One of the most feared and misunderstood pests known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as young ones with the words of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs probably started to dine on human beings at about the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mainly feed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our forebears started sleeping in bat infested caves.
Until the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace unwelcome guests in most low quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest controllers called out to very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being largely restricted to cheap holiday homes and student housing etc.
Most people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which deinitely.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a quarter of an inch in size and engorged after feeding on human blood.
Bed bugs usually feed on human blood every few days, emerging in the hours before dawn and homing in on their target by smelling the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when closing in on their target, they sense body heat.
Lacking a suitable human meal to dine on they can remain in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
Bed Bug Bites
Signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on sheets and on the base of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early part of this century has seen bed bug numbers multiplying everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been put forward for the resurgence.
What is known is that that are now making a real fightback not only in slum quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested bed is all it needs, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a simple trip to work on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to bring these bugs to your own home.
They are an tricky pest to eradicate as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny suitably close to a sleeping human being, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both laborious and time consuming.
They have even been discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the creases of flesh on very fat people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
Call Harrier Pest Prevention on 01257 230637