Rental Cabins and Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs In Your Cabin Can Cost You Money

Cabins in the mountains of North Georgia and Tennessee can be a wonderful place for a vacation and to make money. Mountain cabins allow people to get away from life for a few days. As with any rental though guests can bring bed bugs from their home to your cabin. If you do not address bed bugs in a quick and efficient manner it cause weeks of lost income and bad customer experiences.

How do you know if bed bugs are in your cabin?

The most common ways that property managers find out about bed bugs in the cabin is either:
1. The guest call and complain about seeing the bugs or getting bit.
2. The cleaning crew sees live bugs or marks on the sheets during a turn over .

What do you do when you find bed bugs?

The most common thing the property manager does is call the local pest control company they use for roaches and ants. While the company may be able to identify the bed bugs and confirm that they are there. They may not be the best choice the rid the cabin or property of bed bugs.

Why should I not use my local pest control company?

While your local company is great at keeping the other bugs out getting rid of bed bugs can be difficult for a variety of reasons.

1. Your local company only does traditional chemical treatments. These treatments are fine for a person’s home but these treatments are designed to take 2-3 treatments over 4-8 weeks. Having your cabin or rental property out of service for 4-8 weeks can cost thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
2. Your local company may not have the experience to deal with bed bugs. A lot of pest control companies do not do bed bug work because of how difficult it can be.
3. Chemical treatments require someone to stay in the room to make sure the treatment has killed all of the bugs. Bed bugs will not move if a food source is not present. If the company does not spray directly on the bug or use another tool to directly kill the bug then it will just sit and wait for the next meal. The bed bug does not want spend the energy moving a round unless it is looking for a meal.
4. Cabins can have rustic furniture and walls. This type of furniture can be extremely difficult to completely treat and kill all of the eggs using chemicals. In North Georgia, log bed are popular in cabins and the natural cracks create a perfect harborage for eggs and bugs.
5. Eggs take 2 weeks to hatch. If your local pest control company does not get all of the eggs which are difficult to see, then the problem may arise again as the eggs hatch.

How is thermal heat better than the other bed bug treatments?

Thermal heat is designed to kill all of the bugs and eggs in one treatment. The heat treats the furniture, bed frame, mattress, box springs, and 99% of what is in the rental unit. Our crew starts usually in the morning and by 5pm is done. The next day the cleaning crew can come in and you can have your next guest in there once the cleaning crew is done.

Other benefits of thermal heat:

1. There are no follow treatments necessary.
2. Unlike chemical treatments the heat penetrates into wall voids and penetrates in cloth surfaces such as sofas, chairs, and wall voids.
3. A chemical treatment is applied to remove certain cold areas. The chemical is not being used to kill the infestation but rather kill the occasional one that may try to escape the heat or remove cold harborages.
4. There is some prep but we explain that before the treatment. With a rental cabin usually prep is very minimal

How much is a heat treatment cost?

Heat treatments do tend to be more than chemical treatments because of the hours that are put in during that one day. Price is usually based on square footage. Remember that with heat you can call and possibly not have to cancel any booking and lose that revenue that a chemical treatment would force you to lose.

If you like more information about thermal heat for cabins and other rental properties in North Georgia you can call us and we will be glad to talk with you about.