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Citrus scents such as lemon or lime are lethal to bed bugs. They’re drawn to the smell, but the chemicals often kill them. There are other ways to kill bed bugs without an exterminator, including using steam, DIY heat treatments, essential oils, diatomaceous earth, and more. However, you should hire a professional bed bug exterminator to eliminate large numbers of bed bugs.

Ticks are most commonly found behind (or even inside) ears, behind knees, in belly buttons, in the hair, and in your underarms. If you find a tick on your body or on your pet, use a pair of clean tweezers to grab the tick as close to the surface of your skin as possible. If you simply yank or twist it, you can leave the tick’s mouth parts lodged in your skin and will need to remove those carefully with the tweezers. 

Once you have removed the tick, flush it down the toilet and wash your skin with rubbing alcohol or soap and water. Know the signs of lyme disease such as fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a rash.

Yes, it’s possible to have bed bugs and not find them because they hide in small spaces outside of mattresses, including baseboards, headboards, electrical outlets, clothing, and in crevices of walls. They can squeeze into spaces as small as the width of a credit card. Bed bugs can also live up to 400 days without feeding, making them resilient and hard to eradicate.

Some stores sell smoke bombs to drive animals out of spaces, but we don’t recommend you use them, especially in an attic. The smoke can be toxic to humans or pets that may accidentally inhale it. Meanwhile, critters can easily escape the smoke by temporarily leaving the attic, only to return via their usual entry points after the smoke clears.