Bed Bugs and Roaches: Why Not to Fight These Two Alone

If your house has pests, you have probably already tried a lot of things. Store-bought sprays, traps, a full cleaning, maybe a bug bomb. For ants or a stray wasp nest, that can be enough. For bed bugs and roaches it often is not, and trying the wrong thing can make the problem harder to solve. EverGreen Lawns & Pest Control lists both among the pests it helps eliminate, and on its residential pest control page it gives four plain reasons to call a professional. Here they are, with the reasoning behind each.

Reason one: getting rid of bugs yourself is a challenge

That sounds obvious, but the details are what matter. Roaches live in tight, warm, damp spaces: behind refrigerators, under sinks, inside the motors of appliances, in wall voids. They are active at night. A spray kills the ones that cross it, while the rest stay out of sight and the next round hatches from egg cases you cannot see. Some store-bought products can also make roaches avoid a treated area and scatter into new rooms.

Bed bugs are even better at it. They are flat, about the size of an apple seed, and they spend most of their time hidden in mattress seams, bed frames, headboards, baseboards and behind outlet covers. They travel on luggage, clothing and used furniture. Over-the-counter foggers generally fail to reach them in their hiding places, and they can push the bugs deeper into the house. Throwing out a mattress or sleeping on the couch tends to spread them, not stop them.

Reason two: they can infiltrate your food and pantry items

Roaches go where the food is. Cereal boxes, bags of flour, pet food, crumbs under the toaster. They can contaminate surfaces and packages as they move, which is why a roach problem in the kitchen is more than a nuisance. Once they find a dependable source of food and water they stay, and the population grows in places you never look.

A tip you can use today: store dry goods and pet food in sealed containers, fix any dripping pipe, and don't leave dishes soaking overnight. None of that solves an infestation, but it cuts off what keeps one going.

Reason three: cockroaches are dangerous to people with allergies and asthma

This is the one that moves the problem out of the annoying category. Roach droppings, shed skins and body parts can trigger allergy symptoms and asthma attacks in sensitive people, and children are often affected. If someone in your house has asthma, a roach problem is a health problem. It is worth treating promptly and treating properly.

Reason four: bugs can bite and attack your body

Bed bugs feed on people while they sleep. The bites can itch, swell or leave welts, though some people barely react, which is part of why an infestation can go unnoticed for weeks. Bites alone are not a reliable way to confirm bed bugs, because lots of things leave similar marks. Look for small dark spots on sheets and mattress seams, shed skins, and the bugs themselves. And please do not assume it means your home is dirty. Bed bugs hitch rides, and they turn up in clean homes, hotels and apartments alike.

What to do before the technician comes

• Don't move things from room to room. Carrying infested bedding or furniture through the house spreads the problem.
• Don't throw out furniture on a hunch. Wait until you know what you are dealing with.
• Keep a sample if you can: a bug in a sealed jar or a clear photo makes identification easier.
• Write down where and when you see them. Bedroom or kitchen, morning or night, how many.
• Tell the technician what you have already sprayed or set out. It matters for what comes next.
• Mention anyone in the house with asthma, allergies, small children or pets.

Why a professional visit is different

A trained technician knows where each pest actually hides, picks the treatment to match, and can tell you what to expect afterward. That last part matters. One customer, Kyle Collins, put it this way in a Google review: “The technicians are very informative on what they are applying and what to expect.” And another, who goes by chris corbell, wrote about a pest control service that got “scheduled very quickly” and was “an amazing job in just 1 visit.” Those are individual experiences, not guarantees, but they describe what a good service looks like: quick to schedule, clear about what is going on.

EverGreen's residential service includes an exterior perimeter treatment, dusting of cracks and crevices, and interior spot treatment at the customer's request, as either a one-time treatment or an ongoing program. They also serve businesses, so if the roaches are showing up at a shop, an office or a restaurant instead of a house, that is a call worth making too.

For homes, see the Residential Pest Control page under Services. For businesses, see Commercial Pest Control. Or call (479) 231-7477 and describe what you are seeing. The sooner you call, the less there is to deal with.