.

Bed bugs can comfortably withstand cold just as they can withstand extreme heat. Temperatures which are below33ºF can sometimes kill bed bugs, but not as fast as you may think. To be able to kill bed bugs in your apartment, your entire home should remain in a freezing state for not less than a month. Additionally the temperatures have to be drastically dropped. So don’t imagine that you will just turn off the furnace and let the temperatures drop. The bed bugs will adapt to this and they will wait until the temperatures rise again for them to be active. They will not die.

4. If you vacate the house for a number of days, the bed bugs will starve and eventually die

Are you planning to go on an expected vacation so that the bed bugs in your house can die while you are away? Have you booked a hotel to stay for a month? This will not work for you. You will go and come back and find out that the bed bugs are still there. In fact, they will have multiplied.

It is very true that bed bugs require blood so that their reproductive cycles can be completed. If they stay for a very long period without meals they can eventually die. But at normal temperatures, bed bugs can last for more than 6 months without food. There are other times where they can ever stay for a year without eating and still survive. So in short, vacating your home will not offer any solution. This bed bug treatment strategy will simply not work for you.

You do not have to trust all the information on bed bug treatment that you read online. There are professional exterminators who provide bed bug services and they can provide real relief to any bed bug situation you are facing. Engage an expert who will advise you the right treatment that is suitable for you. Through this, you will get a permanent solution to the bed bugs which are giving you sleepless nights!