Identifying bed bugs is not always easy or to know there's a problem. They remain hidden in tiny cracks and crevices during the daytime. Often the first sign of bed bugs is bites that appear on your body after you wake up.

It's difficult to confirm the presence of bed bugs just by looking at your bites. You will have to look for these clues to their presence: Dark/black stains on the mattress and surrounding area from bed bug excreta. An unpleasant, sweet, sickly scent. Small dark blood spots on bedding known as 'faecal pellets'. Live insects despite being small (adult are only 4 - 5mm long) it's possible to spot live bed bugs and their shed skins. Bed bugs can be difficult and costly to control. It's important to act as soon as you have noticed evidence of activity.

Locating Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are usually found in bedrooms and sleeping areas because they need easy access to a blood meal at night. They are also attracted to body heat and carbon dioxide from our breath. Your bed is the first place to check although bed bugs can also hide in furniture and furnishings including: bed frames and headboard crevices, mattress seams, carpets and underlay, skirting boards, between timber floorboards, in cracked or broken plaster, behind peeling wallpaper, inside electrical sockets and fittings, drawers and cupboards, wardrobes an bedside cabinets

Have you noticed these signs?

Our technicians will inspect and report; on their findings and we will offer the best solution using industry leading bed bug treatments including the use of steam treatments, chemical treatments and physical barriers.

How Do Bed Bugs Spread?

They're usually carried into a home or business on clothing, or in luggage or furniture. Given their size, bed bugs are well adapted to travel. Second hand furniture can also harbour bed bugs. Carefully inspect for signs of infestation before taking items home, especially cracks and crevices and around hinges. Spending a night in a hotel with an infestation is the most common way of spreading bed bugs. Check for bloodstains on bed linen and other common signs in your hotel room when you arrive. Inform hotel management if you have suspicions. It may be necessary to launder, fumigate or treat belongings before returning home to ensure they are pest-free.

Visiting friends and neighbours

If your home has bed bugs, don't risk spreading them by taking clothes, suitcases or furniture to hotels or people's homes. Established bed bug infestations can migrate to adjoining properties by crawling through wall or floor cavities. If you live in a flat, apartment or terraced house, inform your neighbours and other tenants to take action quickly.

Once a problem is discovered, most people just want to know how to eliminate them. Thankfully there are steps you can take, prior to professional treatment, to manage the level of infestation. High levels of hygiene, deep cleaning and the use of DIY bed bug spray products will help to kill some bed bugs. However professional treatment is often needed to successfully treat an infestation, as it can be notoriously hard to get rid of bed bugs. Prior to treatment, we will provide you with a pre-treatment checklist of things for you to do in order to give us the best chance of success.

It's not just the bites that make you feel uncomfortable if you have an infestation of bed bugs. But the simple fact is that it can be very easy to bring bed bugs into your home or work place without realising it. Contrary to popular belief an outbreak does not reflect on your standards of cleanliness in any way.

Bed Bug Infestation

If bed bugs have found their way into your home or business, all you need to do is give Peskill a call and we'll do the rest. Free site survey at your property. Innovative and integrated treatment coupled with follow-up visits until problem is solved.

Bed Bug Prevention Tips

Here are some simple steps you can take to reduce your chances of an unwelcome outbreak of bed bugs:

At Home

Wash and dry clothes at the highest possible temperatures. To eliminate clutter in your house to give bed bugs fewer places to hide. Avoid spreading bed bugs to your friends and family by not taking any clothes, suitcases or furniture to their homes. Tidy all areas of your bedroom, especially the floor around/underneath your bed and bedside cabinets. Vacuuming can greatly reduce the size of the bed bug population, but only when they're clearly visible. It cannot guarantee total elimination. (Empty and clean the vacuum to avoid transferring eggs to other rooms.)

When Traveling

Check hotel bed linen and mattresses for live bed bugs, small dark bloodspots and a distinctive sweet and sickly smell. Avoid putting your suitcase on the bed. Hang clothes in a wardrobe rather than use drawers. Store suitcases in the garage between trips.

Why prevention is important

Bed bugs can easily move from room to room or house to house through wall or floor cavities. Bed bugs spread quickly, so infestations need to be treated sooner rather than later.

It is difficult to identify bed bugs just from their bite. In fact it is hard to recognise a bed bug bite from any other insect bite. You should look at the overall pattern and timing of bites and other common bed bug signs to confirm if you have a problem. The good news is that bed bugs have not been shown to transmit any disease and their bites do not hurt. However, getting bites can still be very distressing and in some cases they can become sore and itchy and lead to a painful skin rash.

