Man’s best friend – A loyal companion who has weathered life’s worst storms with you. But can your dog weather a bed bug infestation ? Or worse – can he start one?
It’s been more than one occasion that customers and who fear bed bug infestations have asked if it’s possible that these pesky parasitic insects can hitch a ride on your canine companion and infiltrate your clean and cozy domicile.
The answer is it’s quite unlikely.
Experts admit in the absence of human blood, bed bugs may gravitate to cats or dogs or other unsuspecting mammals, but unlike fleas and ticks, these flat-bodied crawlers are not bio-engineered to move through fur or hair. They most certainly do not favor your pets as eateries. In essence, they want nothing to do with your creatures – they want to suck your blood.
And because these bugs cannot fly or jump, it becomes even more unlikely they could hitch a ride on your little Snooky’s tail. Bed bugs are strictly crawling insects that enter your home as stowaways – in bedding, luggage, or furniture. So, then, what does it mean if you discover bed bugs in your little bug’s bed and what should you do ?
It means you have a heavy duty infestation and that the bed bugs are only there because there is massive overcrowding in their typical refuges- meaning so many bed bugs exist in main human-sleeping areas, they have overflowed onto your pet’s belongings.
The solution is to get your pet’s bedding in heat, like a clothes dryer, which is an excellent method of exterminating bed bugs. Heat will kill both the adults and the eggs if the dryer is set on high for at least 30 minutes.
The heat of a clothes dryer is excellent for loose household items like bedding, shoes, clothes – even children’s toys – that cannot be exposed to dangerous chemicals and insecticides. You can utilize the removable shelving of a clothes dryer to attack items that cannot be tumbled, like books, handbags, and other small items, however, it is important to increase the heat level so it reaches the bed bug thermal death point. This is between 113- to 119-degrees Fahrenheit.
If you are facing bed bug issues, you would do well to utilize the services of trained professionals like AZEX Pest Solutions who can address larger household items, such as furniture, whole beds, and the like with AZEX HEAT treatments. AZEX can treat the large household items to entire homes.