Finish What I Start

One of the most reviled and misunderstood pests known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as youngsters with the words of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?

Bed Bugs may have started to dine on people at about the time when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella largely fed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human beings when our ancestors started staying} in bat infested caves.

Up to the arrival 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 operatives called out to very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to budget holiday hotels and student housing etc.

Most people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly can be seen.

Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a few milemetres in size and swollen after dining on human blood.

Bed bugs typically feed on a target’s blood every week or so, coming out in the early hours of the morning and locating their target by sniffing the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when close in on their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.

In the absence of a suitable human host to feed on they can stay in a period of dormancy for periods of up to a year or more.

Bed Bugs

The first signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the corners of mattresses and many people can react badly to the bites of these bugs.

The early the 21st century has seen bed bug numbers multiplying everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been argued as reasons for the resurgence.

What is sure is that that are now making a real resurgence not only in cheaper quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.

One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.

One night away in an infested premises is all it requires, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on transport of all kinds so a simple ride home on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to spread the infestation to your own home.

They are an difficult pest to deal with as contrary to popular notion they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny anywhere close to a sleeping human, 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 folds 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.

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By The Way Blogging