When it comes to exterminating bed bugs from your home, anyone who has had to deal with an infestation can tell you that you should never try do it yourself methods. This will not only be time consuming, it will more than likely not work, causing the bed bugs to invade further into your home, making subsequent extermination attempts more difficult and costly.
Bed bugs are considered to be the most challenging pest to exterminate from a home. They are incredibly resilient creatures that hide in tiny, difficult to reach places and can multiply at alarming rates. For these reasons, only experienced and professional bed bug exterminators should be hired to exterminate these horrible pests.
Considering the amount of knowledge and expertise required to effectively exterminate bed bugs from a home, hiring a bed bug exterminator is not quite the same as hiring a pest control company for other common pests. You need to make sure the company you are hiring will be able to quickly and effectively treat your bed bug problem by doing some research and making sure they:
- have a lot of experience exterminating bed bugs
- use an integrated pest management approach (IPM)
- are licensed members of a professional industry organization
Bed Bug Extermination Experience Is Key
One of the key components to choosing a bed bug exterminator that will actually be able to properly eradicate them from your home is choosing a company who has extensive experience in exterminating bed bugs. As mentioned before, if the extermination is not 100% effective the first time, this can lead to more severe problems in the future as any surviving bed bug will re-infest your home, only this time going into even deeper hiding spots.
Don’t just take their word for it either, a lot of pest control companies out there claim that they can exterminate bed bugs but really don’t have the expertise to provide guaranteed results. They may have the tools and know the techniques, but the only way to really be sure is to check their track record.
When you are in the process of comparing different pest control companies, don’t be afraid to ask them qualifying questions such as:
- How many years experience do you have dealing with bed bug exterminations?
- What is your success rate with completely exterminating bed bugs from a home?
- Do you offer any type of guarantee that the bed bugs will not return?
- What are the procedures for inspecting my home to verify a bed bug infestation and it’s level?
- What methods do you offer for exterminating bed bugs from my home and what are the success rates for each method?
IPM Is The Only Way With Bed Bugs
Integrated pest management is essentially a holistic approach to pest management. By taking many factors into consideration, a pest control operator using an IPM approach will choose an extermination process that will:
- be within your budget constraints
- provide long lasting results
- be safe for you, your family, pets and the environment
The IPM approach is widely regarded as the most effective pest control solution for any pest, but especially when it comes to bed bugs. Since bed bugs are such a challenge to exterminate, choosing a company that uses an IPM approach will ensure that they take everything into consideration including infestation level & depth, inhabitants of the home and keeping the surrounding environment free of dangerous chemicals. This will ensure that they not only completely get rid of the infestation, but that they do it in a safe and responsible manner.
Member Of A Professional Organization
In order to become a member with an industry specific professional organization, it is typically required for members to have specific training levels and certifications, the pest control industry being no exception to this rule. The most popular of these professional organizations for pest control include:
- NPMA – National Pest Management Association
- SPMAO – Structural Pest Management Association Of Ontario
- CPMA – Canadian Pest Management Association
By choosing a bed bug control company that is registered with at least one of these organizations, you can be sure that they keep up to date with the best available extermination methods and that they abide by professional codes of conduct required for a membership. This will also guarantee that the company you are working with is not some fly by night since they usually require a proven track record to join these organizations in the first place.