Contact ProChem today to schedule your free home inspection for bed bugs and receive our Nationally Accredited 5 Point Inspection for bed bugs, guaranteeing you and your family’s safety. Our Inspection service includes;
- Signs of bed bugs:
- Live bed bugs of all sizes (poppy seed to apple seed size)
- Confirm that what you find is a bed bug
- Droppings in the form of dark colored stains on cloth or bumps on hard surfaces
- Shed skins
- Eggs, although very small, will be found among droppings or in crevices where adults hide
- Inspecting the bed:
- Inspection for bed bugs starts in the place where people sleep and moves out from there to other parts of the room. This should be conducted before room preparation steps are taken.
- Mattress inspection
- Along the top and bottom seams, and along each side of the piping material sewn onto these edges
- Under mattress handles and along or inside air holes
- Between the mattress and box spring, platform or frame
- Inside folds of material and under buttons
- If mattresses are covered in vinyl plastic, look inside seams and rips in material.
- Use alcohol or baby wipes to rub suspected bed bug droppings. If the spots dissolve into a reddish brown color, this could indicate bed bug droppings and should be a reason to continue inspecting until a live bed bug is found.
- Bed bugs may be found along piping seams, under pillow tops, between the mattress and box spring, inside air holes, or underneath mattress handles. Do not overlook tears in the fabric or stitching holes when inspecting for bed bugs.
- Box spring inspection
- Points where the box spring sits on the bed frame, (lift slowly to avoid scattering bed bugs)
- The top surface of the box spring, inside folds of material
- Along seams and where the material is tacked to the frame
- Turn over the box spring and remove the thin cloth layer on the underside.
- Use a flashlight, a hand lens and a crevice tool to check the spaces between box spring frame parts.
- Look around and beneath furniture staples and tacks.
- Wicker furniture provides infinite hiding spots for bed bugs. Anything made of wicker should probably be discarded properly.
- Tiny spaces in the bed frame and other furniture, such as a peg hole for a shelf, are ideal hiding spots for bed bugs.
- Inspecting other furniture and storage areas:
- Bed bugs hiding in the screw hole of an office chair.
- Furniture, such as night stands, will be likely places to find bed bugs, since they can easily crawl to distant hiding spots. As the bed bug population grows, overcrowding may cause them to wander. Furniture near the bed can become infested and infestation can quickly spread away from the bed if no control measures are taken.
- Empty drawers and shelves of the furniture closest to the bed.
- Pull out drawers and inspect every corner and the undersides, using the crevice tool to check under the metal drawer guide.
- Use of crevice tool to inspect gaps wherever the tool will fit, such as between the shelf and bookcase frame.
- Turn over all furniture to inspect the underside.
- Screw and nail holes.
- Office-style chairs should be inspected by turning them over and looking under seams where fabric attaches to the frame. Also check screw holes.
- Common Areas
- Television and other remote controls, in the battery compartment
- Telephones, cell and cordless phones
- Lamps and alarm clocks
- Computers and other electronics
- Cardboard boxes in closets and under the bed
- Children’s toys and stuffed animals
- Jewelry boxes
- Brick walls and “popcorn” or other textured ceilings