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Is There A Connection Between Seeing Bugs & Increased Stress?

You're standing at the kitchen counter prepping vegetables on the cutting board for supper. Out of nowhere scuttles a cockroach across the counter. You jerk back, your lips curled in disgust and your mind screaming to kill the bug.

Of all the bugs on the rock upon which we live, there are two that bring the most extreme mental and physical reactions. Whether we've ever had experience with them or just read about them, these two unwelcome critters pose a serious threat to our mental health. What are they, and why do we stress about them?

Cockroaches

Few living things give us the creeps worse than roaches. Small and brown or finger-length and black, they fly and they contaminate everything they touch. They usually live in dank, dark places like sewers. They enter structures in search of warmth, moisture, and food.

Knowing that they leave droppings, urine, shed skin, and decay in their paths makes us sick. They have no bones, so they squeeze through cracks no bigger than a credit card's width. It's even been said cockroaches could survive nuclear fallout. All this leaves us feeling helpless and hopeless at the thought of getting rid of them, but there is a solution.

Your local pest control company will inspect inside and outside the house, apply the right formula for cockroaches to their hiding places and indoor entry points, apply it outdoors so no more will enter the house, and return at regularly scheduled intervals to maintain the barrier surrounding your home. Calling a professional company such as Turner Residential Pest Control for help will not only address your creepy crawly stressors, but help to eliminate them from your home.

Stress

The stress caused by skittering cockroaches is different from that caused by work or sitting in a traffic jam when you've got somewhere to be in ten minutes. This stress is based on fear. What humans don't understand, they fear.

Humans don't understand something that lives in darkness and doesn't appreciate light. Humans would never understand why anything would live in a sewer. Tracking that unpleasant thought across our dishes, cans of food, or the counter would make anyone uneasy to say the least. It's this fear of contamination and disease that's most often behind the stress of seeing bugs.

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs don't fly and they don't contaminate food or household items. They're the size of a tick with the exception that, once they've had a meal, they turn red. They, too, hide during the day and only come out at dawn to feed.

They feed on human blood, though they don't cause much more than an itchy rash. However, the mental and emotional damage bed bugs cause is a reason for concern.

Stress

Humans go out of their way to avoid being helpless. Helplessness means we're not in control. That means that the “fight or flight” defense is constantly present. Physical and mental exhaustion doubles the helplessness.

This kind of bug often inspires worse stress than cockroaches. As we sleep, bed bugs are attracted by the carbon dioxide we exhale. They crawl on us, biting and sucking blood from us. We are unaware, helpless. If we're going to be dinner for something, we'd at least appreciate a chance to fight it off and control the scenario. Embarrassment and PTSD are some of the common results arising from being a victim of bed bug infestations.

In order not to harm your family and pets with chemical bed bug treatments, Turner Pest Control uses Thermal Remediation or extremely high heat to kill the pests. This heat will permeate all their hiding spots, no matter how small the cracks and no matter what stage of life of the bed bugs. This one time treatment is enough to get them all.