I lived with my partner in a 12 story building in downtown Denver for nearly nine years.  We quickly learned why controlling bed bugs in Denver is so difficult.  

Up till that time I thought of bed bugs – if I thought of them at all – as something in a nursery rhyme.  I’d never run into them before and hope to keep them out of my life now.

Everything went well for the first few years after we moved into the building.  But then the management started arranging for an exterminator to spray the apartments every few months.  What they were spraying for was sort of vague but they were insistent that the sprayings were important.

We found out later that the reason they started exterminating.  It was that they were trying to control bed bugs that had infested the building.

What followed was several frustrating years.  They worked with several pest control companies to kill the bugs and keep them out of our apartments.

The thing about controlling bed bugs at home is that they can make your life miserable.  And a small infestation quickly will grow as large as their food source.  Which is you and your family.  So the sooner you get rid of them the less stressful your life is going to be!

Problems With Bed Bugs

Trying to get rid of bed bugs can be a real problem.  Most normal spray products that are used by pest control professionals to kill bed bugs don’t work.  Other infestations are not really the same as bed bugs. These products are even less effective on their eggs which causes another problem.

That problem is that even if you have your apartment thoroughly treated and kill every bug.  If even just one egg that survives it can later hatch and start the cycle all over again.  It will restart the infestation.  Read this information from Penn State University before you even think about controlling bed bugs yourself.

Why Are They Coming Back?

There is a reason that so few people were familiar with bed bugs. It’s that at one point in the not so distant past the bed bug was all but wiped out.  Most of the industrialized countries of the world did this through the use of DDT.

But with that spray banned for health reasons, the bugs have started to make a huge come back.  Infested apartments have become much more common.  They also show up in motels. hotels, and dorm rooms.

How They Get Around

One reason that these bugs are so hard to treat for is that they are very skilled at finding hiding places.  This makes it hard for sprays and dusts to kill them.  Here is also an explanation from Science Daily about how they have become resistant to the sprays used today.

Although they can’t fly, each night they are able to travel up to twenty feet to reach you.  They feed and then crawl back before the sun comes up. They usually feed at night.  This is when you are asleep and they can bite you to get your blood and scurry away before you wake.

The real problem is that as we become more urban and live in apartments, condos, and dorms.  People living close together makes it easier for the bed bug to find new hosts to feed upon.

Getting Bed Bugs When Traveling

When we travel we can also inadvertently bring these pests home with us in our suitcases. They can even arrive in boxes shipped from infested warehouses.

Read all of our posts at bedbugdenver to learn more about 7 tips for avoiding bed bugs when traveling.

Recently, even our local library had to be fumigated.  Scores of books had to be destroyed because they had been infested. If you have an infestation it’s also possible that your own books might have become infested. Here is how to kill a bed bug infestation in your books.

How Bed Bugs Are Spread

With so many people living close together controlling bed bugs is difficult.  These bugs are having a field day and spreading across the country.

In a typical building with multiple units and people moving in and out the management faces a huge problem.  They might just get the problem under control. Then someone new moves in bringing the bed bugs with them and the whole problem starts again.

The problem is magnified because many times people move into new apartments to try and get rid of the bugs in their old homes. Plus, many people buy or find used furniture which can also be carrying bed bugs.

Bed Bugs and Neighbors

This is another problem area that causes a lot of problems with killing bed bugs.

The larger the building you live in the larger the problem.  It’s more likely that there will be more than a few residents that won’t allow pest control into their home.

Your neighbors might do this for any number of reasons.  It can include a real medical-based fear of the sprays and powders that are used in treatments.  It might include a desire to avoid the hassle of treating.  Or even some type of mental issue that makes them want to be isolated and left alone. Here is some info on bed bugs and neighbors that I hope helps.

Neighbors

When you have neighbors like this it doesn’t matter how well treated the rest of the building.  As soon as the treatments wear off the bed bugs will start re-infesting a building from these bugs havens.

There is also the problem that arises even when the bedbugs are brought under control in a building. 

The first thing that someone who finds that their home is infested usually does is get rid of infested furniture.  They drag their infested mattresses or furniture through the hallways to get rid of them.  This can scatter the bugs in the common areas and hallways, making it easy for the bugs to find new blood hosts.

