FAQ
If you are using collectabed
A collectabug with a few bed bugs
A collectabug with a lot of bed bugs
A Collecta-Bed with a lot of bed bugs
What bed bug smears look like in a Collecta-Bug
(inset pictures of bed bugs, bed bugs in our monitors and bed bug spotting) if you are using collectabed monitors you will see bed bugs (insert picture) in the monitor. Otherwise, if you are sleeping in your bed, you will see bed bugs (pic), bed bug shells (pic) or bed bug spotting (pic) around the head of the bed. A simple way to tell if a suspicious spot is bed bug related is to wet your finger and see if it smears. Bed bug related spotting will smear because it is made of dried blood. (insert picture of a bed bug spot being smeared)
No the collectabed and collectabug approach depends on the bed bugs natural harbouring patterns to succeed. Chemical self treatments will only disperse the bugs into unnatural locations making eradication more difficult.
Wrap duct tape around your hand (sticky side out) and manually stick the bugs to the tape. This discard tape or save bug for identification.
No. Bed bugs usually behave similarly to a mosquito – they will find you eventually. If you move from the bed to the couch the result will be an infested couch. Once a couch is infested the potential for day feeding grows exponentially and the risk of bugs in your clothing increases. And from there you infest other areas as you go about daily life.
It depends. If you use encasement's preemptively the areas that bed bugs prefer are limited and the bugs will simply infest nearby dressers, night stands, clothes, instead. You get to pick – do you want bugs in your box spring or in your underwear drawer? If you pick the underwear drawer then you increase the risk of wearing bugs via infested clothing – which is bad.
If you have an existing infestation and wish to encase the bed to reduce numbers that is ok – assuming they fit properly. Ill fitting encasement's have many creases and folds which will entice the bugs into harbouring there which will discourage the bugs from finding the cardboard. Encasing the box spring is not necessary as the bugs will come out, feed, and hide in the cardboard – they really like the cardboard. Regarding the box spring encasements, they are full of holes, so there is not point in using them. If you manage to keep the box spring encasement in perfect condition that would be fine. However, people are rarely perfect and vigilance declines over time. If it were my house, I would kill all the bugs directly on the mattress (its not hard as the bugs are openly visible) and then install a tight fitting fitted bed sheet that wraps fully around the bottom of the mattress. Now the mattress is protected and the bugs will find the cardboard. When you change cardboard carefully remove fitted sheet, hot dry, and replace.
Theoretically yes. Practically no. The bugs will seek the biggest source of co2 which is you. You exhale far more co2, and offer a far larger heat signature, than your pet. Having said that if you have a massive infestation (which leads to a more wide spread harbourage selection pattern) and the bugs are accustomed to harbouring near your dog then yes the bugs will feed there.