Choosing a Bed Bug Exterminator in Salem

What OSU tells homeowners

“Choose a pest control company that has the expertise to control bed bugs. MANY DO NOT. A good company will discuss with you how to prepare for treatments, and treatment plans will involve a combination of heat, freezing, spot treatment pesticide applications, fumigation of bedding, clothes etc., and properly trained bed bug-sniffing dogs. Treatment should be followed by monitoring.” (OSU Extension, 2013)

And on going it alone: “Eradication by homeowners is rarely successful because effective products are not available for purchase and effective methods can only be performed by a professional.”

Seven questions

1. Will you inspect before quoting? (A price over the phone is a guess.)
2. Heat: how many temperature probes, where, and what is the hold time at the coldest one?
3. Chemical: which products, and when is the follow-up visit? (Eggs hatch; a program without a return visit is half a program.)
4. Do you apply a residual after heat?
5. What is in writing afterward — a temperature log, a product record, a report I can give my landlord?
6. What is the guarantee, and what voids it?
7. Are you licensed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and can I see the number?

Red flags

• A quote before anyone has looked
• “Bug bomb” or fogger as part of the plan — NPIC: “Bug bombs (foggers) don’t work for bed bugs”
• Three different Fahrenheit claims on one website
• No licence number, no street address

Our answers

Inspection first; probes in the mattress, box spring and furniture voids with the hold timed from the coldest; desiccant residual after heat; return visit built into chemical programs; written log and report every job; licence number on request. Ask us the seven.