Carpet Cleaning is Not Pest Control!

Always interesting to pass on knowledge gained in Carpet Cleaning

I am compelled to write an article as I am a carpet clean and I do get request for pest control.

Having been a property manager in a former career and dealt with guest requests and complaints as a guest service manager years back, I am now a carpet cleaner, I find it interesting to gain an understanding of the alternative services out there and how they can overlap a little and can we D.I.Y or do we need to gain skills and knowledge and hire professionals in each field?

Year’s back I met with a pest control company for the service apartment company I worked for. We met for bed bugs and a fumigation, another property had moths and fleas. Since I steam carpets I decided to see if the services can collate in anyway (there are contractors that do both but is this a bit false to say your both).

https://www.mmlcarpetcleaning.co.uk/prices

Ok, back to the pest control contractor doing bed bug treatments, I was shown that no bugs are in the beds (and advised while you are sleeping they come to bed when you are in bed to feast on human skin. I felt sorry for that guest) he showed them to me, they were in the wall cavities I look through a glass, they were in the sides of the bedside unit, some on the bed frame a few through his microscope were on the carpet. So in the Ghostbusters gear he proceeded to steam at high heat, saying additional visits will be for 30 mins. He re-iterated the importance of heat for the eggs, paying again special attention for wall cavities, bedside unit, bed frame, skirting and booked another visit (he advised squeezing eggs will make more multiple).

As a Carpet Cleaner I have come across and cleaned standard mattresses and many moth eaten carpets. I have not knowingly done bed bugs but had it mentioned a lot, I am not in that fields but was interested to find out that a moth lays between 30-300 eggs, and that cycle starts over and over, wow I thought. They hide so you have to move furniture for treatments they hide in the skirting boards. Eaten clothes and Carpets are a giveaway of an infestation. Customers with pets ask carpet cleaners all the time to do pest control which I find unrealistic to half do (just my opinion).

You may ask:

What temperature kills moths, moth eggs and moth larve? it is, 55°c and 131°F

What temperature kill bed bugs and eggs? they can't survive at 48°c and 118°F, 20 mins Continuous

What temperature kill fleas? Adult fleas die at temperatures colder than 46.4°F (8°C) and hotter than 95°F (35°C).

A Carpet Cleaner using steam cleaning I clean way hotter than these temperatures but I respect these pet treatment contractors are way more skilled and have knowledge of there services and field also the treatment required may need 3 visits. Carpet cleaners cannot chase fleas, steam walls or differentiate between the types of infestations or get in the gear, but we can steam and kill what is in the carpet.

Outcome similar but different, way different even with the certificate.

Summary: Hire pest control for fumigation

And a Carpet Cleaner for Carpet Cleaning