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Bed bugs are parasitic pests often found in New Jersey homes. In fact, the state’s dense population, commuter appeal, and multi-family housing units make it especially vulnerable to infestations. While these bugs don’t spread disease or cause structural damage, they can negatively impact you in several ways.
New Jersey Bed Bugs Are a Common Concern
New Jersey bed bugs are teeny, tiny parasitic insects roughly the size of apple seeds (when adults) and as small as sesame seeds or grains of salt (when in their nymph stage).Â
Reddish-brown in color, they can be mistaken for dirt or fabric fuzz. However, they’re usually not out and about during waking hours; they hide inside mattresses, pillows, lamps, and baseboards and, like something from a vampire novella, come out at night to feast on human blood for 5-10 minutes before returning to their dark crevices. This makes the bites, rather than the bugs themselves, the most noticeable signs of an infestation.
Bed bugs in Trenton, Newark, Jersey City, and nearby aren’t distinct from the other types of bed bugs found across North America. Even so, they do stand out for one reason: bed bugs tend to flourish in the Garden State.
New Jersey’s dense population, close-set residences, urban sprawl, tourism, and appeal to commuters make it easy for bed bugs to jump from home to home or building to building; a businessman staying the night in a New York hotel can easily bring an infestation directly to his bedroom via the Samsonite Express.Â
New Jersey also features millions of multi-family housing units, which are notoriously more vulnerable to bed bug infestations; in fact, only four states (New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Hawaii) have more multi-family homes than New Jersey. Here, roughly 37.5% of residences fall under the apartment, condo, duplex, or townhome umbrella. In shared spaces, insects freely move from unit to unit, crawling through walls, down hallways, and along utility lines. All of this works in the insects’ favor, making New Jersey bed bugs feel as common as 24-hour diners.Â
Stand-alone homes, on the other hand, are much more limiting; bed bugs might relocate from one room to another, but they’re unlikely to move from one house to another.Â
Why and How Do Bed Bugs Infest?
New Jersey bed bugs infest homes and buildings simply as a survival mechanism; they need to feed on blood to stay alive. They’re considered obligate blood feeders, meaning their lifecycles are fully dependent on blood. Specifically, bed bugs must feed on the blood of vertebrates, e.g. species with backbones and closed circulatory systems. Bed bugs are not adapted to feed on invertebrates (such as ants, spiders, beetles, and cockroaches), as these species have different circulatory fluids. Â
Even with lots of options to choose from, bed bugs prefer human hosts (they’re people pests). Human blood contains proteins, fats, iron, and other nutrients that are ideal for consumption; we often sleep in the same place each night, and we give off both carbon dioxide and body heat, allowing these insects to find us readily. Bed bugs do deviate away from the homo sapien spread from time to time; they might feed on cats, dogs, birds, bats, rabbits, and rodents. Unlike many other types of insects, they never feed on crumbs, pet food, fabric, plants, or sugar. They’re not drawn to dirt, either; they’re fully driven by their appetites.
Bed bugs, whether in New Jersey or elsewhere, typically enter homes by hitching rides on luggage or clothing. Staying at hotels, using public transportation, or standing near others in crowds all ups the odds of a few of these parasites latching on. Buying used mattresses, couches, recliners, or drapes also increases the risk, as these may harbor hidden infestations. Brand-new mattresses, furniture, and furnishings from reputable companies makes the risk negligible; while bed bugs can theoretically colonize any product, quality control measures make infestations in new purchases highly unlikely.
What Are the Dangers of Bed Bugs?
New Jersey bed bugs aren’t as dangerous or damaging as other types of pests. They don’t spread disease like ticks or mosquitoes, they don’t carve out your ceilings like termites, and they don’t chew through your wires like mice and rats. But this doesn’t mean they’re harmless.
Bed bug bites cause itchy, red welts (although some people may not react much at all); for many folks, the itchiness is intense, leading to repeated scratching and scraping that can cause further irritation and secondary bacterial infections. In heavy infestations, people might sustain dozens of bites, increasing the risk that one of those bites will become infected.Â
Bed bugs impact health less directly, too. People living in homes with infestations often struggle to get a good, sound night’s sleep; they toss and turn, jump every time the sheet brushes across their knee, or stand watch, armed with a flashlight and a bottle of Raid. This affects overall health, increasing stress and anxiety, negatively altering the immune system, decreasing attention and focus, and heightening the risk of daytime accidents.Â
How Can You Prevent Bed Bug Infestations?
The best way to prevent New Jersey bed bug infestations is to take preventive measures. A few easy steps include keeping luggage off beds and floors when traveling (use the luggage rack instead), washing clothes on high heat after returning from vacations or business trips, inspecting used furniture and mattresses before bringing them into your home, vacuuming regularly (including mattresses, baseboards, and furniture), and using protective mattress covers.Â
Reducing clutter won’t reduce infestations (as they’re drawn to people, not chaos), but tidiness can make infestations easier to spot and easier to treat.