My Business Has Bed Bugs
Any business can encounter bed bugs. Learn how to protect your customers, employees, and property from this pest. Learn what to do if you encounter bed bugs in your business. As a business, your reputation is important and can be damaged in an instant by a customer or employee leaving a scathing review online.
Most of the time bed bugs are elusive. The like to hide in the cracks and crevices of furniture and clothing. They do not usually come out of hiding until it is dark in the room. In a business setting this is not the case. Many businesses and commercial facilities always have the lights on. Think of 24-hour call centers and hospitals. The bugs do not have a choice but to come out of hiding when the lights are on.
Train Your Staff To Identify Bed bugs
What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?
Contrary to popular belief, you can see bed bugs. Bed bugs are flat, oval shaped bugs. As an adult they are roughly the size of a lady bug. The color of the adult bug can vary from light brown, or reddish brown, to almost black. Small (nymphal stage) cockroaches are often mistaken for bed bugs.
Train Your Staff To Inspect For Bed bugs
Depending on your business, you may want to designate certain staff to inspect for bed bugs. Catching the problem early can save you thousands of dollars in treatment cost, downtime, and employee productivity.
Learn How To Inspect For Bed Bugs
How To Inspect For Bed bugs In Hotels
In a hotel it would be a great idea to train all housekeeping staff in inspect every room during every service. We also recommend that hotels use canine bed bug detection in every room at least once per month. The most common places bed bugs are found in hotel rooms are in the seams on the underside of bed skirts, on the bottom seams of the mattress and box spring, and behind the wall mounted headboard.
How To Inspect For Bed bugs In Office Settings
Bed bugs are frequently brought into offices by staff. The bed bugs can be brought from the employee’s homes, hiding on the employee’s clothing. The most common places that bed bugs hide in offices are on the bottoms of office chairs, on common area couches, in cubicles, and in the cracks on the underside of desks.
Protect Your Staff From Bed Bugs
Assigning your staff or a vendor to inspect for bed bugs can put them at risk for picking up bed bugs themselves. The bed bugs can climb onto clothing and hitch a ride home with them. Usually a pregnant female bed bug is the one who will try to hitch a ride. It just takes one bed bug to start a big problem, which you do not want to be liable for.
Instruct your staff to follow decontamination procedures if they are ever in a structure with bed bugs.
What To Do If Bed Bugs Are Found In Your Business
Take these steps if bed bugs are found in your business. 1. Quarantine the area. Do not let any staff or customers enter the area where bed bugs were found. 2. Contact a local bed bug exterminator and determine the treatment options available for your structure. 3. Try to determine where the bed bugs came from whether from an employee, vendor, or customer. 4. Put procedures in place to prevent the re-introduction of bed bugs.
Quarantine the Area Where Bed Bugs Were Found
If bed bugs are found in a room, a section of a building, or in multiple areas of a building, then you must quarantine that area. Do not let staff or customers enter that area to protect them from picking up a bed bug and bringing it home, or to other parts of the structure. If you send staff home, make sure to provide them with decontamination instructions. Do not remove anything from the area. Leave all furniture and belongings in the area to prevent spreading the bugs to other parts of the structure.
Contact a Local Bed Bug Exterminator
Look at our list of recommended local bed bug exterminators. When it comes to bed bugs you should leave it to professionals. Do not attempt to solve the problem in house just to save money. By performing in house treatments, you are increasing your liability. Only professional, licensed, and insured pest control companies should perform bed bug treatment. Instructing your staff to perform these actions without adequate training can lead to harmful pesticide exposure to your staff member and customers.
Determine Where The Bed Bugs Came From
How were the bed bugs introduced? Bed bugs do not come from outside like ants or birds for example. The only way that bed bugs get into a structure is by being brough in on a person’s clothing or belongings.
How do bed bugs get into hotel rooms?
If bed bugs are found in a hotel room then it is likely that a guest introduced the bed bugs. It is also possible that housekeeping or other staff could have transferred the bug from one room to another.
How do bed bugs get into offices?
If bed bugs are found in an office, then it is likely that a staff member brought the bed bugs from home. Vendors could also be the source of bed bugs. A cleaning company for example could transfer bed bugs from one building to another on their clothing or equipment.
How do bed bugs get into retail stores?
If bed bugs are found in a retail store, then the bed bugs most likely came from customers. If a person has bed bugs at their home and they purchased clothing or furniture. They had the clothing or furniture in their home for a period before returning the items. You are now accepting returns that are contaminated with bed bugs.
How do bed bugs get into libraries?
Library visitors can bring bed bugs into the building on their clothing or belongings. Visitors who check out books and bring them home could contaminate the books. Bed bugs have been known to hide in book bindings, between pages, on in the spine of hardcover books.
How do bed bugs get into fire stations?
When an EMT or Fireman visits the home of a distressed caller they always bring a large bag. When they enter the home, they will place down the bag. Bed bugs are ready and waiting to climb onto that bag immediately. The bag gets brought back into the ambulance or fire truck, and then into the department.
Put Procedures in Place To Prevent Re-Introduction Of Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are tricky. From the examples above you can see that there are many instances that you cannot prevent bed bugs from entering your business. It is easy to prevent bed bugs in residential homes by following strict decontamination procedures. The story is different for businesses. A business can only do two things to prevent bed bug problems: 1. Perform proactive preventive treatments with pesticide so that if bed bugs are introduced, then they will die immediately, and 2. React immediately to bed bugs with professional treatment from a bed bug exterminator.