RAP SHEET

Bed Bug

Cimex lectularius

extreme CASE #MWP-0005

Hitchhiked home in your luggage and immediately claimed the mattress.

How We Take Them Down

  1. Heat treatment: raising room temperature above 120 F throughout all materials
  2. Whole-room insecticide treatment combined with steam application
  3. Mattress and box spring encasements to trap and starve remaining bugs
  4. Cryonite (CO2 freezing) treatment for heat-sensitive items
  5. Multiple follow-up inspections and retreatments at 2-week intervals

Prevention Tips

  • Inspect hotel mattress seams and headboards before sleeping when traveling
  • Keep luggage on the luggage rack, never on the bed or floor
  • Wash and dry all clothing on high heat immediately after returning from travel
  • Inspect all used furniture thoroughly before bringing it into your home
  • Use mattress and box spring encasements as a proactive barrier

Fun Facts

Bed bugs were nearly eradicated in the U.S. by the 1950s. The global travel boom brought them roaring back. Thanks, tourism.

They are attracted to the CO2 you exhale while sleeping. You are, quite literally, a beacon.

A bed bug can feed for 3–10 minutes, then disappear back into a crack thinner than a credit card before you wake up.

They don't just hide in beds — the name is extremely misleading. They've been found in movie theater seats, taxicabs, and library books.

Field Notes

Bed bugs are the great equalizer — five-star hotels and spotless apartments get them just as readily as any other space, because they travel as stowaways in luggage, on clothing, and in secondhand furniture rather than being attracted by filth. These tiny, flat, bloodthirsty insects have evolved over thousands of years to do exactly one thing exceptionally well: hide near sleeping humans, feed undetected in the middle of the night, and breed quietly until the infestation is impossible to ignore. What makes them particularly maddening is their resilience — insecticide resistance is widespread, they can survive extreme temperatures, and they can go months without a meal while waiting for conditions to improve. This is one pest that absolutely requires professional intervention.