Though restaurant owners don’t typically worry much about picking up a bed bug infestation, having one can shut your business down, leaving you in financial peril. Since there’s no way to cheaply perform a removal yourself, you should always be ready to prevent pests from entering from beyond. If you do find bedbugs on your property, call commercial pest control services in Cambridge immediately. Here’s why bed bugs sometimes end up in restaurants and how to deal with them swiftly and effectively. 

How Do Bed Bugs End Up in Your Restaurant?

Though they’ve evolved outdoors for millions of years, these tiny insects have become mostly dependent on human habitations in recent history. This is because their populations have grown well beyond the natural carrying capacity of most outdoor environments. They need to consume a steady supply of blood, or they eventually starve. Unfortunately, humans are often a more reliable source of food than any other large mammal around.

Since household insect pests can die within five months outdoors, they search for opportunities to hitchhike. Virtually any method humans use to carry themselves or their belongings is suitable for insects. Bed bugs have been found in trains, airplanes, buses, shoes, backpacks, handbags and an infinite variety of other places.

When they sense that they have arrived at a location with a suitable ambient temperature, they hop off and scurry to a safe location. In most cases, this is a seam or crevice that humans are unlikely to search. Bed bugs are named as such because they love to hide in the seams around the bedding. This is usually the safest place close to a human food source. Bugs do not, however, need bedding to survive. There are plenty of other perfectly suitable places to hide in most houses and buildings. 

How To Prevent an Infestation in Your Restaurant

The best way to stop an infestation from occurring is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Since your restaurant probably has significant human traffic, your best bet is to make your environment as unfriendly to pests as possible. While there is little you can do to lessen your traffic, you can have standard procedures for placing large bags, coats and other potentially problematic items.

Bed bugs are generally less likely to hitchhike on inner-layer clothing than large objects like backpacks or bulky coats. Consider maintaining a coat and bag storage area near the front of your store. Have a hostess or designated employee clean the area every night and check for signs of an infestation.

Hardwood or tile floors are usually unappealing places for bugs to hide. Make sure that all areas — especially coat and bag areas — are uncarpeted. Many infestations are caused by simple carelessness. By cleaning up and vacuuming regularly, you can remove stray eggs and young insects before they become entrenched. While the presence of any pests is bad news, one or two individuals may not cause a full infestation.

What To Do if You Find Bugs

As soon as you discover bed bugs on your property, you should call a qualified removal professional. As you wait for an exterminator to arrive, you can place exposed or suspected items in a dryer for 30 minutes to an hour. This kills bugs and their eggs, but you shouldn’t assume that you’ve killed an entire population with this method alone. 

At Truly Nolen, we check your property after treatment to ensure that your pest problem is gone for good. Bed bugs are extremely resilient, so a full removal may require multiple treatments. We have years of experience removing even the most entrenched infestations, allowing our clients to return their businesses to working order fast. Contact Truly Nolen online today.