Identifying a Bed Bug Bite

Our bodies can react very differently to bed bug bites. Some people have no reaction, whilst others can have minor swelling and itching and even develop a rash. Bed bug bites can occur anywhere on the body but are often close to blood vessels near the skin.

Check for signs of bites on your, neck, hands, arms, legs. Several bites tend to appear in a line or row along an exposed area, such as an arm or leg. A single bed bug may bite more than once in the same area if disturbed whilst feeding.

Bites found in different parts of the body can indicate being bitten by several different bed bugs. Bites often occur at night when we are sleeping. Bed bug bites are unlikely to wake the victim, as bed bugs inject an anaesthetic whilst drawing blood from the host (victim).

The use of chemical insecticide is only one of the weapons in our armoury for tackling bed bugs. Peskill take an integrated management approach to the treatment of these nasty, unwelcome insects, utilizing advice to clients, physical barriers, chemical insecticides and the innovative use of superheated dry steam.

For the effective eradication of bed bugs, the rooms immediately adjoining the affected area should also be treated to ensure that bed bugs have not spread.

Bed bugs like to nest in crevices and hollows in beds and sofas, they hide in folds in mattresses, cracks and crevices, in the springs or behind the head of the bed and joins in the bed frame, in bedside tables, paintings, skirting boards, even on electric cables and behind switches. Consequently, it is important to treat the whole room, not just the bed.

Traditionally, bed bugs would be treated with chemical insecticides, however this has its limitations and in some instances, bed bugs have become resilient to the insecticides used. This coupled with the fact that insecticides are not suitable for use in certain areas means that the use of superheated dry steam is a chemical free, environmentally friendly, safe alternative. Bed Bugs cannot withstand extreme temperatures and succumb to temperatures of around 118°F, with the Cimex Eradicator providing a flow of steam vapour at a temperature of 180°C, the heat is immediate and intense; killing Bed Bugs, larvae and their eggs on contact by causing thermal shock. Our machines are fitted with a pressure switch that enables the steam pressure to be turned onto a low setting which ensures that Bed Bugs and eggs are not blown away from the surface being treated.

What makes this system unusual is that the steam is generated in the boiler under high pressure and then heated to a high temperature in an expansion chamber (this is a world-wide Polti patent). During the process the steam is heated and, at the same time, the quantity of moisture in it is reduced to near zero.

Tests carried out in infested premises including hotels and private homes have shown that unlike chemical products, which require three or four treatments to achieve complete disinfestation, the superheated dry steam of Cimex Eradicator completely eliminated the infestation after two or three treatments. Targeted treatment with superheated dry steam is therefore proven to be effective for eliminating bedbugs and represents a faster alternative with lower environmental impact than the use of potentially toxic chemicals.

In addition to the above, treatment with conventional chemical insecticides requires complete evacuation of the premises and ventilation before they can be used again. This involves lengthy waiting times, coupled with the fact that chemical insecticides are unsuitable for use on certain areas eg mattresses etc. The superheated dry steam can be used even when there are people in the room, as the mixture of superheated dry saturated steam and HPMED is not harmful to humans.

Thanks to its technical features and versatility, the Cimex Eradicator is the perfect solution for the effective elimination of bed bug infestations in hotels, residential properties as well as other areas including but not limited to buses, trains, ships and other communal facilities very quickly, simply and safely.

Independently laboratory tested and scientifically proven to be Bed Bug entry, exit and bite proof.Aller-Zip™ Smooth enables you to completely encase the mattress:

• Snugly fitting the mattress so eliminating cracks and crevices and brilliant white in colour therefore aiding in the early detection of Bed Bugs
• Designed using a 3 sided micro-zipper for easy use
• Rugged and effective, made from smooth polyester fabric and stitched using reinforced french seams
• 2 year manufacturers warranty against defects in workmanship and materials
• Featuring the patented Bug Lock™ zipper enclosure system that incorporates a sealed safety trench, stitched around the typically vulnerable zipper clasp, as well as Micro-Zipper teeth for an extra tight enclosure.

Protect-A-Bed Mattress Protector

We can supply mattress protectors that are scientifically proved to be bed bug entry, exit and bite proof. They are an effective bedding encasement system

These covers can be used to seal in an existing problem or to protect mattresses following on from treatment. These mattress protectors come with a specially designed 3 sided micro-zipper that allows you to completely encase the mattress.

They are snug fitting, thus eliminating crack & crevices.

They are brilliant white in colour thus aiding in the early detection of bed bugs.

They are both rugged and effective, made from smooth polyester fabric and stitched using reinforced French seams.

They come with a 2 year manufacturers warranty against defects in workmanship and materials