One of the most hated and misunderstood pests known to civilisation is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us fell asleep to sleep at night as kids with the words of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to predate on human beings at about the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mostly feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on human blood when our ancestors started staying in bat infested caves.
Until the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common stowaways in most slum quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest operatives dealing with very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being generally restricted to low quality holiday hotels and student accomadation etc.
Many people mistake dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which very definitely are.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a quarter of an inch in size and swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every week or so, coming out in the early hours of the morning and finding their target by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when nearby their target, body heat.
In the absence of a suitable human host to feed on they can lie in a period of dormancy for periods of up to a year or more.
Often the first sign of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the corners of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations explode everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the resurgence.
What is certain is that that are now making a real resurgence not only in slum quality housing but top class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested bed is all it takes, they hitch 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 ride home on an infested tube or train can be enough to bring these bugs to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to eradicate as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They live in 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 tricky 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 tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
Telephone Harrier Pest Prevention on 01772 837727
Filed under Gifts by on May 16th, 2012. Comment. 