You go to sit down on your couch and you get bit.  You are trying to sleep and you wake up with bites.  Or even worse – you are relaxing and you feel tiny legs scurrying across your skin and you know they are going for your blood.  Thoughts like these will make you paranoid – especially so if they actually happen.  So you do what you can to get rid of them – throwing out your mattress and couch, bagging up your clothes and throwing them away.  After all that you feel THEY ARE BACK!  Now you have Post Traumatic Syndrome thinking that everywhere you go there are bed bugs.

Is there such a thing as Bed Bug PTSD?  Well a study by the University of Mississippi found that 81% of all people that have interacted with bed bug related websites describe symptoms that are associated with PTSD.  Add to that other disorders that people have with bed bugs like paranoia, obsessive thoughts, depression, hyper-vigilance, and you have a real recipe for problems.  Having a pest control problem can cause stress, but when you add the inability to sleep and paranoia then you have some serious psychological issues to contend with.  In another study of 474 participants concerning their bed bug bits, 29% indicated insomnia, 20% had anxiety and 22% reported emotional distress.

Did you know that the bed bug problem has been on the rise over the past 10-15 years?  Getting the problem correctly diagnosed and treated is key to avoiding psychological distress.   In one 2013 study exterminators reported that 99.6% of them were contacted about bed bug problems.  In New York alone there were 9000 complaints about bed bugs.  New York has a lot of tourism and foreign traffic, but the fact is the rise in bed bug problems has been ongoing throughout the country.  In fact New York is only #17 on the list of buggiest cities.  Other cities that won that prize were Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Las Vegas and Columbus Ohio.

The best way to handle a bed bug problem is to educate ones self on bed bugs and to react in the proper manner.  Reacting in the improper manner can actually cause the problem to get out of control very quickly.  If you think you have bed bugs call Nashville Bed Bugs to have a trained technician do a free inspection to actually determine if you really do have bed bugs.  Beware of other companies that don’t do thorough inspections and will “take your word” for it as they likely can’t spot bed bug populations and may not adequately treat the situation and then you end up with the residue later – ie. you have bed bugs again. We get rid of bed bugs using a safe non-toxic slow heat process that ensures the problem doesn’t spread.  For smaller situations we also have DIY heat treatments that are very affordable.  Most situations can be dealt with in 24 hours.