Arizona infestation has thousands of bed bugs

An infestation with inch-deep piles of bed bugs found in a home in Sun City, Ariz., recently made the news.

Burns Pest Elimination was called in to deal with the situation. The company shared pictures of what the infestation looked like with local station NBC 12.

Thousands of bed bugs filled this Sun City, Ariz., home. PHOTO: BURNS PEST ELIMINATION

 

“This is one of the worst we’ve ever seen,” Mike Boyle, Burns Pest Elimination spokesman, told NBC 12. “The bed bugs were an inch or inch-and-a-half-deep in the carpet. It was horrible.”

Boyle said a woman had lived among tens of thousands of Cimex lectularius. For five years, she has tried to get rid of them, but two other companies failed to solve the problem, he said. While those companies may have made a dent or killed most of the bugs, Boyle said it only takes a few to reproduce quickly and create another infestation.

“If you just leave one female, or a male and female alive, that’s all it takes to create a new breeding population,” Boyle told NBC 12. “They just put up with it for a long time. That we see a lot of.”

Boyle said it’s best to call a pest management professional as soon as a sign of a bed bug is spotted. The earlier the treatment, the easier it is to kill the insects and the cheaper it will be.

“What we see a lot is people are so embarrassed by the problem. They’re so ashamed they somehow think it’s their fault,” he added.

For this customer, Burns Pest Elimination cranked up the heat to 130 degrees Fahrenheit for six hours to kill the bed bugs. Heat is supposed to be the final solution to prevent them from coming back, Boyle said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports it is best to find a bed bug infestation early before it becomes established or spreads.

Would you attempt to tackle this job? Let us know in the comments.

The post Arizona infestation has thousands of bed bugs first appeared on Pest Management Professional.

from Pest Management Professional https://www.mypmp.net/2023/10/12/arizona-infestation-has-thousands-of-bed-bugs/
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