Sometimes this trashed furniture is left outside.  But often it’s left in trash areas located in the building.  This makes it easy for the bugs to infest other apartments.

Then you have the people who haul discarded furniture and other stuff that they have found into the building.  This potentially brings infested furniture into the building.

How To Get Rid Of Bed Bugs

I hope that you are getting an idea of how difficult it can be controlling bedbugs from these examples.

Once your building gets an infestation.  No matter where it is in your building and no matter what anyone else is doing.  You need to take steps that will protect you and your family from the infestation.  You always have to remember how fast an infestation can spread.

These steps include identifying the type of pest you are dealing with.  Then creating a bedbug-free zone in your apartment and treating.  And most importantly.  Retreating to kill any bugs that hatch from eggs after the initial treatment.

The First Step 

Identifying the bug is really the most important.  Bed bugs require a different treatment and approach than treating other bugs.  So you need to make sure what it is that is bothering you.

The Second Step 

Create a bedbug-free zone that will help you to sleep without the nightly feeding.  You do this by protecting your bed.  This also gives you a breather while you get ready to treat the bugs.

The Third Step 

Treating methods will vary with how large an the infestation.  Also on whether you are trying to keep the bugs out of your home.  Or you are treating for an infestation that is already in your home.

One thing that I can’t stress enough is that bed bugs aren’t attracted to a dirty home.   You shouldn’t feel like having bed bugs is a sign that you are living in a filthy home.  

These bugs are an equal opportunity infester and will infest even the cleanest homes.  But that being said – the more clutter that you have in your home the more places the bugs have to hide.  That does make treatment more complicated.

The Fourth Step 

Retreating may be the most important single idea that you should take away from this article.  Even the most rigorous and thorough treatments are going to have problems killing all the eggs.   If you don’t retreat these eggs are going to hatch and become a new infestation.

Exterminators

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that any exterminator that doesn’t plan on retreating.  But guarantees they can kill all the bugs in your home in one treatment is not very experienced at the best.  Or just taking your money at the worst.

And it also doesn’t matter whether the building is supplying an exterminator.  The more things that you do to prevent or deal with an infestation the better the exterminator’s results.

Retreatment

Retreatment is the key that will do more than just control bed bugs.  It will kill them and their eggs.  It will get rid of bed bugs in your home.  So don’t get complacent and think that just because you’ve killed what you can see you are safe.

The sooner that you take steps above, whether you see any bugs or not, the faster you can make sure to get rid of them.

It is possible to treat for the bugs yourself but you need the right materials and knowledge.  This site has lots of great ideas and methods that you can use.  It will also help get the best bang for your buck if you decide to use an exterminator.

Conclusion

No one wants to have an infestation of these bugs in their home.  But some people are more sensitive to them than others.

Even in the same home you might not really notice the bugs biting you  While your spouse might get itchy red welts from an infestation.  More On Dealing With Bed Bug Bites Here

Controlling bed bugs – whether you live in Denver or somewhere else isn’t going to be easy.  If there is anything that I have learned though my experiences.  It is that it can be done and you can live without the nightly stress of having these bugs feeding on you or your family.

The Right Steps

You just need to take the right steps and use the right products.  You can do it yourself or you can hire an exterminator.  You can rely on your building management to take care of the problem.  Or you can take care of it on your own.  Read An Article On Who Is Responsible Here

Part of the problem with relying on others like your building management is that their goal may be different from yours.  You may want to have the pests eradicated.  While building management may look at the cost of doing that and be satisfied with just controlling the problem.

No matter what happens though, taking certain steps on your own will make any efforts more successful.  

Finding Products

As you read through this blog you will find a lot of suggestions that will help you with this problem that you are having.

Some of  products you can find in local stores.  But I have always liked to use an on-line source that specializes in these products.  

Plus I hate going through a check out in a store with a product to kill bed bugs .  A lot of times you get that knowing look from the clerk or others in the same line.  It always makes me feel a bit like a leper.

So I hope that my site – Bed Bug Denver – helps you to learn how you can control bed bugs and get them out of your home.

If you have any questions please feel free to post them below or go to my facebook page to ask your questions so I can share the answers with other readers.

Together we can learn tips and ideas for controlling bed bugs.  This keeps them from making your life miserable.